Carrie Wood yearned for a horse when she was growing up. She used to pore through the Washington Post classified section, circle ads for horses that were for sale, and leave them on her father’s desk.

“I had hopes,” she said. “I had hopes that someday we could have a horse.”

Carie Wood with her husband, Stephen. (Courtesy of Carrie Wood)

While her father never responded to the strongest of hints, her fervent wish to own a horse came true in a big way. She was not only an investor in Preakness winner Seize the Grey through MyRacehorse but now has a beauty in Seismic Beauty.

The 4-year-old daughter of Uncle Mo secured an automatic, fees-paid berth in the $2 million Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff by winning the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes presented by Oak Tree Racing Association on Aug. 2 at Del Mar, site of the Breeders’ Cup World Championships on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1.

The gate-to-wire tour de force marked Seismic Beauty’s third consecutive triumph and fourth in seven career starts. With her front-running style, she has never failed to hit the board with two seconds and a third for earnings of $476,840 for MyRacehorse and partner Peter Leidel.

Wood, who lives in Lexington, Ky., spent $112 for one share as one of 2,316 stakeholders in Seismic Beauty. A trainee of Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, Seismic Beauty attracted investors from every state and Puerto Rico. The very fast filly will not make Wood rich, but that hardly matters to her or to her equally excited husband, Stephen.

“We get just as much thrill as if we were full owners,” said Wood, 63.

MyRacehorse provided a refuge for Terri Ibers of Ventura, Calif., as she coped with the stress of caring for her elderly parents, Marian and Rod, from 2020-’23 as they neared the end of their lives.

“It’s so wonderful to be able to escape through the TV and watch our horses run,” said Ibers.

She is all-in when it comes to the concept of making normally expensive racehorse ownership easily accessible through the purchase of microshares. In addition to 2024 Preakness winner Seize the Grey, her portfolio includes last year’s Cygames Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Straight No Chaser, Seismic Beauty, and a whole lot more.

“Every time there is a horse for sale I kind of need to be a part of it,” she said, “because I need to know how the story ends.”

Ibers was confident Seismic Beauty was ready to add a special chapter to her story before the Maryland-bred and regular rider Juan Hernandez all but flew from the starting gate in the 1 1/16-mile Hirsch.

“I look at horse’s faces and I see them having opinions,” said Ibers, a former pleasure horse owner. “When she came into the paddock, she was a happy girl. She was glad to be racing. She knew what she was going to be doing, and it looked like she was very pleased with herself to be there.”

Terri Ibers with Seize the Grey. (Courtesy of Terri Ibers)

Ibers read her correctly. Seismic Beauty rolled on the front end and thwarted multiple Grade 1 winner Kopion’s rally by a length and a half. She set crisp fractions of :22.85 for the opening quarter-mile, :46.63 for the half-mile, and was still going strong at 1:10.32 through three-quarters of a mile.

“She looks like she’s going easy, but they were going fast,” Baffert noted afterward.

Tim Baum, 72, of Vero Beach, Fla., is another investor who knows horses well after growing up on a breeding farm. He is delighted to have a small part of Seismic Beauty.

“You can just tell that this filly loves to run. She’s like a machine,” he said. “When she works, they try to hold her back. You can just tell that she’s a superstar. She just doesn’t like any horse to be in front of her. She wants to be on the lead.”

His financial and emotional investment in Seismic Beauty and other horses has helped Mark Sedran, 61, of Mahopac, N.Y., cope with the recent death of his wife, Teresa, due to Covid.

“I’ve made so many friends,” he said of his involvement in MyRacehorse. “You come together for a common cause. You’re rooting for that cause. It’s a good time. It’s a lot of fun.”

Sedran with Bob Baffert. (Courtesy of Mark Sedran)

Sedran deserves a good time. He held a stressful position as a lieutenant in the New York City police department before he retired.

Sedran already made his arrangements to attend the Breeders’ Cup. He is filled with optimism and with good reason. There has been no stopping Seismic Beauty during her three-race winning streak. It began with a 10-length, gate-to-wire romp in a one-mile allowance race on April 18 at Santa Anita Park and continued with another front-running effort in the Grade 2 Santa Margarita Stakes that produced a five-length score on May 25.

Baffert thinks she has yet to find her best stride. “She’s a big filly. She’s just getting better and better. She’s still maturing, but I think she’ll improve off of that,” he said after the Hirsch.

Although Baum may lack Baffert’s expertise, he knows what he is seeing. “I’m not sure in the Breeders’ Cup anybody is going to catch her the way she is performing now,” he said.

He eagerly awaits his trip to Del Mar. “The Kentucky Derby is huge, but the Breeders’ Cup is the best of the best,” he said. “Just to get in the race is something spectacular. To win it would be just like a dream come true.”

A huge turnout for Seismic Beauty at the Santa Margarita Stakes May 25 at Santa Anita Park. (BENOIT photo)