Tag: Saratoga

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Horse Park Happenings

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Time flies!  I can’t believe it has almost been a week since I spent a day at the world famous Kentucky Horse Park.  On July 25th the park hosted Hats Off Day to  salute Kentucky’s Horse Industry and to benefit the Kentucky Horse Park Foundation and the Kentucky Equine Humane Center.  Both are fantastic charities.

The KY Horse Park was built in Lexington, KY in 1978.  The park is both a horse farm and an educational facility.  Many competitions take place here as well.  I arrived at lunch and had a nice picnic taking in the views of the last of the white fences.  I have fond childhood memories of visiting and even camping at the park.  It has always had endless looking acres of white fences with lush green grass and horses everywhere.  About 18,000 horses visit the park annually and some live here permanently.  Very recently the decision was made to start painting the fences black as the white paint is too expensive to maintain.  I could see some of the new fence work in place.  It seems a little sad.

After lunch, I began photographing the beautiful statues and plaques in place to honor some of the most famous Thoroughbreds.  I also toured some barns and the museum.  I could write all year about the things I saw here but a picture is worth a thousand words.  Here are some Secretariat pics.

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Also, some nice Man O’ War photos.

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I got some Alysheba and John Henry pics too.

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Then, I saw my favorite part of the day!  My parents said it was like taking me to Disneyland.  We saw the Hall of Champions featuring Funny Cide, Go For Gin and Da Hoss. The KY Horse Park is the only home of 2 live Kentucky Derby winners.  Funny Cide won both the 2003 KY Derby and Preakness as well as an Eclipse Award that same year.  Go For Gin won the KY Derby in 1994 and ran 2nd in both other parts of the Triple Crown in 1994 too.  He is the oldest living KY Derby winner.  Da Hoss won the 1996 and 1998 Breeders’ Cup Mile.  I got to see each of theses beauties in the barn and the show presentation.

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I had such a great trip last weekend. There was some great racing going on this weekend.  Saratoga, in New York, featured several graded stakes including the Grade 1 Diana and Grade 1 Coaching Club of American Oaks.  Go For Gin showed 3rd at Saratoga in the Forego in 1994.  Forego lived in Funny Cide’s stall until he passed away in 1997.  Forego won 8 Eclipse Awards.  Funny Cide has a Saratoga race named for him that will take place August 28, 2015.  Da Hoss finished 1st place in the Fourstardave Stakes at Saratoga in 1996.  The race I am most excited about is this Sunday, 8/2/15, at Monmouth Park, in New Jersey.  It is the first time our Triple Crown winner, American Pharoah will race since he won the Belmont Stakes.  The race he will be in is the $1.75 Million William Hill Haskell Invitational.  Funny Cide showed 3rd in this same race back in 2003.  For sure there will be great Thoroughbreds making history this weekend that will someday be memorialized or perhaps even come to live at The Kentucky Horse Park!

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Midterm Musing

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It is hot and sticky here today in Kentucky.  There are no live races at Keeneland or Churchill Downs right now and that is certainly a bummer, but I’m using this time to reflect on the Thoroughbred scene on a more national and even international level.

Del Mar in California just got started this Thursday and attending there would certainly be a fantasy vacation for me.  Also, we got word this week that California Chrome should heal up nicely as he is moving to Taylor Made Farms in Kentucky soon.  Just hours ago, Taylor Made announced that in about 60 to 75 days they will host a Fan Day for Chrome after he rests up.  I live nearby and I am hoping I get to see Chrome.  Additionally, we are right about in the middle of the year for the 78 international stakes races, or Breeders’ Cup Challenge, that feeds winners into the corresponding 13 Grade 1 races that make up the  32nd Breeders’ Cup World Championships.

I touched on the Breeders’ Cup before in Racing Renaissance.  To refresh you, there are 13 countries that come to North America and once in Canada to compete.  The race moves annually to different tracks and some with repetition.  This is the 1st year Keeneland, in Lexington, KY, will host the event which is the richest 2 days in sport.  The purse is $26 million dollars.  The richest day is sport happens to be the Dubai World Cup Night.  The Breeders’ Cup got its start in 1984.  The BC Classic is the best race of the series.  The purse for that race alone is $5 million dollars.  The other races are the Juvenile Turf, Dirt Mile, Juvenile Fillies Turf, Longines Distaff, Juvenile Fillies, Filly and Mare Turf, Filly and Mare Sprint, Turf Sprint, Sentient Jet Juvenile, Longines Turf, Sprint and finally, the Mile.  First, contenders are elected 3 ways. They may enter based on performance in the Breeders’ Cup Challenge, or by a point system, or be chosen by an expert panel.  The point system uses Grade 1, 2 and 3 select races to give 10 points to a winner, 6 to place and 4 to show at Grade 1.  Grade 2 awards 6, 4, and 2 points respectively while Grade 3 gives 4, 2 and 1 points, in that order.  Each of the 13 BC Championship races,except for the Dirt Mile, has 14 horses entered.  The Dirt Mile has just 12.  Of these half come from the BC Challenge and points and the other half from the panel.

The “Win and You’re In” BC Challenge began gathering contenders January 10th. There were 2 races in January, 3 in April, 2 in May, 9 in June, 8 occurring this July, 15 to take place in August, 22 in September and 16 will finish up in October.  We have 21 winners already.  The two BC Classic Contenders from the Challenge are Noble Bird And Hard Aces.  The 1st of the 7 BC Challenge races, that lead to the Classic, was the Stephen Foster Handicap where Noble Bird won at Churchill on 6/13/15.  On 6/27 Victor Espinoza rode Hard Aces in the Gold Cup at Santa Anita.  Next we have the Haskell Invitational Stakes on 8/2 in Monmouth Park where American Pharoah will compete for the 1st time since his 2015 Triple Crown sweep. 8/8 will bring the Whitney Handicap in Saratoga, then the Pacific Classic will take place at Del Mar 8/22.  On 9/26 the Awesome Again Stakes will be held at Santa Anita and then The Jockey Club Gold Cup will be at Belmont Park on 10/3.

In between and all around these dates a whole lot of other races for the BC Challenge and regular Thoroughbred racing will take place too.  I am excited to try and keep up with it all.  I am looking forward to the Haskell Invitational. American Pharoah has 7 consecutive wins and Bob Baffert has won the Haskell 7 times.  I’m hoping 8 is lucky for the both of them.  I have a friend who owns Quiet Force who is racing in the Arlington Million on August 15th.  This was suppose to be California Chrome’s next race before the bruise.  I wish Quiet Force all the luck.  If he wins he will qualify for the BC Longines Turf.

If you can’t make it to the races right now, like me, keep on watching and reading!  One reader wants help identifying Willie Shoemaker’s white and black checkered silks with a yellow cap that he won at auction.  The Shoemaker Mile, named for this famed jockey, took place 6/13/15.  It is a BC Challenge race and the winner Talco may now contend in the BC Mile.  Is there anyone that can help my reader out? Please, check out the comments section.  I’ve been looking but I don’t have his answer yet.  I haven’t quit trying yet but feel free to make it easy on me.  Thank you!

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