2003 Cal-bred News

S L U Inc. has Cal Cup Presence

SAN RAMON, Calif. (Nov. 3, 2003) -- About nine years ago, Larry and Sheila Ullmann got some advice from one of California’s leading Thoroughbred breeders that changed their lives.

“We had been breeding horses on a small level without a lot of success,” Sheila Ullmann recalled at the couple’s home near Pleasanton.

Married since 1960, they are incorporated in the horse business as S L U, Inc., a reflection of their names.

“One day we asked Buddy Johnston what he felt we could do to make some money in this business,” Sheila said. “Buddy said, ‘Race your horses.’ We started doing that and we’ve never regretted it.”

Johnston is the longtime owner and primary force behind Old English Rancho in Sanger, the facility where the Ullmanns maintain their stallions and broodmares, and where members of their racing stock were foaled.

Two full-sisters bred by the Ullmanns --5-year-old Bold Roberta, whom they still own, and 4-year-old Roberta’s Mango -- are scheduled to run Saturday at Santa Anita in the $150,000 John Deere California Cup Distaff at about 6 ½ furlongs down the hillside turf course.

They are by the Ullmann’s late sire, Bold Badgett, out of Roberta Ullmann.

Amber Hills, a 3-year-old Bold Badgett filly out of Princess of Honey and also bred by the Ullmanns, is expected to contest the $100,000 TVG Distance Handicap at 1 ¼ miles on the grass.

“With the premiums available to California breeders, we think it’s wonderful to breed horses in this state,” Sheila Ullmann said. “Doing well in the Cal Cup would mean a lot to us. We hope to do better than the Oakland Raiders are doing lately.”

The reference to Oakland’s beleaguered 2-6 National Football League team isn’t incidental.

Sheila Ullmann worked for the club in its early days in the old American Football League and remembers with fondness the good times and friendly people.

“I worked for Wayne Valley, one of the co-founders of the team,” she recalled. “Bill Walsh (who later led the San Francisco 49ers to four Super Bowl championships) was an assistant coach and I remember him running copies on the old mimeograph machine. Larry and I are still friends of his.”

She hopes that the young equines she and her husband are breeding serve in contrast to the Raiders’ age-induced decline.

“A lot of people up here, even old-time fans, knew the team had gotten too old to be among the top contenders anymore,” she said. “Now everybody’s laughing at them and at (owner) Al Davis.”

The Ullmanns suffered a severe loss in August, 2001, when Bold Badgett, their premier sire, died at the age of 16 following surgery to repair a severe arthritic condition in his right knee.

“He’d had the problem all his life so he never raced,” Sheila said. “But even though he had trouble putting weight on that leg, he was a good breeder right up to his last year.

“After the surgery, he seemed OK. But when he got up, all the bone between his shoulder and his knee shattered, so we had to put him down. It was sort of the same thing that happened to Ruffian.”

Along with Thoroughbreds, the Ullmanns are avid breeders of Havana Brown cats, a species of felines known for their chocolate-colored coats and green eyes. They have given the same names to many of their horses and cats and found to their surprise that other people had done the same.

“We’ve found people with cats named Native Dancer and Secretariat and the names of other great horses,” Sheila said. “It turns out that they’d bred quarter horses before they got involved with cats.”

Larry, 70, who retired from the flexible packaging business 10 years ago, found that being in the cat business was literally good for his health.

“He needed heart bypass surgery last year and a woman we sold a cat to us referred us to a surgeon who was involved in harvesting veins to use in the procedure,” Sheila Ullmann said. “The surgeon performed six bypasses on Larry’s heart and three weeks later Larry was out driving around again.”
-- Larry Bortstein