Tales from the Crib: Sandman

Apr 25, 2025 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

Sandman looked chestnut as a baby

Sandman looked chestnut as a baby (Photo by Collier Mathes/Chesapeake Farm)

It’s fitting that a colt who one day would be named after the Metallica song “Enter Sandman” created a memorable impression immediately upon his entrance into the world. The equine Sandman even fits the song’s association with Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera: just as the great relief pitcher came in for the later innings, Sandman arrives late in his races as a deep closer.

Sandman’s tale has taken twists and turns long before he embarked upon the Road to the Kentucky Derby. He was destined to be the best horse ever bred by Lothenbach Stables, but sadly, Bob Lothenbach passed away when the colt was just a yearling who sparked dreams of a bright future. If Sandman fulfills those dreams for his current owners – D. J. Stable, St. Elias Stable, West Point Thoroughbreds, and CJ Stables – it would crown Lothenbach’s legacy to the sport he loved so much.

“We will never replace Mr. Lothenbach,” said Collier Mathes, the proprietor of Chesapeake Farm, where his mares resided in the Bluegrass.

“He bought, he raced, he bet. He supported the industry like no one else.”

A native of Minnesota, Lothenbach was an archetypal American success story who rose from humble beginnings. He made his own fortune as the founder of a printing company that eventually developed into Imagine! Print Solutions. Lothenbach brought the same enthusiasm into racing, especially supporting his home track of Canterbury Park.

“He went to Canterbury every day,” Mathes noted, “whether he had a horse running or not.”

Lothenbach’s runners were prolific around the country, and he had success at high-profile venues too. His homebred Mayo on the Side famously toppled Hall of Famer Azeri in the 2004 Humana Distaff (G1) at Churchill Downs. In the 2020 edition of the same race, now called the Derby City Distaff, Lothenbach colorbearer Bell’s the One upset Serengeti Empress in a photo-finish thriller. Lothenbach had several fine turf horses, chief among them Grade 1-winning homebred Vacare, and his millionaire Mister Marti Gras was a triple-surface threat.

Lothenbach became so attached to his horses, Mathes recalled, that he was averse to dropping them into claiming races. He’d rather keep them than risk losing them, even though operating consistently at that level would have padded his stats as an owner.

In recent years, Lothenbach had been focused on making it to the Kentucky Derby (G1). He was buying potential classic types and breeding his mares with that goal in mind.

“Everybody’s dream is to get to the Kentucky Derby and win the Kentucky Derby,” Mathes emphasized.

Enter Sandman, who represents the fruition of Lothenbach’s plan. Using a list of suitable stallions generated by Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Lothenbach and Mathes would discuss the options.

Through such a decision-making process, his well-bred mare Distorted Music was sent to the court of leading sire Tapit. She showed some ability on the racetrack, winning three of eight starts, placing three times, and never finishing worse than fourth. But her deeper value was as a broodmare. (The tweet below shows her selling as part of the dispersal following Lothenbach’s passing.)

Lothenbach had purchased Distorted Music for $190,000 as a yearling at Keeneland September. Her name was a combination of her parents. By top sire Distorted Humor, she was out of Music Room, herself a daughter of Unbridled’s Song.

Music Room was a half-sister to a pair of top-class fillies, French classic winner Musical Chimes and multiple Grade 1-winning millionaire Music Note, who would produce Godolphin’s 2021 Dubai World Cup (G1) star Mystic Guide. They descend from five-time Grade 1 winner It’s in the Air, the champion two-year-old filly of 1978.

Distorted Music had crossed with the sire line of A.P. Indy before, visiting his champion son Bernardini. The best result of their trysts was the filly She Can’t Sing, who improved markedly with age and scored her signature win as a five-year-old in the 2022 Chilukki (G3) at Churchill. Trained throughout her career by Chris Block, She Can’t Sing won or placed in 22 of 39 starts and retired with $883,558 in earnings.

When Distorted Music foaled her Tapit colt on Feb. 27, 2022, Mathes was inspired to do something that he wouldn’t normally do.

“My fondest memory – I am not a picture guy at all, but for some reason, I took pictures of that baby and sent them to Mr. Lothenbach.”

The message read, “Here is another Grade 1 winner. Tapit out of Distorted Music colt born this morning.”

As you can see, the baby looked like a chestnut before his coat turned bright gray. He was fine and healthy, just given plasma as part of the farm’s routine protocol following every birth. The resident veterinarian is none other than Dr. Kara Mathes, Collier’s wife.

Sandman with Dr. Kara Mathes

Sandman gets the routine plasma protocol (Photo by Collier Mathes/Chesapeake Farm)

Chesapeake Farm, originally owned by Drew Nardiello, was celebrated for raising the 2007 Kentucky Derby champion Street Sense. It later moved onto property that belonged to Wimbledon Farm, where Hall of Famer Spectacular Bid, the 1979 Derby romper, had grown up. Chesapeake continued its success at the new location, raising Battle of Midway, the 2017 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1) hero and third-placer in the Kentucky Derby. That same year, Mathes took over as proprietor.

