Bruce Areman was waiting for the right horse to bring his long-time friend Bill Pollock into horse ownership. Now the two are having the time of their lives trying to climb to the top of the game in short order.

by Debbie Little

Owner Bruce Areman had been waiting to find just the right horse to bring his long-time friend Bill Pollock into the harness racing business. Areman obviously chose well, since the pair, along with partner/trainer Andrew Harris, have two competing in tonight’s Breeders Crown.

“[Pollock] was a fan of [harness racing] when he was younger, but never really got involved and I always said I wouldn’t really do anything unless the right horse came along,” Areman said. “It had to be a special horse because he only wants a really good champion-type horse, which, you know, is hard to find for sale.”

On Oct. 29, 2022, Harris mentioned to Areman that 4-year-old pacer Abuckabett Hanover was in the Preferred Equine Online sale on Oct. 31.

October 29 was also Pollock’s 70^th birthday and when the friends went to dinner to celebrate, the idea of horse ownership came up, just not from Areman.

“Billy’s wife [Karen] said to my wife out of nowhere that night, ‘Why won’t Bruce let Billy in the horse business?’” Areman said. “And my wife Cathy says, ‘I think he’s nervous. Billy needs the right kind of horse and he doesn’t want to see Billy lose money.’ And Billy was sitting right there and he said, ‘I can afford to lose a couple of bucks if we lost a couple of bucks.’”

Bruce then explained to Bill about the Abuckabett sale and according to Bruce, from there it all happened fairly quickly. He introduced Bill to Harris and then the trio met at Bill’s house for the online auction, and when it was all said and done, the hammer went down for $534,000 and they had a horse and a partnership. A little over a week later, Harris was at the Harrisburg sale purchasing three yearlings for the partnership.

Harris said Bruce had kind of warned him that at some point things might ramp up.

“[Bruce] said, ‘[Bill] took his business and he grew it from a very small business to one of the biggest businesses around, so, I can already tell you right now that this is going to expand fast,’” Harris said. “So, I was kind of warned after Abuckabett. But, to me, every day I wake up and I just thank God and thank Bill and Bruce for this opportunity because it’s one of a kind and not a lot of people get to experience it and so I know I’m blessed.”

In August of this year, Bill and his partners purchased 3-year-old pacing colt Seven Colors, and then at the Lexington Selected Yearling Sale, they bought 10 yearlings for a total of $3,550,000.

“Well, this is a unicorn situation for me,” Harris said. “I’ve never been able to get sent to a sale and actually buy the horses that I put on my love list.

“Bill’s like ‘If you like them, go for them’ and I’ve never been in that position and I can’t even believe that I’m in that situation.”

Bruce, 63, has been a part-owner on some overnight horses on and off since 1985. In 2018, he was a fractional owner with TheStable.ca and that’s how he met Harris, who was training for them in the U.S. at the time. Harris, 39, currently has a 30-horse stable; 17 in his partnership with Bill and Bruce, including the 10 babies.

“If you want to play at the top level, you look at all the barns that play at the top level, they’re all the babies guys,” Harris said. “You’ve got to buy them as babies. You’ve got to roll those dice and take a shot. You can’t go out and buy the best horses of every division every year. They don’t come up for sale enough and when they do, you have to really overpay for them and you don’t mind overpaying for one when you know what they are because if you’re prepared to pay [$400,000] or $500,000 for a yearling, why wouldn’t you pay [$400,000] or $500,000 for a proven horse?

“Everyone knows that Bill spends a little bit so they try to put on extra money. I got priced on one the other night and the price was probably 40 to 50 per cent higher than it should have been. If he was 30 or 40 years old, he probably wouldn’t do it this way, but, he’s in his 70s and he says, ‘I want to build a top stable and we need all ages,’ but he also says, ‘I understand the long game part of it, so we definitely need yearlings, but we also need to buy some that are racing now so that I can enjoy it now.’”

Last, but certainly not least, they added 3-year-old pacing colt El Rey to their stable on Oct. 13, a week before the Crown eliminations. El Rey won one of the three Crown elims for his division.

