Bethany Baumgardner has won two races in a training career that began in April as the Florida trainer for Glen Hill Farm. Both those winners will be in action this weekend at Kentucky Downs: Ocean Club to run in the $1.5 million Ladies Sprint (G2) Aug. 31 and Bridle a Butterfly in the $1 million Juvenile Sprint Sept. 1.
Ocean Club provided the 34-year-old Baumgardner, a former jockey both on the flat and over jumps, her first training victory. Ocean Club had previously been trained by Glen Hill’s longtime trainer Tom Proctor, for whom Baumgardner worked as an assistant at Del Mar last year.
Baumgardner did her job, winning the May 18 Monroe Stakes at Gulfstream Park in her only race with the filly, and Ocean Club was sent on to Jack Sisterson, who trains her for Saturday’s race.
“It was always understood that my base would be here in South Florida with the farm, and when bigger tracks or opportunities happened for these horses, they would be going there,” Baumgardner said. “I try to get them the best I can get them and send them off hopefully to do great things.”
Baumgardner plans to work a bunch of horses in Florida Saturday morning, hop on a flight to Nashville and hopes to make it to Kentucky Downs in time to watch Ocean Club run.
Her mission at Kentucky Downs is to run Bridle a Butterfly, a good-looking winner in his July 28 debut at Gulfstream, in Sunday’s 6 1/2-furlong Juvenile Sprint.
“It is amazing,” Baumgardner said. “It’s a $1 million race, and there obviously are some very nice horses in there. But I’m just as excited about our horse. I think it will be good to get him on that big stage and see where we stack. I am beyond excited. This is so cool to get to come to Kentucky Downs with this chestnut who jumped up and showed he’s got a nice little turn of foot.”
Bridle a Butterfly, a son of the adjudged 2019 Kentucky Derby winner Country House , appears to be the nicest prospect out of the Storm Cat mare Sly Storm , who was purchased in 2006 for $500,000 as a yearling by Glen Hill founder Leonard Lavin. She raced from 2008-2009.
Lavin built up Alberto-Culver Co. until selling the company in 2010 for $3.7 billion to Unilever. Lavin died in 2017, with his grandson Craig Bernick taking over the breeding and racing operation.
“She was a really good runner and very well-bred,” Bernick said of Sly Storm, “and just a complete failure as a mare. We bred her to many, many, many good stallions: Medaglia d’Oro twice, Smart Strike, Tiznow, Malibu Moon, Arrogate, Candy Ride and never had a runner, anything resembling a runner.”
Bridle a Butterfly is her dam’s fifth winner. The two best of her siblings earned between $53,000-$56,000.
Baumgardner is now a private trainer for Glen Hill, with horses at their farm track in Ocala and Gulfstream’s Palm Meadows Training Center. Bridle a Butterfly has been training over an undulating turf gallop at the farm.
“She’s a really good horse person,” Bernick said of Baumgardner. “She worked for the jump trainer Tom Voss, and she worked us one winter at the Fair Grounds. Then she ended up at the farm over Covid. I was there too, and really liked her. I was impressed with her … Last summer, they were still in Tom (Proctor’s) name, but she took nine of our horses to Del Mar. We made the deal, ‘Go to Del Mar, go back to Florida, run the barn. After the Championship Meet at Gulfstream, we’ll turn the horses over into your name.’
“All the horses start out with her. It’s convenient to the farm. They can win races at Gulfstream, especially this time of year, which is important. The really good horses will go to New York or Kentucky or California. She’s agreed to that and done a great job for us, and it’s a good opportunity for her.”
Baumgardner said nothing in her riding career, on the flat or steeplechase, compares to this, though it was a big thrill to have owned, trained and ridden her own horse in stakes races.
“This is an incredible opportunity,” she said. “Even at Gulfstream it’s an incredible opportunity to be training for Glen Hill Farm and to have their horses there. I’m so excited to have the iconic Glen Hill colors behind me.”
This press release has been edited for content and style by BloodHorse Staff.
