Drew Brees hasn’t been playing football this spring, but he’s kept his eyes on another sport.
The Sport of Kings, to be exact. Brees and his partners claimed the thoroughbred Siempre Mio after a race at Hollywood Park on Sunday creating an extremely rare case of a horse going from one MVP owner to another. One of Siempre Mio’s previous owners was Lakers star Kobe Bryant, the 2008 NBA MVP.
Bryant, his teammate Pau Gasol and others entered the horse in a claiming race. Claiming races put all the horses up for sale at roughly the same price and any licensed owner may claim them for the prearranged price before the start of the race. Once the race begins, the horse is the property of the new owners although any money won in the race goes to the previous owners.
In this case, the cost was $12,500 for the Super Bowl XLIV MVP and his partners in Donkey Island Racing. For that money, they got themselves a horse trained by Doug O’Neill, who also trained Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner I’ll Have Another.
According to the Associated Press, Bryant and Gasol each put up $8,000 for a quarter share in the horse which would seem to make this a good deal for Brees and company. Siempre Mio, a four-year-old, finished second in Sunday’s claimer to return $2.60 on a $2 bet. That’s a better return than you get for finishing second in the NFL.
