Lauren Alderman knows how fighter pilots think and what makes them tick. After all, she is married to one who flew B-2 stealth bombers and the C-130J Super Hercules aircraft for the Air Force.“They're thrill-seeker type guys,” she said. “They love the adrenaline rush. It's a pilot thing.”So when Lauren and her husband Kyle decided to start a racing partnership called Aurora Thoroughbreds, among the first people they contacted and asked to get involved were pilots that Kyle has befriended during his time in the military. They were sure that they would enjoy the thrills, ups and downs and, yes, adrenaline rush that are among the reasons people get involved in Thoroughbred ownership.“We figured it would be a natural fit,” Lauren said. “There's a natural transition there, the transition of the high speed of the skies to being involved in horse ownership.”Aurora Thoroughbreds is just getting started and made its first start on Aug. 21 at Ellis Park when its Good Mojo (Mo Town), a horse it had just claimed, finished third in a $50,000 claimer. Looking on were the 20 partners who have already signed up with Aurora Thoroughbreds. More than half are pilots, including several who flew the B-2 bomber. The name Aurora comes not from the city in Colorado; instead, Aurora was an arbitrary budgetary code name assigned by a Pentagon colonel to cover funding for the Advanced Technology Bomber (ATB) competition—the design competition that ultimately produced the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber.“The name Aurora is supposed to be a quiet ode to the fact that most of the people in the syndicate are either current or former B-2 pilots,” Kyle said.Kyle didn't exactly sit on the sidelines while in the Air Force. He flew combat missions in Afghanistan and elsewhere before leaving the Air Force in 2019. He continued in the military, joining the Kentucky Air National Guard. He's still active with the National Guard, but his main job now is flying for UPS. After he joined UPS, the Aldermans moved to Louisville, a major hub for the package delivery company. Until making that move, the Aldermans paid little attention to horse racing.Aurora Thoroughbreds' Chris Young and managing director Kyle Alderman | courtesy Aurora Thoroughbreds“We were stationed in Little Rock at one point and we did go to a couple of races at Oaklawn and thought it was a lot of fun,” Lauren said. “So we had some small exposure there. Then when we moved here and people kept telling us, 'You're in Kentucky now. You better get to know horse racing and bourbon.' Like a lot of people who don't live in Kentucky, all we paid attention to was the Kentucky Derby. The first time we went to the track, it seemed so much more accessible and less elite than I would have expected. We had a blast.”Their interest piqued, they did a tour of a horse farm, experienced Dawn at the Downs, and they toured the backstretch this year during Derby week with a friend who owns horses.“We got the bug, and we got it hard,” Kyle said.After the trip to the Derby backstretch, the Aldermans decided they wanted to become horse owners. It was suggested to them that a good way to start would be to join a racing partnership. But the more they looked into that, the more the realized that wasn't what they were looking for. They wanted to be more hands-on.“We talked to a few people who were in syndicates and it seemed to us like everything was sort of at a distance,” Kyle said. “You send in your money and then you start to get email updates. 'Your horse worked this morning. This was the time. Here's the jockey who will be riding him in his next race.' That didn't seem like a fit for us. We decided to just do this ourselves.”Aurora still has just the one horse, Good Mojo. The Aldermans understand nothing is going to happen overnight, but they have plans to claim a few more horses and are also interested in pinhooking. Kyle is a natural number-cruncher and said that he relies heavily on data and computer models that he has developed to guide him in the decision-making process.The Aldermans are enjoying running their own syndicate, which has also helped them to reconnect with their friends in the pilot community.“It's kind of cool because we're all staying in touch and connected and we're not all local in the same area,” Kyle said. “It is kind of cool to see everybody come together. We've made some incredible connections over 20 years with these people. When we decided to do this syndicate, these were the first people we reached out to to see if they were interested. The whole process has been very endearing to us and we really like it. Our membership is the same way. I've had people calling me this morning with excitement and everyone's ready to go forward. They're asking me, 'When are we going to buy our next horse?' They've got the bug as much as we do.”The post Making New Owners, Presented By Ownerview: Aurora Thoroughbreds Is Hoping To Be A Top Gun In Racing appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.