"Thoroughbreds are my love, my love, my love."

Nina Bonnie made that remark in a Sidelines magazine cover story in September 2017. Nearly nine years later Bonnie, now 91, stands by the statement. And one of her all-time favorite Thoroughbreds is her current partner, multiple stakes-winning steeplechaser Balance the Budget.

"He is 17, but doesn't think he's old at all. It's fascinating with horses -- he sort of realized he was a pretty damn good one, and people treated him very well," Bonnie said. "I love Thoroughbreds.

I'm long in the tooth, but I've ridden a million of them and I know what I can do and what I can't. And he's terrific. He's very bold.
Quiet to a point; you can rile him up a little, but he'll settle back down. I think he's very much enjoying his life."

Bonnie can speak on the subject a bit. She grew up in Upperville, Va., the daughter of Theodora Ayer Randolph. Dubbed "The First Lady of Foxhunting," Randolph served as master of the Piedmont Fox Hounds from 1954 until her death at age 90 in 1996. Among horses she owned was Bon Nouvel, champion steeplechaser of 1964, 1965 and 1968 and member of the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame.

Riding came second nature to Nina, and she's had that love since childhood. She became a top amateur hunter rider, competing -- and winning -- at Madison Square Garden and Canada's Royal Winter Fair.

She was recently nominated to the National Show Hunter Hall of Fame. Inductees will be announced at the Devon Horse Show May 27. Her husband Ned, who died in 2018, was an amateur steeplechase jockey and noted equine law attorney.

Nina's partnership with Balance the Budget is thanks to her son Robert Bonnie and his wife, steeplechase trainer Julie Gomena. Robert spotted the 3-year-old in the paddock at Saratoga Aug. 4, 2012.
Fort Larned had won the Whitney-G1 two races prior. Balance the Budget (Bellamy Road--Every Day Is Good, by El Corredor) was entered in the last race, a claimer going 11⁄16 miles on the turf. Bred by Liberation Farm and Oratis, he was then owned by Repole Stable and trained by Mike Miceli. The Kentucky-bred won and was claimed by trainer Naipaul Chatterpaul for $20,000.

"I walked into the paddock and I saw him across there and thought 'Oh that's NICE,' " Robert said. "I just got a little bee in my bonnet about the horse. We tried to claim him in New York twice and didn't get it done. Then the following spring he made his way to Churchill and was in for $16,000 and we claimed him. They had been running him a lot. We figured we would get him and he'd be really sore, or he was the soundest horse we'd ever seen. He was just hard-knocking but never good enough to be a top allowance horse on the flat. I just liked him, liked his type, and I decided we should have him."

Nina expressed mixed emotions when seeing the horse for the first time. He came into the Churchill Downs paddock with a groom on each side, bug-eyed and breathing fire.

"He was all jazzed up and didn't run worth a damn," she said. "He looked body sore to me. We sent him up to Julie in Virginia, and he was just miserable."

Sullen and grumpy, he stood with his head in the corner of his stall and seemed to dislike everyone and everything. Still, Julie, Robert and Nina all saw a good-moving, athletic individual. And he was Nina Bonnie's favorite kind: "a very old-fashioned type who stands over a lot of ground."

The new connections got shocking news when their veterinarian diagnosed the gelding with a heart murmur.

"We took him to a top vet and they basically said he's good, but you need to have him scanned every year," Robert said. "So we would do that every year in the winter before he started training. It was always fine, but that's why we didn't offer him to clients. Mom and I decided to keep him."

Balance the Budget rewarded their Stonelea Stable with a second in his hurdle debut at the Carolina Cup meet March 29, 2014. The maiden-breaker didn't come until September, after four more losses, at Shawan Downs. He kicked off 2015 with a 21-length score in the Grade 3 Budweiser Imperial Cup Hurdle Stakes at Aiken.

"It was a smokin' pace on the front," Robert said. "He sat right off them and kept running. We were just trying to get a piece, but two out from home, he was 6 lengths to the good on the lead. We thought 'Oh man, this could be a nice horse.' "

Back in Camden for the 2016 Carolina Cup, Balance the Budget won by 3¾ lengths with Mark Watts aboard. That partnership proved fruitful, with Watts figuring out exactly what the horse wanted to do.

"Mark Watts started putting Budget on the front end or just tucking in behind a hot pace," Robert said. "That's what Budget was -- he was going to run on the front end and either win or die trying."

Watts and Balance the Budget won the 2017 David L. "Zeke" Ferguson Memorial-G2 and opened 2018 with a win back at Camden in the Marion duPont Scott Colonial Cup-G1. They led by 30 lengths at the mile marker and won by 61⁄4 in the traditional fall feature that was moved to the spring before being shelved for five years.

"He ended up being a really efficient jumper and loved to train," Robert said. "We gave him a year off for a bit of a suspensory and then brought him back. The last time he ran was at Great Meadow [in June 2020], and he wasn't the same horse he had been. He was keen and had been training well, but he didn't make the lead and wasn't doing his old thing. We said 'OK, he's 11 years old. This horse doesn't owe us anything.' We retired him sound and I think three weeks later he was with Mom and she was riding him."

Retiring with an overall record of 49-9-9-5, Balance the Budget earned $416,305. He won three races on the flat, six over jumps. Robert applauds his wife's knack for finding the best post-race placement for their horses. Julie earmarked Balance the Budget for Nina years before he retired. He left Virginia and headed to Nina's Stonelea Farm in Prospect, Ky., outside Louisville -- Robert's childhood home.

"He is with me in Kentucky and he's been an absolute delight," Nina said. "But he's horrible to the other horses; very bossy. There are three or four turned out together and he just rules the roost. He gets the front stall, he has his head out all the time, and he LOVES Mrs. Pastures cookies -- so he gets them."

Nina is amazed by Budget's transformation. The weary, sour soul who arrived at Robert and Julie's farm thrived. Her heart warmed watching the gelding morph into a confident athlete.

"I've never known any horse that changed so much. He went from hating life, not liking people, being just miserable, you know? And to become very full of himself, very proud, very conceited and loving life. We've really enjoyed him. He's been a lot of fun."