From a lay-up facility to the winner’s circle, Tammy Levy’s sojourn has always placed an emphasis on the care of the horse
An untoward event would lead to relocating to south Florida, and that’s where horses would become an essential part of Thoroughbred trainer Tammy Levy’s life.
Levy had been born in West Virginia, and when her father who was a law enforcement officer, was killed in the line of duty, her mother decided they would be better off elsewhere.
“My uncle lived down here, so we moved to south Florida,” said Levy.
Horses played a large role in Levy’s life, and being an only child, they were her constant companions, growing up around them, and spending the better part of her day in the barn in Southwest Ranches in unincorporated Broward County.
“The horses basically raised me,” said Levy. “My mom worked a lot. I came home from school and went straight to the barn. So, I grew up in the barn. That’s what I did. I went to the barn. The horses were my friends, nanny, sisters, brothers, babysitter, uncles and aunts. I was a little on the shy side as a kid. My horses, they were my friends, and then they became more expensive friends.”
A Career in the Equine Industry
Thoroughbred racing wasn’t remotely on Levy’s radar growing up, with her concentration being on performance horses, exhibiting jumpers in the show ring, riding western pleasure and Paso Finos. Her best friend’s mother, when she was growing up, was a trainer.
“I rode at the fairs, I trail rode a lot,” said Levy. “We just grew up around horses. All of the kids in the neighborhood had horses. We all rode and rode each other’s horses. We rode the neighbors’ horses. That’s all we did was ride all day. Everybody rode in the local shows and fairs.”
Levy directed her focus toward the idea of becoming a veterinarian in high school and college. Her mother was extremely influential in emphasizing that she obtain an education, as something to fall back on, in the event a career in the equine industry wasn’t financially sustainable.
“I got a pre-med degree, and I wanted to go to vet school at the University of Florida,” said Levy.
Thoroughbreds, Marriage and Taking Out One’s Trainers License
Levy became more involved at the farm near her home, a large lay-up facility which included a surgical unit, after obtaining a degree in veterinary nursing. Ralph and Betty Sessa owned the farm, and they were prominent Thoroughbred owners in south Florida.
“I got a job in their surgical barn,” said Levy. “I took care of 18 horses coming out of surgery every day. I loved that.”
It was because of her position at the surgical barn that a propitious event would occur in her life. Levy met her husband, who was a Thoroughbred owner.
“We became friends, and he had some horses, and I started my own lay-up facility and barn,” said Levy. “He was my first client, he sent lay-up horses to my farm, and I did that for years. I got horses ready to go back to the track. A couple of big trainers were my clients, Peter Walder, Ronnie Spatz and Timmy Ritvo, a lot of the bigger trainers at the time at Calder and Gulfstream were clients of mine. I did that for years, and my husband kept sending horses in.”
It was at Levy’s husband’s suggestion that she take out her trainer’s license and start conditioning horses to run at Gulfstream and Calder.
“I said, ‘it’s not really what I want to do Ron,’” said Levy. “And he said, ‘either you’re going to become a trainer and we’re going to keep doing this and having racehorses, or we’re not going to do it anymore.”
An entry into the world of Thoroughbred racing became a necessity, as several of their horses, Levy and her husband’s, were getting injured at the track, and her husband wasn’t happy at the way they were performing. But prior to making that leap of faith, she went to work for a veteran conditioner on the competitive south Florida circuit.
“He said (her husband Ron), ‘You’re going to care about the horses more than anyone else,’” said Levy. “I said, ‘I really don’t want to do that.’ He said, ‘You don’t have a choice. You’re going to do that.’ He didn’t leave me a choice. He said, ‘this is what you’re going to do.’ He set it up with a friend of ours at the time, who was one of our main clients, and was training some horses for my husband, Herman Wilensky. I went to work with Herman every day for a while.”
Levy eventually began training the horses that she and her husband Ron had owned but was conditioning them under the watchful eye of Wilensky.
“I was basically Herman’s assistant,” said Levy.
She increased her knowledge while working for Wilensky, and while adding to her already deep foundation of horses, it was only a matter of time before she took out her trainer’s license.
