The Raines Award, currently in its 28th year, is presented annually just prior to Monmouth Park's season opener. The track's 78th season of live racing gets underway on Saturday, May 13.

“It's a tremendous honor to receive this award because of what it means to thoroughbred racing in New Jersey,” said McBurney. “It's an impressive list of past recipients so it's a great honor to join them.”

McBurney, who spent the first half of his career as an assistant to the late John Forbes (the 2006 Raines Award winner), went out on his own full-time as a trainer in 2007. He saddled his first winner on May 13, 2007 when Cable Boy won at Monmouth Park.

“Pat's tireless efforts on behalf of New Jersey horsemen and racing in general in the state, and his success as a trainer, make him a worthy recipient of this year's Buddy Raines Award,” said Dennis Drazin, Chairman and CEO of Darby Development LLC, the operators of Monmouth Park. “It's a fitting honor for someone who has done so much to promote thoroughbred racing in New Jersey.”

McBurney has won 333 races overall, with the versatile Golden Brown and Just Call Kenny– both Grade III winners–being his top runners.

McBurney, who resides in Fair Haven, New Jersey, will have nearly three dozen horses stabled at Monmouth Park this summer in anticipation of the 51-day meet.

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Six years later, I would be paying that mare's bail from a Texas livestock yard after she failed to produce but one foal who has yet to race. A graded stakes-placed mare from humble beginnings with six-figure earnings was reduced to a whopping $1,500 valuation of literal horse flesh.

What happened to the funding and the programs designed to prevent this from happening? Where were the aftercare advocates? At the end of the day, I was the only one left–an average racing fan who became her advocate.

Let's start from the beginning.

I first met Ragdoll on the backside of Monmouth Park. She was a big-boned, imposing filly standing at 16.3 with a stellar physical. The kind of filly that makes you do a double-take because surely, she was actually a colt, but her delicate face and doe-eyed expression gave her away every time.

In the barn she was sweet natured and affectionate, willing to hang her head over the stall door eternally if you held it just so. I spent two summers doing just that.

On the track, her heavy legs lumbered beneath her and she lacked the turn of foot of her nimbler, light-boned counterparts. Eager to please, she came down the stretch like a freight train when asked and found herself rising up the ranks, even hitting the board in a pair of graded stakes. That was the end of us.

I knew our racetrack romance would end if she made black-type; she would be more valuable as a broodmare than anything else. My lofty hope of owning her when her racing career ended would never come to fruition. She was privately sold for $70,000 to a breeding farm in Kentucky.

A couple of years would pass and I had the opportunity to visit Ragdoll after reaching out to her new owners. They were kind enough to welcome me to the farm where I was able to soak in the expansive bluegrass hills she now called home. Despite my loss, I was genuinely happy this was her new life.

My visit coincided with the farm veterinarian doing follicle scans on the mares and I watched as the team gave a forlorn sigh after ultra-sounding Ragdoll. I learned she had not been successfully bred, not even a failed embryo. Nothing at all. She simply wouldn't take.

The Falstaff of their Shakespeare, I chimed in, “You know who to call if she needs a home!” but wished them the best as they continued their efforts.

After arriving back home, I followed up with the farm, offered my gratitude for the visit and (more professionally) reiterated my desire to purchase her if things didn't go their way.

As fate would have it, the next year I found myself down a similar path–trying to conceive a child with equally devastating results. I have never been so exhausted in my life; emotionally, physically, psychologically…I was running on empty in absolutely every capacity.

Ragdoll when she first returned home with Forbes in October | Nicole Forbes photo

Eager for a distraction, I decided to lookup Ragdoll on various online information systems and lo and behold, she was listed in the upcoming Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.

Shocked, I pulled up her catalog page and saw the big bold letters at the footer “believed to be NOT PREGNANT” after being covered by four different prominent stallions that year. My heart ached for her and the unexpected barren road we both found ourselves on. If this wasn't a sign (albeit a very sad, hormonally surged one) I don't know what is, but this time she was going to be mine.

