By Katie Petrunyak
After more than two decades managing stallion barns across the country, Larry Walton has learned that matching a stallion with the right caretaker is a subtle practice that yields tangible results. When a horse has his own designated handler every day, it creates a rhythm of trust and predictability that keeps him steady through the pressure of a busy breeding season.
Walton recalls seeing this principle in action years ago at Spendthrift Farm. The notoriously headstrong Malibu Moon was a model citizen for his regular groom, but whenever that handler went on vacation, the rest of the stallion team played rock-paper-scissors to see who would be tasked with turning the horse out. When Walton took over as stallion manager at Gainesway Farm in 2022, he brought that philosophy with him. He cycled through a few different grooms with star sire Tapit before finding the right fit and took the same approach with Karakontie, another stallion who demands a steady hand.
To handle the former European classic winner and Breeders' Cup champion, Walton turned to Zeferino Escobedo. Escobedo, a native of Mexico with almost as much experience in the business as his longtime boss, followed Walton to Gainesway three years ago. His two charges are the mild-mannered Grade II winner Charge It and the far more complex Karakontie.
“Zefe is a very good groom,” Walton said. “He doesn't show a lot of emotion and is very laid back. Horses like that. If you bring Karakontie down to show and Zefe has him, he stands better. If somebody else brings him down to show, he may not stand as good. They have a lot of respect toward each other. A lot of the old-school stallions are like that. They're one-person kind of guys and they like having their one groom.”
Speaking in Spanish, Escobedo said that when he first took over caring for the sire, Karakontie made him earn his trust.
“When I arrived, because I didn't know him, the horse was very strong,” Escobedo recalled. “The first time I worked with him, he scared me a lot because I did not know him. He was always trying to bite me. He is really strong, but I like working with the ones that have a strong temperament.”
Bred in Japan by the Niarchos Family, Karakontie spent the majority of his racing career in France. Trained by Jonathan Pease, the son of Bernstein captured a pair of stakes races at two, including the G1 Grand Criterium, before returning at three to claim the G1 French Two Thousand Guineas. His defining moment on the racetrack came later that year when he shipped to Santa Anita for the 2014 Breeders' Cup.
Celebrating a win in the 2014 Breeders' Cup Mile | Horsephotos
Off at long odds of 30-1 in the GI Breeders' Cup Mile, Karakontie launched an explosive rally from wide off the turn, split rivals in the stretch and prevailed by a length over fellow French-campaigned Anodin (Ire) (Anabaa). He etched his name in the record books as the first Japanese-bred horse to win a Breeders' Cup race, opening the floodgate for other Japanese runners on the world stage in the years that followed.
The regally bred bay retired to Gainesway the following year, continuing a farm tradition pioneered by founder John Gaines of importing elite European turf bloodlines to enrich the American pool, and he has been an anchor of the Gainesway roster in the years since.
No one on the farm's stallion crew would go so far as to characterize Karakontie as difficult. He is an easy keeper with no real vices and is a consummate professional in the breeding shed. But he does seem to enjoy keeping his caretakers on their toes.
“You never know what you're going to get,” Walton explained. “Some days he'll come out to show and stand like a statue and other days he'll come out and he won't stand up. He loves to be turned out and he loves to run. In the paddocks he has Olympiad on one side of him and Muth on the other. He always tries to get them to run with him. He's an instigator, you could say.”
That alertness and grit have translated to his offspring, as Karakontie has built a record of 16% stakes horses over his 11 years at stud.
While his progeny have achieved graded wins on both surfaces, his leading earners have unapologetically shined on the turf with graded stakes winners like Princess Grace, Spendarella and None Above the Law. His latest star Roja won this year's GII Intercontinental Stakes.
On the walk with groom Zeferino Escobedo | Sara Gordon
Karakontie's crowning achievement as a sire is his daughter She Feels Pretty. An Eclipse Award Champion Turf Female with five Grade I wins and over $2.55 million in earnings, she capped her brilliant campaign with a runner-up effort in last year's GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf.
“She had a lot of heart like he did,” Walton said. “I've watched his Breeders' Cup Mile several times because he was a longshot. He was all the way on the outside. I think there were 14 horses in the field and he had a heck of a run. That kind of goes with his character. He's got a lot of heart.”
She Feels Pretty came within a length of it, but for now the search continues for a son or daughter who will inherit not just Karakontie's tenacity, but his title as a Breeders' Cup champion.
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