BY CYNTHIA MCFARLAND

Horses were always part of the story for Courtney Meagher, but when she started riding as a child, she never imagined becoming a breeder of graded stakes winners.

Growing up in Ward, Colorado, near Boulder, Courtney’s first horse was a Palomino Quarter Horse named Raggs.

“My sister and I had a horse and pony. We had endless trails and rode all over the mountains,” she recalled. “All my life I’ve been addicted to horses.”

After her parents divorced, Courtney spent significant time in Pawling, New York, where her father lived.

“I’d spend summers with my father in Pawling and did horse camp there,” Meagher said. “For three summers, I had a job at John Hettinger’s Akindale Farm grooming yearlings and taking them to Saratoga.”

After graduating high school from Nederland Middle-Senior High School in 1981, she studied Animal Science at Colorado State University from 1981 to 1983 and then earned her Bachelor of Arts in Horse Husbandry/Equine Science and Management from Virginia Intermont College, graduating in 1986.

“One way or another I knew I wanted to work with horses,” Meagher said. “I satisfied my father’s need for me to go to school, but really, everything I learned there I probably could have learned in the jobs I’ve had on farms.” 

With the connections she’d made in New York, Courtney took a job with a Peruvian Paso show horse farm in Pawling in 1992. She also got married to a trainer who worked in the Peruvian Paso industry.

When the New York farm bought property in The Meadowlands horse complex outside Ocala in 1995, the operation moved back and forth seasonally.

“We did the snowbird thing and spent the summers showing. We’d hit the Nationals show in Texas in October and then go to Florida for the winter,” Meagher said.

CHANGE OF PACE

In 1998 Courtney was given a diagnosis that would change her life.

“I got rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and it started causing some problems as the physical work was becoming hard for me,” she said. 

Meagher found herself on disability facing serious decisions about the future. 

She’d already separated from her husband earlier in the year but wasn’t sure whether she should return to New York to live or remain in Florida.

“With my father’s help, I was able to stay in Florida and got an apartment outside Ocala,” Meagher said.

She was thrilled to stay in horse country and was determined to find a way to work in the equine industry, even if she couldn’t ride, show and handle horses all day as she had previously.

“I had horse knowledge, but no office experience,” Meagher said. “Fortunately, with the help of a friend in the Peruvian Paso industry, I got a computer and some training and hooked up with Mary Thomas at EQUIstaff. I got my first office job with Town and Country Arabians that year.”

Mary Thomas founded EQUIstaff as a connection service for job seekers and employers in all facets of the equine industry.

Following her job at the Arabian farm, Courtney took an office position at Hartley/DeRenzo Thoroughbreds, also through Mary Thomas and EQUIstaff.

“This was my first Thoroughbred exposure,” Meagher said. “The job was temporary, as I was filling in for someone. When she came back, I got a job at High Mark Farms in 1999, again through EQUIstaff. Meg Miranda was office manager and taught me so much about stallion contracts, bookings and such. This is where I started to come into my own. After High Mark was sold to Sez Who, I stayed on and continued doing the same work.”

In 2001, Courtney’s mother, Candy, purchased a 30-acre farm in Citra, Florida, and Meagher’s apartment days were over. She moved to the farm, bringing along her two riding horses, a Quarter Horse and a Peruvian Paso. 

“It broke my mom’s heart when I got diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis because she knew how important horses were to me,” Meagher said, although still managed to ride for a time, even with RA.

Meagher continued to learn the Thoroughbred industry by working farm office jobs, including at Marablue Farm in 2002.

On the personal front, life had taken a happy turn and Courtney married Chad Meagher in 2002. Their son Colton was born in 2003 and son Connor followed in 2005.

WELCOME TO THOROUGHBREDS

Realizing that 30 acres were much more than she needed for a couple pleasure horses, Meagher decided to lease her barn and some pasture to someone who had Thoroughbreds.

When her renter fell behind in his lease in 2008, Courtney made him a proposition.

“I told him if he’d relinquish his horses to me and sign over their papers, he wouldn’t owe me any money, and he agreed,” she said. 

Overnight, Courtney became the owner of a dozen Thoroughbreds, all broodmares and their offspring. A couple of the mares had serious health conditions and had to be euthanized, but she had success with others.

“I called on many of the people I’d met in the industry over the years and they helped me with advice and breeding,” Meagher said. “One of the mares was Jackie B, by Defrere. I bred her to Wildcat Heir and got a beautiful colt that I sold as a yearling for $45,000.” 

When Courtney’s mother died of cancer in 2009, she left an inheritance that changed her daughter’s horse dreams.

“I thought, if I’m going to do this, I don’t want to lease my property, I’m going to get into the business myself,” said Meagher who began breeding under her married name of Courtney Meagher, and sometimes, with husband Chad.

She went to the 2010 OBS October Mixed sale for her first broodmare purchase. For $16,500, she bought Mom’s Deputy, a 5-year-old winning daughter of War Chant in foal to Aragorn (Ire).

