Owner Lee Searing, who, along with his wife, Susan, has had a lot of good horses and won a lot of big races, but never has he experienced anything close to the two days he had last week. On Friday at Churchill Downs, C R K unveiled a serious 2-year-old in ‘TDN Rising Star’ Englishman (Maxfield) and the next day the Searings won the GI Pennsylvania Derby with Baeza (McKinzie), a horse they own in partnership with Robert Clay’s Grandview Equine.

To talk about both horses, Baeza finally winning a Grade I and future plans for Englishman, Lee Searing joined the TDN Writers’ Room Podcast presented by Keeneland. He was the Gainesway Guest of the Week.

Coming into the Pennsylvania Derby, Baeza had run second or third in four straight races. In each one, he was beaten by either Sovereignty (Into Mischief) or Journalism (Curlin). Did that ever get frustrating?



“No. You have to remember that this horse was born in late May,” Searing said. “This horse was given to the right person in John Shirreffs. The horse needed time and John gave it time. After he broke his maiden, we moved on to the races that we should have moved on to. In the Derby, he kind of got lost going down the backstretch and he only got beat by a length-and-three quarters. The Belmont may not have been his best race, but he still ran good. Then he went and ran against top horse in the Pennsylvania Derby and proved how much he had improved.  I think the horse is just going to get better. John thinks he’s going to get better. The breeding farm thinks he’s going to get better. And he’s such a good-looking, grand horse and is out of an unbelievable mare (Puca). She’s among the best all-time broodmares. We were never disappointed in him.”

Part of the winning formula has involved letting April Mayberry pick out horses at the sales for the Searings. Baeza sold for $1.2 million at Keenelend September. Mayberry was the one that signed the ticket.

“April is pretty well known and has worked for David Ingordo for a lot of years and has picked out some really quality horses,” Searing said. “We decided to change things up a bit and, a couple of years ago, I hired April and her team. I love April. She breaks all my horses and she’s a quality woman and so are the people who help her.”

Searing welcomes another opportunity to run against Sovereignty and Journalism, which could happen in the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic.

“There’s nothing wrong with taking another shot at Journalism and Sovereignty,” he said, adding that Baeza will race next year as a 4-year-old.

The day before the Pennsylvania Derby, C R K and trainer Cherie DeVaux unveiled a 2-year-old colt who trounced his competition in near track record time. Englishman won the Churchill Downs maiden by 7 1/4 lengths and covered the seven furlong in 1:21 1/5. That was just two ticks off the track record set by star female sprinter Groupie Doll (Bowman’s Band). He earned a 97 Beyer figure, which was the third best number earned by a 2-year-old this year.

“I’m sitting there watching on TV,” Searing said. “I expected him to run third or fourth. Then look at how he won. Everybody is texting me and calling me and saying, ‘you realize how fast this horse went?’ This is a nice horse and we can take our time with him. He could be a really nice horse. They just don’t run that fast.”

For Englishman, the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile comes up too fast. He is expected to make his next start at Churchill Downs in either a stakes or a first level allowance race.

The “Fastest Horse of the Week” was Baeza, who got a 105 Beyer in his win in the Pennsylvania Derby. The Fastest Horse of the Week segment is sponsored by WinStar.

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by 1/st TV,  the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders’ Association and West Point  Thoroughbreds, the team of Bill Finley, Zoe Cadman and Randy Moss looked ahead at what should be a great weekend of racing, which includes the GI Goodwood, the GI Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, the GII Woodward and the GII Lukas Classic. They also discussed the decision by Jim McIngvale, who has said he was fed up because he believes the game has integrity problems, to leave the sport.

For the audio version of the latest TDN Writers’ Room podcast, click here. For the video, click here.