Pessin and Bell’s the One following the 2020 Derby City Distaff | Coady
By Alan Carasso
Neil Pessin, who trained the late Bob Lothenbach’s Bell’s the One (Majesticperfection) to a victory in the GI Derby City Distaff in its COVID-delayed renewal in 2020, is leaving the training ranks effective immediately. The affable conditioner’s final starter was Finn McSorley (English Channel), who finished eighth in a Keeneland maiden special weight on the grass Apr. 25.
“I’d like to keep training, but financially it’s very tough and I was down to two maiden turf horses, one maiden claimer, and it’s just not financially feasible to keep going,” Pessin said. “I didn’t want to quit, but I really have no choice but to do so. I’ve had excess help the whole time as well. There were promises of horses coming in that never materialized, and I had two horses and five staff, so I was losing money every day and it was just time to pull the plug.”
Pessin took out his license and saddled his first runner Apr. 12, 1985, when the Nelson Bunker Hunt-bred Mock finished ninth in a $13,700 maiden allowance in Lexington. The same horse gave him his first winner when graduating in a $12,500 maiden claimer at Atlantic City Racecourse later that summer.
A consummate professional who never maintained a large stable, Pessin won with 14 of his 40 starters in 1991, including an 8-for-14 mark at Churchill Downs, and Elmer Miller’s Coaxing Matt (Coax Me Chad) provided him with the first of his nine career graded wins in the 1993 GII Elkhorn Stakes at the Lexington oval. Coaxing Matt was sixth to Star of Cozzene in that year’s GI Arlington Million. But strike rate was among the lowest priorities for Pessin.
“I never worried about percentages, I just focused on developing a horse and getting the most out of them,” he said. “I wouldn’t drop horses just to win a race. I’ve always asked people ‘would you rather have a horse run second for $30,000 [claiming] or win for $5,000. And that’s the difference between me and a lot of other guys. My owners didn’t want to do that and neither did I, so we ran for the $30 and if we won, great and if we didn’t and ran well, we were happy.”
It would be a gap of 13 years before he won his next graded event, the 2006 GIII Transylvania Stakes with 68-1 Chin High (Smart Strike), and a similar length of time before Bell’s the One put him ‘on the map’ in the 2019 GII Lexus Raven Run Stakes.
A long-standing friendship with Chicago-based trainer Chris Block–Pessin himself stabled at Arlington during the summer months–led to a professional relationship, but more importantly to Pessin a close personal friendship with Lothenbach. And with it, he gained an opportunity to play the game at a level he’d never been able to theretofore.
Horsephotos
“Without Bob, I couldn’t have had horses like Bell’s and [GIII Louisiana Stakes winner] Happy American (Runhappy),” Pessin said. “I had 22 horses at one time and 19 were for Bob. We’d buy 15-20 yearlings every year, we’d have 40-some yearlings to split up between four of us. This year we had zero.”
Lothenbach passed away unexpectedly in November 2023.
“And we were spending money,” he continued. “Paid $155,000 for Bell, we were able to spend two, three, four-hundred on a horse and that gives you a better shot than if you spend $10-$15,000. I think before Bob the most I ever spent on a horse was $50,000. Bob gave us that chance and we were making our broodmare band better along with it.”
Third in the 2020 GI Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint at Keeneland, Bell’s the One had earned herself a shot at that contest in 2021. But COVID dictated a very strict shipping protocol that Pessin wasn’t remotely comfortable with.
“I pride myself on the job I did with Bell’s the One,” he said. “The decision to pass the Breeders’ Cup was a tough one and Bob was on board with it. I thought it was best for her because of her mindset and I was afraid of the way we’d have to ship. As it turned out, we won the [Dream Supreme Stakes] at Churchill–we would have to have won the Breeders’ Cup in order to make money–and she was already a Grade I winner, which took some of the pressure off. And Coaxing Matt I did a good job with, too. He was by nothing out of nothing, in fact most of my horses didn’t have a lot of pedigree.”
Among those Pessin pays his thanks to along the way are John Sikura, the late Brereton and Bret Jones, David, Pat, Ryan and Chris Block and Crown’s Way Farm’s Ron DiCicilia.
Pessin isn’t entirely certain of what comes next.
“If I had to pick one thing in particular, it would be a bloodstock agent, but then again you need the clients for that,” he lamented. “I think I can do a really good job at it. If not, I’ll hopefully find something within the industry to do, something horse-related.
“I’ve done all aspects of it. We had a breeding farm, I’ve run a racetrack before, my dad (Dr. A.G. Pessin) built Kentucky Downs (then the Dueling Grounds) and I ran the race meet there for three years. I’ve trained, we’ve had stallions, done literally every facet except being a jockey. I tried but they wouldn’t license me,” he said in his customary deadpan fashion.
In taking down the ‘NLP’ shingle off the barn, Pessin is comfortable with what he’s achieved and how he’s achieved it, always plying his trade beneath the radar.
“I’m proud of the job I did all the way around,” he said. “I always put the horse first and the owner second–a close second, but the horse always came first. I’m afraid a lot of that is going out the window these days.”
