Robert Zoellner had only three broodmares left in the spring of 2023, and the outlook for his breeding operation hardly suggested a future Triple Crown contender. One mare failed to get pregnant, another lost her foal, and the third would eventually produce Crupper — the colt now set to line up in Saturday’s 151st running of the Preakness Stakes at Laurel Park.
For Zoellner, the achievement already feels extraordinary.
Preakness Stakes 2026 preview.
“If there are about 20,000 foals and half are fillies, your chance is just one in 10,000,” Zoellner said. “I feel like I’ve won the lottery.”
The Tulsa-based owner-breeder, known to friends across the racing world as “Dr. Z,” has spent more than two decades campaigning horses with trainer Donnie K. Von Hemel. Despite enjoying success over the years, he has never before had a runner in one of American racing’s Triple Crown events.
Now, thanks to Crupper’s steady rise through the ranks, that long wait is over.
The colt enters the Preakness after producing the best performance of his career in the Bathhouse Row Stakes at Oaklawn Park, where the added distance and the introduction of blinkers appeared to unlock significant improvement. Victory in that race secured an automatic berth into the 1 3/16-mile classic.
Although listed among the outsiders on the morning line, Crupper’s recent form has given his connections genuine encouragement heading into the second leg of the Triple Crown.
“This horse Crupper, he’s a third-generation baby of mine,” Zoellner said. “To have that legacy of his parents and grandparents, to see him mature, every step of the way, there are traps and snares waiting for him. Then to get through all of that, get to the races and now to be at this level — it’s unbelievable.”
The colt’s story stretches well beyond the racetrack. Bred from the graded stakes-winning mare She’s All In, Crupper was raised at the Kentucky farm of horseman Keith Crupper, who formed an immediate attachment to the colt from the day he was born.
“He facetimed me when he was born; he was so excited,” Zoellner recalled. “Even the night he was born, he was just taken with him. He popped up and was very active. He was always dominant around the farm with the other colts. He was just ‘the man’ coming out of the womb.”
That confidence never faded.
“This one stood up, and I was like, ‘This is the horse we’ve been waiting on,’” Keith Crupper said. “He was just special from the jump.”
Crupper’s emergence has also carried emotional weight for the people closest to him. She’s All In died while foaling last year, and despite desperate efforts to save the newborn foal during severe weather, the youngster could not be rescued.
The colt also became the final horse prepared for Zoellner by respected Texas horseman Al Pike before Pike’s death last summer after a long illness.
“This was the last horse he had for Z,” Keith Crupper said. “He’d call me up and say, ‘He’s really good, but he’s got to overcome your name.’ Then he’d start laughing and hang up.”
Crupper needed four starts to break his maiden, though his connections always believed distance would bring out his best qualities. After blinkers were added, his performances became more consistent, culminating in the breakthrough stakes success at Oaklawn Park.
Interestingly, trainer Von Hemel admitted the Preakness implications of the Bathhouse Row Stakes were not uppermost in his thinking beforehand.
“It never crossed my mind,” he said. “I just wanted it because it was a mile and an eighth.”
Zoellner, however, admitted his imagination was already racing ahead.
“As an owner, we sit around all day and we get to dream and hope and pray,” he said. “When you run once a month roughly, you’ve got 29 or 30 days between races to dream. That’s what we owners do. We’re the head cheerleaders and head dreamers for the horses.”
The decision to target the Preakness was further strengthened when jockey Junior Alvarado, who partnered Crupper in the Bathhouse Row Stakes, confirmed his availability for Saturday’s contest.
“I’ve got a great trainer. I’ve got a great jockey,” Zoellner said. “You can’t win if you’re not in. It’s exciting. It will be fun. As an owner, it’s a victory just to be in this race, especially a little guy like me.”
For Zoellner, the scale of the achievement remains difficult to process.
“I had one horse born three years ago,” he said. “One baby, and here I am running in the second leg of the Triple Crown. That’s a dream come true.”
The 151st Preakness Stakes at Laurel Park now offers Crupper the biggest challenge of his career, but regardless of the result, the colt has already delivered a remarkable chapter for a small breeding operation that dared to keep dreaming.
For more stories, results, and updates from the world of horse racing, stay tuned to racebuzz
