Hillwood Stable's 8-year-old millionaire gelding Cordmaker, whose steady success over seven seasons of racing earned him 11 stakes wins and the adulation of fans throughout the Mid-Atlantic, has been retired.
Winner of the 2022 General George (G3) at Laurel Park, where he is based and remains with trainer Rodney Jenkins, Cordmaker injured an ankle running fourth in an open Laurel allowance July 7, his 39th career start and first in 224 days.
Hillwood's Ellen Charles said Cordmaker is scheduled to have surgery July 17 at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pa. and will spend his recovery at David and JoAnn Hayden's Dark Hollow Farm in Upperco, Md., where he has wintered throughout his career.
“They're going to put a screw in so that he'll heal more quickly, but he's retired. That was the message, that it was time to retire him,” the 86-year-old Charles said. “[Veterinarian Dr.] John Sivik said that he's probably been scanned and X-rayed more than any horse on the property at Laurel. It goes to show that as hard as you try, sometimes they do hurt themselves.
“He's 8 and he's got some age on him, and his bones probably aren't as strong as they were as a 4-year-old and 5-year-old or a 6-year-old,” she added. “The message is there, and he's been more than a good horse. He's just been a remarkable horse. He has his fan club and so many people cheer him on. It's too bad he couldn't have won his last race, but he did his best. You have to listen to your horse.”
Cordmaker and his regular rider, Victor Carrasco, led through four furlongs in the 1 1/16-mile allowance under mild pressure from fellow stakes winner Ournationonparade into the far turn before dropping back and being passed by both that rival and eventual winner Zabracadabra. Everett's Song edged Cordmaker by a length for third.
“I guess he put his foot down wrong. He didn't have anything wrong with him when he started,” Jenkins said. “He was going down the backside and it looked like he was making his move, and the next thing I know they were pulling him up. That horse has been sound ever since we've had him. It was just one of those things.”
Cordmaker is retired with 14 wins, four seconds, eight thirds and $1,004,380 in purse earnings, becoming a millionaire with a third-place finish in the 2022 Richard W. Small over Thanksgiving weekend at Laurel, his final start at 7.
Carrasco, the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice of 2013, was aboard for 26 of Cordmaker's races with 11 wins, 10 of them in stakes, including last winter's General George. Other Laurel stakes wins came in the 2018 and 2022 Jennings, 2019 and 2021 Harrison E. Johnson Memorial, 2019 Polynesian and 2021 Richard Small and Robert T. Manfuso.
Prior to his breakthrough win in the General George, Cordmaker had run third in back-to-back editions of the historic Pimlico Special (G3), beaten two heads by Tenfold in 2018 and 2 ½ lengths by Harpers First Ride in 2020, when the race was delayed to October amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Bred at Chanceland Farm in Maryland by the late Manfuso and Laurel trainer Katy Voss, Cordmaker is a chestnut son of two-time Horse of the Year and 2014 Hall of Famer Curlin that Charles purchased for $150,000 at Fasig-Tipton's Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling sale in 2016.
Cordmaker was third by less than a length in his career debut, a five-furlong maiden special weight Aug. 19, 2017 at Laurel with Carrasco up, then graduated by 1 ½ lengths next out going six furlongs four weeks later under Steve 'Cowboy' Hamilton.
The 2018 Jennings was the first stakes victory for Cordmaker, who also won stakes at Delaware Park in the 2019 Governor's Day Handicap and Colonial Downs in the 2021 Victory Gallop. Cordmaker was third or better in 20 of 29 lifetime tries at Laurel, with 11 wins. He was voted Maryland's champion older male in 2019.
“I didn't know what to name him. I also show dogs or have dogs shown for me, and I had a Hungarian sheep dog whose kennel name was Cordmaker. I thought, 'That's really a nice name,'” Charles said. “[He] was the number one dog in the country one year and was just beaten a nose for number one dog the second year. They were both champions in their own area of competition.”
No final plans have been made for where Cordmaker will spend retirement following his time at Dark Hollow.
“We have some ideas but nothing that we're sure of as far as where he's going to go after he gets his [recovery]. He'll lay up until he can be turned out and then we'll decide what will happen next,” Charles said. “He's a very special horse and he has a great personality, and people like him for that. He's quite a character.”
Cordmaker represents the richest horse for both Charles and Jenkins. Together they won the 2014 General George (G2) with Bandbox and Jenkins also won Delaware Park's Leonard Richards (G2), now run as the Barbaro, in 2002. Charles was the breeder of Maryland's 2021 champion older female, Hello Beautiful, a 10-time winner of nearly $600,000 in purses.
“We're sure going to miss him when we walk over there for the big ones,” Jenkins said. “He's been so good to us.”
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