In a major interview, Jay Hovdey speaks to the president of the hugely successful partnership group behind the Derby favorite
Other than its racetrack and sprawling fairgrounds, there’s not much to the Southern California village of Del Mar.
At last count, the population was less than 4,000. Two traffic lights and a few stop signs give pause to travelers along the main drag, better known as the Pacific Coast Highway.
Downtown attractions include the multi-level Del Mar Plaza crawling up the hillside to the east and the swanky L’Auberge Hotel nestled downslope to the west, handy to the shoreline cliffs of Powerhouse Park.
The L’Auberge sits on land once occupied by the Stratford Inn, a long-ago magnet luring the Hollywood elite that served as a cornerstone for a cluster of shops arrayed to
the south, originally designed in a mock Tudor architectural style.
Some of that style lingers in storefronts and facades, scattered among samples of Spanish mission and glassy modern structures squeezed side-by-side on a stretch of the state’s most valuable commercial property.
On a recent visit to one of those storefronts, beneath an old adobe tile roof and down a narrow flight of stairs requiring careful descent, Aron Wellman was found sitting at a large desk in a small office that opens onto a covered garden patio.
The office walls and shelves are chock-a-block with more than a decade’s worth of mementos and trophies earned by horses representing Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, of which Wellman is founder and president, while behind the desk is displayed a rainbow array of named and numbered saddle towels carried by the finest representatives of the Eclipse Thoroughbreds brand.
Most of the names are quickly familiar to racing fans. They have won races like the Belmont Stakes, Santa Anita Handicap, C
oaching Club American Oaks, Arkansas Derby, Acorn Stakes, Del Mar Oaks, Spinster Stakes, Hollywood Derby, Ashland Stakes, King’s Bishop Stakes, and a pair of Breeders’ Cup events. None of them come easily.
Quietly agonizing
Wellman (right), 47, was fielding a few phone calls while quietly agonizing over the imminent arrival of Journalism, winner of the Santa Anita Derby, at Churchill Downs. The son of Curlin was being heralded as the pre-race favorite for the 151st Kentucky Derby, to be held on May 3, 11 days hence.
“Until they’re safely on the ground and in their stall, you’re always sweating it out,” Wellman said. “Especially when it’s the first time they’ve traveled.”
Every racing syndicate has a front man whose job it is to worry about such things. There has been folksy Cot Campbell of Dogwood Stable, suave Don Little, Sr., of Centennial Farm, former journalist Barry Irwin of Team Valor, and the US Army’s own Terry Finley of West Point Thoroughbreds. 
They become the face of their partnerships, saddled with investors to please and many equine mouths to feed. Their juggling is performed on either a very high wire, or a very narrow ledge.
Let the record show that Journalism did arrive safely at Churchill Downs, with trainer Michael McCarthy in tow. Wellman’s sigh of relief could be heard above the nearby ocean beachbreak, allowing him to address the rest of the logistics involved in a Louisville gathering of the large Journalism ownership group.
“And remember, we’ve got some other horses running on Oaks day as well,” Wellman said.
True enough. Locked, the Santa Anita Handicap winner owned by Eclipse in partnership with Walmac Farm, is scheduled to run on May 2 in the $750,000 Alysheba Stakes at a mile and one-sixteenth, while Fondly, who won the Virginia Oaks at Colonial Downs, will go that day in the 151st Kentucky Oaks against the cream of the three-year-old filly division.
They are but the tip of the Eclipse spear backed by more than 120 horses in training with such respected horsemen as McCarthy, Todd Pletcher, Mark Casse, Leonard Powell, Wayne Catalano, and Graham Motion.
Varied inventory
The varied inventory includes runners in all the traditional categories, as well as an early draft of precocious two-year-olds and such entertaining outliers as the stakes-winning hurdler Abaan and The Grey Wizard, marathon hero of the two-mile Belmont Gold Cup last year at Saratoga.
It is Journalism, however, who stands at the threshold of an accomplishment that sets any ownership group apart, about which Wellman is keenly aware. The native Californian grew up in a household that worshipped at the altar of the Kentucky Derby as faithfully as any family living in the blue grass.
“My first real memory of the Derby was Ferdinand,” Wellman said, referring to the 1986 edition won by the trainer-jockey combination of Charlie Whttingham and Bill Shoemaker. “I distinctly remember watching it with my parents.”
Shoemaker (right) was a family friend, a pint-sized celebrity athlete who took the young Wellman under his wing at an early age. Wellman reached for small, framed photograph on his desk, of Shoemaker alongside a small boy dressed like a jockey.
