FIRST CLASSSES LIVED UP OF BILING
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| Sumita Pawar |
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American horse breeder Deborah Mihaloff worked her entire network to find the right trainer for First Classs. Mihaloff kept finding the right person, only to see their success take them in a different direction.
Alban de Mieulle, who Mihaloff believes is the best trainer in the world, helped train First Classs for his win at the US$1 million Group One Dubai Kahayla Classic in 2022 and was hired away by the Amir. Mihaloff was then referred to Jean de Mieulle. He also found success with First Classs, helping him win the Jewel Crown.
“Then, of course, he is now in demand and gets hired by Sheikh Joaan,” Mihaloff said.
Mihaloff, who runs Cre Run Farms in Doswell, Virginia, then called an old friend, Jaci Wickham. Initially, Mihaloff hoped Wickham would take the horse, but she was moving back to South Africa.
What Wickham suggested was calling Doug Watson.
“I kept that in the back of my mind,” Mihaloff said. “I asked probably a good eight to ten other people to give me three trainers you recommend training my horse, First Classs. And out of all of them, there would always be one in there that was the same. And it was Doug Watson. I have only heard the very best, and now that I have experienced him as a trainer, I love him. I think he’s fabulous.”
FIRST CLASSSES LIVED UP OF BILING
First Classs had his best year ever in 2022. First Classs picked up three wins and two second place finishes in seven starts, impressively on both turf and dirt surfaces in multiple countries, bringing in a career-best US$2,087,871 in earnings. During First Classs’ career, he has brought in US$2.4 million and won seven races in 22 starts.
Winning the Kahayla Classic was one of the highlights of Mihaloff’s 40-plus years of breeding Arabian horses.
“Winning the Dubai Kahayla Classic was a dream, and I have always had it from the first year they ran it,” Mihaloff said. “I consider winning that race on that day the happiest day in my life, other than my wedding day.”
Winds of Fortune is another Arabian horse owned by Mihaloff and her husband, Alan Kirshner, whom Watson will be in charge of. Winds of Fortune has placed once in three races so far during his career.
ALL IN THE FAMILY
Mihaloff doesn’t take the health and safety of her horses lightly. Opting to focus on a career instead of having a family through her equine passion, Mihaloff has enjoyed many generations of family every time a new group is bred, and there is a great feeling of hope.
“It is the dream of breeding something that will be great,” Mihaloff said. “I look at the horses like my children and grandchildren. I’m working on my fourth generation. So, these are all my kids. And it is the dream which they allow me to have.”
Mihaloff has always made sure to have a stable support system.
She wanted to give her husband a mandate before they got married. If the love could last a year, she would marry him.
“You know how difficult it is in the horse world,” Mihaloff said. “A lot of divorces. I told Alan he had to buy me a farm, and we’d live on it for one year. If we still loved each other, I’d marry him. So, it happened. I did.”
Originally, Mihaloff started raising horses with her mom in Michigan, but the harsh winters there made breeding horses difficult. After Mihaloff got married, she relocated their farm to Virginia, which hardly gets any snow and can provide an atmosphere conducive to Mihaloff’s approach to raising horses.
“I believe in raising my horses in a loafing shed environment, and the weather here in Virginia allowed me to do that,” Mihaloff said. “And my loafing sheds all face the south; they’re three-sided, roofed, of course, and the horses live out there year-round. With that philosophy, I took it one step further, and I have little feeder pens in each of those pastures. And so twice a day, the horses are fed in their little container pen right next to each of their buddies.”
This system prevented a dominant pecking order that is established when horses are thrown into a pasture. Because the horses were familiar with each other, it helped create continuity.
“These guys know each other all the time,” Mihaloff said. “They learned to bump and grind, as my original trainer always used to say, and it builds bone, and it gives them that bone and substance that they need. So, Virginia made a lot of sense when it came to utilizing it as a state for breeding. We also have a very high humidity content here, which has also developed my horses into great endurance horses after they get done racing.”
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WORLD TRAVELS HELPED BUILD FOUNDATION FOR KNOWLEDGE
After a successful equine insurance program in the US with Markel Insurance, Mihaloff then started to expand her book of business to the Middle East. That program would allow Mihaloff to travel around the world.
“I travelled all over,” Mihaloff said. “I was able to see the various breeding farms and understand and learn their selection practices. And especially from the farms in Poland when I used to ensure the horses that were sold there many years ago. So, I have been fortunate; because of my insurance program with Markel, I was able to go to various farms and learn their breeding practices and their management practices and also understand good horsemanship. How it is looked at in various countries because other countries do things differently.”
APPROACH HELPS AWARDS PILE UP
Mihaloff has won 26 Darley awards for her ownership. What has helped her build a strong reputation has been the foundation for her breeding stock.
“All of my foundation mares have had their hearts measured five ways,” Mihaloff said. “Each of them, obviously, I culled, and I was able to establish the stock that I have. That would be the number one thing. And the second thing would be in our philosophy of how we raise our horses; soon after they are born that they are outside. I foal my horse in a stall, and they are under cover.”
Mihaloff puts a lot of importance on the first few years of development for the horse. Foals are raised with their mothers in a loafing shed environment until they are six months old. They also choose a nanny for each of the foals from the moment that they go into the pasture for the first time.
This strategy helps protect the young foals, especially when the full sister to First Classs and other regally bred foals grace the Cre Run Farm pastures.
Mihaloff said. “And then, when we wean the mare, the foal still has the nanny. We have found that that is a wonderful way for them to learn. You know, we have bears out here. We have coyotes; you need mares to protect those foals. And so, that’s why we have a nanny. And the nanny stays with them until they’re training begins at two years of age. And it just makes for a wonderful way to wean your babies from their mothers. And the stress level isn’t there at all. In fact, this year, the two foals that we weaned, neither one of them even cried for their mothers.”
FIRST CLASSS & WINDS OF FORTUNE WILL STAY IN DUBAI
There are still a few things Mihaloff is waiting for to shake out in the schedule. But sending First Classs and Winds of Fortune to stay in Dubai for the 2023-24 racing season was important.
“One of the reasons why I made the decision for the horses to stay in Dubai was because of the increase in purse structure that the UAE has now done, and the stakes programs throughout the Middle East that offer Group One races.” Mihaloff said.
In Mihaloff’s new chapter internationally the future is bright, and her goals include a first European mating for one of her mares Iridesse, a full sister to First Classs, to enjoy racing globally with Doug Watson and his team and of course a chance to revisit the winner’s podium with First Classs in her Cre Run silks on Dubai World Cup night.
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