Magalen O. Bryant

Magalen O. Bryant, the respected long-time steeplechase owner, has continued to operate the family stable of her father, George Ohrstrom Sr. and her late brother George Ohrstrom Jr. with 120 horses in the United States and 150 in France. She has also owned horses in partnership with Centennial Farms. “On many horses,” said Cynthia Curtis, Bryant’s racing manager in the U.S. 

Curtis picked out V.E. Day at the Ocala Breeders’ March Two-Year-Olds-in-Training Sale last year. Bryant purchased him for $135,000.

Bryant has been a prominent environmentalist in Loudon and Fauquier Counties, west of Washington, D.C. She owns Locust Hill Farm in Middleburg, Va., and was one of the first property owners in that area to place her land in a conservation trust. Chairperson of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Bryant received the Land Trust of Virginia’s Conservationist of the Year Award in 2011. That same year, her home-bred Ptarmigan was the National Steeplechase Association’s Filly and Mare Champion.    

Bryant let Curtis do all the talking at the Travers’ post-race press conference. Later, in the Trustees Room, she wept watching the replay of V.E. Day’s historic victory. Someone mentioned that Art Sherman was 77 when his best horse, California Chrome, came along. “Heck, that’s a baby,” she told Steve Haskin of The Blood-Horse. “I’m 85 and I don’t give a damn anymore what anybody thinks. I still have lots to do. And today was the first goal.”