by Ken Weingartner, Harness Racing Communications

Ken Weingartner

Freehold, NJ — If yearling filly Beautiful In Blue makes it to the races next year, it will be Ladies’ Night when she steps onto the track. The night of the week will not matter. Every night will be Ladies’ Night with Beautiful In Blue.

Purchased for $24,000 by trainer Tony Alagna at the Standardbred Horse Sale, Beautiful In Blue is owned by the newly formed Desperate Horsewives Stable. The 10-person syndicate is made up of women in the harness racing industry and their friends.

The idea to create the ownership group came after Alagna bought Beautiful In Blue. He targeted the filly, a daughter of American Ideal out of the mare Crystal Blue, because she is a half sister to ill-fated Blue Shark, who won his first two races before suffering a pastern injury in a race at Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs that caused him to be euthanized in August 2008.

Blue Shark was part of the Erv Miller Stable. Alagna was Miller’s second trainer at the time.

“I liked Blue Shark so much and I think American Ideal is going to be a tremendous hit,” said Alagna, who opened his own stable last month and has 26 horses. “She (Beautiful In Blue) was a nice made filly, nice frame, but immature because she’s a May 24th foal. Everything looked good, she just needs to grow up some more. I thought I would take a shot at her for the right money.”

After buying Beautiful In Blue, Alagna decided to find investors to share the cost of the filly. He showed the filly to Stephanie Bell, the wife of Brittany Farms Racing Manager Myron Bell, and offered her 10 percent, suggesting she take the piece just for herself, not the Bells’ Riverview Farms. She agreed.

Alagna then talked to Barbara Fodera, the wife of horse owner John Fodera, who was one of the owners of Blue Shark (as was Brittany Farms). She, too, agreed to buy 10 percent of Beautiful In Blue.

“Then it clicked. The light bulb went off,” Alagna said. “I thought I should have some fun with some of the people I’ve met in the business and ask their wives to own 10 percent each and see what happens. It was just a fun thing. Everyone was really excited about it. It was a lot of fun to put it together.”

The group grew to include Bell, Fodera, Cindy Stewart, Lauren Tucker, Sara Cunningham, Tangie Massey, Judy Egloff, Sue Kazimirski, and Jodi Siamis. Alagna added his mother, Donna Lee Ozment, saying with a laugh “because she’s going to have to deal with the paperwork nightmare that this will become.”

When someone joked that the group was a bunch of desperate housewives, Alagna and Co. decided to turn “desperate housewives” into the syndicate’s stable name: Desperate Horsewives.

“We’ve already talked about the ladies all wearing blue because her name is Beautiful In Blue,” Alagna said. “They’ve already talked about road trips this winter to see her at the farm. It’s just something fun. Judy said we spend so much time on the serious side of the business that it’s nice to have something fun like this that the girls can talk about and do together.”

Ironically, and without Alagna’s input, Beautiful In Blue was randomly put by grooms in the same stall as Blue Shark when she arrived at his stable from the sale.

“It made the hair stand up on my neck,” Alagna said. “It was very strange to come in and see that.”

Now, Alagna must get Beautiful In Blue to the races, which might not be his biggest challenge.

“My biggest problem is trying to find a driver,” he said, laughing, “because no driver wants 10 women mad at him.”