By Elliott Brack
Editor and publisher, GwinnettForum
SEPT. 12, 2025 | Dean Reeves of Suwanee was told by a racing official there would be a delay. The official at the Royal Ascot near London, England, told him: “The King wants to present the trophy to you.”
Reeves’ horse, the filly Porta Fortuna, on June 21, 2024, won one of England’s key horse races, the Coronation Cup. And a few minutes later, there was Reeves, in the required English full dress of top hat and tails, shaking hands with King Charles of England at the presentation.
How did all this happen?
Reeves’ profession is as co-owner, with Eric Young, of Reeves-Young of Sugar Hill, which is the largest engineering firm in Gwinnett, with 750 employees. They also have offices in Greenville, S.C., Nashville, Tenn., plus a new one in Savannah.
Reeves, 73, is now chairman of the firm his father started in 1952 in Brookhaven, finding a new machine for digging trenches for plumbers, which expanded into digging water lines, sewer lines and storm drainage. He came to work with his father after graduating from Georgia Tech. After finding success by expanding the company and getting multiple contracts in Atlanta, especially with the Atlanta Beltline, by looking toward the future, he moved the company to Suwanee in 2007.
While on vacation in Turks and Caicos Islands in 2007, a friend asked if he would like to go in with him and buy a race horse. That floored Reeves, for he had never thought of the idea. Reeves was already a fan of horseracing, having attended the Kentucky Derby most years since 1976. He soon found out that buying race horses was fascinating and difficult but somewhat expensive. And soon after, he and a partner bought their first race horse in 2009 at the Keeneland sale in Kentucky.
In 2009, he and his wife, Patti, formed Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, and he became thoroughly interested in the sport. Today, he has a stable of over 50 horses at their training facility at Two Springs Farm, near Micanopy, Fla., where they have 70 stalls.
He now spends most of the summer racing season in Saratoga, N.Y., with his two year old horses trying to earn themselves a contender for the Kentucky Derby.
“We have three horses this year who look like they could qualify for the Derby in 2026. They are Holding Power, Talkin’ and Golden Tornado, named for the color of my alma mater, yellow and gold, and which, with the green my wife added, are our racing colors.” The racing season for two year olds begins in October,” Reeves says. “Beginning this fall, the horses will have to earn enough points to become a Derby qualifier.”
A trainer called Reeves one day in 2010, then sent film of a race at Gulfstream Park in Florida. “We ought to buy the winner,” the trainer told him. But Reeves saw it differently: “I think we ought to buy the horse that placed second. I like the way he looks, and his athletic ability, and he’s big, 17 hands high.” Soon after, they bought the horse. That was Mucho Macho Man, who was third in the 2011 Kentucky Derby, and later won the 2013 Breeder’s Cup Challenge. He now stands for stud, living in Canada.
Meanwhile, Dean and Patti have seen horseracing overseas, in England, France, Ireland, Dubai and Saudi Arabia.
Porta Fortuna also won the Royal Queen race in 2003, giving Reeves a chance to see Queen Elizabeth that year.
Reeves reflects: “Who would think a boy from Georgia would, because of horse racing, see Queen Elizabeth and shake hands with King Charles?”
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