DONEGAL TAKES RIDE OF A LIFETIME - ROYTZ ESPN
Tomorrow's $10 million Dubai World Cup, the richest horserace in the world, boasts an international roster of contenders. One horse in particular, a strapping chestnut colt named Dullahan, has attracted the attention of the world, and has given his group of owners the experience of a lifetime.
Jerry Crawford's Donegal Racing began as an ownership syndicate comprised of a group of friends, and the partnership quickly found success at the highest levels. Of their first group of eight horses purchased in 2008 for less than $500,000 collectively, four competed at the Graded Stakes level and together that group of eight horses earned nearly $5 million in prize money.
The partnership's first major success story was the flashy gray colt Paddy O'Prado, winner of five graded stakes events, including the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes and who finished third in the Kentucky Derby in 2010.
"In the beginning it was primarily Jerry's friends and family from Iowa," explained Donegal Chief Operating Officer Julie Cauthen, "but it's grown a lot thanks to Jerry and the success of the horses on the racetrack."
