“He's doing amazingly well,” said his owner, Julie Izzo. “But he has slowed down a bit.”

Of course he has. He's 38.

New Years Eve | Sarah Andrew

As New Years Eve crept into his mid-thirties Izzo, who resides in Pennsylvania, began to do some research. Was there an older Thoroughbred out there? She has asked around, checked social media and touched base with Daily Racing Form photographer Barbara Livingston, who has looked high and far for an even older horse. As best as Izzo can tell, the horse she calls Axl (Izzo is a big Guns N' Roses fan) is in fact the oldest former race horse in the U.S.

“I found some people who claimed they had older horses, but when I asked for their Jockey Club names they disappeared or their horse wasn't a race horse,” Izzo said. “Barbara said that this has been a passion of hers for 25 years and she didn't know of an older horse. One lady said her horse was a day older. I asked what was the horse's Jockey Club name because I wanted to see if her horse and mine had ever been to the same tracks. She also disappeared on me.”

New Years Eve was born on March 17, 1986. His career was about as unexceptionable as it gets. He debuted on June 9, 1989 at the Nebraska racetrack Atokad Park. He ran 18 times, won two races and earned the grand total of $3,140.

None of which mattered to Izzo, who was looking for a pleasure horse and bought the gelding in 1993 when he was seven.

“He was literally my dream come true,” Izzo said. “My mother had a horse when I was born and she put me on a horse before I could walk. All I ever wanted was my own horse. I rode in stables during my childhood and teen years. But I was always riding other people's horses. My dream was to have a big bay Thoroughbred. In my brain, it had to be a big bay Thoroughbred. An ad popped up advertising him for sale and I knew, before I even saw him, that I was buying him. OTTBs (off the track thoroughbreds), they have always been my passion. I just love them. I love the fire. I love the power. I wanted a horse that was going to be fun and exciting and one where I wouldn't know what I was getting into every day. He was always that.”

New Years Eve at Atokad Park in 1991 | Durham Museum/Bob Dunn Collection

Izzo never tried to turn New Years Eve into a show horse. She was happy to just have him around and to be able to ride him whenever she wanted.

“He's never been in a show,” she said. “All I ever wanted was to have a horse where I could just go out and have some fun with them. I have done some trail riding and some light dressage with him. He loves to jump. Two years ago, he took off on a dead run in the pasture and decided to jump all the wild rose bushes. He will take himself jumping. He loves to jump.”

That Julie Izzo owns what may be the oldest living Thoroughbred in the U.S. probably isn't a coincidence.  She also owned  a Quarter Horse mare who lived to be 40. She believes the key to a horse having a long life is to keep them out of a stall.

New Years Eve and Julie Izzo | Sarah Andrew

“Since I bought him, he has almost always been pasture boarded,” she said. “I do not believe in keeping horses in stalls. I think it is a horrible thing to do to them. He was always pretty much out in the pasture as much as possible.  If you put them in a box and they are standing still trying to eat that means you're affecting their digestive system and you're affecting their respiratory system because they are stuck in a dusty building. It's not good for a horse mentally to be stuck in a box all day.”

Then there is his diet. Izzo is careful about what she feeds her horses.

“He went from eating a low protein sweet feed and having free access to hay,” she said. “Now, we've converted him over to Sentinel Senior. It's easier for him to digest. Like any horse at his age, he's starting to lose teeth. In fact, we're on the fence about starting to do some major extractions. Up until two or three years ago, he ate dry pellets and had access to all the grass he could eat. Now he gets a mash because his teeth have gotten bad enough where he's not going to be able to keep eating grass. He gets a mash twice a day with alfalfa cubes, Sentinel Senior and a couple of low-carb horse cookies that I throw in there. Plus, we give him a high-quality probiotic.

“I did a lot of research about their diets and read all the educational materials Cornell put out and have read books by people who know what they are talking about. People ask me all the time, what do you feed him? I tell them the feed is just one part of it. Obviously, genetics play a big factor and so does keeping him out of a stall.”

The only problem of late has been that Axl is alone after having the Quarter Horse mare as his pasture mate for 28 years.

New Years Eve | Sarah Andrew

“Sometimes I think he is lonely,” Izzo said.

But he keeps going, year after year. And while it can't last forever, Izzo continues to marvel at how healthy and spry her horse is. He might have a few more years left in him. From a horse who is special in his own unique way, you never know.

The post The World’s Oldest Thoroughbred? We Think We Have Found Him appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Scherer trained from 1981 through 1994 and won 60 races in his career.