I immediately applied for credit with Keeneland and was promptly, and rightfully, denied. My meager per-diem racing marketing gig left more of a jingle in my wallet than padding. I turned to my father-in-law, a former trainer and respected horseman who once owned a part of this very mare, and pleaded for guidance.

Wise and soft-spoken, he listened as I cried on the phone for longer than either of us expected before stating, “Well, sounds like this is something you need to do.”

We agreed on a maximum bid of $10,000. Ten thousand dollars that I did not have, but would walk the ends of the earth to repay him for.

“It's only money,” he said and repeated to me again and again as if it were a mantra. I scoffed– only money. But I leaned into like it was a life raft and…swam with it.

The gavel went down and the rest is history. I was outbid by $2,000. I had been so close.

Not shy of persistence, I emailed the purchasing agent within minutes of her sale and disclosed everything I knew of her breeding history; I'd save them the trouble and offered to buy her flat out. The gentleman politely declined and guaranteed me “she'd have a home for life” regardless of the outcome of her broodmare career.

He was right. She would have a home for life. But no thanks to him.

This past September I received a cryptic Facebook message from someone with whom I was unfamiliar. It included a link to a horse's profile from a livestock auction in Texas, a well-known hub of killer buyers, alerting me a former racehorse was in the slaughter pipeline and listed for sale by weight.

It was my chestnut mare. Ragdoll had reached the end of the line.

It took a dozen individuals–a complete stranger from social media, three Thoroughbred aftercare executives, two racing executives, a racing insider, a horse hauler from Oklahoma, two family members and a literal guardian angel to get this mare home.

All because a racing fan was her advocate.

Where were we? The industry that so relied on her to bolster their pocketbooks; the industry that should be behind each and every one of the Thoroughbreds that ends up in this scenario, of which there are plenty.

The system has failed.

We've been playing economic checkers for a century when we should have been playing chess. Excluding the upper echelon of racehorses, each horse is measured as a one-to-four-year commitment and turned over as such. In actuality, every Thoroughbred is a 25-year commitment. At minimum.

How the industry continues to rely on 501(c)(3)'s to pick up our failed promises is astonishing and yet in Atlassian fashion, they continue to hold the burden.

A happier, healthier Ragdoll bonding with Forbes's daughter Avery | Nicole Forbes photo

Grass-roots efforts have provided a lifeline for us (and an innovative one at that–a broodmare division at the Retired Racehorse Project's annual Thoroughbred Makeover, giving these mares the chance at a third career?! *applause*) but the truth of the matter is their efforts are not to scale and may never be. There simply aren't currently enough funds or enough farms to support the number of retired athletes of our sport.

Only very recently has the idea of a “lifetime guarantee” been spreading among noteworthy breeding farms and syndicates who have pledged to care for a horse for its entire life, whether that is by partnering with rehabilitation and retraining facilities or by permanently retiring the horse on their property. Something, I daresay, that strikes me as incandescently sad to be so novel.

As of late, there is also at least one racing entity (1/ST Racing) that has included aftercare liaison managers in their business model, and during our two-day Championship series, thousands is pledged to the flagship of aftercare and retraining that is New Vocations. It's progress.

But what about the other 363 days of the year? The other racing jurisdictions?

Some jurisdictions do give beyond the required race day “aftercare taxes” comprised of per-start fees and a miniscule percentage of handle (of which the legislation varies state to state and is extremely convoluted to say the least) but the fact it is unregulated and voluntary is problematic.

Ultimately though, it starts at the top. The economic model is not viable and is past due for a complete overhaul.

The per-start fees are not enough. The registration fees are not enough. Our big ticket donations made during racing's spotlight moments and fundraising in general are not enough.

I implore The Jockey Club, HISA, NTRA and any jurisdiction that oversees our Thoroughbred athletes to reconsider the fundamental economics of the racing industry and how best to build aftercare into the founding principles of our sport, instead of as an addendum.

Fans cannot be their only advocates.

To be frank, it might be too late. I'm honestly not sure if we can act fast enough on an industry-wide solution to eliminate this crisis. And crisis it is–no matter how neatly swept the room may seem, there's a mortuary under the rug.