“That’s the way he was with me,” Wellman said. “‘Here, put on my boots and pants, and here’s a set of silks and my helmet. Now stand on my tack trunk while I’m in my bathrobe about to go play pinochle.’”
He reached for another framed photo. Wellman is flanked by Shoemaker, Eddie Delahoussaye, and trainer Jude Feld.
“That was at my bar mitzvah, at the old Friars Club in Beverly Hills,” Wellman said. “I was about to honor the special people in my life, a tradition called lighting a candle.
“Right before I called him up for the ceremony and an important picture, Shoe thought it would be a prank to grab all the silverware off the table and throw it inside my jacket pocket.”
To have such a stunt bestowed by Shoemaker was a true compliment. Fellow riders would find shaving cream in their boots, goop on their goggles, or feel the burn of a hot spoon fresh from a steaming cup of coffee on the back of the neck, while Shoemaker would feign innocence from a safe distance.
Coolest dude
“He was just the coolest dude there ever was, always ready to lighten the mood,” Wellman added. “Four-foot nothing, 90 pounds, and able to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders and make it look easy.
“With Shoe, it was always about finesse, but there was an intense side to him as well. It taught me you could be both, have that balance.”
Wellman’s parents, Michael and Cory Wellman, were hardcore racing fans who put their money up as owners and breeders.
They reveled in the world of the racetrack, which meant that their son found himself with access to an inner circle of extraordinary personalities on the Southern California scene. The Wellman family was close to Dehaoussaye as well, so there it was – the inescapable influence of six Kentucky Derby trophies between the two Hall of Fame jockeys.
“I was captivated early by the majesty of the animal,” Wellman said. “I was an athlete, so I think I had a deep appreciation for the athletic and competitive nature of the horses.
“And I loved the characters on the backside. Shoe and Eddie were an integral part of my upbringing, and my parents also had horses with Gary Jones.”
Jones, who died in 2020, trained his way into the Hall of Fame with horses like Best Pal, Turkoman, Lakeway, Quiet American, and Kostroma.
“I idolized Gary,” Wellman said. “I thought he was a king. He was a wild sonofagun, but I think I identified with his intensity. I was an athlete at a very young age and played at a very high level.
“I’ll never forget, when I was nine years old we were the first soccer club on the west side of Los Angeles,” Wellman continued.
“We were just about ready to take the field for the first game. I had my teammates around me and said, ‘All right, guys –intensity, intensity!’ They looked at me like none of them knew what that was.”
Priceless time
Shoemaker retired in 1
990 with a record 8,833 victories and set up shop as a public trainer with a client list to die for. In addition to a stint working at the track for Feld, Wellman spent priceless time in the Shoemaker stable both before and after the 1991 car wreck that put the retired jockey in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. He died in 2003.
Along the way, Wellman found time to play four years of Division 1 collegiate soccer, earn a law degree, and invest in a couple of stakes-winning fillies.
He spent six years with an LA law firm, then joined the management of Team Valor in 2008 as vice-president. The victory of Animal Kingdom in the 2011 Kentucky Derby highlighted his Team Valor years.
Later that season, Wellman launched Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, and in 2013 he was tapped by the retiring Cot Campbell to join forces with the Dogwood Stable operation.
“There’s nothing more frustrating than good people putting up their hard-earned dollars and not coming up with a good horse, but I learned at a very early stage of managing partnerships that you can’t see everything through rose-colored lenses,” Wellman said.
“You have got to be real. We’re going to be wrong way more than we’re going to be right, and we’re going to have to deliver bad news way more often that we deliver good news.
Very blunt
“So we’re very blunt with our partners, but at the same time we do the very best to maximize the potential of every horse, no matter what their ability.”
Journalism is poised to give Wellman and company a chance to improve on the third-place finish in the 2014 Derby with Danza, a son of Street Boss.
In his previous start, Danza had shocked his rivals in the Arkansas Derby at odds of 41-1. That led to a respectable 8-1 price at Churchill Downs, where he was beaten about three lengths by California Chrome.
Danza was among the first auction purchases of the fledgling syndicate in 2012 as a yearling, hammered at the Keeneland September sale for $105,000. He raced solely for Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners.
At $825,000, Journalism was among the priciest yearlings to sell at Fasig-Tipton Saratoga in 2023, and the ownership structure differs considerably.
“I never look at a catalog before a sale,” Wellman said. “For me, it’s all about the physical impression first. I’ve been lucky to have been around a lot of good horses through the years, so I like to think I know what to look for.
“Once a horse has jumped through enough hoops for me to be interested, then I’ll consult with the pedigree page,” he went on. “That will give you an idea of its intrinsic quality, its possible preferences in terms of surface or distance, and then of course it boils down to price.”
