ARCADIA, Calif. – Mark Glatt stood in the grandstands at Santa Anita Park last week and watched a 3-year-old bay colt on the other side of the racetrack.
A veteran trainer, Glatt studied the horse as it ran in the cool morning air with a rider aboard, down the backstretch, through the far turn, down the homestretch and across the finish line.
“He went 5/8ths in 59 and 3,’’ Glatt later told USA TODAY Sports, meaning the horse covered 5/8 mile in 59.6 seconds. “I thought the work was excellent. He seemed very happy.’’
The horse named So Happy, who sold for a modest $20,000 at a yearling sale, is headed for the Kentucky Derby. He is listed at 15-1 by TwinSpires.com for the race May 2 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, and So Happy also stands at the center of a heartbreaking and heartwarming story.
Among those cheering are a 28-year-old horseman from Venezuela, 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 April 4, less than eight weeks after Glatt’s wife, Dena, died of heart failure.
Glatt now wears a bracelet with some of his wife’s ashes inside of it.
Mystik Dan, right, wins the Kentucky Derby in a photo finish, on May 4, 2024. Forever Young, with Ryusei Sakai up, center, finished third and Sierra Leone, left, with Tyler Gaffalione up, finished second.1 / 1Meet the past 10 winners of the Kentucky Derby through photosMystik Dan, right, wins the Kentucky Derby in a photo finish, on May 4, 2024. Forever Young, with Ryusei Sakai up, center, finished third and Sierra Leone, left, with Tyler Gaffalione up, finished second.1 / 1Meet the past 10 winners of the Kentucky Derby through photosMystik Dan, right, wins the Kentucky Derby in a photo finish, on May 4, 2024. Forever Young, with Ryusei Sakai up, center, finished third and Sierra Leone, left, with Tyler Gaffalione up, finished second.'We were optimistic'Glatt, whose horse-training operation is based in Southern California, is known as skillful and stoic, even grumpy. When he bought a bay colt at a sale of 2-Year-Olds in 2025, his clients Hans and Ana Maron of Arizona wanted the horse.
“And I see the dad is Runhappy, the mother’s So Cunning,’’ Ana Macron said. “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.'
“We all laughed. Dena (Mark Glatt’s wife) couldn't get enough of it. She kept laughing. And it's sad because of what happened.’’
As So Happy emerged as a special horse. Dena Glatt unexpectedly developed heart problems.
“We actually watched the Super Bowl with her at the hospital,’’ Ana Maron said. “We went home and we were optimistic. And then two days later, she had a heart attack and passed away.’’
Dena Glatt, who had raised three children with Mark Glatt, was 57.
About the only one unaffected by the death was So Happy, who wears blinkers during training because he gets distracted.
“Just like a kid that likes to throw things up in the air and watch it blow away,’’ Hans Maron said. “He's kind of that big kid having fun.’’
The most expensive racehorse ever was Fusaichi Pegasus, reportedly sold for $70 million in 2000.
So Happy’s mother 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 co-owned with his late wife, and it had bargain-basement roots.
Miller said he paid $2,700 for So Cunning’s great grandmother and that So Cunning also descended from a stallion whose stud fee was about $1,000.
So Happy’s father is Runhappy, a champion sprinter who was retired in 2016 with an initial stud fee of $25,000. The fee dropped in half by 2022, with Runhappy having failed to produce many talented offspring. At the same time, Miller was looking for a horse to mate to So Cunning.
Born in 2023, So Happy went for $12,000 at a weanling sale. He sold for a mere $20,000 at a yearling sale. Then Glatt paid $150,000 for the horse at a 2-year-old-sale, and the Marons and Norman Stables formed the ownership team.