By Wyatt Sparkman

Sierra Leone is the second favorite to win the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby on May 4. Brook Smith, a graduate of Oldham County High School, is part-owner of the horse.

This is Smith’s first horse in the Kentucky Derby. He knows how big the odds are of making it to the derby but also having the chance to win.

“It’s crazy, because sometimes when I travel and I get to the point of a conversation where people ask me what I do, I say this, that and the other,” Smith said. “I’ll say I have a few racehorses. The first question they ask is whether you’ve run in the Kentucky Derby like it’s just something you do. You have about a 20 out of 20,000 yearlings that are born every year shot to make the derby. It’s almost insurmountable. To have had this horse in the race and me be a part of it, it’s mind blowing.”

Smith grew up in the small town of Westport. He didn’t have cable TV, and there was no internet for him to entertain himself. Smith took the time to learn about the nature around him.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s the best possible way that anybody can grow up,” Smith said. “It’s to have some land and space and also maybe not have everything at your fingertips … I spent a lot of time just learning about nature and being in the woods and playing in the creek. Going to Oldham County High School there in Buckner, at the time, there was only one high school. It served a whole county. You had basically a couple of thousand kids in it. It was an experience. I have fond memories of all of it and great friends to this day who I graduated with.”

Smith graduated from Clemson University in 1989. After college, he wanted to go into a bank trainee program, but he chose to work for Smith Manus, a company that specializes in surety bonds. Smith’s dad helped start the company.

The aspect of working with his dad didn’t excite Smith a whole lot. He wanted to prove himself outside of his family business. However, Smith decided to work for the company a little bit after he graduated from Clemson.

“I’ve had a long career in providing surety bonds on behalf of all different kinds of businesses and different industries,” Smith said. “I’ve been an agent and a broker. At one point, my partners and I actually owned insurance companies where we took the risk, and that worked out pretty well. That kind of brought me back to Kentucky.”

About three to four years after Smith graduated from Clemson, he got hooked on horse racing. One of his friends’ dad owned a filly and was part of a horse syndicate, a group of people who buy shares of a horse to own. Smith showed up at a race the filly was in, and she won the race.

“I happened to be there and had a bet,” Smith said. “I just watched what ensued. It was a pretty big partnership, so there were a lot of people celebrating, and I was just like, ‘you can’t cut this with a knife.’ This is amazing. I thought, ‘well, if I’m ever in a position to participate in something like this, I’m definitely am interested.”’

Smith put his head down and worked hard for many years until he could afford a few investments in horses. One of his neighbors was horse trainer, Danny Hutt.

“I heard he was a horse trainer, so I walked over to his house, and I was like, ‘hey, I hear you train horses,’ ” Smith said. “He looked at me like I had two heads. He probably thought, ‘who is this guy?’ I ended up partnering with him. We bought a handful of yearlings. We got a couple more partners, and we did pretty well.”

Bunk N Ted was one of Smith’s prized horses. He was the favorite to win the 2002 Tampa Bay Derby and was jockeyed by Pat Day. Bunk N Ted didn’t come in first in Tampa Bay, but it was a big step forward into the horse racing business for Smith.

“We couldn’t afford to buy horses like Sierra Leone,” Smith said. “We were buying cheaper horses where we had to settle with confirmation that might not be as good or breeding. He was an incredible horse. He ran great, and he didn’t run good that day, really didn’t run great after that. It was just getting bits and pieces of a few.”

Sadly, Hutt passed away a few years later. Smith took a step back after Hutt’s passing before discovering his golfing buddy and 1985 Oldham County graduate, William Denzik, was being involved with racehorses. Smith reached out to Denzik, and they started a partnership. Smith admires Denzik’s ability to pick a horse, even with a smaller budget.

“At the time, [Denzik] had a smaller stable, but he had some nice horses,” Smith said. “He’s incredible at picking out horses…Time and time again, he was just incredible at finding these horses that we didn’t spend a lot on. A number of them turned out to be stakes horses, and we did pretty well. Over the last 10 or 15 years, I’ve been working with Billy.”

Smith and Denzik met at Oldham County High School while playing golf. They kept in touch here and there before they reconnected after about 15-20 years.

“I guess most people would say I’m a little wild,” Smith said. “I like chaos to a point. I like action. I like puzzles that are tough to solve, and the horse business is a puzzle that is certainly tough to solve. Billy is an honest guy. He calls it the way he sees it. That’s not everybody you meet.”

The opportunity to partially own Sierra Leone came by chance from Smith’s other job. He was investing in insurance in London. One of the guys Smith was investing in happened to be the son-in-law of John Magnier.

Magnier is one of the leaders of one of the biggest thoroughbred racehorse operations in the world called Coolmore. Smith was introduced to Magnier through his son-in-law. His co-owners of Sierra Leone have had a lot of success with horses before.

The cost of one of these yearlings was three million dollars, over 30 times more than what Smith had been paying. With a shot to have a horse that could get into the derby, Smith put in some money on two horses in July of 2022.

“I thought maybe I’ll try this as well where I put up some money with them, and I own like a fifth or a sixth of a horse, but a really well bred horse that might have the chance to do something like be a derby contender,” Smith said. “There’s no guarantees with horses, they’re animals. No matter how well they’re bred or how good they look, they still have to have the head and the heart to be competitive.”

Sierra Leone was the second highest priced yearlings that year, selling for over $2.3 million. Smith knew the risk of putting up his money, but he trusted that these horses were going to have a shot to contend at the Kentucky Derby.

“Those guys know what they’re doing,” Smith said. “They’re incredible at picking out horses and understand the pedigree of bloodlines. They invited me to join them, and I was like, ‘well, I’m not going to pass this invitation up.’ ”

The experience of being at the derby for Smith has been rewarding for him. He watches Sierra Leone exercise and prepare for the derby. He’s letting the experience sink in.

“The beautiful thing about it all is just going to the back side,” Smith said. “The people and the places that you go when we watch these horses race. Take Sierra Leone, he ran in New York. He ran in New Orleans, Louisiana. Then, he won the Blue Grass Stakes. He won the 100th Blue Grass Stakes. How historic is that?...It’s what it’s all about. This has been especially wild. There’s a lot of press and media around it.”

Smith is an Oldham County man through and through. He’s very proud to have grown up there while also being proud of being an alumni of Oldham County High School.

“When something special like this happens, it’s just like a lottery ticket,” Smith said. “I think you have to take the time to shout out to everybody that had anything to do with it. Then, you have to look back at your roots, as they say, and say, ‘I’m a simple guy that grew up in Oldham County, went to a countywide high school.’ I’m as blown away by what’s going on and as anybody that might read his article. Here’s to the Oldham County Colonels.”