BY SARAH WELK BAYNUM
Mark Queen traces his roots in the Thoroughbred business to his childhood—attending the races with his father and brother in Cleveland and working at the family farm.
At 10 years old, Queen got his first taste of the racing world with his father, Harold Queen.
“My dad started taking my brother and I to the racetrack for the first time one summer when we were 10 and 9-years-old,” Queen said. “At that time, we lived up north, so he took us to Thistledown Racetrack in Cleveland.
“Then, dad decided to buy a farm in Lodi, Ohio, which we called Queen Farm. We started working on the farm too, so I was kind of raised around racehorses.”
After college, Queen managed their Ohio farm for about eight years. He then decided to get into a different business for the next 25 years, while owning a couple racehorses to keep in the game.
The Queen family sold their Ohio farm in the early 2000s then moved their Thoroughbred operation to Florida. There they purchased land near Ocala from storied Florida Thoroughbred breeder Fred Hooper.
“The full-service farm we bought has a great history. In fact, [1945 Kentucky Derby-winner] Hoop Jr. is buried right outside the mare barn. And the 80-acre part of the farm we bought is technically the Nelson Jones Training Center. I ended up moving to Florida in 2011 and then got involved with the broodmare part of my dad’s farm. The breeding is the best part for me—especially delivering the babies. Of course, when it goes right, it’s the best part. And when it goes wrong, it’s definitely the worst.
“There’s also not a better feeling than having a successful horse you bred versus buying a horse that becomes successful,” Queen said.
The Queen’s have had a number of successful horses over the years, including Burning Roma, owned by his father Harold Queen, who became the family’s first Grade 1 winner with a victory in the 2000 Futurity at Belmont Park.
“Burning Roma was purchased [by David Scanlon as an agent for the Queens] as a yearling at the [1999 Ocala Breeders’ Sales August Yearling Sale for $90,000]. Originally, we were going to pinhook him,” Queen said. “Bobby Scanlon was breaking our horses at the time—we didn’t have the farm in Ocala yet. We put him in the [Fasig-Tipton Florida Select] 2-Year-Olds Sale down in Miami but it had rained before they had them breeze and he didn’t have a very good workout.”
Harold Queen bought him back for $40,000.
“He later won the [Grade 2] Meadowlands Cup [and the Grade 3 Red Bank],” Queen said. “He won 12 black-type stakes and placed in many others. He also ran in the [Grade 1] Breeders’ Cup [Juvenile] his 2-year-old year and finished fourth.”
A multiple graded stakes-winning son of Rubiano out of While Rome Burns, by Overskate, Burning Roma would retire at age six with 13 wins, five seconds and seven thirds from 36 starts with earnings of $1,500,200.
The Queen family stood Burning Roma in Florida and raced five of his black-type winners as homebreds.
Three of Burning Roma’s stakes-winners were out of the unraced Notebook mare, Riveting Drama, who was purchased by Harold Queen for $36,000 at the 1996 OBS March Sale.
With Burning Roma, Riveting Drama produced multiple Grade 1-winner and 2015 FTBOA Horse of the Year Sheer Drama, the year Riveting Drama was also named the Broodmare of the Year by the FTBOA. She also produced with Burning Roma multiple graded stakes-placed, stakes-winner Little Drama and stakes-winner Queen Drama.
“Noble Drama, out of Queen Drama, is the first stakes horse that I raised and he made over $800,000,” Queen said. Trainer David Fawkes announced last week that the multiple stakes-winning son of Gone Astray has been retired after winning 10 of 48 career starts with 12 seconds and six thirds.
Riveting Drama’s most famous son is Big Drama, by Montbrook, the Eclipse Award winning Champion Sprinter of 2010 and winner of that year’s Grade 1 Sentient Jet Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Churchill Downs.
However, before becoming a champion on the national stage, Big Drama achieved notable success as a 2-year-old in Florida. In 2008, he swept the Dr. Fager, Affirmed and In Reality divisions of the Florida Stallions Stakes series (now the FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes), becoming only the sixth colt or gelding to do so.
“When [Big Drama] was a 2-year-old, he won all three of the Florida Stallion Stakes and only broke his maiden the race before that. Then, he had a bad spider bite up in New York and he had to be rehabbed back down here in Ocala. By his 4-year-old year, he came back to the races, and he ran twice up in Saratoga before he won the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Sprint,” Queen said.
Big Drama retired with 11 wins, four seconds and a third from 19 starts and earnings of $2,746,060.
While breeding and owning racehorses can be a rollercoaster ride sometimes, Queen says looking ahead is the best thing you can do during the down times.
“You’re always hoping for the next big horse—the whole industry is hoping for that next big one,” Queen said. “But that’s one of the amazing things that I always take with me. When things aren’t going well, look ahead. Don’t get absorbed in it or get crushed by it—have hope. This whole business is built on hope.”