Courtney sold that Aragorn (Ire) colt, later named Daunting David, at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales August Yearling Sale for $12,000, and learned that the horse went on to a successful race career in Barbados.

MOM’S ON STRIKE

Courtney was a big fan of First Dude and followed his race career closely. When the millionaire multiple graded stakes winner retired to stud, she bought a lifetime breeding right and sent Mom’s Deputy to the Double Diamond Farm breeding shed in 2012. 

The result of that cross was Florida-bred Mom’s On Strike, the best horse she’s bred to date. Mom’s On Strike was a $19,000 RNA at the OBS August Yearling Sale, so Courtney kept the filly to sell as a juvenile. 

Mom’s On Strike sold for $75,000 to Lansdowne Thoroughbreds the following year at the OBS Spring Sale in April out of the Best a Luck Farm consignment.

Mom’s On Strike became a graded-stakes winner of $594,550 and was on the board in 14 of 20 starts for owners Carl R. Moore Management, LLC and Bradley R. Grady. Double Diamond Farm bought Mom’s On Strike for $180,000 at the 2019 Keeneland November Breeding Stock sale.

Mom’s On Strike was a dominant reason Courtney and Chad Meagher won the Needles Award presented by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association for 2018. 

“It was very exciting when Tammy Gantt from the FTBOA called to say I was getting the Needles Award,” Meagher recalled. “I was so humbled, I started crying.”

At the FTBOA annual awards banquet and gala in March 2019, Bonnie and Kim Heath presented the Needles Award to Courtney and Chad Meagher as the state’s small breeders for 2018. 

The Meaghers recorded $333,531 in Florida-bred earnings during 2018 and as breeders were represented by 30 starters that posted three wins, three seconds and four thirds. 

In 2013, Courtney snagged Up for Grabs, a First Samurai mare for $3,000 at the OBS Fall Mixed Sale. Studying the mare’s catalog page, she realized Up for Grabs had the same breeder and same second dam as her good mare Mom’s Deputy.

It turned out to be a fortuitous purchase.

Courtney headed back to Double Diamond Farm, this time booking Up for Grabs to graded-stakes winner Bahamian Squall. The resulting filly was Running Memories, who was purchased by stallion owner Donald R. Dizney for $20,000 at the 2020 OBS July 2-year-olds and horses of racing age sale. (The sale was later than the usual June date because of Covid-19 lockdown timing issues.) Running Memories became a stakes-placed winner of $291,660.

TAKEN BY THE WIND

When Courtney bred Up for Grabs to Grade 1-winner Rock Your World, that 2023 foal was the filly Taken by the Wind.

Courtney sent Taken by the Wind to Beth Bayer for sales prep and Taylor Made sold the filly for $70,000 at the 2024 Fasig-Tipton July Select Yearling Sale.

Courtney was delighted that trainer Ken McPeek bought her as agent for Walking L. Thoroughbreds. When a dispersal sent the yearling filly through the ring at the Fasig-Tipton’s Kentucky October Yearling sale, McPeek again signed the ticket.

Taken by the Wind has boosted Courtney’s standing as a small breeder. The filly broke her maiden in her first start at Saratoga and followed that up with wins in the Grade 3 Pocahontas Stakes at Churchill Downs in September and the Fasig-Tipton Silverbulletday at Fair Grounds in January. In her latest start, Taken by the Wind ran third in the Grade 2 Fantasy at Oaklawn Park and has earnings of $389,460 (as of mid-April) for owners Magdalena Racing, Terry Bradshaw, Graham Leveston, and Raasi Stable.

“When Taken by the Wind came along, I was amazed this happened with my small group of broodmares,” said Meagher, who’s never given her farm an “official” name.

 

She has had as many as eight mares but has just four now and she’s happy with that. Her current broodmares include Up for Grabs, Mom’s Deputy, Mom’s a Cougar (a homebred), and Moonshine Bertie.

She breeds mostly Florida-breds and sells her yearlings at OBS and Fasig-Tipton.

“In the last few years, I’ve started selling short yearlings at the OBS January Mixed Sale, and find this works well, for colts especially,” she said.

Courtney has owned one racehorse, a 2008 Formal Dinner filly she named Vintage Candy in honor of her mother, but admits she prefers the breeding end of the business.

Although the RA continues to take a toll on her, Courtney can still do what she loves, handling foals and horses from the ground. She’s grateful that her husband and sons help around the farm.

“My mother supported my whole horse life. She was very entrepreneurial and I’m forever grateful to her for buying this farm for me,” said Courtney Meagher. “Having the farm allowed me to do what I’ve done. My mother was a key part of this chapter in my life and leaving me the inheritance that enabled me to do the breeding. I know she would have loved to be part of it. I believe in God and there are no coincidences in the paths my life has taken. I’ve met so many good people along the way.”

Return to the April 23 issue of Wire to Wire