“I worked for Herman for a while, but then when I got too big for my britches and decided I didn’t want to hear anything more from him, I went to Gulfstream and took my trainer’s test,” said Levy. “It was kind of an unconventional route. I passed my trainer’s test and here I am.”
Hanging Out Her Own Shingle
She began to build her stable, keeping the horses that were hers and her husband’s that had been training under Wilensky’s name, and Levy would claim a horse about a month prior to the transition that would also be in her barn.
“As soon as I got my trainer’s license, I switched him to my name (the horse she claimed), and I decided I wanted to run him,” said Levy. “I won my first race at Gulfstream with him, Poacher’s Moon.”
Immediate Success
When Levy began training, the two south Florida tracks, Calder and Gulfstream, were racing head-to-head.
“They were in that big battle, with whoever was strongest was going to survive,” said Levy. “I remember driving around with my husband, knowing my first race was definite, saying, ‘Do you think I’ll ever win a race?’ He said, ‘You’re going to win the first time you ever run a horse.’ My brother in-law was a handicapper. He was from New York and played the horses all the time. I remember saying to my husband, ‘what does Bobby think?’ That’s my brother in-law. He said, ‘He thinks you’re going to do great.’ I said, ‘Don’t lie to me. Don’t do this.’ Because I tended to be very shy. I had a problem being in front of people and doing things.”
And although there was a great deal of anxiety for Levy, with her having to be in the paddock and saddling horses, being under the microscope with people critiquing her every move, she has succeeded despite those reservations.
“My husband said, ‘You’re going to be fine,’” said Levy. “He said, ‘Don’t worry about it.’ I was absolutely terrified going into that first race, and it was the first race of the day. Herman used to say all the time about horses, young horses, ‘it’s either sink or swim time.’ So, I said to myself, ‘it’s sink or swim time. It’s time to get out there.’”
Levy saddled her first horse, and her husband’s instinctive foresight about the outcome was correct, as Poacher’s Moon crossed the wire first, giving the Thoroughbred trainer a win in her initial start, but life’s vagaries would suggest how some components of the sport are ephemeral in their nature.
“He got claimed and that was the only race that I had with the horse,” said Levy. “He got claimed for twice for what I paid for him. I moved the horse up, the first horse I ever had, and he got claimed.”
Sport’s transitory nature found Levy in the enviable position as she would win with her next starter, this time at the racetrack in Miami Gardens, at Calder Race Course again with a horse that had been claimed and was coming off a long layoff.
“I said, ‘I guess I can do this,’” said Levy. “Onto the next thing. I jumped off the pier, got my feet wet and didn’t drown. I’m still here, chugging away.”
Home Field Advantage
The opportunity to be based in south Florida year-round has its upside and has fit Levy’s training program well. Florida has provided Levy with a number of options for her horses, where they can be entered and remain competitive.
“I don’t have to go on the road like some of these guys, who live somewhere else six months out of the year,” said Levy. “That’s something that I never wanted to do. I’ve always had horses that were competitive in the winter and those who are competitive in the summer. If I didn’t have something, I always had the availability to run up to Tampa. I really enjoy going to Tampa when I run there, and I always try to incorporate a couple of days up there because I enjoy that. I’ve had good success when I go to Tampa. I am thankful that I could stay in south Florida close to home. I own a home and small farm. Just to pick up and live out of a suitcase isn’t for me, I did that when I was younger showing horses, and were showing horses all over the country. It’s not for me anymore. I’m getting a little too old for that.”
A Roster Full of Runners
A deep barn of runners over the past decade, have provided Levy with a number of wonderful memories, with performances that have stamped an indelible imprint, validating her decision to direct her energies toward a vocation in the equine industry, but more impressively demonstrating her resolve to succeed in the competitive world of Thoroughbred racing.
Fan Favorite
One of those horses that made a definitive difference in her life was a horse that developed a deep fan following and was a consistent and durable campaigner who reeled off win after win, a Florida-bred daughter of With Distinction, the incomparable Courtney Ryan. She’s enjoying retirement and has moved onto a new career as a broodmare.
“Courtney lives here with me,” said Levy. “She’ll live here with me until she’s lived out her life. She earned it and she’s happy here. We don’t have her in foal currently, she had two foals, the one didn’t make it to the races. The second one was quite a bit better than the first one. We have hopes for her, only time will tell. Courtney was an experience, and that’s for sure. She was a very difficult filly who took me on a ride. It was really early in my career. I had been a trainer for about three years.”