Two individuals have been arrested for their alleged role in the murder. Logan Hunts Horse, 20 of Wounded Knee, S.D., has been charged with first degree murder and two counts of use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony. On Friday, it was reported that a 16-year-old male had also been arrested for his alleged role in the murder and charged with robbery, accessory to murder and accessory to use of a weapon to commit a felony.

According to television station KNSB, police have reported that Scherer was hit with a baseball bat and shot in the torso. Hunts Horse and the boy then took Scherer's wallet which was planned prior to the shooting, according to police.

“It appears the victim and suspects knew each other and this was not a random attack,” Grand Island Nebraska Police Department Captain Dean Elliott told the station.

The Grand Island police and fire departments responded to calls and arrived on the Fonner backstretch at 10 a.m. local time. Upon arrival, they found Scherer dead with an apparent gunshot wound. The police found Hunts Horse asleep in a tack room in the barn where Scherer died and arrested him. A gun, believed to the be the murder weapon, was found with Hunts Horse.

Fonner Park CEO Chris Kotulak said that Scherer had arrived at Fonner the morning of the murder and would have likely found work as an assistant trainer or a groom.

“It is horrifying news that Todd Scherer, who was such a popular person in our Nebraska Thoroughbred industry, has been wickedly taken away from us,” Kotulak said. “Many of us grew up with Todd, including myself, and he was typically associated with good times at the racetrack. He was also known as a very dedicated and knowledgeable horsemen.

“I have visited with some of his family members, and they are understandably devastated. Fonner Park management, staff and our horsemen express our sympathies to his family.”

According to the Lincoln Journal Star, Scherer, the Nebraska native had worked at tracks in his home state and elsewhere for more than 45 years. According to the paper, Scherer worked for Steve Asmussen in 2006 and brought Storm Treasure (Storm Boot) to the paddock for that year's GI Kentucky Derby.

“I've never been connected to anything like this,” he told the Journal Star in 2006. “This race represents history to me, after watching it so many times as a kid growing up.”

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Fonner will become the second track not sending out its signal due to questions over HISA. Last year, the Texas Racing Commission ordered its tracks to cut off simulcasting because of HISA, only to reverse the decision earlier this month after the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied a motion from HISA to rehear a case in which the court had held that HISA's enabling legislation was unconstitutional. However, citing a need to further review the many complexities surrounding HISA, Sam Houston, the lone track now running in Texas, has not resumed simulcasting.

In a statement released Friday, management said it took the measure “because of the many uncertainties associated with HISA in Nebraska and the nation.”

“The unreasonable and overreaching HISA rules and regulations have presented demands and obstacles that a racetrack our size cannot achieve or endure,” said Fonner Park CEO Chris Kotulak.

Under HISA rules, racetracks that do not voluntarily become a covered HISA racetrack are not permitted to send their signals out of state.

“The new increased costs to Fonner Park, plus the conflict with enforcing the variance between state and federal rules of racing, were determined unsurmountable to overcome for Nebraska's flagship Thoroughbred track,” the statement read.

“Fonner Park is a plaintiff in a large, national, multi-plaintiff lawsuit against HISA, but that lawsuit has not advanced with sufficient clarity to ensure that HISA rules would not be applicable to us,” Kotulak said. “Challenging federal regulations is a gamble my board has currently chosen not to make, as this would leave Fonner Park splayed open and at the mercy of a lengthy judicial process and costly legal circumstances that would significantly damage Fonner Park and our horsemen. We're not some gyp joint. We're a TRA racetrack. And for 70 years we've provided for our horse, horsemen and horseplayers. It's a shame it's come to this.”

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“I thought there was fair trade and there was lots of activity, certainly on the short yearlings,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning. “There was lots of vetting and activity on those that were perceived to be of higher quality. The mares in foal and the broodmare prospects that you would turn down the page when you went through the catalogue sold well.”

Still there remained a fall-off for offerings that did not meet the criteria of the buyers.

“There are some horses that the marketplace is extremely critical of,” Browning said. “It is not as robust as some people would like, but that's a sign and a trend that we've seen for many, many years. I think we've seen a continuation of the marketplace that we saw for much of 2022. It's healthy, it's not exuberant, it's rational, but you better also have an understanding of what you're offering and how the market is going to receive your horse.”

That polarization was also evident to Matt Bowling, who was active both as a buyer and as a seller through his Vinery Sales.

