The Landry brothers are currently third on the Northlands Park leading owners list with eight wins from 29 runners (28 percent) with purse earnings of $135,017. Their small stable of about 15 horses is behind only the powerful, larger stables of Bar None Ranches and Riversedge Racing Stables. Including a few runners at other tracks, the brothers have won 10 races from just 35 starters.
Owning and racing thoroughbreds has been a family business for generations of Landrys for decades. It was the brothers’ father, Peter Landry, whose ancestors were involved in chuckwagons and rodeo, who made the first move to horse racing.
Peter Landry still races a small stable throughout North American but Darrell, 37, and Curtis, 39, transformed their partnership with the father into their own stable.
“It’s strictly a hobby for us,” said Darrell Landry. “But we run it as a business.” The Landrys are no strangers to good business as the family owned and sold Lanco Oil Services. The Landry brothers work for Casa Energy Services, an off-shoot company of Lanco.
Their time is mostly taken up by their careers but they enjoy being hands-on with the racing stable, keeping in close contact with their trainers Greg Tracy and Tim Rycroft.
“We were always around horse racing as kids,” said Darrell. “Curtis was around it a bit more than me, I got motion sickness from car rides and I didn’t like traveling to tracks. But Curtis spent a whole summer at Grand Prairie once.”
It was about 10 years ago that the brothers got together and shared ownership of their father’s horses. Their first batch of yearling purchases were all winners and one, Quiet Approach, a Maryland-bred by Cuvee, was a stakes winner in 2010.
In recent years, the brothers Landry have been out on their own, picking out their runners from circuits in New York, Kentucky, California and British Columbia and buying yearlings.
“Three years ago my brother and I started a plan to try and bring some middle level horses from U.S. tracks to Northlands Park,” said Curtis Landry. “We wanted to help inject some more horses into our circuit.”
This year’s stable stars the very good Alberta-bred filly Tell Me Lies, a double stakes winner as a two-year-old in 2012 and winner of the June 16 Chariot Chaser Stakes at Northlands Park.
During the same week that Tell Me Lies (by Captain Bodgit) won the Chariot Chaser, the stable won with six of seven starters.
Then, on July 10, their two-year-old gelding True Thought (by Yes It’s True) won his juvenile debut at 3 1/2 furlongs by a whopping 6 3/4 lengths. The gelding is a Louisiana bred and was a $38,000 yearling purchase by Tracy, at the Keeneland September sale in 2012.
At the yearling sales, the brothers seek out the youngsters with ideal conformation, stating “we want horses that will last, so conformation and balance are the biggest things for us.”
The brothers say they play the yearling sales selectively, buying anywhere from three to 10 at any one time. They also estimate they have bought and sold over 100 horses since 2007.
Darrell’s family lives on a 30-acre farm in Sturgeon County and his wife Alicia looks after the stable’s runners when they are on lay-up. New for 2013 for the Landrys are three mares in foal for 2014.
“We’re just having fun in the business,” said Curtis. “It’s the thrill of the wins. This year we hope to have some good two-year-olds who will develop into good three-year-olds. Maybe we can have one for the Canadian Derby next year, that’s a goal.”
