Milton A. Douzos - California Thoroughbred Breeders Association

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Milton A. Douzos:
Hitting A Home Run
by LARRY BORTSTEIN
©Vassar
Baseball was Milton Douzos’ passion as a boy growing up
Douzos’ own career in professional sports fizzled out at 23,
in Oakland, California.
when he found himself playing in the low minors in
As a six-foot, 200-pound catcher at Oakland Technical Spokane, Washington.
High School, he was one of the strongest power-hitting prep
“I had already played pro ball for five years,” he said. “I
players in Northern California. “I couldn’t run well,” he wasn’t going anywhere in baseball, I decided I needed to get
recalled. “But I could hit.”
on with my life, so I came home and went to Armstrong
Among the players he faced on the diamonds of Oakland College, a business school in Berkeley.”
was none other than McClymonds High’s Frank Robinson,
Armed with a degree, he shortly thereafter bought his
who went on to a
first business, a
Hall of Fame
liquor store in
career with several
Oakland. Since
teams, principally
then, in an entrethe
Cincinnati
preneurial career
Reds and Baltithat is still going
more Orioles, as
strong at age 74, he
well as the Clevehas invested in
land Indians with
many enterprises.
whom, in 1974, he
“I sell a line of
became the first
titanium golf clubs
African-American
developed by a
manager in the
club pro, called
history of Major
Medicus
Golf
League Baseball.
Clubs, and I have a
Another great
new line of watches
athletic name from
with a built-in
Douzos’ days as a
magnifier,” he said.
youth in the Bay
“I’m a 15-to-20
Milton Douzos (left) with Gil and Sandra Matos at Golden Gate Fields on September 18, 2008.
Area
was
handicap golfer
McClymonds High’s Bill Russell, who went on to lead the myself and I enjoy playing the game. But I like being
University of San Francisco to two NCAA basketball involved in different things.”
championships and the Boston Celtics to 11 National BasHorse racing is one of those things. For the past 25 years,
ketball Association titles during his remarkable 13-year Douzos, who lives in the East Bay city of San Leandro, has
professional career.
owned and bred Thoroughbreds, alone or in partnerships.
©Coady
©Benoit
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Synnin and Grinnin—$86,840 Daisycutter Handicap—September 3, 2008
60 CALIFORNIA THOROUGHBRED • FEBRUARY 2009
Sassy Blend—$50,000 La Fiesta Handicap—October 26, 2008
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with Douzos stems from the latter’s allowing the former’s
advice in the horse business.
“Milt’s so busy with everything else he’s doing that he
puts me in charge of the horses,” Matos said. “We talk things
over, but he lets me make the decisions.”
The gregarious Douzos frequently attends the races at Golden
Gate Fields even when he doesn’t have a horse running.
“He likes to have lunch there and meet with friends,”
Matos said of his friend, a widower since 1995, when he lost
Rosalie, his beloved wife of 35 years and mother of the couple’s three daughters, Lisa, Adriana and Stephanie.
The trio frequently join Douzos at the races, along with
Stephanie’s husband George Stavrianopoulos and their sixyear-old son John Alexander, who is in the first grade. “He
already enjoys going to the racetrack,” said Douzos.
Sassy Synner, a winning half-sister to Takin It Deep,
whom Douzos and Matos own, is the dam of both Synnin
and Grinnin and Sassy Blend.
Synnin and Grinnin, purchased by former Los Angeles
Dodger pitcher Brad Penny for $105,000 at the 2005
CTBA/Barretts California’s October Yearling Sale, won five
consecutive races as a four-year-old in 2008, including her
first stakes success in a division of the Del Mar Thoroughbred
Club’s Daisycutter Handicap, an open event last Sept. 3.
“She had some small physical things that bothered her
early in her career,” said trainer Howard Zucker. “But she’s
gotten over them as she’s gotten older.”
Sassy Blend, a four-year-old daughter of the deceased
Richly Blended, showed she wasn’t fond of the all-weather
Tapeta surface at Golden Gate. But after being dispatched
to New Mexico, she became a rwo-time stakes winner. She
captured the La Fiesta Handicap at The Downs at Albuquerque on Oct. 26, and the Zia Park Distaff Stakes on
Nov. 29.
“Both of those fillies have made over $150,000,” Matos noted.
“While we don’t own them, we’re proud to have bred them.”
By his own admission, Douzos doesn’t keep daily track of
what’s going on at the track or at the farm with his horses.
“But I like being in the horse business,” he said. “That’s
what counts to me.”
©Julie LaVeck
“I started going to the track with a friend of mine and
enjoyed it right away,” he recalled. “I thought I’d like to get
into it if I could.”
In partnership with Gil Matos, his trainer and close friend
during all his years in the business, he is the breeder of current
stakes-winning half-sisters Synnin and Grinnin and Sassy
Blend. He believes he has embarked upon a bright new venture
with a young stallion whose name recalls his own baseball days.
The stallion is called Takin It Deep, baseball parlance for
hitting a home run. The 11-year-old son of Ballena Vista
Farm stallion Beau Genius has taken up residence this year
at Sue Greene’s Woodbridge Farm in Oakdale, California,
about 80 miles east of San Francisco.
As a racehorse, Takin It Deep won four stakes races,
including the $200,000 California Derby in 2001, and
earned $355,055.
“We’re thrilled to have him here and thrilled to have
Milton as a client,” said Greene, a director of the California
Thoroughbred Breeders Association. “He’s one of the nicest
people you could know.”
Greene said that Takin It Deep has a book of about 20
mares for 2009, with an eye toward a more expansive breeding schedule in the future.
“We hope we’ll see some top babies from him down the
road,” Douzos said.
Douzos and Matos teamed up more than two decades ago
because the former thought the latter shared a common
Greek heritage.
“He started coming around my barn at Golden Gate
Fields because he thought any name that ended with ‘os’
was Greek, like his,” the 265-pound Matos chuckled.
“Actually I’m Portuguese. But don’t tell him!”
Matos, 56, trained Takin It Deep, whom he bought on
behalf of Douzos, for $22,000 at the 2000 Barretts May Sale
of Two-Year-Olds in Training. “I bought an interest in him
later,” the trainer recalled.
Fernando Matos, Gil’s brother, who owns an auto body
repair business, also is a partner in the horse business, but
isn’t actively involved in making decisions.
Gil Matos said the longevity of the relationship he has
Takin It Deep, the winner of four stakes races, including the $200,000 California Derby (left), and $355,055 in earnings,
is currently standing at stud at Woodbridge Farm in Oakdale.
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