The temperamental stakes placed mare showcased her talent and consistency during her six years at the racetrack, starting her career as a juvenile while in the barn of Joe Calascibetta and racing until age seven. Organization and strategy, and a hearty constitution played a role in the dark bay Florida-bred’s success.
“If you kept Courtney happy and let her live her life and chose her road, she would give you 150 % every time you ran her,” said Levy. “She was a pretty sound filly. She had a lot going for her that way. At the time, I had an exercise rider who was long-term employee, and she rode for me for almost seven years. She was with me for almost the entire time Courtney Ryan was racing. At first, Walter Blum was my exercise rider, and he handled Courtney, and then it was Todd Pletcher’s assistant trainer Anthony Schiametta’s wife, Madeline, who worked for me for a very long time, who galloped Courtney. She had Courtney down. We had a plan with her every day, which you had to have because she was a really difficult filly.”
Courtney Ryan’s ability and reputation brought a great deal of notoriety to Levy’s stable, as the trainer found herself on the cover of the Daily Racing Form. Courtney Ryan made 69 starts, won 21 races, placed second 18 times and finished third nine times, bankrolling $347,742.
“I won 21 races with her, I was like wow, she had her own fan club,” said Levy. “She’s special and she made me believe in myself every day.”
When Courtney Ryan started getting some age on her, and she was no longer capable of running at the level she had been at previously, Levy and her husband knew it was time for Courtney Ryan, a horse that had given so much of herself as an athlete, to move onto the next phase of her life. Her health was cardinal, and she is enjoying a relaxed life on the farm, transitioning from the competitive world of Thoroughbred racing.
“I’m always going to appreciate Courtney,” said Levy. “I retired her sound. I felt like that was something that I could give her. She was a pretty sound filly for me. She had some minor things along the way. When she turned 6-years-old, she started losing a little bit of a step, and it looked like we would have to start running her in claiming races. I said to my husband, ‘the filly doesn’t deserve that. She’s not going to do well going from home-to-home. She does so much for us. I’m not comfortable with that.’
“’I want to retire her,’ and he said, ‘but she’s sound. Is she going to be okay doing that?’ I said, ‘I think she’ll be fine wherever we are.’ I think she was ready, and we brought her home. She’s been happy ever since. So, that was my way to repay her for everything she had done for me. I decided a good life for her was to be retired and not having to work like that all the time and be sound. So many of them have a great career, and then they retire because they have soundness issues. She’s healthy and she’s happy. She’s just trying to live out her life now, and that was the biggest gift I could give her.”
Courtney Ryan has developed such a fan following during her career, people are still coming up to Levy six years after her retirement and paying homage to her consistency and accomplishments.
“I have met a lot of people because of Courtney Ryan,” said Levy. “I still have people asking me about Courtney Ryan. I was in the trainers’ room not too long ago, and Saffie Joseph asked me, ‘Where’s Courtney Ryan?’ Saffie Joseph’s on top of the world right now, and he’s asking me where Courtney Ryan is. He was like, ‘that was a nice horse.’ He’s on top of the world right now, and he’s asking about Courtney Ryan. Peter Aiello (Gulfstream Park track announcer), Courtney Ryan is one of his all-time favorite horses. If you’re in south Florida, and you mention the name Courtney Ryan, everyone knows who you’re talking about.”
Victories and Vicissitude
Quenane was another astute claim made by Levy for IAB Stables and Walter Fralick. The horse that raced previously for P&G Stables and trainer Francisco D’Angelo, would win 13 races for Levy after being moving to her barn.
The son of Algorithms won a pair of stakes for Levy and was a consistent performer in her barn for more than four years, but an untoward turn of events forever changed the trainer.
“I lost him last year (2021) in November on Thanksgiving,” said Levy. “Losing that horse was kind of a crossroads for me as I’ve aged. The business is getting a little tougher. That horse was really special. I didn’t expect to lose him. He colicked. I took him for surgery, he made it to surgery, but he just couldn’t recover.”
