Anita

McCarthy and Wellman have known each other since the early 1990s when they were racetrack rats at Santa Anita.

“������ started as a personal relationship morphed into a professional one as well,” said Wellman, who heads Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, the managing group of eight entities that own Journalism, the $825,000 purchase and winner of the Santa Anita Derby.

Wellman’s parents were small breeders and owners in California and had a box at Santa Anita and Del Mar. Close by was a box used by Gary Young, the legendary private clocker.

“It was just a few horses. He was begging for stalls at Santa Anita and they kind of put us in the back by Baldwin Avenue with a few stalls and just scratching and clawing our way to try to make a business out of it. From there, our careers sort of took parallel paths where he was trying to build his training stable and we were trying to build our racing partnership business. And it’s just grown from there.”

Expectations were high until he ran a disappointing fourth in the Santa Anita Derby.