I was born in Maracay, Venezuela on March 17, 1978. Since I was a child I was surrounded by horses. My father was a renowned owner at the main racetrack in Caracas Venezuela, where he won several of important stakes races. From a very young age I accompanied him every week to watch the horses training. My maternal grandmother had farms where she used to take retired thoroughbred horses for breeding with mixed-breed mares that she had. From a very young age I was involved in the selection, breaking and training of these horses to compete in quarter and three eights of a mile races, where I even rode many of them.
I obtained a degree in civil engineering in 2002 and immediately began to practice my profession, first as an employee of construction companies and very quickly founded my own company, Construcciones Icono. Every summer I came to the United States and frequently attended the races and auctions, especially those in Ocala where horses in training were sold, always thinking of buying one for myself. In 2014 I founded my first stable in the United States with the name Winds of Change Racing stable and in 2015 after learning and analyzing all the variables involved, I began to acquire horses in claiming races, the results were not long in coming and one of my first successes was with a horse called Rich Daddy claimed for just US$ 6,250 and winner of one race at that time. After some adjustments and changes in both, surface and racing style with the help of his trainers he managed to win up to 6 more races, almost $200,000 in purses and my first stakes in the United States, in the summer of 2015.
In 2016 I was decided to take the next step and after a thorough study of the auctions of two-year-olds in training decided to acquire at the OBS June sale a filly daughter of Algorithms for just US$ 6,500, that filly that I would later call Rich Mommy in homage to my first great horse would achieve the incredible feat of winning the first graded stakes for my stable when on December 17, 2017 she won at Gulfstream Park amid the championship meeting against the best sprinter mares in the country the Grade 3 Sugar Swirl stakes, in total Rich Mommy would complete a race record of 5 wins, 5 seconds and 2 thirds in 16 stars and almost $250,000 in earnings, the mare was retired and sold to Spendthrift farm for a high sum of money and currently belongs to the mare stable of that prestigious breeding establishment.
While all this was going on, I also successfully ventured into the pinhooking business, buying yearlings and reselling them as two-year olds in training at the Ocala auctions.
While supervising my horses at the training center, I found a colt from the first crop of the stallion Fed Biz. Upon observing the great talent that this colt had and after his breeze at the June sale, I suggested to trainer Victor Barboza that he buy this horse. The colt would later be called Zenden and would win, among others, the Grade 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen at Meydan and produce more than a million dollars.
In 2021 I started a project called T.O.V.A.R (Two year old Video Analysis Report) which basically consisted of preparing a workout report that would serve as support for buyers at two-year old auctions, introducing for the first time in history the video of each horse’s gallop out, the analysis of each of these videos, the selection of the best (approximately 25-30% of the catalog) and the assignment of a score from 1 to 10 to determine and make easier the selection of each trainer, agent or owner when choosing which horse to buy.
The results were simply impressive, to summarize, there was not a single horse that won graded stakes that has not been rated highly in our reports that were made since that year, resulting from that first crop born in 2019, Grade 1 winning horses such as White Abarrio, Corniche, Taiba, among others.
Despite being an absolute unknown in the field given the short time I have lived in the United States, the report was very successful in terms of sales, being used by renowned stables such as Zedan Racing, China Horse Club, Gandharvi, Sonata Stables, among others. Renowned agents and trainers also used it to choose their horses in all the auctions that year. Much of this success was due to the daily dissemination of each of the horses that had been recommended in the report through my social networks. It was posted every time one of them was going to race and, in a very high percentage they won in their first start, impressing the large number of followers on both Twitter and Instagram.
The following year, in 2022, and thanks to the respect earned among our clients, who had been buying my reports sale after sale, it was given to me the first opportunity to formally choose and buy my first horse in the United States as an agent. In April of that year, Mr. Amr Zedan, owner of the famous Zedan Racing stable, whom I had been advising for almost two years, told me that he had a friend in Saudi Arabia who wanted to buy horses to race in Riyadh but also one to race in the United States. That is how FMQ stables contacted us and asked me to choose and buy a single horse, a Derby horse to establish their stable in the United States. That is how, after a hard work, as had been done in previous years to buy my horses and even harder for the T.O.V.A.R. breeze reports, I picked from more than a thousand horses a gray colt son of Always Dreaming out of the Tapit mare New Narration, identified with the hip number 835 and who was being consigned by Top Line Sales.
I saw him for the first time one of those mornings of preparation breezes that are done in private before the official work, immediately caught my eye, I remember checking the video time and time again thinking and talking to myself “he is, he is”, then The colt officially worked in the first set of the sixth day, although he was a little disorganized, switching leads and crossing them at times, he recorded an official time of 10 seconds flat for 1/8th of a mile, despite all that, I continued to like him for those reasons that sometimes have no explanation, finally was the moment to see him in the stable, what we call inspections and then the approval of my trusted veterinarian to make the final decision, there was no doubt for me that he was the right one, I thought that, being a son of Always Dreaming who was debuting as a stallion that year at the 2yo sales, he was not going to be among the priorities of the big agents and buyers, therefore his price would be within the authorized budget to buy, so it was that in the third session of that April 2022 OBS auction, the purchase of my first horse formally as an agent would be finalized, the hammer fell at $ 240,000, still somewhat below the amount assigned and authorized by FMQ Stables.
