OwnerView announced Nov. 12 that Boat Racing has been named the 2021 New Owner of the Year, sponsored by 1/ST RACING. The award will be presented during the final panel of the 2021 Thoroughbred Owner Conference series Dec. 7 at 2 p.m. ET.

Boat Racing owns a handful of horses via yearling sales, 2-year-old in training sales, and pinhooking, but their primary claim to fame came from their significant minority share of 3-year-old Hot Rod Charlie, who won the Pennsylvania Derby and Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby this year. He also hit the board in Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve and Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets.

The Boat Racing crew. (Courtesy of Boat Racing)

The ownership group is composed of college friends from Brown University — Eric Armagost, Daniel Giovacchini, Reiley Higgins, Patrick O’Neill, and Alex Quoyeser. O’Neill is the nephew of Hot Rod Charlie’s trainer, Doug O’Neill.

The group is active in philanthropic causes via their commitment to raising awareness and contributing a portion of all of their horses’ earnings, including Hot Rod Charlie’s, toward the Melanoma Research Alliance, Jake Panus Scholarship Fund, and Jake Panus Walk-on Football Endowed Scholarship.

“Boat Racing has brought infectious enthusiasm to our sport as well as inspiring generosity for worthy causes,” said Gary Falter, project manager for OwnerView. “OwnerView is proud to recognize a new and youthful ownership group that has not only experienced success at the highest levels of horse racing, but has also given back to the community.”

“We could not be more pleased to be honored with this prestigious award and are cognizant of the much more deserving, rare company that have won before us,” said Patrick O’Neill. “The initial idea amongst us five was always to participate in this incredible sport we all have fallen in love with and utilize the amazing environment it provides to create memories to last us a lifetime. We had no inkling that this simple idea would ever take us to the pinnacle of the sport, which is why it was so important for us to pivot our fortunes into something bigger and beyond ourselves through MRA and the memory of Jake Panus. At the end of the day, all credit for this privilege goes to Doug O’Neill and his entire team, our incredible co-owners in Roadrunner Racing, Bill Strauss, and Gainesway Farm, and our amazing equine friend in Hot Rod Charlie.”

The New Owner of the Year Award has been previously presented to MyRacehorse, Larry Best, the Churchill Downs Racing Club, Charles and Susan Chu, LNJ Foxwoods, and Sol Kumin.

The 2021 Thoroughbred Owner Conference series is hosted by The Jockey Club and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association and presented by Bessemer Trust, Dean Dorton Equine, Stoll Keenon Ogden, and Stonestreet Farm. There is no registration fee for the live or recorded virtual conference series, but registration is required. Registration information is available at ownerview.com/event/conference or by contacting Gary Falter at gfalter@jockeyclub.com.

OwnerView is a joint effort spearheaded by The Jockey Club and the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association to encourage ownership of Thoroughbreds and provide accurate information on aspects of ownership such as trainers, public racing syndicates, the process of purchasing and owning a Thoroughbred, racehorse retirement, and owner licensing.