For a sport whose marquee race owns the title of the “oldest continuously held sporting event in America,” how are we still in the starting gate when it comes to aftercare?

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The Forbes Memorial is among the highlights on a card that also includes the $250,000 GI Grand National Hurdle.

Forbes, the late husband of the TDN's Director of Customer Services Vicki Forbes, passed away Jan. 31, 2021 at the age of 73 after a battle with cancer.

“John was New Jersey racing,” said Dennis Drazin, chairman and CEO of Darby Development LLC, operators of Monmouth Park Racetrack, said at the time.

Forbes won 2,174 races before he stopped training in 2012 to focus on horsemen's issues, becoming the president of the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association when the group took over the lease for Monmouth Park from The New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority. He was the leading trainer at Monmouth Park five times and won seven training titles at the Meadowlands. Forbes's best horse was GISW sire Tale of the Cat, and he helped launch the career of Hall of Fame rider Julie Krone.

The 3-1 morning line favorite is Cross Border (English Channel), a two-time winner of the GII Bowling Green S and an earner of $1,173,354. But he has not finished in the money in six tries this year and, at age 8, may not be what he once was. After racing for Mike Maker, he will be making his second start for Keri Brion, who has plans to convert him to a jumper. Like all 14 in the race, he has never won at the distance of two miles on the flat.

Trained by Michael Dickinson, Royne (Ghostzapper) should be in the mix. He was third in the Presious Passion S. last out at Monmouth and has done some of his best running in 11 and 12-furlong races. Then there's Agitare (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}), who will be making his first start in the U.S. after racing in Ireland for James Bolger. Fearsome (GB) (Makfi {GB}) will return to the flat after racing over the jumps at Colonial Downs.

The jockeys will no doubt play a major role in a race that pits flat riders versus steeplechase jockeys. Flat riders Isaac Castillo, Nik Juarez and Feargal Lynch have mounts and will go against 11 regulars on the jump circuit. With the horses in the race carrying between 140 and 148 pounds, the flat jockeys could be carrying as much as 30 pounds of “dead weight,” perhaps a disadvantage.

Trainer Jack Fisher, who will send out Mystical Man (Mucho Macho Man), has given the mount to jump rider Graham Watters.

“They had a flat race for jumpers at Colonial Downs and I used a flat rider and I thought he made a huge mistake, leaving the horse with too much to do,” Fisher said. “I think the jump riders are probably better simply because they are used to doing that trip, two miles.”

Fisher has what will be a solid favorite in the Grand National Hurdle in Snap Decision (Hard Spun). The leading contender in his division for an Eclipse Award, he was upset last time out at odds of 3-10 in the GI Lonesome Glory H. at Aqueduct. The winner was Noah And the Ark (Ire) (Vinnie Roe {Ire}), who will be seeking his third straight win in Saturday's $250,000 race. The difference this time could come down to the weights. Snap Decision carried 168 pounds in the Lonesome Glory, giving away 28 pounds to Noah And The Ark. The Grand National Hurdle is a weight-for-age race and all seven starters will carry 156 pounds.

The second choice in the race at 3-1 in the morning line is Hewick (Ire) (Virtual {GB}), a seven-time winner over the jumps in Europe.

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“I come out for opening day every year,” said a Monmouth regular. “Rain or shine, I'm here. “It's a decent crowd considering the weather. We usually love to go to the picnic area. You can bring family and friends and enjoy a day of racing. It's just a wonderful place.”

Like all other racing venues across the nation, Monmouth eagerly welcomed the new season following a forgettable 2020 largely shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the excitement to be back, a major topic of discussion Friday was the recently announced restriction on whip use which was met by mixed reactions from local horsemen.

“It's the elephant in the room,” said trainer Kelly Breen, who won the day's feature with Mr. Amore Stable It's A Gamble (English Channel). “It's not what I envisioned in horse racing.”

Breen, who has been coming to the Jersey oval since 1986, believes the new rule was adopted without including the people it affects the most, the horsemen.