Journalism went through the ring during the second session of the Saratoga sale on Aug. 8, 2023, as part of the consignment of Denali Stud.
“It’s a boutique sale, with the cream of the crop,” Wellman said. “All the greatest bloodstock agents in the game are there, so nothing is going to slip between the cracks. There’s the electricity of the Saratoga backdrop, plenty of adult beverages flowing through veins of the buyers, and plenty of egos.
Well-made, well-conformed and well-balanced
“Journalism was very well-made, well-conformed, well-balanced,” he continued. “I’d describe him as sturdy, and for a well-sized horse he was pretty light on his feet on the walk.
“But the thing I remember most about him was that he had great presence, a great mind about him – the look in his eye, the twitch of his ears, what they’re paying attention to and what they’re shrugging off.
“You’ve got to have a grade one physical and psychological constitution to compete successfully at the highest levels. Thankfully, with Journalism we hit the nail on the head.”
According to Wellman, the bidding on Journalism reached $800,000 quickly and then stalled. “It was not our bid,” he said. “I gave the nod, and thankfully, despite the auctioneer’s attempt to extract another bid, they dropped the hammer.
“I hate being congratulated at a time like that,” Wellman added. “At that point I’m either the smartest guy in the room or the dumbest guy in the room, because I’m the only one in the world willing to pay that amount for that horse. We signed the ticket for him solo, as Eclipse,”
Wellman’s head hit the pillow that night fairly free of worries that he’d be on the hook for the full amount. Sure enough, he was contacted in short order by George Isaacs, general manager of John and Leslie Malone’s Bridlewood Farm, and Robert LaPenta for a piece of the Curlin colt.
The next day at lunch, representatives of the colt’s breeder Don Alberto joined the band, adding to a stellar partnership joined by half-a-dozen Eclipse investors that included Norton Herrick, who races under Elayne 5 LLC. Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners remains the largest shareholder in the colt.
Ever savvy about media attention, Wellman thought Journalism – a play on the dam Mopotism – would catch the fancy of the racing press, if that attention was earned. Not for nothing, Wellman also wrote a sports column for his high school paper called Ace in the Hole.
By the time Journalism won the Santa Anita Derby – his fourth straight win in California around two turns against relatively small fields – he had become entertaining headline fodder.
He also had beaten no fewer than eight different Classic hopefuls trained by six-time Derby winner Bob Baffert, including champion Citizen Bull and subsequent Wood Memorial winner Rodriguez.
In the same boat
“That’s why we brought Journalism to California, to take on these Baffert horses,” Wellman said. “Maybe the other horses in the Derby have run in bigger fields, but none of them have run against 19 horses. So we’re all in the same boat.”
Wellman tags his messages to Eclipse shareholders with the exortation: “Believe big.” If that belief bears fruit in Kentucky with Journalism, he will be sharing it not only with his cohort of partners, but also with his wife, Talya, daughter Sadie, and son Jack, as well as his father, Michael Wellman.
First among those present in spirit will be Cory Wellman, Aron’s mother, who died in April of 2024. Amid the whirl of Derby events, Wellman’s thoughts also will turn to the Irish filly Three Degrees, in which he was a partner for a series of thrilling races before he created Eclipse.
When Three Degrees suffered a fatal injury trying to win 2007 Gamely Handicap at Hollywood Park, a devastated Wellman was moved to share his journey from abject grief to hopeful resolve.
“It is an experience I would not wish upon my darkest enemy,” Wellman wrote. “The devastation and heartbreak I have felt is unbearable, not for myself, my partners, her trainers, her groom or her fans, but for Three Degrees.
“The pain runs so deep that I cannot help but ask myself a question I never thought I’d ever ponder, ‘How can I go on in this sport?’”
Just inside his Del Mar office doorway, beside a table resplendent with trophies, hangs the halter worn by Three Degrees. The 18th anniversary of her death is May 28.
“Every day when I walk into this office, before I do anything else, I touch the halter and look at the picture of her winning the Honeymoon Handicap at Hollywood,” Wellman said. “It’s clear to me that the notion of ‘believe big’ was born right there and then, and just took a little while to manifest itself.”
Wellman’s letter concluded: “Three Degrees allowed me to experience highs in this sport that only faith could allow to come true.
“It is that same faith in her and in the ability to reach those highs that will lift me from the lowest point possible, back to the top of this game. I believe I will get there again, but no matter how high I reach, I know Three Degrees will always be there looking down on me.”
• Visit the Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners website and the Kentucky Derby website
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