TDN Weekend December 2016 Issue 9
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1075818
Through racehorse ownership, they've taken their life's work as scions of a thriv- ing family farm and carefully cultivated an ancillary existence that has brought them about as close as the sport is able to the sublime. "That's a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing," Kosta Hronis said about his recent victory with Accelerate in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. "There's nothing higher than that." The Hronis brothers don't just have the best horse in the country right now—at the end of last year, they were the leading owners nationally in terms of prize mon- ey. The path the sport has led them down since they became the newly anointed, first-time owners of a $40,000 claimer fewer than nine years ago has been ex- traordinary indeed. It's no surprise, then, that when Kosta talks racing, he has about him a touch of the evangelist. "Now, I finally have something in life that I just love. I'm sure there are guys that just love to go golfing, and love to see these new golf courses. I just love going to the racetrack and being part of that world. It's been a thrill. I couldn't be happier. I just wish I'd have found it sooner in life, I real- ly do," he added. "The only thing I've real- ly done in life besides raising my kids and going to their sports events, I've worked. I work 80-hour weeks. That's normal here." "Here" is the family's California ranch— all decked out in the Hronis green and ACCELERATE IN THE DAYS LEADING UP TO THE BREEDERS' CUP AT CHURCHILL DOWNS