“I truly believe it's changing the whole dynamic of a race. After watching the first couple of races here, I still really don't know what to expect. I'm not sure what the jockey can do. The times and pace for the first two races were slow. I believe the use of the crop changes the way a race is run.”

Coming into this season's meeting, Breen was quick to point out a significant positive–purses. However, he admitted the pace at which the rule was enacted caught many unaware.

“We really have to adapt quickly,” he said. “But I'm learning. I'm trying to adapt like everyone else. That's the best we can do.”

Adding his own insight from a rider's perspective, Jose Ferrer appeared saddened by the latest change in whip rules.

“It's a shame,” he said. “I feel we can't really communicate with the horse as well.”

He continued, “Many people are still confused about the whip. They think it's a big piece of metal, and it hurts the animal. It's made out of rubber and it's cushioned inside. It's not like it was back in the day. It's plastic. They don't realize we spend every day and night with these animals. We love them, why would we want to hurt them?”

Ferrer was one of several jockeys who didn't carry a whip at all in any of the races Friday.

“I have been riding with the whip for 37 years, I'm worried I am going to get fired up and give them that wake-up call, like I am used to doing all these years,” he said. “But that wake-up call will cost me a suspension and a fine–$500 and a five-day suspension. The fine is harsh. It's so new for us, so we just have to get used to it. I don't want to risk making a mistake.”

Hall of Fame jockey Julie Krone, who serves as an assistant to Phil Antonacci, offered a different perspective to the new whip rule facing her contemporary colleagues.

“It is nice to see the racing at Monmouth go so smooth and safe,” she said. “Jockeys look so focused and strong riding with their beautiful hand rides.”

Local horseman Pat McBurney also offered a slightly different take on the new season and its changes.

“I'm always happy to be back at Monmouth Park, and the lessening of the COVID restrictions should make for a good season,” he said. “The major controversy that everyone is talking about is the new whip rule. Every State has a whip rule, it's just our racing commissioner just happened to come up with the strictest whip rule. Having spoken to many of the jockeys before we even took entries, most of them said they'll give it a try, and if they have a problem, I'm sure the Racing Commission and the horsemen will be willing to sit down and talk about it. The first few races looked good finishing, so we just have to see how it progresses.”

“The morning of entries, I was with Jose Ferrer and a bunch of other jockeys and we spoke to the Stewards,” he continued. “They laid out what would be acceptable. They said they wouldn't just slap a fine on them and would talk to them after a race to see why they used a whip if it comes to that. It looks like everyone is working together to see how this is going to work out.”

And while most were happy to return to the seaside oval following a tough year, one face was noticeably missing from this season's new season at Monmouth.

“John Forbes was such fixture at Monmouth,” McBurney admitted. “Especially for me, I'm used to just picking up the phone and talking to him and bouncing ideas off of him. If I had a problem with a racehorse or with an owner, without having him to talk about it has been a little bit difficult. He's very missed.”

However, despite all the recent changes causing a stir at the moment, the things that brings the fans back season after season remains unchanged.

“I love everything about Monmouth, the architecture, the feel of it,” summed up a Monmouth racegoer. “The feeling you get when you walk in the gates. That sense of excitement is palpable. It's just a great get together.”

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“She's taken us on an incredible ride to so many different racetracks and experiences and has done so much for my career,” Crow said of Monomoy Girl, who was named Champion Older Female at last week's Eclipse Awards after taking the Champion 3-Year-Old Filly title two years ago. “It's felt like a family because we've spent so much time together rooting her on. All of us get so nervous. Brad Cox, that's the only horse he legs the jockey up on. His heart is pounding out of his chest for the entire post parade. We all feel that way. It's been one of those stories that's never going to be topped for all of us that have gotten to experience her. And Spendthrift running her next year, it's so good for racing. She's a comeback story.”

