Umdenstock’s cash crop is horses
Lonnie Umdenstock doesn’t look at horses the way most people do. He still appreciates their beauty and athleticism, but he does so with an extremely critical eye.
Umdenstock, a sales territory manager with Star Equipment Ltd, also co-owns High Point Bloodstock, which breeds and sells horses into Iowa and Kentucky racing programs. He says he has always been fond of horses and horse racing, and got involved with the sport shortly after pari-mutuel betting was introduced in Iowa.
“It started out basically as a hobby for me and turned into a business,” Umdenstock said. “When Prairie Meadows [Racetrack and Casino] opened, a friend of mine and I owned some horses together and we raced them. I decided that I wanted to go more or less to the breeding end of it, and he wanted to stay in the racing end of it, so we split up. I’ve been in the breeding end of it ever since.”
Umdenstock’s breeding business took flight in 1996, shortly after he met Maureen Merkler, a longtime horse owner who was a newcomer to Des Moines at the time.
“Maureen saw one of my fillies at a local stable when she was looking for a place to stand her stallion,” Umdenstock said. “She called me and wanted to buy it. We made a deal, and I think a year after that we became partners.”
Today, the business is divided in half, with Umdenstock caring for the mares at his Altoona acreage and Merkler overseeing the foals at her Grimes farm. Umdenstock says he is in the barn by 4:30 a.m. to tend to the mares before heading off to work at his full-time job at Star Equipment. In the evening, he and his daughter complete another round of chores. He says he has learned most of what he knows about horse breeding through research and firsthand experience.
“I read a lot about it to begin with, and tried to learn as much as I could about the racehorse business – how to acquire stock, what to look for in racing stock, what to look for in brood mares,” he said. “I’ve really studied blood lines because they are so very important in Thoroughbreds – what stallion to breed to what mare to produce the type of offspring that will be a great runner.”
He does a statistical analysis, looking at the histories of his mares and their potential mates, trying to get a best guess of how athletically gifted their offspring would be. He describes it as a “very involved process,” with no guarantees.
“To establish who you want to breed to in the spring, to do it correctly, it does take a lot of study and a lot of work,” Umdenstock said. “It’s not an exact science. Sometimes you’ll get a real good runner and sometimes you won’t.”
Yet Umdenstock and Merkler’s collaborative efforts have produced racehorses that have gone on to race successfully at Saratoga, N.Y, Churchill Downs and Keeneland, Ky.. Locally, Umdenstock estimates that 15 horses bred by High Point Bloodstock currently race at Prairie Meadows, including one of Maggi Moss’ repeated purse winner named Only at Night. Once in a while, he and Merkler enter a horse of their own.
“Maureen and I sometimes have a horse that we run for fun,” Umdenstock said. “It’s not anything that we try to make money with. We had a claimer that we called Life Goes On, and we raced him up until about a year ago, but seeing animals that we bred succeed gives us just as much gratification as if we owned it and it won.”
The two sell their yearlings and weanlings locally at a couple of public sales, including one at the Iowa State Fairgrounds on Sept. 18, when six of their horses will be sold into the Iowa racing program. Horses at the upcoming sale will go for as much as $40,000, a sign that the quality of horses being bred in Iowa is on the rise, he said.
“We feel that the horse racing industry in Iowa is a growth industry,” Umdenstock said. “Later on in life when I decide to retire, I’m sure that I’m going to stay in the horse business.”