he had applied to Standardbreds would
work with thoroughbreds, as well. He al-
ways liked both sports and began spending
just as much time studying thoroughbred
pedigrees as Standardbred pedigrees. Well
before he bought his first thoroughbred
broodmare in 2016, he would go to the fall
mixed sales at Keeneland and Fasig-Tip-
ton and pick out horses he'd like. He tried
to guess what they would sell for and then
follow how the mares panned out for their
new owners. He got quite good at figuring
out what a horse was worth and found that,
more often than that, his mythical purchas-
es were successful in the real world. He was
ready for a new chapter, the thoroughbred
business.
"I couldn't have done this when I was 24,"
Bowden said. "I know how to manage peo-
ple now. The horse stuff has always been
easy. It's the people part. At 24, I didn't
have a concept of someone taking advan-
tage of me, not only employees but other
people in the business. That's hard to learn.
You almost have to make mistakes and my
father let me make those mistakes at a
