Brenda Schvaneveldt Figueroa will run Kissed By An Eagle in the Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity on Sunday.

© Paul Rodriguez, Orange County Register / SCNG

CYPRESS, CA—DECEMBER 10, 2016—They’d already lost their father, a towering, almost mythical figure horse owner Mark Brown once called “the John Wayne of the racing world.”

Now, these two daughters weren’t about to lose their father’s legacy, not about to let go of that very world, the one Blane Schvaneveldt ruled from beneath the giant cowboy hat that fit him like a king’s crown.

“Just the thought of not having this barn, with his signs and his tarps, having all that go away, it was more than we could even do,” Shonna Smith says. “It was just so hard to lose him. We couldn’t lose more.”

Oh, they’ve lost in the six years since Schvaneveldt passed suddenly, at age 76, of complications from a heart arrhythmia.

They’ve lost owners, horses and money.

Lost races and sleep.

Lost – faced with no other options and with mounting expenses - employees who had to be let go.

But the one thing they haven’t lost is the spirit of the beloved trainer who won an estimated $55 million in purses and more than 5,000 races during a career that landed him in two halls of fame.

So, on Sunday, in the culmination of a feel-good, bounce-back year, the Blane Schvaneveldt Ranch will saddle Kissed By An Eagle in the headlining Los Alamitos Two Million Futurity.

“I think he’d be proud of what we’ve been able to do,” says Brenda Schvaneveldt Figueroa, Blane’s other daughter who manages the operation. “I think he’s looking down right now and smiling.”

They’ve won 18 races this year, including, in August, the 100th since Blane’s death.

In April, there was a 19-start stretch during which they had eight winners. Their trainer, Rafael Orozco, has spent much of 2016 among the track’s statistical leaders.

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Courtesy Orange County Register