The 141st running of the Preakness Stakes will have some Jersey flavor. Watch video
One year after the horse with New Jersey connections claimed all three legs of thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown, a Jersey Shore-based owner is trying to prevent Nyquist from repeating American Pharoah's historic trifecta.
Yes, the 141st running of the Preakness Stakes has some Jersey flavor.
The owner of Awesome Speed, a 30-1 longshot, owns Colts Neck Stables. Although the dark bay colt was bred in Kentucky, Awesome Speed has been preppared at Santulli's private training facility located in the shadows of Monmouth Park.
Santulli, 71, reportedly owns homes in both New Jersey and in Florida and he boards horses across several farms in Kentucky. The chief executive officer of business jet and helicopter leasing company Milestone Aviation Group, Santulli is a vice president of the General Electric Company who reportedly sold his fractional-jet company, NetJets, to famed business magnate Warren Buffett for $725 million in 1998.
According to an NJBiz.com report, Santulli ranked as the 22nd wealthiest New Jerseyan in 2015 with an estimated wealth of $900 million and, according to APP.com, he was the richest Monmouth Country resident with a Red Bank mansion assessed at $1.25 million.
Incidentally, the 39th wealthiest New Jerseyan, according to the 2015 NJBiz.com report, was Ahmed Zayat, a Teaneck resident whose estimated worth of $280 million only figures to go up after his colt, American Pharoah, became horse racing's first Triple Crown winner in 37 years.
Like Zayat, the Brooklyn-born Santulli is no stranger to thoroughbred racing's biggest stage. In 2013, the sole owner of Colts Neck Stables claimed his first Triple Crown classic race thanks to Oxbow, an upset winner of the Preakness Stakes at 15-1 odds.
Why you should bet Awesome Speed
Santulli faces even more daunting odds in his quest to return to the Pimlico winner's circle Saturday in the second leg of the Triple Crown.
Despite winning four of the six races he's entered, Awesome Speed is listed at 30-1 on the morning-line odds. The dark bay colt has won three stakes races, but finished fourth in his only graded race (the G-2 Fountain of Youth in late February) and all signs point to the Preakness field as a step up in class for Santulli's $223,660 career earner.
Originally sold for $80,000 as a yearling, Awesome Speed was purchased by Santulli at a 2-year-old sale in March 2015 for $335,000.
"He's had some good races," trainer Alan Goldberg said, via Preakness.com. "There's going to be a lot of speed and he wants to be a forward kind of horse.''
Keith Sargeant may be reached at ksargeant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.