A Clemson win at the Kentucky Derby? This star horse bleeds orange
Sierra Leone is a blazing fast 3-year-old brown colt whose owners consider him one of the better horse racing prospects they’ve ever seen.
He went for $2.3 million at a sale two years ago, has won three of the four career races he’s started since 2023 and has the second best betting odds among 20 horses to win the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday afternoon.
He’s also partially owned by a Clemson alumnus and sports fan, which could lead to an entertaining scene this weekend at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.
If Sierra Leone takes care of business and wins the horse race widely known as the “fastest two minutes in sports,” partial owner Brook T. Smith has made it a personal goal of his to flex some Tigers pride — hopefully on the national NBC broadcast.
“I’m gonna say Clemson just won another national championship,” Smith told The State last week in an interview from the Churchill Downs training grounds.
Smith is a 1989 Clemson graduate and an active follower and supporter of the football team and other athletic programs. He’s made his name in the city of Louisville as a successful businessman, entrepreneur and philanthropist in the surety bond/insurance field.
But he’s also a longtime fan of horse racing who started buying horses a couple years back and now finds himself in an absurd position he’s still wrapping his head around: Experiencing his first ever Kentucky Derby as an owner, with a horse that has an excellent chance to win the most iconic race in the country — and a record amount of prize money.
Sierra Leone has 3-1 odds to win the 150th Running of the Roses, which is the second best of 20 horses in the field behind the favorite, Fierceness (5-2).
The race around the 1 ¾ mile track at Churchill Downs is scheduled to start at approximately 6:57 p.m. on Saturday. A record $5 million in prize money is up for grabs, with the first place horse’s team taking home a $3.1 million purse.
Horse racing, Smith said, is “just an unbeatable business. It’s a puzzle that is so difficult with so many variables, and so many people have tried it from all over the world. And to end up with an incredible horse that could be in a stakes race, let alone the Kentucky Derby — are you kidding me? It’s like a lottery ticket on top of a lottery ticket.”
He keeps thinking to himself: “How did I end up here?”
‘A sport of kings’
Great question. The long and short of it is that Smith, 57, made an investment a few years ago in a London-based insurance business. One of three partners in that business was the son-in-law of John Magnier, a decorated Irish businessman whose family runs Coolmore, one of the world’s top thoroughbred racehorse breeding operations.
“They can find money anywhere they want,” Smith said.
So when a Coolmore ownership group asked Smith if he wanted to partner with them on buying a few high-end, promising young yearlings (horses between 1 and 2 years old) for potential breeding and racing, it was an easy yes. Up to that point, Smith had only bought horses on his own at lower prices. This was a chance to pool resources for a “mega horse,” as he put it.
And he got a taste of the big time almost immediately. During the summer of 2022, Smith’s ownership group went to the Saratoga Sale in Upstate New York and took interest in a stunning young horse expected to go for $1 million, or maybe $1.5 million.
Smith was texting with a friend on site from an airplane as he flew to a business meeting in Europe. As groups at Saratoga exchanged bids, the price for the horse kept going up. $1 million. Then 1.5. 1.75. His group’s bid topped $2 million.
Was Smith still in?
“Well,” he thought, “I’m not gonna say no now.”
The horse that ultimately took the name Sierra Leone, for the country in West Africa, sold for $2.3 million, the highest price of any 2024 Derby qualifier. Smith is a 16% owner of the horse, which is a significant amount within the sorts of conglomerates that dominate ownership of top race horses (another partner, Peter Brant, owns the largest percentage of Sierra Leone at 20%).
“He checked every box,” Smith said of Sierra Leone. “There’s been people that say it was one of the most gorgeous yearling colts they’ve ever seen. But that doesn’t mean that they’re going to turn out to be great racehorses. … These guys buy a lot of these horses like this, and sometimes they just don’t run. So it’s a sport of kings, right?”
Giving back
During an extended Zoom interview from Louisville, Smith made it clear he understands the indulgent nature of the horse racing industry. It’s real money and Smith said he’s “not just trying to throw dollars around.”
The Clemson graduate frequently donates to programs in the Appalachia region — he grew up in rural Kentucky — and is heavily involved in the Backside Learning Center, a local non-profit that provides “support and resources in a safe, welcoming environment” for the diverse community of Churchill Downs track workers and their families.
Smith donates 10% of all of his purses (the prize money owners, jockeys and others split based on their horses’ placement in races) to the learning center through its “Purses with a Purpose” program and has publicly challenged and encouraged other horse owners to do the same.
In 2021, Smith and his wife, Pamela Smith, also a 1989 Clemson graduate, also donated $2.5 million to the university to establish an entrepreneurship hub for students, faculty and staff.
“You have to give back,” Smith said, adding that his four years at Clemson in the 1980s, when he was a manager for the track and field and cross country teams and the music director at student radio station WSBF, were “an incredible experience.”
“Clemson is just magic,” he said.
Race of a lifetime
So is Sierra Leone.
The dark bay and brown colored-colt performed remarkably well as a 2-year-old, finishing No. 1 and No. 2 in his first two races last fall.
Sierra Leone continued his hot streak and locked in his Derby spot with first place finishes at the Risen Star Stakes in February and the Blue Grass Stakes in April as a 3-year-old (the prime racing age for horses, who can only compete in the Kentucky Derby once, at age 3).
The horse also thrives in come-from-behind situations. He’s won his last two races with a blistering burst of speed on the back end after starting near the back, and he lost his only of four races by a nose in December after fighting all the way from 35 paces behind to second place.
Sierra Leone, whose team also includes well-regarded jockey Tyler Gaffalione and trainer Chad Brown, did get a tough draw last week. He’ll start from the No. 2 post position for the race, a less preferable “inside post” position which has not produced a Kentucky Derby in 46 years, according to CBS Sports.
“I think that’s very likely if he doesn’t have trouble he’ll come around.” the final turn in a position to win, Smith said. “And it’s just a question of where he finishes. I think it’ll be pretty exciting. Maybe some disappointment just because of where we are (as a favorite). But how can anybody be disappointed to have a horse in the Derby?”
And if Sierra Leone makes it happen, Smith knows how he’ll celebrate: With a couple bellows of “Go Tigers” inside the track’s winner’s circle and a whole lot of Clemson sports fandom.
“If I’m fortunate enough to be looking at a horse that’s covered in the garlands and the roses,” Smith said, “the only thing deep down inside I’ll be wishing is that they were orange.”
How to watch the 2024 Kentucky Derby
What: 150th annual running of the Kentucky Derby
When: Saturday, May 4, 2024, at approximately 6:57 p.m.
Where: Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky
TV: NBC (coverage starts at 2:30 p.m.)
Stream: Via Peacock
