CS III, llc Management bio

Chieftain Stables III, LLC is managed by Robert Thomas (Tom) Gardiner.  Tom was born and raised in Garden City, Kansas.  He graduated high school and community college there.    He then moved to the Wichita, KS area where he continued his education and began work in the data processing, now Information Technology (IT), area.  

He became a computer programmer, specializing in financial accounting applications.  In 1969, he went to work for McDonnell-Douglas Automation and later the Astronautics companies in St. Louis, MO.  While working there, he attended night school at the University of Missouri - St. Louis and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration.

With the emergence of the IT field, a need to audit and control IT activities arose.  With Tom's extensive IT experience, it was a natural transition for him into the internal audit field, specializing in the auditing of all aspects of IT.  In that capacity, Tom went to work for Northern Natural  Gas Company in Omaha, NE and its parent company, InterNorth.  InterNorth then merged with Houston Natural Gas to become the infamous Enron.  Tom was wise enough, or lucky enough, to leave the company shortly after the merger, not wanting to move to Houston from Omaha.

In 1988, Tom joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City as a Sr. IT Auditor.  In 1993, he transferred to the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond (VA) to help with the Fed's consolidation and centralization of their IT services.  Tom worked in various capacities at the Richmond Fed until he retired in 2008.

Upon retirement, Tom moved back to western Kansas to be closer to his family and to help settle the estate of his recently-deceased father.  However, in November, 2009, he "unretired" and went to work for Boot Hill Casino and Resort in Dodge City, KS which was just opening as the country's first state-owned casino.  Tom went to work for the management company that ran the casino for the state.  Six weeks after going to work for the casino, Tom was promoted to the position of Director of Internal Audit.  He remained in that position until he once again retired in 2015.

Throughout his life, Tom has been an avid sports fan and participant.  Tom played high school sports and one year of college football at Ft. Hays State University in KS.  He continued playing softball, basketball, football, and golf for several more years.  He also became very active in the sport of rugby, as a player, coach, referee, and administrator.  Tom also enjoyed long distance running, completing five marathons.  Tom's involvement in those various sports, along with his family life and work career, took up all his time into his 50's.  

During the time Tom worked in Omaha he got to know and became friends with Don Cheloha.  Don was the Audit Manager for Northern Natural Gas Company at the time.  But more to the point, Don was also the owner, breeder and trainer of thoroughbred horses.  Don and his family lived just west of Omaha at the time.  Don would train his racing horses at his home in the mornings, work during the day, maybe race some of his horses in the afternoon or on the weekends, and then take care of his horses at night.

Having not been around horses much in his life, Tom started visiting Don at his home and at the various tracks at which Don raced and trained.  It was during that time that Tom fell in love with the horses and all the activities involved with them.

While the love of horses was there, Tom really didn't have time in his life to pursue those interests until his active participation in other sports began to slow down considerably.  While working for the Fed in Kansas City, Tom took a part-time position as a teller at the newly-opened greyhound and horse track, The Woodlands, near Kansas City, KS.  Likewise, he did went to work for a new horse race track, Colonial Downs, when Tom moved to Virginia.  During that time, Tom got to know several people involved with the construction and operation of the new racetrack.

Colonial Downs ran their racing meet during the summer in the beginning.  Tom and some of his friends had a box seat right at the finish line at Colonial Downs.  From there, he got to meet and converse with horse owners, trainers, jockeys, and other box seat holders near him.

At the end of the 2004 racing season in Virginia, Tom and several other box seat holders met and agreed that it might be more interesting to watch their own horse or horses race as opposed to watching other people's horses race.  To that end, they agreed to form a group with the intention of acquiring and racing a thoroughbred horse.  Tom agreed to lead the group.  The group included a retired trainer and his daughter, both of whom were very familiar with the ins and outs of claiming and racing thoroughbred horses.

After gathering information and gauging the interest of prospective members, the group had their first meeting in November 2004.  The group agreed to proceed and The Box Seat Bunch, LLC was born!  Over the next few months, "shares" were sold and money accumulated in the LLC's bank account.  In May 2005, the group was finally licensed, funded at $30,000, and ready to claim a horse!

Ann Merryman, of the storied Merryman horse family of Maryland, agreed to be the group's trainer.  Ann was based in Maryland, but trained and raced at Colonial Downs that summer.  In May 2005, The Box Seat Bunch, LLC claimed Trego, a three year old gelding, at Pimlico Racecourse in Baltimore, MD. Pimlico is, of course, the home of the Preakness Stakes.  Trego won the race from which we claimed him, and that was our beginning!

Since that time, Tom has formed and managed several more groups, with Chieftain Stables III, LLC being the current ownership group.