The emotional toll weighed heavily on Levy, and the loss will resonate with the conditioner for the rest of her life, changing her daily routine as she coped with not having Quenane in the barn, a face she looked forward to seeing every day, and going by the stall that was no longer occupied by his physical presence.
“I’m never going to get over it, I don’t want to get over it,” said Levy, whose voice was replete with emotion. “He’s just not the kind you get over. It’s getting better. I can go to work now, but for a while, I couldn’t even go to work. Thankfully, I have a really good staff, so I was able to take a little time off. It’s finally where I can meet the business head-on again.”
A transitory change of scenery with a charge who possesses a great deal of potential, provided Levy with a respite from the gravitas of the profundity that she was experiencing.
“I actually went out of town with a filly that I have right now, to try to get away from it,” said Levy. “He was a pretty popular horse on the circuit, and a lot of people were talking about him. I grabbed my groom and the filly, who has become a really good horse, and went to Tampa, and ran her up there. I stayed up there a couple of days to get my head clear, and it worked. We went up there, won a race and came back. It did help a bitt little bit. She’s kind of taken his (Quenane’s) place in the barn. I kind of like to say (Quenane) was like an anchor store in a mall. He’s like the Publix in a strip mall. He was our anchor store, and you could always count on him to run a big race. Now we have Race Day Speed, and she really stepped into that position.”
Quenane captured a pair of stakes races in 2020, winning the Rough and Ready Stakes on February 17 at Gulfstream Park and added the Millions Classic Preview at Gulfstream Park West on November 14 to his resume.
“He was the first horse I ever won a stake with, and I won multiple stakes with that horse,” said Levy. “He made you remember every day when you were going to work why you did this. Every day was great with that horse. I miss him like crazy.”
It was because of Courtney Ryan, that Levy met Walter Fralick, co-owner of Quenane, who happened to be good friends with the breeder of the popular mare.
“He came into my life because of Courtney,” said Levy. “Mr. Fralick was getting older and had gone through a health scare. He came over to me, and he didn’t have any horses the time, and I said, ‘let’s get a horse together. I would like to see you get up and out again.’ His health was declining, and he was unhappy, and he did that. We got a horse together. He started getting out of the house more, and he started enjoying his life again. That was Courtney Ryan (the type of impact she had on people).”
Life On and Off the Racetrack
Another horse conditioned by Levy and like Courtney Ryan was campaigned by IAB Stables, was a dark bay son of Gibson County. The Florida-bred gelding was a consistent performer that helped establish Levy as a force to be reckoned with on the south Florida circuit, as she’s steadily approaching 200 wins for her career.
“County Gun was a character,” said Levy. “He was pretty special, and he was also early in my career. He was a horse I made a pretty good claim with. He lived at my farm for four or five years after his career was over, before he went onto to be a pleasure horse.”
Levy and IAB Stables also had success with another runner, a Florida-bred son of Kantharos, Mitos y Leyendas found the winner’s circle 10 times, eight times while in the barn of Levy, after a savvy claim from the barn of Gustavo Amaya. The 10-time winner placed third in the 2016 edition of the 6-furlong Parrot Key Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
“Mitos y Leyendas wasn’t a very sound horse,” said Levy. I figured he would be with me forever because he wasn’t the soundest horse in the world, and truthfully, he wasn’t the nicest horse to be around all the time. He could be a little bit caustic. I had a friend find him a home in Texas as a companion. He has a sheep that he lives with in a lady’s backyard. He lives a great life.”
Irish-bred Diaz, who broke his maiden at Newmarket, and would score nine wins, with two of those victories coming in the barn of John Fennessy, before the gelding was claimed by Levy. The bay gelding put together two streaks of three consecutive wins, with five of them coming while in Levy’s barn. Collectively the son of Azamour (IRE) won six races while in Levy’s charge. Diaz lived with Levy for several years, before she found him a home at a summer camp.
“Those horses were local hometown heroes,” said Levy. “People love that. They love to see a horse they can come out and see every two weeks or every month, and root for a horse that’s there all the time. They’ll see him in the program and come out to the races because of it. Every time I walked out of the tunnel, there were people cheering me on, and I don’t know them, but it’s because of horses like Courtney, Mitos, County Gun and Quenane.”