The Tapit-Distorted Music foal thus had the right pedigree and the right environment to thrive. His attitude was a different story.

“The mare was tough, and as a baby, he was just tough,” Mathes said. “He would do all he could do, try to distract you, and bite you or kick. He was an outlaw!

“She Can’t Sing was tough as well. Everything out of that mare was tough.”

In keeping with Chesapeake’s philosophy, their youngsters benefit from the natural experience of running around and playing together in the field right up until the time for them to go away to school.

The Lothenbach horses went to Grace Full Oaks, the Ocala, Florida, training center operated by Chad and Dr. Laurie Stewart. Its name signifies the blessing that the Stewarts see in their farm.

“By the grace of God, we got the farm,” Chad Stewart said.

Grace might have been needed to deal with the arrival of the yet-unnamed Distorted Music colt, who was already signaling bad behavior.

“When he first got here, he acted like he was going to be a bully,” Stewart recalled. “We were waiting one day for him to buck somebody off or be mean or bite somebody.”

Then came the remarkable transformation.

“He kind of completely changed,” Stewart said. “Once we got on him, within two or three weeks, he went from being a tough guy to being a professional.”

The colt didn’t totally lose his personality – he still had a certain “cockiness,” as Stewart put it – but now it was channeled in good rather than destructive ways. He had the swagger of a colt with confidence in himself.

Yet his entire future was about to change in ways that no one could have predicted. After Lothenbach’s sudden passing in mid-November 2023, his family decided to disperse his horses. That triggered an abrupt change of plan for the youngsters still learning the ropes at the training center.

In the normal course of events, the newly turned two-year-olds would gradually build up before graduating to their racetrack trainers. Instead, they were pitched into the OBS March Sale. Given the last-minute decision, the juveniles had not been prepared to post timed works yet, so they would just gallop smoothly for prospective buyers rather than be asked to show speed.

But even before the Lothenbach two-year-olds left Grace Full Oaks, interested parties were already showing up to watch them train. And a striking gray colt kept catching their attention.

“Oh wow! Who’s that?” Stewart recalled hearing over and over again whenever onlookers spotted Sandman. “He just had an air about him.”

The Lothenbach family split the juveniles up among several different consignors. Tom McCrocklin got the Distorted Music colt, and although he didn’t have custody for very long in advance of the sale, he saw enough to praise him highly.

Indeed, you didn’t have to be an eagle-eyed scout to recognize that this colt had all of the requisite qualities. The only thing “lacking” was a fast breeze, but that can be overrated as a be-all and end-all, especially to show speed over a mere furlong or two. Some in the bloodstock world are calling for less reliance on the clock in judging two-year-olds, and greater emphasis on the overall scope of the individual to perform on the racetrack.

Sandman furnishes persuasive evidence for that view. Not only did he bring a gaudy price, selling for $1.2 million, but he’s backed it up by emerging as one of the elite contenders in the Kentucky Derby.

While two of the entities involved in his ownership group, Terry Finley’s West Point Thoroughbreds and Vincent Viola’s St. Elias Stable, were co-owners of 2017 Derby victor Always Dreaming, the other partners – Leonard Green’s D. J. Stable and Charles Sonson’s CJ Stables – are hoping for their first trophy.

So is trainer Mark Casse, a dual Hall of Famer who is enshrined in both Saratoga Springs and its Canadian equivalent. Of the 10 Kentucky Derby starters so far, Casse’s best result was a nightmare-trip fourth by Classic Empire (2017).

Sandman was not as precocious as Classic Empire, the champion two-year-old colt of 2016. If Sandman has been a work in progress, he has maintained an upward curve through a series of scoring races. He finally broke through with a dynamic rally in the Arkansas Derby (G1), the same prep that Classic Empire won on the way to Louisville.

Although Sandman isn’t the perfectly polished article just yet, as evidenced by his wayward path down the lane at Oaklawn Park, his best is presumably still to come. After all, his late-blooming half-sister, She Can’t Sing, took years to hit her highest notes. He’s far exceeded her at the comparable stage of their careers.

Sandman is becoming a star not just on the track, but a social media celebrity too. Thanks to his name, Metallica got into the Derby spirit. The band wanted to express support for the colt by sending the barn crew aptly-themed apparel.

The colt is also gaining cult-favorite status through social media influencer Griffin Johnson, who owns a small share in him under the auspices of West Point. Johnson was brought on board because of an initiative spearheaded by America’s Best Racing, “A Stake in Stardom.”

The idea is to help promote racing to an entirely new generation, and Johnson’s youthful exuberance is accomplishing the objective. From his animated cheering for Sandman in his races to his hanging out with the colt back at the barn, Johnson is taking his millions of followers along for the ride.

In this way, the culmination of Lothenbach’s life in racing is attracting newcomers to the sport, and that too is another aspect of his legacy to celebrate.

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