Asked about her approach to buying horses, Crow said, “The most important thing for me is to be thorough. I have a team of short-listers, and a team of people that help organize me at a sale. If there are 4,320 horses, we look at all 4,320 of them. We consider all of them, no matter the pedigree, the consignor, the breeder. We go through the process on each horse. As far as when the individual comes out, the first thing I like to look at is their attitude. So often we can forget that these horses are not machines. The way they act in the paddock, the post parade, loading in the gate, the way they're handled in the barn, all that really matters. Then from there, I start looking at their conformation, assessing them from their hip to shoulder, to the way their neck sits in their shoulder. The walk is a little bit overrated to me, especially at 2-year-old sales when you get to see them gallop and breeze. The way they move on the track is so much more important.”

Elsewhere on the show, the crew remembered legendary New Jersey horseman John Forbes, reacted to the major 3-year-old preps of the weekend and, in the West Point Thoroughbreds news segment, provided updates on the historical horse racing story and Knicks Go (Paynter) heading to the Saudi Cup. Click here to watch the podcast; click here for the audio-only version.

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We are incredibly saddened by the passing of our friend, colleague and mentor John Forbes.

Born to a family of horsemen, John was the consummate horseman. He was old-school. He was devoted to the horse, the industry and its people. He was never satisfied with the status quo. He demanded of the industry that which he expected of himself—honesty, integrity, hard work and an unrelenting determination to protect the health, safety and welfare of the horse, the integrity of our sport and the welfare of those who worked on the backstretch. He was a generous, compassionate and decent man. He was beloved and respected by everyone who knew and worked with him.

In 1987, John asked his friend Alan Foreman to help form a new horsemen's organization that would be progressive and strengthen the voice of horsemen in the industry. Rick Violette joined the effort thereafter and the THA was born. But for John, there would not be a THA, and the record of the THA's impact on the industry can easily be measured since that time. There is not an issue involving the health, safety and welfare of the horse and the integrity of our sport that doesn't have John's fingerprints on it. In recognition of his lifetime of service to horsemen, the industry and the THA, we proudly honored him with our President's Award in 2018.

Just as important, John was a giant in New Jersey racing. He loved Monmouth Park and was devoted to its survival and success. He was New Jersey's greatest trainer, and when he retired from training, did what he could to ensure Monmouth's survival, including constructing and operating a world-renowned miniature golf course on the property that hosted 2 US Opens and earned him a spot in the Pro Mini Golf Hall of Fame. We think it fair to say that but for John Forbes, there would be no Thoroughbred racing industry in New Jersey.

Our deepest condolences to Vicki, John T, Anne and Carrie, his colleagues Mike Musto and Dennis Drazin, his trainer/partner Pat McBurney and his multitude of friends. We will miss him and pledge to honor his memory.

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Born in Maryland, Forbes spent his entire career in the racing industry, following both of his parents into the training game. He moved his operations to New Jersey in the late 1970s and has been a Garden State mainstay ever since.

“John was New Jersey racing,” said Dennis Drazin, chairman and CEO of Darby Development LLC, operators of Monmouth Park Racetrack. “He was a tireless advocate for the industry, for the horsemen and for Monmouth Park.

“With a boundless capacity for kindness, John embodied everything good about this business – honor, integrity, compassion and selflessness. More than that, John had an infectious energy for racing. I will forever cherish our many years working together and appreciate not just our friendship but our collective effort on behalf of the horsemen to better this industry and the lives of those who work in it.”

From more than 14,000 starters, Forbes won over 2,100 races as a trainer. Among his long list of accomplished runners were graded stakes winners Peanut Butter Onit, Pukka Princess, Jess C's Whirl, Boyce, Amarillo, Get Serious and Tale of the Cat, who went on to be a leading sire.

Forbes gave up training on a daily basis in 2012, but was certainly no stranger to the Monmouth Park grounds. That year he embarked on a new project, Bluegrass Mini Golf, which he oversaw the construction and operation and was instrumental in delivering the US Mini Golf Open in 2014 and again in 2017. His work earned him a spot in the US ProMiniGolf Hall of Fame.

Upon giving up his trainer's license in 2012, Forbes turned the operation over to his longtime assistant Pat McBurney.