“We are getting a ton of views,” Bowling said. “The people are here. I think if you are bringing the right stuff over, they are paying you a fair value for it. But if you've got some dings or you don't have the pedigree, or a bad produce record, it's definitely a lonely place. But the right horses are bringing the right money.”

A total of 13 horses sold for six figures Monday, compared to 15 hitting that mark during the opening session in 2022. Leading the way was Munny Spunt, who was purchased by Nebraska native Judy Pryor from the Hunter Valley Farm consignment.

Browning expects activity to pick up during Tuesday's second session of the auction, which will feature an offering of supplemental entries with plenty of current form.

“The quality and composition of the catalogue in a sale like this changes from year to year,” he said. “And I think we've got a little stronger catalogue tomorrow as opposed to today just the way it flows with the supplemental entries in the addendum.”

Bidding for Tuesday's second and final session of the sale begins at 10 a.m.

Pryor Strikes Late for Munny Spunt

Following the legalization of casino gaming at racetracks in Nebraska in 2020, Nebraska native Judy Pryor is determined to build up the breeding and racing program in the Cornhusker State. She started by acquiring stallions Court Vision and Giant Expectations ahead of the 2021 breeding season and has now turned her focus to acquiring broodmares. She made her biggest splash in the Thoroughbred auction scene Monday at Fasig-Tipton when going to a session-topping $340,000 for Munny Spunt (Munnings) (hip 293). The 9-year-old mare, in foal to Triple Crown winner Justify, was consigned by Hunter Valley Farm on behalf of David Fennelly's Mountmellick Farm.

“I purchased Court Vision and Giant Expectations a couple of years ago,” Pryor said after signing the ticket alongside Martha Jane Mullholand and Lexis Hennings. “We want to help Nebraska grow in racing to get back to the Ak-Sar-Ben days. I am brand new in racing. I don't know what I am doing. But I love a good horse.”

Pryor does have plenty of experience in the Quarter Horse show world and maintains the 400-acre Pryor Ranch.

“In the Quarter Horse world, we have raised many, many world champions,” Pryor said. “This is a brand new thing for me and I am kind of doing it because my aunt and uncle were race trainers and they have always wanted me to do racehorses. But I thought it was for the Sport of Kings, not for peanut butter lovers. So I ate enought peanut butters to do this today.”

Munny Spunt won the GIII Torrey Pines S. during her racing career. Her filly by Mendelssohn sold for $425,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale. She also has a yearling colt by Authentic.

“She's a little taller than most Munnings,” Pryor said of the mare's appeal. “She is perfectly smooth and correct for breeding purposes. She has a nice walk and she's in foal to Justify. And I wanted to go home with a famous horse.”

Asked if she thought the in utero foal might become the Triple Crown winner's first Nebraska-bred, Pryor said, “I hope to hell it is.”

With Munny Spunt's expected foaling date fast approaching, the Nebraska-bred designation might have to wait. Pryor purchased Ardita (Bernardini) for $92,000 at the Keeneland January sale. That mare recently foaled at Mulholland Springs.

“Nobody thought I should haul her home because she was due to foal,” Pryor said of Ardita.

Of Monday's session-topping bid, Pryor said, “I have no idea what I was thinking. I was just going to buy that damn horse.”

Of her client, Mulholland said, “Judy has been playing at hte top of the Quarter Horse show industry for decades. We are lucky to have her join us here in the Thoroughbred industry. We are going to have fun. We either going to sell them well or we're going to run them. But we're going to have fun.”

Hunter Valley Farm's Fergus Galvin admitted Munny Spunt's session-topping price exceeded the team's expectations.

“We knew she was probably one of the highlights of the day,” Galvin said. “She's graded stakes winner by Munnings and in foal to the right stallion. And her produce, we're still waiting for that runner, but she's got a good sales history. I think they got a good buy. She's a really good mare.”

Mountmellick Farm purchased Munny Spunt for $325,000 at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton November sale.

“David Fennelly is just downsizing a little bit,” Galvin said of the decision to sell the mare this year. “He's not getting out of the business, he's just cutting down his numbers. Justify is looking like he's the real deal. So he thought this was just a good opportunity to sell.”

Pryor credits her aunt and uncle, Merle and Marilyn Heldt, who were trainers on the midwest circuit, for her interest in Thoroughbred racing. And she has a goal for the couple's son, Derron Heldt.

