Happy Birthday, John Henry
The legendary runner turns 30 today. “If any horse could live to be 30 years old — despite a checkered early career that saw him pass through the hands of multiple trainers and owners, a grueling campaign on crooked legs that earned seven Eclipse Awards (including two Horse of the Year honors), a foul disposition that made other renegades seem like Mister Rogers, and a near-fatal bout with colic at age 27 — it would be John Henry, who was to celebrate that milestone on March 9 at his home in the Hall of Champions at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington.” (Thoroughbred Times)
Related: John Henry’s Hall of Fame page; a very nice biography of the birthday boy, with photos; and an earlier Thoroughbred Times profile, “John Henry still has moxie.”
Later: More than 200 people turned out at the Kentucky Horse Park to wish John Henry a happy birthday. “Despite his reputation as a grouch, John Henry, who turned the equivalent of 98 in human years, greeted the crowd rather calmly as they joined to sing Happy Birthday and moved in for a close-up view of the gelding in his winter coat” (Blood-Horse); Photo of retired jockey Chris McCarron, who rode John Henry in his last 14 starts, patting the woolly gelding (Yahoo).