“John and I spent decades together experiencing all the highs and lows that this business has to offer,” McBurney said. “It was always a team effort with John. Even after he stopped training on a day-to-day basis he was equally involved as an owner, advisor and most importantly a friend. It's hard to imagine Monmouth Park without John, but Monmouth Park will forever be better because of John.”

Forbes leaves behind his wife Vicki, son John T. Forbes (Director of Operations at Monmouth Park), two daughters, Anne and Carrie, and two grandchildren.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no services will be held.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in Forbes's name to the Backstretch Community Assistance Program (BCAP), whose address is 175 Oceanport Ave., Oceanport, NJ 07757. BCAP assists New Jersey horse racing stable employees in the areas of counseling, health, education, recreation and benevolence.

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“John was New Jersey racing,” said Dennis Drazin, chairman and CEO of Darby Development LLC, operators of Monmouth Park Racetrack.  “He was a tireless advocate for the industry, for the horsemen and for Monmouth Park.

“With a boundless capacity for kindness, John embodied everything good about this business-honor, integrity, compassion and selflessness. More than that, John had an infectious energy for racing.  I will forever cherish our many years working together and appreciate not just our friendship but our collective effort on behalf of the horsemen to better this industry and the lives of those who work in it.”

Forbes won more than 2,100 races from over 14,000 starters, most of them with his longtime assistant Pat McBurney at his side.

“I came around the racetrack when I was 15, 16 and he was like a father to me,” said McBurney. “Over the course of many, many years, he became like a brother and a best friend. It's a very sad time. He loved this sport. He had a great gift of gab and a great way with people. If he got a hold of an idea that he thought was right he just wouldn't let it go, no matter who he had to go up against. John and I spent decades together experiencing all the highs and lows that this business has to offer. It was always a team effort with John. Even after he stopped training on a day-to-day basis he was equally involved as an owner, advisor and most importantly, a friend. It's hard to imagine Monmouth Park without John, but Monmouth Park will forever be better because of John.”

Forbes was born June 20, 1947 in Maryland, the son of two trainers, John Hamilton Chew Forbes, and Nancy Shakespeare Forbes. His mother was one of the first women in America to obtain a trainer's license. He began his career in his home state in 1972 but soon thereafter switched his operation to New Jersey. He was lured to the Garden State by the charms of Monmouth Park.

“When the Meadowlands opened in 1977, we brought horses up to race, and from 1978, we stayed in New Jersey,” he said in 2014. “What was the deciding factor was this place here. Not many of the remaining racetracks in the country have the charm and ambience of this place. I fell in love with Monmouth, that's why we stayed. It's a little hard to describe how Monmouth captures you. But it's a step back in time.”

Forbes thrived after moving to New Jersey. He was the leading trainer at Monmouth five times and topped the standings at the Meadowlands seven times. In 1978, he won 109 races and followed that up with a career-best 233 in 1979.

Forbes dealt mainly with claimers through much of his career but proved he could win at the highest levels when given an opportunity.

In 1995, Forbes and McBurney formed a limited partnership, Phantom House Stables, that raised nearly $2 million to purchase yearlings. The most successful among the group was Tale of the Cat, who won five of his nine career starts including the GII King's Bishop at Saratoga in 1997 and who was second in the GI Whitney. Purchased for $375,000 at Keeneland September, the son of Storm Cat was sold for $11.7 million and has been a successful sire at Coolmore Stud in Lexington, Ky. Of the six horses they purchased that year, four became stakes winners, including Amarillo, winner of the GIII Delaware H., Sumija and Apogee.

Eddie Rosen, who served as the group's pedigree advisor, was a friend of Forbes's for 50 years, having met him in 1970, when Forbes was assistant trainer to John Tammaro, Sr.

“As dominant as he was in the training ranks in New Jersey, having been the leading trainer in New Jersey for so many years, I think his biggest impact came as president of the thoroughbred horsemen's association,” said Rosen. “He was able to employ his analytical and negotiating skills to advance the causes of horsemen in New Jersey. I think that's where he found his true calling.

