Then the horse left.
Glatt, a veteran trainer, studied the horse as he ran in the crisp morning air with a rider on board, down the backstretch, through the far turn, down the homestretch and across the finish line.
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“He went 5/8 in 59 and 3,” Glatt later told USA TODAY Sports, meaning the horse covered 5/8 of a mile in 59.6 seconds. “I thought the work was excellent. He seemed very happy.”
Well, of course he did.
The horse named So Happy, which sold for a modest $20,000 at a yearling sale, is headed to the Kentucky Derby. TwinSpires.com lists him at 15-1 for the May 2 race at Churchill Downs in Louisville, and So Happy is also at the center of a heartbreaking and moving story.
Among those applauding are a 28-year-old Venezuelan rider, a 60-year-old jockey and a 94-year-old breeder.
Then there’s Glatt, the 53-year-old trainer who has the first Kentucky Derby horse. It became official when So Happy won the Santa Anita Derby on April 4, less than eight weeks after Glatt’s wife, Dena, died of heart failure.
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Glatt now wears a bracelet with some of his wife’s ashes inside.
“That way I always have it with me,” he said.
“We were optimistic”
Glatt, whose horse training operation is based in Southern California, is known for being skilled and stoic, even grumpy. When he purchased a bay colt at a 2-year-old sale in 2025, his clients Hans and Ana Maron of Arizona wanted the horse.
Custom required that the Marons choose a name.
“And I see that the father is Runhappy, the mother is So Cunning,” said Ana Macron. “And I remember saying, ‘Mark, I found the perfect name and I’m going to name it after you because you’re always so happy.’
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“We all laughed. Dena (Mark Glatt’s wife) couldn’t get enough. She kept laughing. And it’s sad what happened.”
As So Happy emerged as a special horse. Dena Glatt unexpectedly developed heart problems.
“We actually watched the Super Bowl with her in the hospital,” Ana Marón said. “We came home and were optimistic. And then two days later, he had a heart attack and passed away.”
Dena Glatt, who had raised three children with Mark Glatt, was 57 years old.
About the only one unaffected by the death was So Happy, who wears blinders during training because he gets distracted.
“He’s like a kid who likes to throw things in the air and watch them fly,” said Hans Maron. “He’s like that big kid having fun.”
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From humble origins
The most expensive racehorse of all time was Fusaichi Pegasus, reportedly sold for $70 million in 2000.
Then there are people like So Happy.
So Happy’s dam is So Cunning, a broodmare owned by Leverett Miller, a 94-year-old horse breeder in Florida. He said it was the last horse he owned with his late wife and that it had bargain roots.
Miller said he paid $2,700 for So Cunning’s great-grandmother and that So Cunning was also descended from a stallion whose stud fee was about $1,000.
So, Happy’s father is Runhappy, a champion sprinter who retired in 2016 with a starting fee of $25,000. The fee was halved in 2022, as Runhappy failed to produce many talented offspring. At the same time, Miller was looking for a horse to mate with So Cunning.
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He opted for Runhappy.
Born in 2023, So Happy sold for $12,000 at a weanling sale. It sold for just under $20,000 in a one-year sale. Glatt then paid $150,000 for the horse in a 2-year-old sale, and the Marons and Norman Stables formed the ownership team.
Still, it was no surprise on November 22, 2025 when So Happy took a long shot of 38-1 at Del Mar Race Track in his racing debut.
Mike Smith, a 60-year-old Hall of Fame jockey, was aboard the horse.
“All I had to do was point him in the right direction,” Smith told USA TODAY Sports. “When I told him to go, man, he went.”
Then Happy won the race. He has now won three of his four races and is coming off his most impressive victory yet.
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“It always seems like (a horse) comes along that doesn’t have that royal blood or that great breed,” Smith said. “And he’s one of them, man.”
‘Grandpa’ in the stirrups
Smith, the 60-year-old jockey, said he never considered retiring, even when his teammates tease him by calling him grandpa.
“He’s kept in top condition,” Glatt said. “And especially in a race like the Derby, how do you replace the experience that a runner like Mike Smith has?”
Smith won the 2005 Kentucky Derby with Giacomo, a 50-to-1 longshot. And in 2018, he was 52 when he rode Justify to victory in the Kentucky Derby and won the Triple Crown.
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Now Smith has the opportunity to etch his name in the history books.
Bill Shoemaker, the late Hall of Fame jockey who was 54 when he rode Ferdinand to victory in the 1988 Kentucky Derby, remains the oldest winning jockey in the race’s history. Smith would break that record on May 2 at the “Run for the Roses.”
“It might be a record that stands for a while, man,” Smith said. “These young people are catching everyone else. This is one that would be difficult to get.”
Of course, So Happy will have to carry Smith across the finish line.
“I think we’re just starting to see the best of him,” he said.
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Hope attached to So Happy
Miller, the 94-year-old breeder, said he gathered with his children and grandchildren to watch So Happy races and think about his late wife. He also said that he stayed in touch with Glatt during the rise of So Happy.
“Every time he won, I emailed (Glatt) and he emailed me back,” Miller said.
Last week, Glatt met Sander Blanco, a 28-year-old jockey from Venezuela. Blanco purchased So Happy for $20,000 at a yearling sale and worked with the horse for a year before Glatt purchased him for $150,000. They posed for a photo and Blanco put his right arm around Glatt’s shoulders and smiled. Glatt showed little emotion.
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After So Happy’s final workout at Santa Anita last week, the trainer retreated to his barn office. He talked about dealing with pain and So Happy.
“There’s a lot of hope in him, there’s a lot of emotion in him,” Glatt said. “From the person who bought it and sold it, to me as we try to move forward with our lives, my family and I.”
at 152North Dakota-During the Kentucky Derby, there will be a favorite, longshots and stories related to all the horses. But there will only be one So Happy.
He will run for more than roses.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kentucky Derby horse at center of heartbreaking, heartbreaking story