With Success on the Track and in the Sales Ring, Lugamo Racing Does it All

Yesterday at 12:40 PM

Luis Gavignano's involvement in horse racing, which began innocently enough with a few claiming horses at Laurel Park in 2017, has blossomed into a racing, breeding and pinhooking operation with its own burgeoning home base in Ocala. His Lugamo Racing, with a dozen broodmares to support its graded-stakes winning first-season stallion, as well as a new stakes winner among its 10 horses in training, will offer 14 juveniles at the upcoming Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training.

Gavignano traces his love of horses back to his childhood in Venezuela. Now living in Virginia where he owns a string of fast food restaurants, he found an outlet for that passion at nearby Laurel Park.

“The closest track I have is Laurel Park,” Gavignano said. “So I started going there. I have been a horse lover for forever, but not really into the racing. So I just started looking. I met some trainers over there at Laurel Park, Rodolfo Sanchez and Claudio Gonzalez. I bought two or three claiming horses, nothing really special or any big horses. That was in 2017.”

The following year, Gavignano made his first trip to the OBS sales and it was there, in April of 2021, that he purchased Petulante (Arrogate) for $40,000. The gray went on to win the 2023 GIII Salvator Mile and is currently standing his first season at stud in New York at Irish Hill and Dutchess Views Stallions.

“I have 12 mares right now that are in foal to Petulante,” Gavignano said. “I am trying to give him a chance. I will try to keep these 12-15 mares to show other breeders that I believe in my horse. They can see that I am trying to support him. I hope other people will at least give him a chance.”

Gavignano's current focus is on buying at the yearling sales before deciding whether to send his 2-year-olds through the sales ring or into his racing stable.

“I started very quietly, buying two or three horses,” Gavignano explained. “Last year, I did it a little bit more. I bought 24 horses as yearlings. Honestly, I didn't plan to buy 24 horses last year. My idea was to buy a few horses, maybe five or six, and keep two or three and sell the other ones. That was my initial idea. But for some reason, I fell in love with so many horses that I ended up buying them. I am still dealing with which ones I am going to keep and which ones we will try to sell.”

The sell-or-race philosophy worked out perfectly for Lugamo last year. The operation purchased a daughter of Tapit for $60,000 at the 2023 Fasig-Tipton October sale and reoffered her the following April at OBS where she sold for $325,000 to KatieRich Farms.

At the Fasig-Tipton July Sale in 2023, Lugamo purchased a filly by Tiz the Law for $80,000 and, when she failed to meet her reserve at $145,000 at OBS in March, she joined the operation's racing stable.

Both fillies are now stakes winners, with May Day Ready (Tapit) winning last year's GII Jessamine Stakes and finishing second in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, while Cloe (Tiz the Law) won the Melody of Colors Stakes in just her third lifetime start at Gulfstream Park Mar. 23.

Gavignano credited Servando Espinoza with helping him to find May Day Ready as a yearling.

“[Espinoza] has his own farm and his own company, but we are very close,” Gavignano said. “We are neighbors. I keep my horses at my farm and he comes every morning to take my horses to the track. We have this relationship and we are good friends. He told me I should look at this Tapit filly. I went with him to see her and I said, 'No way. I don't think she has a chance.' She was very small. But he said he thought we could put her where she should be. And she's by Tapit. Usually you cannot go wrong with Tapit.

“The change after six months was amazing,” Gavignano continued. “She looked totally different. And more important, she was working really good at the farm. I put her in the sale and you saw the numbers. We bought her for $60,000 and we sold her for $325,000. But the most important thing is the new owners did a really good job with her.”

Despite a :9 4/5 work, Cloe failed to attract the interest Gavignano was hoping for, but he was happy to take her home.

“Since the first day, I did not want to put Cloe in the sale,” he admitted. “She was a really good filly with everything–conformation, size, the pedigree. Everything was good. And she really had a good breeze. I talked to Tristan de Meric and I said, 'I am going to put her through the ring, but I am going to be picky with how much I am going to ask for her. Because I think she is special.'”

Gavignano admitted he really hadn't expected the filly to RNA.

“I was surprised, but the big buyers want a clean, clean horse,” he said. “She had a small issue. When I spoke to the doctor, he said to me, it's nothing for racing, but maybe it is going to hurt her at the sale. I wasn't going to give away my filly. So I kept her.”

The pinhook or race debate continued at this year's OBS March sale, where Gavignano sold three horses, but ended up taking one home.

“I had one Uncle Mo colt that was doing really good, but he got injured in the stall the night before the sale,” Gavignano said. “He's doing great. He's back at my farm. It was nothing major. So that's one of the horses I am going to keep. He did great in the breeze at OBS. I am a strong believer in God, so I think it was a message. He sent a message to keep this horse and that's exactly what I am doing.”

Lugamo Racing's OBS April contingent includes a colt by Into Mischief (hip 27), purchased for $200,000 at the Fasig-Tipton October sale, and a colt by Tapit (hip 249), purchased for $300,000 at the Keeneland September sale. Both colts are consigned by Top Line Sales.

With de Meric Sales, Lugamo will offer a filly by Into Mischief (hip 660), who was purchased for $115,000 at Fasig-Tipton October and a colt by Justify (hip 744) purchased for $200,000 at Keeneland September.

“Last year, I tried to buy more into some pedigrees and see what happens,” Gavignano said. “I think it's a very good group. So far, I think Top Line and the de Merics are happy with the group that we are bringing. But you never know. You have to have good luck. For instance, at the March sale, we had three fillies the first day and the first day was really, really bad for breezing. It was 20+ mph headwind. So they didn't really perform in the way they did before. But the next day and the following day, there was no wind and there were a bunch of :9 4/5s and even a :9 3/5.”

Gavignano thinks he may have found a way to circumvent any bad luck when the under-tack show for the Spring sale begins Sunday.

“The good thing is, I have horses in every day of the book,” he said with a chuckle. “So I don't have everything in the same basket.”

Two years ago, Gavignano purchased a farm in Ocala, but he wasn't originally thinking of his racehorse operation when he bought the property.

“The reason I bought the farm initially was more for the love of the horses, not really thinking that it would be a perfect facility for training,” Gavignano said. “It was more that I wanted to have a place where I could fly out of my base in Virginia and spend time around the horses.”

He continued, “But if you put everything together, it was a perfect combination. My barns were there, I have a bunch of broodmares that are in foal. So I can see the horses and I can have the horses there to rest for a few weeks or months. We want to actually build an equine pool. I am preparing for the farm to be a complete facility. So we don't have to go to a different place, everything will be in one place.”

After eight years in the business, Gavignano has experienced success on the track and in the sales ring and he is now expanding into breeding, but he has no problem identifying his favorite aspect of the industry.

“There is nothing like racing,” he said. “When you go to a sale and you see your horses doing good, it's very nice to see that. But you know the goosebumps that I feel every time that I have a horse in any race? I don't know why, for me, a $20,000 claiming race makes me feel that way. That adrenaline when we are in a race, it's difficult to feel that any other way.”

So while he will be offering several horses at the OBS Spring sale, he won't be too upset to take some of those babies home with him.

“I don't have any hesitation to keep them, to be honest with you,” Gavignano said. “If the horse doesn't bring what I want, I hope we can have the next Cloe.”

Of his expanding equine empire, Gavignano admitted, “When I got more into the horses, you know, it is difficult to get out.”

The under-tack preview of the Spring sale will be held next Sunday through Friday with sessions beginning daily at 8 a.m. The auction will be held Apr. 15-18. Bidding begins each day at 10:30 a.m.

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