Forbes was famous for launching the career of Julie Krone, who was his regular rider in the 1980s and early 1990. She rode Tale of the Cat in every race of his career.

“Opening my eyes this morning to a world without John Forbes is a much sadder place,” said Krone Monday morning. “The horses have suffered a loss, and so have the people. He was great with both.”

Forbes guides Tale Of The Cat and Jockey Julie Krone off the track at Monmouth Park after a morning workout. Bill Denver/EQUI-PHOTO

“Riding first call for John Forbes at Atlantic City launched my career,” she continued. “I got opportunities from that without any questions asked. The first year I lost my apprenticeship, I got to ride for them. He taught me everything–things about riding, and being convivial with trainers and owners, allowed me to spend time with his family, and taught me how to take care of myself.”

Forbes stepped back from training in 2012 to focus on horsemen's issues, and McBurney took over the stable.

He had been named President of the New Jersey Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association in 2010, after having helped to launch the umbrella organization, the THA, comprised of six states in the mid-1990s. “The whole process was really about trying to get an organization where everyone had an equal voice, and to address important issues of common interest for the benefit of the whole industry while not interfering with other states' issues,” Forbes said in 2017. “We agreed to help the states if they asked for help but also agreed it would be best not to interfere. It was agreed that the organization would not dictate to its members. We'd all be on our own but all together at the same time.”

Forbes also found time to engage in another of his passions: miniature golf. He was introduced to the game in the late 1950s when the family would travel to Atlantic City for racing, and Forbes would spend time in Ocean City, where the boardwalk was dotted with mini-golf courses. Forbes built the Blue Grass Mini Golf Course in 2012 at Monmouth, which hosted the 2014 and 2017 U.S. Open for Mini Golf. He was inducted in to the U.S. Pro Mini Golf Hall of Fame in 2020.

Under Forbes, the NJTHA became a racetrack operator as well, leasing the track from Darby Development when Governie Chris Christie decided in 2010 that the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority should get out of the racing business.

“John was a giant among the horsemen,” said Drazin, a longtime friend of Forbes's. “The THA would not have existed in New Jersey without him. He was instrumental in leading the effort to take over the racetrack when Governor Christie decided to put it up for sale. He was the backbone of the organization and he will certainly be missed.”

Forbes is survived by his wife of 40 years, Vicki, the Director of Customer Service for the TDN; daughter Anne and her husband Damien Zajac; son John, the Director of Operations at Monmouth Park, and his wife Nicole; daughter Carrie and her husband Eric Oberdorf; and two grandchildren, Avery and Estella.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be no services held.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in Forbes's name to the Backstretch Community Assistance Program (BCAP), a program that assists New Jersey horse racing stable employees in the areas of counseling, health, education, recreation and benevolence. Their address is BCAP, c/o Monmouth Park, 175 Oceanport Avenue, Oceanport, NJ 07757.

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Passion is a funny thing.

What is it, you wonder, about one place or another, one person or another, one career or another that is so compelling that the person caught in its grip will do anything to have it?

Ferrin Peterson can’t exactly tell you why she will at least temporarily put aside the eight years of study and sacrifice that earned her a veterinary degree from UC Davis, one of the top schools in the country, and a lucrative-and safe-career as a large-animal vet. Nor can she say why she’s willing to let her acupuncture skills and certification lie dormant, for now.

All she knows is this: “I’m following my passion.”

That alone would be an interesting story: girl sets aside career as a veterinarian to pursue her dream of being a jockey. But Peterson took the interest in her choice to a new level when she hired Julie Krone to be her agent, and announced that they would get their start together at Krone’s old stomping grounds, Monmouth Park, when the meet opens July 3.

Peterson is 5’4″, 108 pounds, with a polite manner. At 28, she brings a maturity and confidence to her career not found in most seven-pound apprentices. In all likelihood, she is the best-educated jockey in history, and her accomplishments go beyond that. She is also a certified acupuncturist and was a Division I pole vaulter at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo who reached the state finals in high school and at junior college.

Krone met Peterson at Del Mar last summer, and she made the snap decision to become involved in her story, and to represent her in her own first try at being a jockey’s agent.

