(Originally published in the June 12, 2026 edition of “Thoroughbred Daily News”)
By Chris McGrath
A fairly quirky notion, perhaps, but let’s just give it a little rein. Because it was in California that Collected reached his peak on the racetrack, including when beaten only by the Horse of the Year in the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic; and it is also in California that he has been making his name in his second career. Is it conceivable, then, that his stock may be inheriting some aptitude peculiarly adapted to the demands of the West Coast theater?
Regardless, his cumulative resonance among Californian breeders certainly gives a lot of credibility to his transfer last winter from Kentucky to Rancho San Miguel. And the way he’s been going in the meantime makes Collected look like some overdue good news for a state whose many talented and persevering horsemen surely feel demoralized by remorseless negativity about their future.
Among the stallions to have launched their first runners in 2022 only Justify, so prolific either side of the Atlantic, can beat Collected’s cumulative 24 stakes winners–and Collected (6.7 percent) can very nearly match the $200,000 Ashford cover (7.2 percent) when expressing those winners as a ratio of named foals. Among others to have excelled sufficiently to retail at much higher fees, Good Magic has 22 black-type winners at 4.7 percent; Oscar Performance, Army Mule and Bolt d’Oro all have 21, respectively at 6.4, 5.6 and 3.9 percent; and City of Light, 19 at 4.6 percent. And this is a stallion that retired to Airdrie at $17,500, has been available at $10,000 for the past three years, and was introduced to his new market at $7,500.
Much as Collected did himself, moreover, his flagship talents similarly seem to be thriving with maturity–to the extent that he has just celebrated a breakout Grade I scorer, the 4-year-old Thought Process having won her fourth graded stakes in the Gamely Stakes at Santa Anita May 25. Even since then, moreover, the 5-year-old Pass the Hat has become Collected’s eighth graded stakes winner in the GIII Poker Stakes.
“Pass the Hat is a perfect example,” remarks Tom Clark, owner of Rancho San Miguel. “That was the first graded stakes he’s been in. It was only his 10th race and he’s just starting to get good. And I think the best days for Thought Process are ahead of her, too. I think she could be any kind this year.
“But really I think Collected’s main attribute is his flexibility. His horses can run on synthetic, on turf, on dirt. You see them running short, long. He’s getting a lot of good milers, with both speed and stamina. In California we rarely run past a mile-and-16th, and half the time on the grass, which I do think fits the profile of his offspring pretty well.”
It was on Californian dirt, however, that Collected himself got on his defining roll, winning a graded stakes by 14 lengths before turning over Arrogate himself in the GI Pacific Classic and then beating all bar Gun Runner at the Breeders’ Cup.
That familiarity was one of the reasons Clark was interested in bringing the horse down US-101.
“He was a well-known, proven commodity here,” Clark says. “And we were looking for a proven stallion to add to our roster. So we spoke to Bret [Jones, Airdrie president] and he was open to the idea. And you really have to compliment Bret, and his vision, in that a lot of his motivation was to support the California horse economy. His belief is that if California fails, Kentucky will also suffer greatly. And he felt that this was a way in which he could make a statement, that the Kentucky people really need to look at this as a national sport and not just one localized to them.”
Which is why the migration of Collected is no merely parochial tale. For there’s no doubt that many of those contesting the rich purses nowadays within reach of Kentucky are culpably insular about the predicament of California. The fact is that no line of trenches can ever be given up without bringing the gunfire closer. With such an affluent demographic on the doorstep of storied Santa Anita and Del Mar, nobody further east can afford to be complacent about California’s vicious circle of diminishing purses, fields and handle.
Unsurprisingly, a crucial contribution to the Collected deal was made by one of the Californian Turf’s most reliable patriots in Marsha Naify.
