Wildly successful for an Indiana-bred horse, Nobody Listens had 14 wins in 26 lifetime starts before dying in an accident on Sept. 24.
Bill Denver | Equi-Photo
As their light gray gelding, Nobody Listens, pulled away from the pack on the final straightaway of the Grade III Turf Monster Stakes late last month, Center Grove alumni Jason Kaylor and Matt Kwiatkowski couldn’t help but think a few weeks ahead:
Breeders’ Cup, here we come.
It was an impossible dream about to come true. Indiana bred horses don’t ordinarily enjoy much success outside of the state’s borders, but Nobody Listens was not an ordinary horse. With 14 wins and seven runner-up finishes in 26 career starts, he was enjoying almost unprecedented success and seemingly getting better with each run. He was opening doors that Kaylor and Kwiatkowski never could have imagined walking through when they started buying race horses a decade ago.
And then, in an instant, everything changed.
On Sept. 24, the day after posting the biggest victory of his career, Nobody Listens died in a freak incident on the drive home from Pennsylvania.
The loss of a thoroughbred is far from unprecedented; even though racing-related fatalities have been cut nearly in half over the past decade, there were still an estimated 330 such deaths at the track last year. But the unexpected way in which Nobody Listens died, and having it happen as the 5-year-old horse was reaching his career peak, made this particular death hit even harder for those around him.
Humble beginnings
Kaylor and Kwiatkowski, who graduated from Center Grove in 2007 and 2008, respectively, got their start by betting on races at Horseshoe Indianapolis in Shelbyville. Over time, they struck up a friendship with Shelbyville resident and fellow racing enthusiast Roger Browning, and eventually the three made the decision to begin dipping their toe into horse ownership.
Their first investment was a modest 10% stake in a horse named Seal Beach about 10 years ago; from there, the trio gradually bought in at higher and higher levels.
Browning, Kaylor and Kwiatkowski bought Nobody Listens as a 2-year-old in training back in 2020 on the recommendation of a friend, bloodstock agent Brandon Stauble. The horse, purchased in Florida but bred in Indiana, cost them $40,000.
Indiana breds aren’t typically as highly regarded, or as fast, as their counterparts from Kentucky; therefore, not many of them end up testing themselves outside of the Hoosier State.
“We always joke around, you never cross the river,” said Jordan Hash, a 2009 Whiteland graduate who was the assistant trainer for Nobody Listens. “You keep them here at home.”
Kaylor, though, says that he and his partners only buy Indiana breds.
“We like supporting the program,” he said. “We love going to the track in Shelbyville; we have a lot of friends there. We just like the Indiana program … it gives you extra races to make money and then also to develop the horse.”
Nobody Listens wasn’t dominant at first. It took him three races to break his maiden (get his first win), and he finished first just twice in his first seven starts. He closed 2021 with a flurry, though, winning three in a row at Horseshoe Indianapolis to end the year, and won the Brickyard Stakes there in 2022. After wrapping up last season with two more victories, the horse was poised to take on some bigger competition as a 5-year-old.
Running down a dream
In March, Nobody Listens went down to Turfway Park in Florence, Kentucky to compete in the Big Daddy Stakes. It was his first time racing in the Bluegrass State and the toughest competition he had faced to date. Unfazed, he led from start to finish, running the 3/4 mile in 1:09.14 and holding on for his 10th career victory.
After that win, the owners started thinking big.
“That was a big deal for us,” Kaylor said. “Then we kind of set our sights on finding a way to get to the Breeders’ Cup with him, because we thought he was that quality of horse.”
With that November finish line in mind, the plan was to get Nobody Listens ready with two straight trips to Bensalem, Pennsylvania. His narrow victory at the Parx Dash Stakes on Aug. 22 was used as a tuneup for the Turf Monster Stakes a month later — and that race wasn’t nearly as close.
Nobody Listens won the Turf Monster by three lengths in a command performance that left no doubt in his owners’ minds. He was ready for the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.