The stakes, allowance horses and claimers that run on a circuit, provide visibility for the sport, allowing a fan base to develop, and those recognizable names take on added significance if they campaign for a sustained period of time, creating a familiarity with the athlete, whose popularity has increased with each performance.
“Those are the ones, it’s not the Derby horses they see one time, and they disappear and go to stud…they want to see the horses that have long careers, win a lot of races and are there all the time for them,” said Levy. “It’s hard for them to cheer for a horse that they see one time, and they never see again.”
Promise and Potential
Race Day Speed is a 4-year-old filly by Race Day, and the Florida-bred is campaigned by Vaccaro Racing Stable.
“Now she’s multiple stakes placed, and she’s just absolutely put that coat on with ease,” said Levy. “Thank God for her. Along the way, I thank God for the horses that I’ve had. They far exceeded whatever was expected of them. I don’t know how or why we got it out of them. I’m thankful for it.”
The legend of Courtney Ryan continues to live on through her daughters, one who’s returned to Levy, after receiving those important early lessons to prepare her for the racetrack in Ocala.
“Courtney has a daughter in training right now,” Snooky Ryan,” said Levy.
Retirement and Renewal
However, the aftercare of the horses who have been in Levy’s barn are extremely important, and many of the runners who spent years in her program, have come to live at her farm after they’ve retired from the racetrack.
“It could be for a month, it could be for a year,” said Levy. “It could’ve been for three or four years, until I found them a soft spot to land, that it was going to be a good lifetime thing for them. It’s an extension of their life. When training a racehorse, their career is a very short period of time over the course of their life. If they’re lucky to run until they’re six, seven or eight years old, they’ve had a good long career.”
Levy has a 20-stall barn at her farm, and there are paddocks and pastures, providing her the opportunity to spend time with those horses who’ve been so much a part of her family, and have provided her with incredible memories.
“I can see Courtney in her paddock when she’s outside,” said Levy. “That’s just the view from my kitchen window. It makes me smile. It’s really a team effort between a trainer, owner and a horse to be successful, and at the end of that, when you can have them in that element (enjoying retirement and living out their life in a safe and nurturing environment), it’s very different and you have a really good feeling about it. It’s just something that goes straight to your heart and core every day, to know that you did that for them, and they’ve earned it.”
A retired racehorse horse at Levy’s farm, passed away in its sleep at the age of 30 in August, the owners had boarded the horse at Levy’s farm for nearly 20 years.
“Those people got it,” said Levy. “The horse ran for them for 10 years, and 20 years past that, they gave him a life.,” said Levy. “They never rode him or did anything with him, but they’d come out on Sundays, with five pounds of carrots cut up into little circles and made sure he lived his best life.
“That’s what people don’t get, you have a horse, they’re living longer now due to technology and science, but they’re 3 years old and their career is over. Horses are super expensive to keep. You have horses that come off the track at three, and maybe they land at a place where they’re special or maybe they don’t. But I feel aa trainers, we owe them that (finding them a place where they can live out their life under the best circumstances). I have horses that weren’t super big success stories that I hold that same responsibility for. They do a job for me, maybe they didn’t have a choice, but I feel the better ones of those, Courtney, County Gun, Quenane, they obviously chose to be good at it, which for me means they enjoyed something about it. But some of the horses don’t. When I go out to my barn or come home and see them, I feel great about it.”
Many of the horses Levy has conditioned over the years have been blue collar campaigners, who’ve been competitive and consistent on the racetrack, but the early lessons she learned in life from working with show horses, have provided her with an excellent foundation.
“A lot of my friends had really expensive horses that were professionally trained, they were push-button horses,” said Levy. “My mother, she would buy me the best she could. They usually had a problem that you had to work out. I’m thankful she did that because I learned a lot working out the kinks in some of the horses, recycling some horses because they hadn’t been in the best situations. It helps me a lot with what I do now, because I haven’t always had a huge budget to stock my stable every year. I think we do really well with the budget I have. That means blue-collar horses with blue-collar trainers.”
The opportunity to have a career in the equine industry has been extremely satisfying for the Thoroughbred trainer.
“Sometimes I wish I had stayed in vet school and actually had become a veterinarian instead of just a veterinarian’s assistant,” said Levy. “I do wish that, but I don’t think I would have been happier. I chose my path and stand by my position.”