According to Bill and Bruce, there is a rumor that two-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic was an underbidder for El Rey.

“They said he got out at $465,000,” said Bill, who won the auction at $525,000. “My son was saying ‘Dad, why don’t you call him or have somebody call him and tell him you’ll give him a partnership in it, so we could know the Joker.’

“I said ‘He probably wouldn’t take the call. It would be his trainer or somebody who bids it and don’t think you’re going to meet him. You would never probably meet him.’”

Bill said he didn’t go crazy buying too many horses last year because he didn’t really know the business and he decided to jump in a little harder this year because his family loves it and he wants his partners to be successful.

“When your son loves it, how could you not be excited and get involved in it?” Bill said. “So that’s what was the big key for me. My son and my wife really loved it. So, I jumped in. I’m a competitive guy anyway, so I want to be competitive. It’s not like I’m 30 years old, 40 years old and I could put the time in, like everybody else has put in. I don’t suppose I have that much time and I have a 14-year-old son [Billy] who loves it. So, I wanted to try to build something for him to get him started. He’s the future of the business as we continue.”

Harris is stabled at Gaitway Farms, about 15 minutes from Freehold, NJ, where both Bill and Bruce reside. As a result, Bill, Bruce and their families often visit their horses.

Knowing how much Bill’s son Billy loves the horses, especially their 2-year-old pacing filly, Donegal Spirit, Harris bought a double-seated jog cart so Billy could go out on the track with him. Harris also made a point of stopping by to see Bill and his family in early September after winning the Pennsylvania Sire Stakes championship for 3-year-old colts with Seven Colors.

“As good as he is, and I can’t read trainers, so I won’t even begin to try, but as good as he is as a trainer, he’s a better person,” Bill said. “We won that Pennsylvania Sire Stakes [at Harrah’s Philadelphia] and you know what Andrew did? He stopped here at my house in Freehold with the horse and walked the horse up my driveway for my wife and my son to see him. Can you believe that? Now who would do that? And my son was so excited to see the horse again walking around. My neighbors couldn’t believe it. He’s a great guy. I will never leave Andrew Harris.”

As far as tonight’s Crown races are concerned, Bill knows he’s in tough with El Rey going up against Confederate, among others, and Abuckabett, known affectionately as “Bucky,” taking on Tattoo Artist. The one he considers to be his best 3-year-old colt, Seven Colors, scoped sick in Lexington and even though he’s a little better now, he’s not 100 per cent so he will not race him.

“It’s not for me to say, ‘Oh look, I got a Breeders Crown champion,’” Bill said. “No, I want Bucky to be famous. I want Seven Colors to be famous. I want people to say that’s a great horse. Not that I’m not appreciative of it, but it doesn’t bring anything for me. I just want [my horses] to get the notoriety of it. I know that probably sounds silly, but that’s how I feel about it. I like to win blankets more than purses. Now you can’t go too far in this sport if you don’t win any purses, but I like the blankets better. Winning those trophies and Crowns and stuff like that is really a tribute to the horse and I do like that.”

Bill grew up in Freehold and is the co-owner of family-owned Trinity Solar, the largest privately-held residential solar installation company in the nation.

“I know a little bit about harness racing just from watching it a long time ago,” Bill said. “The big horse when I was younger or when I was following was Albatross. He was the big horse. He was the best horse. He even came to Freehold once and it was a big deal.

“At my stage of the game, 70 years old going to be 71, if a horse is worth $300,000, you wouldn’t pay [$350,000] to have him? I mean, if I wouldn’t, what am I waiting for? Now, next year, if I have a bunch of yearlings that turn out to be very good 2-year-olds, if four or five of the 10 are very good, then I’m not in a jam or I’m not in a race to try to get some other good, aged horses. Maybe I can ride it out with these.

“My son said, ‘Dad if you don’t get some of these yearlings to the Breeders Crown, are you going to be disappointed?’ I said, ‘I’ll be extremely disappointed because that would either mean we don’t know how to pick them or we don’t know how to train them because they got the bloodline.’ And, I know we know how to train them. So, I think they’re going to be really good.”