Railbird 2004–2019

Horses Archive

America America, New Mother

The filly America America caught racing fans’ attention in 2003 with her unconventional career — she raced 17 times in four countries as a two-year-old — and with her win in the 2004 Lone Star Oaks as a three-year-old. She was retired last summer after sustaining a hairline fracture in the Coaching Club of America Oaks with a career record of 4-7-4 in 27 starts (24 of those stakes races) and earnings of more than $400,000, and later sold in foal to El Prado. Her former owner and trainer Franck Mourier sent the photo to the left (click to enlarge) of America America’s first foal, who was born on March 13, this week. From the looks of her adorable foal, she’ll do as well as a broodmare as she did racing.

Posted in Horses on March 26, 2005

A Bit of Trivia

Matt Graves pointed out last week that Affirmed and Afleet Alex have something in common: both won the Sanford and Hopeful at Saratoga as two-year-olds. Reading Pete Axthelm’s “The Kid” last night, I spotted another parallel: The 1978 Triple Crown winner also had a shortened Derby prep season — just 45 days — and the first race of Affirmed’s three-year-old campaign was a sprint that he won easily. His second was a 1 1/16 in which he struggled to beat even lightly regarded rivals. Sounds familiar.
Related: Another thing the two horses had in common is that they both had talented young riders — Steve Cauthen was only 18 when he rode Affirmed to the Triple Crown. Afleet Alex was piloted by an only slightly older Jeremy Rose to five wins in his first seven career starts. Rose won’t have the chance to ride Alex in any of the Triple Crown races though because trainer Tim Ritchey replaced him with the more seasoned John Velazquez early this year. I won’t presume to second guess that decision, never having trained a horse for a rigorous three-year-old campaign, but must wonder how secure Velazquez’s commitment to Ritchey and Alex is when his agent, Angel Cordero, has to call Ritchey to assure him that Velazquez will show up for the mount in the Arkansas Derby on April 16. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

Posted in Horses on March 22, 2005

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).

Posted in Horses on March 9, 2005

30 Up

“Not many thoroughbreds see 30, but John Henry, extraordinary when he raced, is among the leaders in longevity as well.” There are two thoroughbreds known to be older than John in Kentucky, and probably not that many more nationwide. (LA Times)

Posted in Horses on March 4, 2005

Dear Smarty

“With more than one million pieces of fan mail, several dozen marriage proposals and an animated feature film in discussion, Smarty Jones shows no signs of diminishing popularity post-retirement.” Marriage proposals? (Bucks County Courier Times)
Comment: Three months away from the Kentucky Derby and several horses have generated Smarty 2.0 hype, such as Rockport Harbor, Shamardal, and Lost in the Fog. Sometimes I get the feeling that racing, as a whole, is looking for a Big Horse: a horse beloved by the nation, a horse that can pack in the crowds not just to watch it race, but to watch others race, and thus save the sport. Smarty Jones was almost that horse, Funny Cide too. Maybe it’ll be Rockport this year or Declan’s Moon. But as nice as the crowds are (and I love to see the crowds — a filled grandstand is a good change from the typical day’s sparse trackside population), I suspect that there is no Big Horse that’ll save racing. For all the love the Smarty fans mentioned in the above article evince for the chestnut colt, there’s little evidence of a love for the game.

Posted in Horses on February 5, 2005