It’s a 20-hour round-trip journey from Wytheville, Va., to Troy, N.Y. As it turns out, that’s also the perfect amount of time to impulse purchase a horse. 

Patrick O’Neill, nephew to two-time Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Doug O’Neill and bloodstock agent Dennis O’Neill, had a different interest from most college kids when he was an undergraduate student and a member of Brown University’s football team. He insisted on adding TVG to the fraternity house’s cable television package; he was the one who watched horse racing at every opportunity, including in class and in film study prior to practice.