Photo: Hollywood Park
Social media sites were buzzing
Wednesday night with the news that Los Angeles Laker stars Kobe Bryant and Pau
Gasol purchased their first Thoroughbred.
“How exciting is that?,” said an excited
Doug O’Neill, who has trained Siempre Mio for all five of his starts and will
continue to handle the 4-year-old gelding for the new partnership.
“Mark Verge donated a quarter of
Siempre Mio to the Laker Foundation and he’s friends with Jeanie Buss, who
invited us to the charity dinner. Pau Gasol bid first, but then he and
Kobe got into a little bit of a bidding war. Kobe won the bidding at
$8,000. Afterwards, Mark went up to Pau and asked him if he wanted to buy
into the horse, too and pretty soon Mike Sullivan also ended up buying
in. So they wound up raising $24,000 for the charity and we got some new
people into the game. This should be a lot of fun.”
“Part of the deal is that the new
owners pay no bills, so these guys get the experience of owning the horse and
not the burden of patience and bills,” O’Neill added. “I talked to Jeanie
Buss about making Laker silks and she said ‘just make them, and we’ll use them
as long as the legal team passes them. We’re going to design kind of
Laker jersey silks.”
“Pau (Gasol) was really
excited. He told me he loves horses and it was just a matter of time
before he bought a race horse. Kobe can’t wait to see him run, barring
playoff conflicts. I don’t have anything picked out for him yet, but there
will probably be a race for him in the second (condition) book.”
Siempre Mio, a son of Dixie Union
out of St. Kilda, has started five times, winning twice and finishing second
once. The bay won his most recent start March 31st, capturing a
$25,000 claimer at Santa Anita.