Small but Mighty

Pam Stephenson’s one-woman breeding operation scores its first stakes winner.

By Denis Blake

You won’t find Pam Stephenson’s name near the top of the list of leading Louisiana breeders, and you will rarely see it as a buyer or seller at any auction. With only a few broodmares and maybe a couple foals each year, Stephenson is the definition of a small breeder. Along with so many others in the state, she helps form the vital backbone of the Louisiana breeding industry, and without being boastful, she says her operation is “small but mighty.” And although it was a long time coming, Stephenson can also count herself as a stakes-winning breeder after Miss Priority won last year’s $100,000 Rosewater Stakes at Delta Downs.

Salli Foushee's Miss Priority with Casey Fusilier aboard wins the 17th running of the Rosewater Stakes with a purse of $100,000 at Delta Downs Racetrack.  Hodges photography.

 While breeding a single stakes winner might not be a big deal for a commercial breeding farm, Stephenson said it was like winning the Kentucky Derby to her. That victory by Miss Priority was almost 20 years in the making, going back to her dam, Miss Dealbreaker, a 2007 foal bred by Stephenson.

Since Stephenson breeds to race, she’s not worried about what looks fashionable to potential buyers at auction, and that allows her to aim for a horse that meets her specific criteria, including soundness and conformation that will lead to a long racing career.

Pam Stephenson

Stephenson rarely runs her horses as 2-year-olds and instead prefers to give them more time to mature. While that misses out on the plentiful offerings for Louisiana-bred juveniles, she believes it allows her to get more racing opportunities down the road.

Miss Priority is a testament to that, as her first stakes victory came in her 26th career start, a number that many horses never achieve. She didn’t make her racing debut until October 2022, late in her 3-year-old season, but Stephenson’s patience was rewarded when Miss Priority won at first asking against $20,000 maiden claiming company at Delta Downs. She won two more races early in her 4-year-old campaign and then was claimed from Stephenson for $12,500 by trainer Paul Duhon and owner Salli Foushee.

A daughter of Louisiana stallion Apriority, Miss Priority seemed to get better with age, and as a 5-year-old she compiled a record of 10-3-3-0 with nearly $150,000 in earnings that year alone. A big chunk of that came in the Rosewater Stakes at Delta Downs on December 27, providing a perfect late Christmas present for her breeder.

“I would never trade that moment for anything,” she said. “That was the best feeling.”

While being the breeder of a stakes winner is great, especially with the breeders’ awards that come along with it, Stephenson said any win is special for a small breeder like herself. And a close second for her best moment in racing came in a $10,000 maiden claiming race this year at Evangeline Downs with He’s Charlie, 3-year-old gelding by My Pal Charlie that she bred and owns.

“One of my babies won on my birthday this year, and it was so special,” she said about that win. “Joel Dominguez rode him, and we were in the paddock, and he asked how I was doing, and I said, ‘Today is my birthday, and this would be the best present to win.’ He came off the track after winning, and he said, ‘Happy Birthday, Ms. Pam!’ It wasn’t a stakes race and wasn’t even an allowance race, but that was like winning the Kentucky Derby to me.”

So if you are keeping count, that’s two Kentucky Derby wins for Stephenson, despite never running a horse at Churchill Downs.

It’s not hard to see from where Miss Priority got her longevity gene. With 31 starts and $290,690 in earnings through her 6-year-old season this year, she’s run longer and better than most foals born that year. Just like her mama.

Miss Priority is out of the Louisiana-bred mare Miss Dealbreaker, a now 18-year-old daughter of Lydgate who made 44 starts, all in her home state. Miss Dealbreaker never ran in a stakes race but was a solid claiming and allowance horse throughout her career. She ran through the age of 8, and remarkably her final year on the track was her best with four wins from 11 starts and earnings of more than $80,000. All told, she won nine races and ran second or third 17 times while banking $191,448.

Miss Priority and Miss Dealbreaker both perfectly encapsulate Stephenson’s breeding program. Neither one has an expensive or flashy pedigree, but both enjoyed long and successful careers on the track.

Stephenson is also a believer in what she calls a true Louisiana-bred. While she doesn’t begrudge breeders who send mares to out-of-state stallions and foal out in Louisiana, that’s not something she’s interested in doing.

“I’m just old-fashioned,” she said. “I believe in a true Louisiana-bred. If you want to have a Louisiana-bred, you breed in the state, because Louisiana-bred means Louisiana-bred.”

Stephenson’s 200-plus acre farm, which also grows sugar cane, is located not far from Evangeline Downs. She’s been around horses her entire life, and she also gained horse knowledge from her late husband, Claude, a longtime racetrack veterinarian.

“When I was a little girl, we had Black Angus cattle, and we had horses to work them,” she said. “So I’ve been riding all of my life. And I was a little youth champion with Quarter Horses. I didn’t know how to ride everything well, but I just got points in every event. You could say I probably hung on more than I rode.”

While she might not have been the best rider, Stephenson knows and loves her horses.

“When I was a little girl, I saw Secretariat win the derby on TV,” she recalled. “And I saw Ruffian, and she’s really the one that made me fall in love with racing. When I was young, I said, ‘One day I want to be on the racetrack.’”

Of course, childhood dreams rarely come true, and Stephenson worked for more than 20 years as a dental assistant. After a divorce from her first husband, she met Claude, and they found a shared passion for horses.

“He told me if I wanted to stay in this business, which I loved, he said, ‘Why don’t we start looking for a few broodmares,’” she said. “And you know, of course, a few, they ended up being like Lay’s potato chips. You collect them all.”

Claude passed away in 2007, and Stephenson’s breeding program started small. It remains small to this day, and after a slow start, it has developed into a consistent producer of winners known for their soundness.

Miss Dealbreaker has proven to be the star of Stephenson’s small broodmare band, and in addition to Miss Priority she has produced Miss Charlie Gras, a daughter of My Pal Charlie with earnings of $86,870; Miss Charlie Sioux, also a daughter of My Pal Charlie who earned $136,890 and is now a broodmare for Stephenson; and Miss Dealority, an Apriority mare who just went over $100,000 in earnings and is still running.

Stephenson is quick to credit her late husband for some of her success as a breeder.

“I take my time with the horses; I don’t push them,” she said. “That’s what my husband used to preach.”

But Stephenson also puts in the long hours and hard work, not just for herself and her horses, but also for her many friends and not-yet friends in the industry. It’s something that goes both ways.

“I’m a one-woman operation,” she said. “But I do have help on the weekends and part-time help. I’ve held my head high, and I think I do have a lot of respect.”

Stephenson knows she can count on her fellow horsemen when she needs help, and she’s always ready to return that help.

“I think anytime I need help from anybody here at the farm or at the track, someone will be here to help me, because I’m a helper,” she said. “My daddy was a saint, and everybody loved my father. And my father always said, ‘You always help people.’ So that’s what I do.”

That help also extends to other people’s horses and helping them find a home after they leave the racetrack.

“I help people who can’t find homes with the horses, too,” she said. “I help them find a home as hunter jumpers or polo horses.”

Stephenson, like most small breeders, is not likely to get to the actual Kentucky Derby, and that’s just fine with her. She gets the same excitement out of winning a maiden claiming race on her birthday and being part of an industry she loves. There have been some ups and downs, including broken bones that go along with the dangers of working with horses, but Stephenson wouldn’t trade it for anything.

“The temperatures are going to be changing soon and in a couple months and I’ll be out there with my heavy boots and hat and coat taking care of my horses. They come first. It’s like being in jail with them sometimes,” she said with a laugh. “It’s not easy, but I love this lifestyle.”