“It was just unbelievable,” said Hash, who was at Parx for that final race. “I had confidence in him; I thought we’d win the race. I told Matt we would win the race. But for him to go out there and do it like he did and how impressively — he beat a really tough group of horses, and the way he did it I thought, ‘How good, actually, is he?’ He just kept getting better and better.”
“It was the biggest thrill any of us could have,” Kaylor said. “My hands went numb; I thought I was going to pass out. That was just the biggest joy of our life.”
Twenty-four hours later, everyone involved with Nobody Listens was living a nightmare.
Gone in an instant
On Sept. 24, Team Nobody Listens was on its way home, still riding high as it made its way into the Columbus, Ohio area. The truck and trailer was going through construction traffic when a semi-truck coming up on the right side had to slow abruptly and hit its compression release brake, startling the horse.
“It sounded like shotguns going off,” Hash said. “Pow-pow-pow-pow-pow-pow-pow-pow! And I felt the trailer start shaking; that’s probably when he slipped and cut himself.”
Nobody Listens severed an artery. By the time the truck could pull over and Hash could get into the trailer some three or four minutes later, it was too late.
“There ain’t much you can do at that point,” Hash said.
More than the money
As owners, Kaylor, Kwiatkowski and Browning obviously look at their race horses as an investment — and Nobody Listens was an extremely sound one, accumulating $704,230 in career earnings and $339,740 just this year alone.
But these are living, breathing beings, not inanimate objects. Spend enough time around them, and you’re bound to develop an emotional connection.
So while the potential financial loss — as a gelding with no breeding value, Nobody Listens was likely to have continued racing for several years — certainly does register, it’s not what really matters.
“Roger said it was like losing a kid to him,” Kaylor said. “He was out there every day, feeding him carrots. Same to me — it’s worse than losing a pet. You love them. Especially him, because he was just so special. We’ll never have another horse, no matter how many we buy, that’s like him again. He was just super special, and he was such a kind horse. My son cried for over an hour when he found out.”
Head trainer Tim Eggleston, who houses the local ownership group’s horses at his Scottsburg barn during the winter, says Nobody Listens was a “people horse” who nonetheless preferred a distraction-free environment when it was time to get down to business.
“That’s the way he was,” Eggleston said. “He knew his job, and leave me alone and let me do it. Take care of me and I’ll take care of you. He was very professional; that’s what made him stand out is he was so professional about his job. He was happy to be there, and he loved the work.”
Much like Browning, Eggleston says that losing this particular horse was “like losing a family member.”
For those such as Hash, who says he spends as many as 16 hours a day around the stables, losing any horse is difficult. But losing Nobody Listens hurt like nothing else he could recall.
“On the way home, you’re all excited,” Hash said. “Everybody’s calling you, congratulations … and you’re ready to go out to California. We’re like, planning trips already out there, what are we going to do out there? Then you’re so close to home, and an accident that only took three and a half minutes to take place, and just, it all be gone. It’s a numb feeling. Like, it happened so fast. It’s just hard to this day; I think about it every day. Just walking by his stall and him not being there — it’s tough.”
Moving forward
Nobody Listens will leave a permanent imprint with everyone on his team, from the owners to the trainers to their families and race fans at Horseshoe Indianapolis and beyond. Hash likened him to Michael Jordan.
The 35-year-old Kaylor will stay in the horse racing game but doesn’t expect to ever have another horse who can accomplish what Nobody Listens did. Eggleston, meanwhile, is keeping that elusive Breeders’ Cup dream alive in his mind.
“Hopefully we’ll find us another one,” he said. “That’s our goal.”
Even if they do, Nobody Listens will always be that first horse that made these guys believe that it was possible for an Indiana bred horse to reach the uppermost levels of thoroughbred racing. He cracked that glass ceiling, even if he didn’t get to rise through it himself.
Kaylor will remember him as “the prettiest horse” out there, a majestic light-gray beauty who almost looked a supernatural white when the light hit him the right way on race night.
Others on the team will remember his special talent and the doors it opened up for all of them.
“He’ll always hold a special place in my heart as being the best I’ve ever had,” Hash said. “We’ve had nothing like him.”
“It was an awesome ride he took us on,” Eggleston added. “I think he enjoyed it, too, as much as we did.”
