The Couple that Wins the Triple Crown Together, Stays Together

HBPA
May 11
7 min read

By Sophie Charalambous

Teresa Rice and David Precepa are the only couple to have groomed Triple Crown winners on two separate occasions. Rice groomed Dance Smartly, the 1991 Triple Crown winner owned by Sam-Son Farms and trained by James Day. She groomed the filly from 1990 until Dance Smartlyretired in 1992.Precepa groomed 1993 Triple Crown winner Peteski as a two-year-old in the winter of 1992 untilthe colt’s retirement in 1993. Peteski was owned by Earle Mack and trained by Roger Attfield.

In August 1988, Precepa and Rice met in Fort Erie while going to the movie theatre with fellow race-trackers. At the time, they were both working for Mel

Rice came from a horse-racing background. Her grandfather, Harry Whiteman, trained racehorses in England. Her aunt, Joan O’Shea, was the first female jockey to ride at Woodbine,and her mother married Samuel McComb, who was a jockey and trainer. Rice came to Canada from England in 1970 and started at the track full-time in 1989, where she groomed primarily for small trainers.

Precepa worked out West, where in the spring and winter months, he worked on the oil rigs, but in the summer and fall, he worked on cutting and roping horses. “In 1986, in the summer, there was an ad in the newspaper. The guy I was working for had a job for me in Fort McMurray if I wanted it, and there was a one-line ad in the newspaper. All that the ad said was ‘experienced horseman wanted.’ It was the simplest ad in the paper, and that’s what started the whole thing.”

“Both of us came from very different backgrounds, but ended up on the same road,” Rice says.

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In the fall of 1989, Rice was supposed to spend the winter in Ocala and return to Fort Erie in the spring. However, Malcolm Pierce asked her to go to Woodbine, as Very Formal, one of the horses she was grooming, was going to run in the Queen’s Plate. After returning to Woodbine after Very Formal ran in the Prince of Wales, Pierce asked Rice if she would take over grooming Dance Smartly.

Precepa began working full-time for Roger Attfield in 1992. He first worked as a swing groom and got asked to take over a full-time groom's position the next year. At the time, Precepagroomed Shudanz, Fairy Garden, and Hey Hazel. Peteski was originally with a different trainer, but Attfield ended up training him, and was under Precepa’s care starting in the winter of 1992.

Both Rice and Precepa knew that the horses they were grooming were destined for greatness.

Rice said that Dance Smartly was a “very easy mare, she had her moments, but she never showed them in public.”

Rice shares what made Dance Smartly stand out from other horses, “She was cool, calm, and collected. She went out and did her business, then came back into the barn. She carried herself like she knew she was special. To work around her was an absolute treat.”

Rice always had a gut feeling that Dance Smartly was a special horse. “The day that Malcolm looked me right in the face and said, ‘If you stay, this will be the ride of your life,’ and I knew, I saw it in his face. I already had a feeling that maybe this would be the horse, but that was the reassurance.”

Peteski’s gentleness and kindness in the barn, compared to being all business and strength on the track, were what stood out for Precepa.

“When you groomed him, his coat was like a new copper penny. He was just a nice horse. When he went out to train, he was all business. He was destined to run in all three legs of the Triple Crown, and it just blossomed into every time he went out onto the track, he got stronger and stronger and stronger.”

For Precepa, the Plate Trial solidified Peteski’s uniqueness and talent. “After the Plate Trial, the horse ran strong, and it was like okay, he is real special. The Prince of Wales, he tore the track record up. He took a second and three-fifths off the track record that day simply because the rider couldn’t hold him. The horse literally just ran away on him.”

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The morning of the Queen’s Plate in 1991, Rice details how Eddie Sweat, who groomed the 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat, came by the barn that morning. “If I had awe of anyone, it would be him as a groom because he groomed Riva Ridge and Secretariat. We were chatting and he said, ‘You will groom a Queen's Plate winner today’. That is an accolade of itself with a groom of his standing. I’ve never forgotten that, and it blew me away. He groomed the horse. These are just everyday people who are in the background. Eddie to me was the man.”

