TDN Weekend

GI Frizette S. trophy sitting atop the bookcase. That Rachel Alexandra appears so prominently in the entrance of Roth's apartment is fitting, as the filly is re- sponsible for getting Roth into the racing business. After graduating from New York University with a Mas- ter's degree in sports business, the University of Wisconsin alumna took a job at Madison Square Garden work- ing on sponsorships and subscriptions for the New York Knicks and Liberty basketball teams. She soon realized office life was not for her. A longtime sports fan, Roth had always watched the Triple Crown races, but began to follow horse racing more closely when Rachel Alexandra followed her GI Ken- tucky Oaks romp with a victory over the boys in the 2009 GI Preakness. "Even though I didn't ride or didn't spend a lot of time around horses, when the Derby, Preakness and Bel- mont were on, that was a spectacle for me," Roth remarked. "After Rachel won the Preakness, I started watching a lot of old races, including all of hers, and became more interested in the sport. I loved that she was a girl beat- ing the boys." In August, 2012, Roth took a trip to San Diego to visit some longtime friends and her father Larry, a princi- pal in the eyewear company Marchon, which sold for $738 million in 2008, insisted she go to Del Mar, where a friend of a friend who worked in the racing industry was going to take her on a tour of the backside followed by a day at the races. Roth was reluctant at first, but as a fan of the show Jockeys, when she found out her guide would be Alex Solis, she began to reconsider. "When he said Alex Solis was going to take me around, I was a little bit star struck," Roth admitted. "I went to meet up with Alex and it was obvi- ously Alex Solis, but not the [jockey] Alex Solis. It was Alex II, and he took us around Del Mar." That day at the track with Solis would 09

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