“She had a reputation for being the girl who loves racehorses so much that she’s going to ride races while she goes to vet school,” said Krone. “She wants to be a jockey with passion of nothing I’ve ever seen in my life. Literally. Like, unmeasurable craziness. I’ve seen people try to talk her out of it, and they’re like, `Oh, you’re a nice girl. You’ve got a great education.’ And the way she sees it, she’s going to be a jockey until she’s old, and then she can be a veterinarian.”

“This is literally what I wanted to do my entire life,” said Peterson, who graduated a year ago, and felt the call of riding races pulling her back to the track full-time after getting on horses for trainers in the morning during her final years at school. “When I was a young kid, I was always talking about becoming a jockey. I grew up on the back of a horse.”

Monmouth was Krone’s idea. She said that the strength of the jockey colony and the small fields that have plagued Southern California make it a tough place to get your start. Krone parlayed her own success at Monmouth, where she won the riding title from 1987-1989, into a career on the New York and later Southern California circuits. And it’s not the only page they’ll take out of the Krone playbook.

John Forbes and his then-assistant Pat McBurney played a key part in getting Krone’s career off the ground when Forbes, the perennial leading trainer at Monmouth at the time, used her as his regular rider. McBurney has now taken over the reins at the stable, and when it came time to entrust Peterson’s career to someone, Krone sent her east to work with McBurney. She spent this spring exercising eight or nine horses a day for the trainer at Overbrook Farm, where McBurney stabled his horses until Monmouth Park opened for training. McBurney said that when Krone called, he listened.

“I received a call from Julie Krone and she asked me about an apprentice rider coming out to Monmouth Park this summer,” McBurney recalled. “If Julie was excited about a rider, of course we were going to listen to that. So she came out to Overbrook and has just been galloping and breezing horses. We only have a half-mile track here, so you can’t kick on too fast, but she’s doing very good; gets along with the horses as she learns about them, getting them to relax and everything. It’s hard to say what kind of jockey she is at this point, but has a great way with horses. She’s a very hard worker with a great attitude. Everyone likes her in the barn, and everyone is interested to see her get riding and see how she can do.”

Krone was inducted into racing’s Hall of Fame in 2000, and retired for the second and final time in 2004 after winning 3,704 races in a career that spanned almost 20 years. She has taken a particular interest in Peterson since meeting her at Del Mar last year, moving her into the home she shares with her husband, the writer Jay Hovdey, and their daughter in order to more efficiently impart her knowledge. They have reviewed films and form, done strength training, strengthened other muscles by surfing and playing pickleball, and have formed a strong friendship as well as working relationship.

Before they met, Peterson had been riding at Golden Gate while she completed her clinical year in veterinary school, but she always had her sights set on the Southern California circuit. “I thought, `I’m going to go to where I know of the best jockeys and trainers and try to learn from them. And if I don’t make it, then at least I tried my hardest and had an awesome experience.'”

She had had a handful of winners when, that summer at Del Mar, she set out to meet Krone, who was doing a book signing on Pacific Classic Day. Peterson saw the line that had formed, and realized that it wouldn’t be a good opportunity to talk, but happened to run into on her way out of the track that night. She introduced herself, and Krone invited her to her house to talk the next day. The following week, Krone suggested that she stay in San Diego and train with her, and return to racing in the spring.

For the past 15 years, Krone’s nearly full-time occupation has been as a mother. While she has done some racing commentating work here and there, her main focus has been her daughter Lorelei, a gifted singer and actress who is a community theater regular in the San Diego area who hopes to pursue that interest in college. Lorelei tearfully confessed her lack of interest in horses when she was young, and Krone has supported her passion for theater, helping out by painting sets, sewing costumes and even acting a bit here and there.

But in Peterson, she might have found not only her return to the sport, but a new career after her daughter heads off to school. While Peterson is 28, Krone has definitely taken her under her wing as if she’s her second child.

To read the rest of this story at the TDN Look, or to watch the video or hear it as a podcast, click here.

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