Rice shares that Pierce saddled Dance Smartly on Plate day, “He told me that morning, ‘I will saddle a Queen’s Plate winner today.’”

And they were right.

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This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that the couple experienced together was special.

Rice shares, “When David was going through the Triple Crown, the nerves got to me more than him because I’m thinking, ‘oh my God, can this household do this twice?’ I was a help to him, I think, because I’d already been through it myself, but then it made it harder on me.”Both Precepa and Rice noted how, going through the Triple Crown as grooms, they are amongthe many champions of the horses amidst the flurry of activity, especially experiencing a novel event such as the Triple Crown. For them, it was about keeping their composure because, as grooms, they represent their horses, their stable, and horse racing as a whole.

Precepa shares, “When you have one good horse in your stalls, it’s a wonderful experience. I ended up with four. I had Fairy Garden, Hey Hazel, Peteski, and Shudanz. How many trainers in your life will win one black type race? I, as a groom, had seventeen black type wins in one year. It’s stressful.”

No female horse has won the Triple Crown since Dance Smartly, a significant milestone for Rice. “Because it was a filly, it makes it very strong because so few females have accomplished what she has. It’s an overwhelming experience, there’s no doubt about that.”Experiencing being in the Triple Crown as a couple on two separate occasions, let alone winning the Triple Crown, is an experience that only the two of them share. They both understood the hard work required at the racetrack and how the work is constant. They found a routine that works for them within that mutual understanding of the work required while grooming at the racetrack. The support of having each other made it easier for them, as their focus had to be on the horses.

“It certainly kept us together. We are the only ones who won the Triple Crown as a couple,” says Rice.

Precepa shares how they made it work, “You really learn to rely on the other person to pick upthe things that you’re unable to do simply because you’ve got to take care of your horse. It just reinforced – you need to rely on the other person.”

“You have some tough days there, and the other one’s got to support you,” Rice adds.

When Peteski won the Triple Crown, Rice was in Saratoga. “I was not disappointed that I wasn’t there because of what I was doing. Even though I wasn’t there to celebrate with him, I was still there with him.”

“I don’t think I took a day off after the Queen’s Plate until after the Breeders Cup because I’m the one who, after workouts, does observations. You know them so well, you know when something's wrong. Days off were nonexistent for about five months, and David did the same thing,” Rice shares.

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The racetrack provides an environment that brings people together and emphasizes the strong bond between horses and humans. Horses look to the grooms for comfort, one of the key people among many who contribute to the care and well-being of the horses. There’s a special communication that occurs not only with those who care for the horse each day with the horses themselves, but also amongst each other to ensure the horses’ well-being is met. It’s a team effort to represent the horse and stable, and being proud of it. “When you do something like this, it’s for the love of the horse. You want to win your races. If I’d finish second, then I’d say, ‘I won a race today’ and people would say, ‘No, you didn’t’. Well,yeah, I did. Because the horses pulled up, and they’d eat good tonight. We won a race because we can come back. You have to learn how to win and you have to learn how to lose, and the racetrack is a great teacher of that. My job is to do the best by the racehorse and the horse and to treat them like they’re your own,” Rice says.

As for the couple’s experience winning the Triple Crown, Rice shares, “For us, we carry it with us all the time. I get great pleasure out of hanging my pictures in my home.” Rice shares the impact and connection that horse racing provides through the camaraderie of the joined experience and how horses bring people together. “It’s like family. Even when we were at the wire, all the grooms running for the Queen's Plate, you’re all rooting for each other, it’s that closeness.”

Precepa expands, “Even though you’re in competition, you’re still friends. She worked at Sam-Son Farms, and I worked for Roger. Even though we were in the top stables on the other ends of the racetrack, we’re still together. We were blessed enough to work for those that had good horses but also treated the horses with the respect they deserve.”Rice adds, “In the racing game, if I had the chance to go back and do it again, I would. The racing game has given me what I have today, and I learned a lot from it. Mike Doyle made a comment to me – when you win a race, you store that. When every day you think it’s a disaster, you go, and you draw on that, and that will give you the strength.”