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Tag: Cody’s Wish
White Abarrio Owner Mark Cornett Joins TDN Writers’ Room Podcast
It's been a roller coaster year for White Abarrio (Race Day), but it ended on the highest of possible notes, with a victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. To talk about the Breeders' Cup, future plans for the horse, the decision to hire Rick Dutrow as the trainer and more, co-owner Mark Cornett was the Green Group Guest of the Week on this week's TDN Writers' Room Podcast, which is presented by Keeneland.
With the status of Saffie Joseph, Jr. in limbo after he was temporarily banned by Churchill Downs when two of his horses died in the lead-up to the GI Kentucky Derby, Cornett, who owns White Abarrio in partnership with his brother Clint and Los Milagrosa Stable, needed to find a new trainer. He said he narrowed the choice down to two, Dutrow and Chad Brown. In the end, he thought Dutrow was the perfect fit.
“I had Rick in my mind all along,” Cornett said. “I've known him for a long time. Paul Pompa and I were really good friends. I put numerous horses in Rick's barn through some partnerships with Paul and had a lot of success. I know what a good horseman he is. He's one of the best, top five in the world, in my opinion. He was trying to rebuild his stable at the time. We were basically being forced by Churchill and NYRA to make a trainer switch. It's hard enough to manage these horses without having politics and racetracks and state vets and everybody else try to step in and make you do things you don't want to do. It was a bold move to hire Rick and I don't know too many people that would have done what we did. We have all the confidence in the world in Rick and his abilities and it all worked out.”
So far as next year's racing schedule goes, the $20-million Saudi Cup is definitely on the schedule. Cornett said there's a possibility White Abarrio could race beforehand in the GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational.
White Abarrio's Co-Owner Mark Cornett Joins Writers' Room from Thoroughbred Daily News on Vimeo.
“The main goal is going to definitely be the Saudi Cup,” Cornett said. “If we were designing the perfect race for this horse it would be one turn at a mile and an eighth. And then they put the $20 million behind it. The timing of the race is a question mark. It's about four months after the Breeders' Cup. The only thing we really have to figure out is how to get him there at a peak. Do we run him in between? Do we send him over there to acclimate? Those are things that Rick and I will talk about and discuss what's the best way to win that race.”
White Abarrio's first big win on the year came at Saratoga in the GI Whitney S., but Cornett saw signs as early as May that the horse was about to take things to another level.
“I went to Churchill Downs in May and I hadn't seen him in 45 days, 60 days before that,” he said. “I couldn't believe my eyes on the physical maturity of this horse. He had probably gained 200 pounds. There was a physical transformation, from a boy to a man, which is what you want to see. He matured at the right time.”
White Abarrio | Benoit
So far as the race for Horse of the Year goes, Cornett realizes that Cody's Wish (Curlin) will likely earn the honor over White Abarrio.
“Whatever the voters decide is fine,” he said. “We're going to be around next year so we can take another shot. Maybe for Cody's Wish, it's meant to be for obvious reasons.”
Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, West Point Thoroughbreds, WinStar Farm, XBTV.com, 1/ST Racing and Lane's End, the team of Zoe Cadman, Bill Finley and Randy Moss touched on the heartbreaking loss of Cody Dorman, the inspiration behind Cody's Wish, who died the day after the Breeders' Cup at age 17. The team reviewed the entire Breeders' Cup program, the dominance of the New York and European stables and the poor showing by the California barns, and gave their opinions on Horse of the Year, all agreeing that it should be and will be Cody's Wish.
To watch the Writers' Room, click here. To view the show as a podcast, click here.
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I Got It Wrong, Cody’s Wish Is Horse Of The Year
What I wrote in Monday's TDN, that Idiomatic (Curlin) should be Horse of the Year, well, never mind.
It took the tragic news of the passing of Cody Dorman for me to wake up and realize that while Idiomatic had a terrific year, voting for her for Horse of the Year would mean not voting for Cody's Wish (Curlin), and what a mistake that would be.
Everything I had to say about the on-track credentials of the two remains the same. Both won a Breeders' Cup race, both won three Grade I's during the year. But I argued that Idiomatic's overall body of work gave her the edge over Cody's Wish and everyone else. She won eight of nine races and was on top of her game from January through Breeders' Cup day. In an era where most trainers and owners are happy to get four or five races from their horses during a year, what she accomplished was remarkable.
I still maintain that she had a better year than Cody's Wish. Just slightly so, anyway. What I failed to realize is that sometimes what happens on the racetrack is not all that matters, that it's ok to vote with your heart.
Cody's Wish had a Horse-of-the-Year campaign. Coming into the Breeders' Cup, he had won the GI Churchill Downs S, the GI Metropolitan H., the GII Vosburgh S. The only defeat came in the GI Whitney S., where, trying nine furlongs for the first time in his career, he was out of his element. I didn't think he would win Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile. He just not as good around two turns as he is around one and I thought that, this year, that would prove to be his undoing. But he won the race again. In 2022, it was by a neck. This year it was by a nose. He was in race that is not in his comfort zone, but he won it anyway. He won it on class.
