His late father “Spence” had never understood what made Houlihan drop out of college to pursue a career in a world about which their family, despite living in the Bluegrass, knew nothing. Promptly resolving to become a trainer, Houlihan got his start in the barn of one D. Wayne Lukas. Hunter Houlihan on his wedding day with his father, Spence, at Keeneland. | courtesy Hunter HoulihanEventually Houlihan Sr. became intrigued himself–not least because he was accustomed to attending auctions where gigantic apparatus changed hands for corresponding sums. “We buy mares of this caliber when we think they can give us a Saratoga or September Book 1 yearling,” explains Houlihan.