Former Butler resident has ownership stake in Kentucky Derby winner
Butler graduate and retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Fred “Fud” Polanec lives in Papillion, Neb.
On Saturday, his heart was in Kentucky.
Polanec, 58, has part ownership of Mage, the 3-year-old horse that won the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville. He has never been sole owner of a horse, but has been involved in “partnership” ownership of 266 horses during the past 24 years.
Mage was the first horse he has had an ownership stake in that raced in the Kentucky Derby. Mage is only the second horse to win the fabled race without racing at all as a 2-year-old.
“He only had three races before the Derby, all of them at Gulfstream Park in Florida,” Polanec said. “He won his first race going away, finished fourth at the Fountain of Youth and second at the Florida Derby, where he was nosed out at the end.
“He had enough points to qualify for the Kentucky Derby, so off he went.”
Roughly 200 people — covering four partnerships — have ownership shares of Mage. Polanec said his partnership owns 25%. The four partnerships together will share $1.86 million from the Derby win.
While Polanec and his wife of 36 years — Butler graduate and high school sweetheart Denise Pavelek Polanec — did not go to Churchill Downs for the race, they did host a Kentucky Derby party at their home.
“We had 45 people here, all dressed up for the occasion, mint julep cocktails; we went all out,” Polanec said. “I had Mage buttons made for everybody to wear. We were locked in on that race.
“Mage didn’t break well (at the start) and in a 19-horse field, that usually doesn’t work out well. But then he got to the rail and picked up steam outside. When we heard the announcer shout ‘... and here comes Mage!’ ... It just happened. It was so surreal. Everybody just started hugging me.”
Mage was an 80-to-1 bet to win the Derby back in March. He got to 20-to-1 by race day, and the wagering in his favor brought his odds to 16-to-1 by the time the Derby started.
“It got so loud in here,” Denise said describing the race unfolding. “When we watched him win, it was like, is this really happening? It was unreal.”
A 1982 Butler graduate, Polanec retired from a 28-year career in the Navy in 2010. He first bought into a partnership on a horse with a friend of his in 1999.
“I saw an ad for it on the back of a racing form while on a ship in San Diego,” he recalled. “My buddy and I bought into a partnership for a horse named Sunday Synner. He didn’t do well. He finished last in his first race. My buddy got out of it, and I decided to keep going.
“My uncle, Chuck Moses, was heavily involved in harness racing at The Meadows, and I got hooked on horse racing as a kid. He ran the stables at the (Butler) fairgrounds for a long time. His grandsons are doing it now.”
After his friend pulled out of the partnership with Sunday Synner, Polanec said he searched the internet and saw that “this partnership stuff was out there. I’ve been involved in them from New York to California through the years.”
He added that horse-owning partnerships have become extremely popular over the past five years.
“Not many people can afford to own a horse on their own anymore,” Polanec said.
When her husband expressed an interest in getting into horse partnerships, Denise said she was OK with it.
“I figured it'd be a passing phase, and he would lose interest,” she said. “I never thought he’d stick with it. Now, 24 years later, here we are.”
This is the first horse Polanec has had in the Derby, though he just missed getting one in a year ago.
“Forbidden Kingdom had enough points to qualify,” he recalled. “He won at Santa Anita (Calif.), but had to have throat surgery that April, so we couldn’t run him, even though he qualified. You have to take care of the horse first. He’s still active today.”
Plans are in place to run Mage in The Preakness Stakes — the second leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown — on May 20.
“You have to see how the horse bounces back from such a grueling race,” he said, referencing the Kentucky Derby. “They have to make sure he’s eating right and is good to go. I’m sure he’ll run The Preakness.
“If he loses there, he won’t run the Belmont Stakes. If he wins ... you gotta go for the Triple Crown. That would be incredible.”