But the story is so much bigger than the Dirt Mile. Cody's Wish and Cody Dorman, who passed away Sunday at age 17 on his way back to Kentucky from Santa Anita, will forever be linked. We first met Dorman last year when the media latched onto his story. Born with Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, he first met Cody's Wish as a then-unnamed yearling while touring Godolphin as part of a Make-A-Wish outing.
We don't really understand how it happens, but we know that it does. Sometimes something magical happens when horses and humans befriend one another. The weanling acted as if he knew Dorman would was having a hard time of it and could use a friend. Gentle as a puppy, he nuzzled Dorman and then put his head in his lap.
Two years later, Dorman was not doing well. It got to the point where his parents feared he was losing the will to live. The antidote? Another visit to the farm to see the horse the Godolphin team had now named Cody's Wish. The two picked right up where they left off. From there, Dorman became Cody's Wish's biggest fan. He traveled to many of his races and was there for both Breeders' Cup wins. Tears rolled down his cheeks when his namesake won. His parents have said that his love affair with the horse led to a marked improvement in his outlook on life.
Horse racing has been beaten down by so many negative stories of late, mainly ones that involve horses dying on the track, and it needed something to pick its collective head up. And here comes Cody's Wish and Cody Dorman, a story that was so inspirational, so uplifting that everyone, even the most cynical among us, was moved, often to tears.
“This heartfelt story has touched the hearts of many in and outside of the Thoroughbred industry,” Dan Pride, chief operating officer of Godolphin, said in a statement. “And while Cody's passing has saddened us, we find comfort in knowing that Cody found many joyous moments during this journey with his best friend, Cody's Wish. Our hearts are with the Dorman family.”
We cheered every time Cody's Wish won, and not because we had a bet on him but because we knew what this horse was doing for a young man born with a syndrome that had to have made his life immensely difficult. We cheered because we knew this story made everyone feel better about a sport that was going through trying times.
So, should that matter when it comes to voting for Horse of the Year? Absolutely. There's no reason why we shouldn't look beyond the x's and o's of what happened on the racetrack and look at the bigger picture, take into account what made us smile, what moved us, what made for a good story.
When Zenyatta (Street Cry {Ire}) was named Horse of the Year in 2010 over Blame (Arch) I was on the losing end of that argument, voting for Blame. They had met once and Blame had beaten her in the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. Why didn't that mean he should have been named Horse of the Year and not Zenyatta? Looking back, I now get it. Zenyatta had had one of the most remarkable careers we have seen this century and one defeat shouldn't have erased everything else she accomplished and what a feel-good story she had been. Those who voted for her realized this was bigger than just the one race.
Though different, Cody's Wish and his story is much bigger than Zenyatta. We will see other great race horses, ones as good as Zenyatta. But we will never again see a story as special as the one that was the bond between a very good race horse and the young man who thrived in his presence.
That matters. It matters a lot. Cody's Wish is your Horse of the Year.
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Cody Dorman, Inspiration Behind Cody’s Wish, Passes Away a Day After Breeders’ Cup
Cody Dorman, the inspirational teen who was suffering with Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome and whose love affair with the two-time GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Cody's Wish (Curlin), warmed the hearts of everyone in the sport of horse racing, died Sunday while en-route from Santa Anita to his home in Kentucky.
The news was released by Godolphin on Monday morning in the form of an announcement from his parents, Kelly and Leslie Dorman.
The announcement read:
“We are heartbroken to share the news that our beloved Cody suffered a medical event on our trip home to Kentucky yesterday and he has passed away. On Saturday, Cody watched his best friend, Cody's Wish, display his usual perseverance and toughness in winning a second Breeders' Cup. Those are the same characteristics Cody has showed time and again for the 18 years we were blessed to have him. We have been completely amazed to experience the impact Cody has had on so many people, through the journey that this wondrous racehorse has taken us all on. From Churchill Downs, to Keeneland, to Saratoga, to Santa Anita this weekend, we could not move 20 feet without someone stopping to tell us just that.
“With Cody's diagnosis at birth, we always knew this day would come, but we were determined to help Cody live his best life for however long we had him. Anyone who has seen him at the racetrack, especially around Cody's Wish, understands that in many ways he taught us all how to live, always keeping a positive attitude and being more concerned about those around him than himself.”
Following the news of Dorman's death, the Breeders' Cup issue the following statement:
“The entire Breeders' Cup team is devastated by the news of Cody Dorman's passing yesterday. His story captured our hearts and minds, and his strength, spirit, and determination were fittingly embodied by his namesake's commanding performances in his honor. We send our sincere condolences to the Dormans, who gave our sport so much by welcoming us into their family.”
As a young teenager, Dorman and his family visited Gainsborough Farm in Kentucky thanks to Keeneland and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Despite being in a wheelchair, Cody's Wish–at the time an unnamed foal–sniffed the boy and put his head in his lap, forming a bond between the horse and the boy that would last throughout the colt's career, which ended Saturday with his second Breeders' Cup win. Dorman and his family were able see a number of the 5-year-old's 16 career races in Kentucky, New York and California and were in the winner's circle for both Breeders' Cup victories.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations be made to Make-A-Wish Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana. Funeral arrangements are pending.
The post Cody Dorman, Inspiration Behind Cody’s Wish, Passes Away a Day After Breeders’ Cup appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.
