Sam Bowie is known for his basketball career, but his love of harness racing is also well documented. Last year, the University of Kentucky Hall of Famer enjoyed a stakes-filled ride as the owner of female pacer Hot Mess Express.
A three-year-old in 2021, the Tony Alagna-trained Hot Mess Express won 13 of 16 races and $655,215. She had five victories on the Grand Circuit, including the Mistletoe Shalee and Nadia Lobell stakes, in addition to capturing an Indiana Sire Stakes championship. For her career, the daughter of Panther Hanover-My Heart Was True has won 17 of 25 starts and $790,280.
“Some of the experiences I had with her last year, no game or no introduction to the NBA gives you the feelings and the emotions of winning a race,” Bowie told the U.S. Trotting Association’s Wendy Ross in a recent video interview.
Ross talked with Bowie, Alagna, and breeder/owner Myron Bell at Spring Garden Ranch in Florida. The topics discussed also included Captaintreacherous, breeding and sales, the Alagna Stable’s new location in New Jersey, and what Bowie’s friends said to him when he told them of his purchase of Hot Mess Express for $125,000 after her career debut at age two.
As for his days at the Florida training center, Bowie said with a laugh, “The only thing I don’t do is work. I watch everybody else get up in the wee hours of the morning. The one thing about this industry, I think a lot of times the general public’s perception is that you just put these things behind the gate, and they go. But Tony and his staff put a lot of hours in, and to see the finished product is what it is all about.”
To watch the complete interview, click here.
(With files from USTA)