James Tafel

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2009 Record: (142-16-15-16)

2009 Earnings: $480,898

2009 Win %: 11% In-The-Money %: 33%

Born: Jan. 20, 1924, Pittsburgh, Pa.
Residence: Boynton Beach, Fla.
Family: wife Ida Mae (nicknamed Gus); son Jim and daughter Julie Klaus; three grandchildren
Professional Background: Tafel retired in 1983 as board chairman and chief executive officer of Technical Publishing Co., located near his home in Barrington, Ill., a northwest suburb of Chicago. The company published a variety of trade, management and professional magazines. The company also had an educational and consumer book publishing division
Racing Background: Shortly after retiring, Tafel joined some ownership partnerships, including a Dogwood Stable venture that owned Nassipour, winner of the 1985 Rothmans International ... Considers Dogwood's president, Cot Campbell, his mentor in Thoroughbred racing and a long-time friend ... As a teen-ager, Tafel exercised polo ponies for a relative ... Tafel's racing stable has grown over the years through purchases at public auction, retaining his best fillies for breeding
Racing Career: Best horse owned to date is 2007 Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense, who finished second in the Preakness and skipped the Belmont to await the Saratoga meet. Street Sense also won the 2006 Breeders' Cup Juvenile and earned the Eclipse Award as the nation's top juvenile. With his Kentucky Derby victory, he became the first horse to win both the Juvenile and the Derby in the 23-year history of the Breeders' Cup ... Prior to Street Sense, Tafel's top horses included 1998 Champion 3-Year-Old Filly Banshee Breeze (owned in partnership with Jayeff B Stable), who finished second in both the 1998 and ’99 Breeders' Cup Distaff and stakes winners Coolawin, Vicar, Til Forbid, Metfield and Binalong ... Other Breeders' Cup starters: Cinch, seventh in the 1994 Juvenile; Til Forbid, ninth in the 1991 Distaff; and Vicar, 11th in the 1999 Sprint ... Has 18 horses in training; Carl Nafzger is his primary trainer
Breeding/Racing Operation: Keeps most members of his broodmare band at Mill Ridge Farm, with a few at Darby Dan Farm, Chesapeake Farm and Claiborne Farm, all in Kentucky ... Tafel's take on racing and breeding: "What typically happens is you get into the racing side of the game and you end up with some nice fillies or mares, and their value is greater as breeding stock than selling them as empty mares. You kind of back into the breeding game, which happened to me, and very fortunately so. Many of my better horses have been homebreds ... The other thing is the breeding side sustains the racing operation in lean times. In other words, we breed with the primary objective of racing, but with a secondary objective of selling if we have to." ... In 2007, Tafel ranked ninth amoung North American owners with stable earnings of $3,655,913. He had 103 starters with 17 winners.