The whole adventure just reminds them how much they owe to her late father. First and foremost, it was actually Richard Blackmore who originally acquainted them. He would take his buddy Jerry Baker to the races, illuminated the arcane world of handicapping–and, somewhere along the line, introduced him to his daughter, Connie.Jerry met Richard way back, soon after coming out of the military in 1974. He had been with the Air Force in Thailand, and gratefully getting out of that theater in one piece, as Vietnam came to a boil, made him receptive to more innocuous excitements. When Richard found out that Jerry had never even set foot on their local racetrack, Santa Anita, he took him in hand.“I had become a realtor, which gave me some flexibility in my time,” Jerry explains. “I wasn't punching a clock. So he got me out there, and taught me everything. And I mean, he was good at it. He really knew what he was talking about; showed me how to read a Form, the ins-and-outs of horses dropping in class, stables to bet, all that kind of thing.”Eddie Delahoussaye was Richard's top guy, and perhaps that's why Jerry to this day loves a horse that comes with a long, sweeping run from off the pace. But one way or another, Jerry's racetrack education produced more than he bargained for.“I ended up with a horse life–and a wife!” he says with a chuckle. “He was a good friend and we wish he could be here to see what's happened. He would be absolutely enthralled, wouldn't he?”“He did get to see Margie race a couple of times,” Connie says. “And he absolutely loved her. And coming with that one run, that was the way that Margie ran a lot of the time.”Margie? Well, she's the other absent friend who has been central to their thoughts of late. Margie's Minute (Hard Spun) was the first horse they ever owned, 10 years ago, when claimed for $20,000 at Los Alamitos by trainer Ray Bell.Jerry and Connie Baker | courtesy of Jerry and Connie BakerBy that stage, Jerry and Connie had long since become racetrack regulars. Parallel to their eventual marriage, they had also become business partners and things were going well enough that they thought they might risk a cheap claim.Little did they realize the journey that began with that single, diffident step. Margie's Minute herself was in the money for all but one of her 10 remaining starts, winning a couple of times. But the real turning point came in what proved to be the last of them, when she was the subject of a voided claim. Without the veterinary intervention that day, they would have missed out on something very special.“We had no idea what it was going to lead to,” Jerry admits. “But we did what actually we always do. My wife fell in love with the horse, and when it came time for her race no more, we bought out our partner and decided to take a chance [by breeding her]. We were actually advised by people, 'Don't do it. You'll be sorry.' And we did it anyway.”What could the experts know, after all, about the special bond that Connie had formed with the filly?“From the first time we saw her, she had such presence and confidence about her,” Connie recalls affectionately. “Before the first race, she walked by and looked over and I swear she looked me in the eye and it was like she said, 'Don't worry about this. I got it.'”Connie had received her handicapping education from her father rather earlier than Jerry did his. (She was reading the Form at the age of five!) But she had also meanwhile developed an affinity with the horse, as an animal, notably with a retired racehorse that she took jumping.“He learned to jump and I learned to jump at the same time,” she says. “And he took me all around California. We ended up competing at all kinds of horse shows and hunters-and-jumpers, won a lot of medals and ribbons, just because I could have so much confidence in him. No matter what came up in front of us, I knew he was going to do it for me. I loved that horse–and it was the same type of thing I felt when I saw Margie.”That was why they couldn't bear to let her go; why the idea of racing her foals was so intriguing. Even Jerry, previously a fairly unsentimental gambler, had by now transformed his whole view of horses.“Once we started getting up close to them, I fell in love,” he says. “I fell in love with the regality and beauty and majesty of these big, beautiful animals that would come storming down that stretch. I mean, you see them after race blowing and they're just like a dragon.”Rookies though they were in the world of breeding, Connie in particular has enjoyed developing her knowledge and making choices.“I mean, we could have given up early,” she accepts. “Her first foal ended up being a bottom-level claimer. But even that one ended up a multiple winner, and it has just proceeded from there. The next was a little better, and then each horse has just gotten more and more amazing.”Vodka Vodka | BenoitYes, they have. The third foal out of Margie's Minute is Vodka Vodka (Stay Thirsty), who only broke his maiden as a 4-year-old last summer, but has meanwhile got on a tremendous roll. In three starts this year, he has won two stakes and in between finished second in the GI Santa Anita Handicap. And now there is his half-sister Om N Joy (Om), another slow burn to have really thrived with maturity. Having required eight attempts to break her maiden, she promptly won three stakes and then the GIII Torrey Pines Stakes. Then, at the end of May, she reached a new high, winning the GII Santa Margarita Stakes.Both have been patiently brought along by Aggie Ordonez. The Bakers especially commend their trainer's communication, and she certainly had something unorthodox to impart when she explained her plan to prepare Om N Joy for the Santa Margarita by running (and, in the event, finishing last) on turf seven days previously.“She threw it out as a possibility and we rubber-stamped it right there,” Jerry says. “We were afraid that 'Joy' wouldn't take to the turf, although the breeding says she should. So for the jockey it was very simple. If she didn't it take to it, don't punish her. And we'll run her next week.”That audacious plan having worked out as well as it did, Vodka Vodka and Om N Joy (both raced with minority partners) are between them closing on $1.2 million in earnings. That is an incredible dividend from a mare claimed for $20,000, and the best may yet be to come. Om N Joy's next target is the GI Clement L. Hirsch Stakes on Aug. 1, with a Breeders' Cup berth at stake.Sadly, however, even as fresh chapters were being written this spring, the fairytale collided with the harshest of realities. Despite heroic endeavors by veterinarians and staff on Kingfisher Farm in the Santa Ynez Valley, in April the humane decision became necessary to spare Margie's Minute any further suffering from laminitis. Her last two foals, a sophomore who is about to return from a setback and a yearling on the farm, are both colts. In the poignant circumstances, it is easy to understand why the Bakers sound reluctant to entertain offers for Om N Joy, now a doubly precious broodmare prospect. The sales houses have been in touch, and there has evidently been interest from Japan.Om N Joy | Benoit“But at this point, we have no intention of doing any such thing,” Jerry says. “Unless the amount of money was life-changing, and would support our program to the point where we felt we could say goodbye to her. Even then, it wouldn't be an easy decision. She's a big, beautiful filly, very loved, and we're not doing so bad in life right now.”That said, the passion ignited by Margie's Minute has led them into a greater commitment than they ever envisaged. Besides a handful of homebreds on the racetrack, they now supported have a growing breeding program, with mares and foals divided between Kingfisher and Rancho San Miguel.“I think we're now up to 22 horses,” says Jerry. “Thing is, my wife can't say no! We bought three mares from Harris Farms, with their foals at their side, and think we made some very nice purchases. But we're not rich folks, so in order to stay in the business, we have to win races. Win races, and sell a lot of real estate! So far that's happened for us, and hopefully that doesn't change.”Losing their fairytale mare was heartbreaking, but has only made her legacy all the more precious.“Our whole program was based on her,” Jerry says. “But we stuck our head out and went out and got another Hard Spun mare. We're going to breed to that line as much as we can. That's Connie's department. I just say, 'Yes. How much is it going to cost?'”“Margie's babies have all had that certain presence like she did,” Connie agrees. “There's just a chemistry. And every one of her babies has been a multiple winner. It's all been pretty amazing. Things like this just don't happen. So we're extremely lucky. We were just two people who loved this sport and love the horses and we have a trainer that feels the same way. So it's all a love affair.”The post Om N Joy and Vodka Vodka: $1.2 Million and Counting From a $20k Claim appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.