Maggi Moss
Maggi Moss was looking for a pleasant diversion from her law practice when she bought her first racehorse in 1998. She got a lot more than she bargained.
That $25,000 claim of Apak in 1998 has mushroomed into one of the nation's most prolific claiming operations. Moss has 75 horses racing in seven states. She won 114 races in 2005 to rank sixth nationally and her horses earned $2,628,520, which ranked 14th.
She topped that in 2006 and by early August, she had a nation-best 131 wins and she ranked fourth in earnings at $2,653,489.
"To this day, I wake up every morning and it's like this must be happening to somebody else," Moss said. "It's surreal. My vision was to live my life being a trial lawyer. I never saw myself doing anything but helping people and practicing law. So, when I claimed Apak and five years later I was leading owner at Prairie Meadows in 2003, I thought I had hit the pinnacle."
Instead, Moss' career has continued to blossom as she has made the leap from being the leading owner in Iowa to one of the leading owners in the nation.
Each day, she buys her Daily Racing Form and scours tracks
for potential claims. She is partial to older horses with back class. She uses
speed figures and trainers' advice in her claims as she looks for horses that
will fit the condition books of the tracks where she races--
"If you're looking at a track like Prairie Meadows, you get a feel for what type of races they will run, what the purse money will be, what product will do best at this track," she said. "You can't wait until April; you start back in December and you look every day."
Moss grew up riding horses in hunter-jumper shows and won
three straight national championships at
In 1998, Moss asked trainer Dick Clark to buy a horse for her, and when he picked out Apak, Moss was hooked. Apak set a one-mile track record of 1:35.07 at Prairie Meadows, and Moss still lists that as her biggest thrill.
Some of her claims, such as No Sleep, who won the $125,000 Iowa Distaff Breeders' Cup in July, and Silver Axe, a multiple-stakes winner in 2005, have evolved into stakes winners. If she has a promising horse, she's not averse to selling it, as she did with Peace Rules, whom she purchased for $35,000 and sold for $350,000.
Along with all that, Moss organized an Iowa division of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation in Newton, Iowa.
She is a former Polk County attorney and a high-profile lawyer in Des Moines. But she's taken a leave of absence from her practice to concentrate on her horses.
By Dan Johnson