“It’s a lease arrangement,” explains Clark. “The horse is owned by a syndicate, obviously including Airdrie and also Speedway who raced him. We wanted to buy the horse, but that group did not want to sell–which we found very encouraging, too! Instead we had the opportunity to lease him for a period of time, and Marsha and ourselves went 50-50 in doing that. She’s a loyal client of Rancho San Miguel and we’ve been good friends for years.
“We were just thrilled that Bret was willing to work with us, and it really has paid off. We got a great response from the client base. So we benefited, Airdrie benefited, and the state of California has benefited from their willingness to do this.”
And, actually, Collected has benefited too. He entertained over 90 mares this spring, and we all know that commercial breeders in the Bluegrass tend to neglect stallions that valiantly outpunch their fee in favor of glossy newcomers.
“In terms of breeding to race, that’s affecting the industry everywhere, including Kentucky,” Clark observes. “So even a horse as incredibly productive as Collected can get a little bit lost, because he’s out there four or five years and everybody’s looking for the new stallions coming along, with so much money being focused on the resale market for yearlings and 2-year-olds. But for us, that created an opportunity. And we probably ended up getting more mares to him than he would have received in Kentucky.”
It must be acknowledged that the commercial odds against Collected, in Kentucky, were compounded by the fact that he was not particularly built for the kind of people who are candidly more interested in breeding for the sales dais than the winner’s circle.
“We tell people he’s a typical City Zip,” Clark says. “He’s not too tall, 16 hands at best. But to me, great things come in smaller packages. And he’s not small, that would be the wrong way to put it. He has great balance, a beautiful head. He’s very correct, good bone, short fetlocks. He has a big hip on him, a broad shoulder, and is just very athletic. We were really impressed when he came. He just has a presence about him. He’s very smart, doesn’t abuse himself. He’s very good in the shed, just a gentleman to be around, very kind and easygoing. And we really think he’s passing along that good mind, and that athleticism, to a lot of his babies.”
Clark’s belief is infectious. He certainly doesn’t sound like a man prepared to wave the white flag for California. In that context, then, he deserves the opportunity to clarify he recently put his farm on the market.
“That was not a statement about the industry in California,” he emphasizes. “It’s more a personal thing. I’m 71 years old. We have no heirs to take over the farm and we’re really looking for someone to maintain and build upon what we’ve done to date. We have 25 employees, well over 50 people living on the farm. Most of them have been with us a long time, they’re very loyal and really care about their horses. We want them to maintain their livelihoods and their lives.
“So we’re really trying to make sure that there’s a future for Rancho San Miguel. We don’t want to end up like Harris Farm, where Mr. Harris passed away and the farm shut down and people lost jobs. Really the better way of putting it that we’re just looking for a strategic partner, to build upon the vision that we’ve had for the last 25 years. We’re in a very good location, halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles and only about 25 miles from the ocean. So we get cool breezes at night and it’s a great environment for Thoroughbreds, with rolling hills and good soil.”
Naturally the 250-acre site could be adaptable to other breeds, and Clark’s main priority is that it is never plowed over to become yet another vineyard or housing project. But his ardent hope is that the farm will prosper along with a Thoroughbred industry that rallies both within and around its Californian heritage.
“I’m hoping that there’s a turnaround, that there are changes that allow the industry to last and grow,” he says. “We need some regulatory support, first and foremost, in the state of California. But I don’t think we can do it alone. We need more incentives for people to breed to race, and that all starts with purses. So we’ve got to find ways in which those purses can be enhanced, whether that means historical racing machines or something of that nature. But it’s as an industry that we need to pull together–trainers, racetracks, owners, breeders, farms–and as one unified group try to make our case and build a cohesive strategy going forward.”
Pending that kind of collective endeavor, however, he is grateful at least to have those of Collected.
“We think we have an outstanding roster here,” Clark says proudly. “From Sir Prancealot to young stallions like Brickyard Ride, Editorial, Mo Forza. With horses like that, we think we’ve a great future ahead of us. We just need client support, and state and industry support, to help maintain and grow the business. But we’re very optimistic about the future.”
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