DEL MAR \u2014\u00a0 Michele Arthur and Ruben Islas own a horse who won a race on Kentucky Derby weekend at Churchill Downs, and another who ran on Breeders\u2019 Cup Friday at Del Mar.<\/p>\n
But neither horse was part of the main event.<\/p>\n
There will be no FOMO on Friday, though, when a 2-year-old owned by the San Diego friends \u2014\u00a0 Islas and Arthur\u2019s husband, Jules, are business partners \u2014\u00a0 starts in the $2 million Breeders\u2019 Cup Juvenile at Del Mar.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight down the street,\u201d said Islas, who grew up in Barrio Logan and went to St. Augustine High School and UC San Diego. \u201cThat\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a dream,\u201d said Arthur, a San Diego native who spent much of her childhood here. \u201cIt\u2019s actually like I\u2019m walking in a fog right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neither Arthur nor Islas owned a horse \u2014 or really thought about owning a horse \u2014 until about seven years ago.<\/p>\n
Arthur was at a charity golf tournament she helped found when she noticed one of the auction items, for behind-the-scenes tours of Santa Anita and Del Mar, wasn\u2019t drawing any attention. Arthur loved horses as a girl, and it was for a good cause, so she bid $500 and won.<\/p>\n
She had no way of knowing, but that would not be the last time Arthur spent money on anything related to horse racing (though it certainly was for as little as $500).<\/p>\n
After skipping the drive to Santa Anita, Arthur and her husband set a date to visit Del Mar. They asked Islas if he wanted to come along.<\/p>\n
\u201cSure, yeah, I love horses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
At the end of the tour, they were introduced to a trainer, Mike Pender, who showed them an unraced 2-year-old and said they could buy a half-interest for $25,000.<\/p>\n
Jules Arthur immediately said no. But his wife and their friend looked at each other and had a different idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cCome on, Michele, you\u2019re with me, right?\u201d Islas said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d Michele Arthur said.<\/p>\n
And so, Michele added in a recent interview with the two, \u201cWe were like, we\u2019ll do this together. And that\u2019s how it started.\u201d<\/p>\n
The colt, Lord Adare, would win three times in 10 starts and earn nearly $50,000. Hardly a fortune, but Arthur and Islas were hooked.<\/p>\n
The more they went to the track, the more they enjoyed it. But they also got a sense of \u201cFOMO,\u201d as Islas put it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to be in the winner\u2019s circle more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
They talked to Pender, who was then working as a bloodstock agent, and he told them what it would take.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s like, well, you got to spend a little more money,\u201d Islas said. \u201cNot a lot more, but a little bit more. And so we said, OK, Mike, get us one. So then he got two, and then he got three, and then he got four. We kept saying yes, kind of playing the numbers game, and the horses all were getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Islas now has an interest in 13 horses; Arthur is in on 10. They haven\u2019t all been success stories, but in 2023, they bought a filly named Queen Maxima for $40,000. In the last two years, she\u2019s made 11 starts, winning six (including three graded-stakes races) and earning $450,460.<\/p>\n
The next year, they paid $100,000 for a colt they named Artislas (Arthur & Islas). He\u2019s earned more than $200,000 with three wins, including a graded stakes.<\/p>\n
Queen Maxima was the horse who won on Kentucky Oaks Day at Churchill Downs. Artislas was the horse at Del Mar. Both are trained by Santa Anita-based Jeff Mullins, as is Intrepido.<\/p>\n
The emotions with those two big days couldn\u2019t have been any different. Islas described standing by the rail and watching Queen Maxima win as almost an \u201cout-of-body experience.\u201d But Artislas had been left out of a Breeders\u2019 Cup race \u2014\u00a0 unfairly, Islas believed \u2014\u00a0 and seeing him lose his non-Cup race was disillusioning to the point where Islas said he went home before the Cup races began.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a turning point, though,\u201d Islas said. \u201cWe were so close and we wanted to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
