By Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla — What started as a hobby became an obsession and eventually turned into a possible gold mine.

Mike Foster always enjoyed trying to handicap horse races. It led him to playing the stock market on Wall Street.

But when he retired at the young age of 56, Foster got involved in owning race horses.

Now 74, the. Ironton native may be about to turn a $62,500 investment into a $7 million payoff.

The investment was the purchase of the horse Next following a claiming race in which the horse finished last. With training and a switch to marathon racing, Next has become one of the most successful horses this past year and has earned an invitation to the Breeders’ Cup Classic race for the best of the best horses from this past year.

 “Handicap was just a hobby. It kept me occupied after retiring,” said Foster. “I worked on Wall Street for 20 plus years. I got into the numbers and handicap kind of supplemented the numbers and not worrying about Wall Street anymore.”

Next became available after a claiming race which is a race where owners put their horses in a ring and they are susceptible of being claimed by another owner.

“It’s a Cinderella story. It’s a Seabiscuit story really. My trainer and I claimed a lot of horses over the years. We track horses all over the country and we claim horses all over the country,” said Foster.

“This horse (Next) was put up in a claiming race for $62,500 and we got to study it and watched all its replays and my trainer Doug Cowans got to see it train at Turfway Park which is in northern Kentucky by Cincinnati. It looked interesting.

“This horse as a two-year-old actually ran at the Breeders’ Cup before we got hold of it. My trainer took him over and started working with him and noticed this horse had this unique endurance situation. He could just run forever and ever. Doug and his team are just phenomenal horse people. They turned this horse around. They gave him a lot of extra care and attention and got him back in form.

“We ran a race at Churchill (Downs) and won. We tried a stakes race and we went out to Delaware Park which is supposed to be on the grass and it got rained out so we ran on the dirt. The horse not only won but he won by almost 20 lengths. He set the track record. We went, ‘Holy smoke!’”

Being the owner of one of the premier marathon race horses in the world is a far cry from foster’s beginning in sports.

Foster was All-Ohio Valley Conference in football his junior and senior seasons and All-OVC in baseball as he helped the St. Joseph Flyers win the 1968 league championship.

After high school, Foster got a job at Ashland Oil where he worked during the day and attended college five nights a week at the Ohio University branch in Ironton.

He later got a promotion and was transferred to Chicago where he worked until retiring early at the age of 56.

But Foster needed something to do with his free time and he got the horse racing bug and he began to handicap horses and eventually began to buy claiming horses. His purchases actually became very successful.

“If you had asked me 18 years ago if I thought I would ever  be in this position, I’d have said hell no,” said Foster with a laugh.

“I just got small claiming horses and Ohio bred champions. I had a lot of success in Ohio. I’ve had several great horses in Ohio. Colt of the year, Two-year-old Philly of the year, regional success. But nothing of this caliber. This horse put us on the map. It’s unbelievable.”

The purchase of Next has become an amazing story and featured in many horse racing publications.

Next is a special find for Foster who called the horse “A Seabiscuit-type story.”

 The 6-year-old gelding is the son of the horse Not This Time. Foster observed the running lines in Next’s past performance that featured an appearance in the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and a victory in the 2021 War Chant Stakes at Churchill Downs.

 Longtime trainer and friend Doug Cowans submitted the only claim on Next that day and came away with a superstar.

 Cowans realized the Next had a great amount of stamina and turned him into a marathon dirt racing star. That stamina took Next to the wire in a 22 and a quarter lengths clear of competition in the one-and three-fourths mile Birdstone Stakes at Saratoga Race Course.

 “He’s the claim of the century. He’s the claim of a lifetime and the horse of a lifetime for me,” said Foster. “This horse has just been a dream come true. As my trainer and I talk, this horse owes us nothing at this point. He’s done more than you can ask from any horse. We’ve enjoyed every minute of it. We hope it continues.”

Mike Foster said he wasn’t that successful with his handicapping, but it didn’t matter. He knows how to pick a hobby.