The next day I received an email from the owner of FMQ stables informing me of the need to insure the horse, coordinate transportation, and one special request, “Pedro, I already have the name of the colt, please call him “SAUDI CROWN.”
Most of you reading this probably know what happened next, we are not going to make this biography too long because this story is still developing, in short Saudi Crown has turned out to be one of the best of that crop born in 2020 with earnings exceeding $3 million, multiple stakes winner, Grade 1 winner and ranked 4th in the Longines world ranking after being just one length away from winning the richest race in the world, the $20 million Saudi Cup, he is currently in campaign under the training of Brad Cox.
Thanks to the results obtained not only with Saudi Crown but also with other horses sent to Saudi Arabia (4 to be exact), Saudi Pride, second in his debut and unfortunately injured prematurely, Slayel, winner, multiple placed and especially with Saudi Empire, Multiple stakes winner with an impressive record of 3 victories in 4 starts including the Ministry of Culture and North America cups, more clients began to arrive and in 2023 also thanks to the intermediation of Amr Zedan an agreement was made with the largest and most historic stable in Saudi Arabia, the famous “white stable” of the sons of King Abdullah.
In March the first 3 horses would be purchased for KAS Stables:
A gray son of Arrogate, now called Haqeet, impressive winner on his debut in a mile race and recent winner of the Taif Derby in a resounding way to have an almost impeccable record of 2 wins and 1 second in 3 starts and is currently the best three-year-old colt in that country.
An Outwork colt named Hayeet who also had an excellent result, being one of Saudi Arabia’s representatives in the prestigious Grade 3 Saudi Derby on the Saudi Cup gala night, a position he earned after maintaining his unbeaten 2-2 record by winning the Gulf Cup.
A Twirling Candy filly named Thameda recently became an impressive maiden winner at a mile and a quarter at Taif Racecourse and is also on her way to the top.
For the month of April I was entrusted with the mission of finding a group of horses of racing age with the intention of participating in the Saudi Cup festival to be held in March of the following year, the first acquisition was not long in coming, at the Keeneland auction of horses of racing age in April we acquired the horse Carmel Road for the sum of $260,000, a horse of great quality that Bob Baffert trained and that was for sale at that auction, he was exported to Saudi Arabia and after impressively winning the King Faisal Cup by more than 10 lengths in 1.36.1 and establishing the highest rating (113) of all horses in Saudi Arabia, he achieved classification to the Saudi Cup for the first time in history for the King Abdullah’s Sons Stables.
That same year we bought:
Rebellious Stage for $200,000, a horse that had only won one race here in the United States, son of Justify, was exported to Saudi Arabia and again turned out to be a tremendous acquisition by stablishing an undefeated record in 4 starts, winning the Grade 3 Sports Boulevard Riyadh Dirt Sprint and the qualifier for the Riyadh Dirt Sprint also on the classic night of the Saudi Cup.
As if this were not enough, that same year we secured at the Fasig Tipton July auction a horse called Power in Numbers for the sum of $400,000, a son of Girvin who simply swept the King Abdullaziz racetrack by winning up to 4 races and 1 second place in 5 starts, including the cups:
-Saeed Al Majed
– Grade 2 Prince Naif Ben A/Aziz.
–The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, known as the King’s Cup which is the most important race in Saudi Arabia, this race gave him direct qualification to the 20M Saudi Cup, after an epic battle with the defending champion Scotland Yard, when he seemed defeated in the final 400 mtrs he came back to win one of the most exciting races of all time in Saudi Arabia and giving the white stable for the first time in history the opportunity to participate in the richest race in the world.
In this way, an unprecedented feat for any bloodstock agent in the world and very difficult to repeat was achieved as 3 horses purchased by us participated in the Saudi Cup, namely Saudi Crown, Carmel Road and Power in Numbers.
If you add to these three the horses: Haayeet and Rebellious Stage who participated in the Saudi Derby and the Riyadh dirt sprint respectively, we complete another very important feat by participating with up to 5 horses in the classic and millionaire day of the Saudi Cup.
A short career but with a vertiginous rise based on many victories, displaying an impressive effectiveness by buying only a handful of horses for a few clients and achieving great feats have allowed us to become in just two years one of the most sought-after bloodstock agents, especially by middle east-based clients. This fact is clearly reflected by being the leading buyer in several auctions during the past year.
Always acting with the greatest honesty, transparency and as we always say, feeling each horse as if it were ours, each triumph is celebrated as our own, at the end of the day we owe everything to our clients, those who invest and risk their money year after year, without them, neither jockeys, trainers nor us agents would be nothing, thank you very much to all, may the successes always continue for our clients and we invite you to Contact us to be part of this alliance for success and achieve those victories that always make us so happy and, why not, also obtain income and many monetary gains.