Zachariah’s Champ Secures Belmont Stakes Win
Allan Zachariah leaned on his Kentucky roots to attain incredible success in horse racing in a short amount of time.
After 37 years with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and now with the AJT, , Jaffe’s focus is lifestyle, art, dining, fashion, and community events with emphasis on Jewish movers and shakers.
Local businessman Allan Zachariah knows the sweet smell of success … and alfalfa.
Along with wife, Alison Rand, and partners Lillian and Larry Connolly, his horse, Dornoch, won the coveted Belmont against 17:1 odds. And the winning continues.
Zachariah explained, “We were thrilled to have not only Dornoch in the Kentucky Derby this year, but also 3-year-old colt Society Man. For a small outfit like ours [West Paces Racing] in our fourth year, having two horses in the Kentucky Derby is like a’ black swan’ event. It just doesn’t happen!”
The group goes to most major racing events: the Kentucky Derby, Pegasus Cup, Breeders Cup, and spends summers in Saratoga Springs for the racing season.
Zachariah’s first memory of horse racing was in 1969 when his Louisville synagogue, Anshei Sfard, held a Kentucky Derby raffle. He got hooked “watching” their horse win. As a teen, he worked at Derby parties and started going to the Derby at 17.
He recalled, “I went 18 years in a row … starting off paying $5 to get in the infield where we never saw a horse, until years later when I was working for Arthur Andersen, going in a suit and sitting in the famous Third Floor Clubhouse boxes.”
As a student at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, he went to the Keeneland Racetrack which he labels the “Augusta National of horse racing.” As a CPA, he helped establish the first Saudi-backed horse farm in Kentucky and had family clients that were in the thoroughbred and Arabian horse business.
Now with varying syndicates, annually they invest in up to one-half the value of 8 to 12 horses as yearlings; then send them to an Ocala, Fla., farm which lasts four to six months. They are then sent to training to get race ready.
He said, “We had some early success prior to 2024. Dubyuhnell won an early Grade 2 Derby prep race in December of 2022 and had us on the Kentucky Derby trail. Unfortunately, “Duby” failed to progress as a 3-year-old. This past year we were fortunate enough to have a horse “for the ages.”
Dornoch, named after the famous Scottish golf course Royal Dornoch. He won the same race as Duby in December of 2023 and then the Fountain of Youth (Grade 2) at Gulfstream in February 2024, which qualified him for the Derby. Dornoch ran a disappointing fourth in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga in late August. He has one more race, the Breeders Cup Classic, in November. If he performs well there, he could be awarded 3-year-old Horse of the Year. After that, he is on to his next career as a stallion.
Dornoch’s breeding rights were sold after his Belmont win, where they retain the right to two breedings per year to breed Dornoch to a mare they own.
Understanding the math, Dornoch cost $325,000 at auction (2022). They buy into horses ranging from $100,000 to $500,000 at sales. It costs about $40,000 a year to properly care for each horse.
He explained, “In the 2-year-old year, we start to race them and hope they start to cover their costs if not more at the racetrack.”
Although they are not yet into extensive breeding, Zachariah said, “The fee to bring your mare to a stallion can be as little as $10,000, all the way up to $250,000 for the most sought-after stallions. At the sales, we buy the best athlete we can find for the money. Usually an equal number of colts and fillies.”
They work with a bloodstock agent — a blood lines expert who evaluates what it takes to be successful at the track. “The typical horse will race three to five years. The super successful colts, like Dornoch, tend to stop racing after three as they are so valuable in the breeding shed. Less successful colts are gelded … and may race until seven and later. The fillies will race until they become broodmares and start having babies of their own.”
Zachariah spent his early career as a tax accountant. In 2010, at age 50, with two partners, he started Pathstone, an integrated wealth management outsourced family office company, focused on building multi-generational wealth. He describes himself as “a CPA at heart, but one with a personality.”
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