So in April they spent more money \u2014 $385,000 to be exact \u2014 to buy a 2-year-old son of Maximus Mischief.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur limit was $300,000,\u201d Islas said, laughing. \u201cI was on the phone with Mike. He said, \u2018Ruben, I\u2019m telling you, this is the one.\u2019 I was like, \u2018all right, go to 350.\u2019 And then, \u2018OK, let\u2019s keep going.\u2019 I\u2019m a sucker.\u201d<\/p>\n
Said Arthur: \u201cIt\u2019s a good thing it didn\u2019t go higher.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arthur wanted to name the horse Intrepid but it wasn\u2019t available. Islas said they should just do the Spanish version.<\/p>\n
Said Islas: \u201cWell, I always make that joke that your Spanish teacher probably told you that\u00a0ropa\u00a0don\u2019t mean rope and\u00a0sopa\u00a0don\u2019t mean soap? Well, guess what: Intrepido means intrepid. So I put an \u2018o\u2019 on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Intrepido didn\u2019t win his first start, a sprint race at Del Mar, but that wasn\u2019t a surprise. He was bred to run longer, and so far he\u2019s perfect in two starts around two turns \u2013 a one-mile race in August at Del Mar and the American Pharoah Stakes at 1 1\/16 miles on Oct. 4 at Santa Anita. That win, worth $180,000, was the first Grade I victory for Arthur and Islas and gave Intrepido a berth in the starting gate for the Breeders\u2019 Cup Juvenile. He won\u2019t be one of the top two favorites, but should be third or fourth.<\/p>\n
Whatever happens, it\u2019s already been quite a ride for Arthur, 59, and Islas, 56. Mullins said after the American Pharoah Stakes that \u201cthey\u2019re the luckiest people in the world, I swear to God,\u201d and it\u2019s likely neither would disagree.<\/p>\n
Arthur, who also lived as a teen in Adak, Alaska, and the Netherlands before coming back to San Diego for good, is involved in philanthropy, serves on the board of directors for the San Diego Symphony and enjoys traveling (Iceland and Japan were her favorites) and music (her and Jules have seen more than 1,000 bands in concert).<\/p>\n
Islas and Jules Arthur own a real estate development company but Islas\u2019 main interest has always been movies, and he\u2019s devoting more of his time to that endeavor. He\u2019s particularly proud of a 2023 film he wrote and directed, \u201cFinal Vow,\u201d about a nun fighting human trafficking.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s doing what he likes,\u201d Arthur said. Then, looking at Islas, she added, \u201cYou\u2019re the happiest I\u2019ve ever seen you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Islas said he really wants to make a movie about horse racing that would focus on the workers behind the scenes.<\/p>\n
He might want to have a camera ready Friday afternoon to shoot a happy scene.<\/p>\n
Correspondent Kevin Modesti contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
Breeders\u2019 Cup at Del Mar<\/p>\n
Friday<\/strong><\/p>\n First post: 11:35 a.m. (10 races)<\/p>\n Weather.com forecast: 72 degrees, mostly sunny<\/p>\n Cup races: Juvenile Turf Sprint (2:45 p.m.), Juvenile Fillies (3:25), Juvenile Fillies Turf (4:05), Juvenile (4:45), Juvenile Turf (5:25)<\/p>\n On the air: 1-5 p.m., USA Network; all races on FanDuel TV and\u00a0breederscup.com; all Cup races streamed on Peacock<\/p>\n Saturday<\/strong><\/p>\n First post: 10:05 a.m. (12 races)<\/p>\n Weather.com forecast: 71 degrees, sunny<\/p>\n Cup races: Filly & Mare Sprint (noon), Turf Sprint (12:41), Sprint (1:21), Distaff (2:01), Turf (2:41), Classic (3:25), Mile (4:05), Dirt Mile (4:45), Filly and Mare Turf (5:25)<\/p>\n On the air: 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m., USA Network; 12:30-4 p.m., NBC; 4-5 p.m., USA; all races on FanDuel TV and breederscup.com; all Cup races streamed on Peacock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DEL MAR \u2014\u00a0 Michele Arthur and Ruben Islas own a horse who won a race on Kentucky Derby…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":338998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,23125,1370,3549,7264,62,7289,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-338997","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-horse-racing","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-top-stories-sdut","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115453353315612491","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}