Cantacuzene Breeds for the Long Run

Cantacuzene Breeds for the Long Run

By IV Hendrix

Make no mistake: Melissa Cantacuzene is a proud Virginian. As a child, she followed foxhounds through the Piedmont’s hardwood forests and rolling pastures. As an adult, she led the Middleburg Hunt’s field through the countryside around her home in Aldie.

But after a short stint living near Hot Springs, Arkansas, Cantacuzene and her late husband, Rodion, decided to base much of their budding Thoroughbred racing stable there. In the years since, Cantacuzene has expanded her operations to Louisiana and Maryland – and occasionally races elsewhere when conditions suit one of her horses.

Photo by Hodges Photo.

Takes Two to Tango, a 6-year-old son of Half Ours, added his sixth career victory for breeder/owner Melissa Cantacuzene in the $67,000 Louisiana Turf Cup Sprint at Louisiana Downs last August. He was ridden by Luis Quinonez and is trained by J. Luis Garcia.

While Cantacuzene’s horses in training are based far and wide, she raises most at her Landfall Farm in Aldie. Land, she explains, is perhaps the most important factor in raising a horse. And the Piedmont’s fertile soil gives way to the abundant forage necessary to nourish a developing Thoroughbred.

As Cantacuzene stands in her farmhouse kitchen slicing tomatoes for sandwiches, the Bull Run mountains form a silhouette through a south facing window. In the foreground, a group of broodmares graze as two yearling colts romp in an adjacent field.

Cantacuzene’s philosophy is simple: breed to race, then race horses where they can be most competitive.

“I’m in it for the long run,” she said. “I breed to race, and I trust my trainers to place horses where they have the best chance to win.”

She’s found success in route races and sprints, on turf and dirt, and even over jumps. Last year, Cantacuzene won the Louisiana Cup Sprint Stakes with Takes Two to Tango, a third-generation homebred. Other highlights from her career as an owner include campaigning the multiple stakes winning Louisiana-bred The Pickett Factor and winning the Colonial Cup – one of the nation’s most prestigious steeplechase races—with Sailor’s Clue.

At a time when racing is dominated by ownership syndicates that invest seemingly limitless resources into horses with the most promising bloodlines, small owner-breeders like Cantacuzene are easy to overlook. Her racing stock is the product of a broodmare band she’s cultivated over generations – and increasingly, of a shrewd decision to invest in a promising young stallion.

In 2018, Cantacuzene answered a call from longtime friend and Maryland horseman Audrey Murray, who was marketing a well-bred but unproven stallion prospect named Blofeld. A son of leading Kentucky stallion Quality Road, the graded stakes winner showed promise, so Cantacuzene purchased shares with plans to support him with her broodmares.

Her decision proved prescient. From his 2022 foal crop, Blofeld boasted 28 winners from 36 runners – an impressive start to his stallion career. Cantacuzene began 2023 with a pair of wins from two homebred daughters of Blofeld – Alpine Mist and Dance Lil Darling – at Delta Downs in Louisiana.

“I’ll send everything I can to him this year,” Cantacuzene said of her plans for her broodmare band. “So far, I’ve been delighted with the Blofelds I’ve bred.”

As Cantacuzene turned to enter her car for the trip to Baltimore’s Pimilico Race Course, where a homebred was entered later that afternoon, she paused for a moment.

“In this game, planning only takes you so far – the rest is luck,” she said with a grin.

For Cantacuzene, that’s proven to be a successful formula. With any luck, she’ll follow her next generation of homebreds to the winner’s circle from Pimlico to New Orleans’ Fair Grounds Race Course -- and all points in between.