“[The Heldts are a huge reason I am doing this,” Pryor said. “They have been doing this their entire lives. Their son, Derron Heldt, is the head racing director at Prairie Meadows. And I want that kid to give me a trophy.”

Watch Hip 293 MUNNY SPUNT i/f Justify sell for $340,000 at Kentucky Winter Mixed!#FasigKY @HunterValleyKY @coolmoreamerica pic.twitter.com/w0TbLaqFFA

— Fasig-Tipton (@FasigTiptonCo) February 6, 2023

Heiligbrodts Go Back-to-Back

Susan Montanye, bidding on behalf of Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt, went to $250,000 to acquire the broodmare Bubala (Candy Ride {Arg}) (hip 61) and wheeled right back to take the mare's short yearling colt by Audible (hip 62) for $200,000 for the same clients Monday in Lexington.

The 7-year-old Bubala, who sold in foal to Not This Time, is a half-sister to stakes-placed Island Reward (Street Boss) and Harmonic (Congrats).

The Colorado-based Scott Issel, vice president of Cherry Creek Mortgage Company, purchased Bubala for $50,000 at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton February sale and Issel's Arapahoe Thoroughbreds bred the yearling. Both were consigned by Tom Evans's Trackside Farm Monday.

“The mare was big and pretty and looked like she had all the parts,” said Montanye. “And of course, she's in foal to Not This Time, who is doing outstanding. She joins Heiligbrodt Racing and will go to Taylor Made and hopefull being successful in the breeding process.”

Watch Hip 61 BUBALA i/f Not This Time sell for $250,000 at Kentucky Winter Mixed!#FasigKY @TMStallions pic.twitter.com/xV413rLQ7e

— Fasig-Tipton (@FasigTiptonCo) February 6, 2023

Montanye said the team's initial interest was in the yearling.

“We looked a the yearling first,” Montanye said. “And credit to Bill, I didn't even pick out that the mare was in the sale. He had me go back and look at the mare. That's what started the whole process.”

On plans for the yearling, Montanye said, “We'll see. There is no rush. We will see what he wants to do with him. They will be both go on to Taylor Made for now. We will take it over from there.”

The Heiligbrodts added another mare to their band a little later in Monday's session, going to $130,000 to acquire Fly on Angel (Palace Malice) (hip 159). The 6-year-old mare, consigned by Bluewater Sales, sold in foal to Yaupon, who won the 2021 GI Forego S. in the couple's colors.

Hits Pricey Legacy to Clearsky Farm

Graded-stakes winner Hits Pricey Legacy (Den's Legacy) (hip 202) will be joining the broodmare band at the Cleary family's Clearsky Farm after selling for $230,000 to the bid of Vinery Sale's Matt Bowling. The 4-year-old, who sold as a racing or broodmare prospect, was consigned by Zach Madden's Buckland Sales on behalf of her owner/breeder and trainer C.R. Trout.

“We bought her for Clearsky Farm, so she'll join their broodmare band,” said Bowling. “We haven't made any mating plans yet, we're just glad to have her. She's a pretty, big-walking filly and a very good racehorse. She's the kind of filly they like to add to the broodmare band there.”

Hits Pricey Legacy is a four-time stakes winner who captured the GIII Remington Park Oaks last September. She hit the board in all but one of her 10 starts and won five times. She retires with earnings of $339,935.

“Any time you get a graded stakes winner on the market, they are hard to find, so we tend to find over them,” Bowling said of the mare's final price tag.

Hits Pricey Legacy is out of High Price Hit (Concord Point), who is a half-sister to multiple stakes winners Imahit (Whywhywhy) and Hallelujah Hit (Mr. Nightlinger), all of whom were also bred, raced and trained by Trout.

“I am just trying to cut back on the amount of broodmares I have,” Trout said. “I breed primarily in Oklahoma and I just thought this was a good time to sell this filly while she was still in good, peak form. She is fit and sound as a dollar.”

Asked if it was an emotional decision to sell the graded stakes winner, Trout said, “It is. But I just turned 78 and it's time to start doing some estate planning.”

This isn't the first time Clearsky has added a member of the family to its broodmare band.

“Clearsky Farm had bought a mare from me before from the same family,” Trout said. “They had called and wanted to buy her privately, but I already had her in the sale.”

High Price Hit, who is one of 12 mares currently in Trout's broodmare band, has produced fillies that last two years, a daughter of Flat Out in 2021 and a daughter of Cloud Computing this year. The 13-year-old mare is in foal to Volatile.

“We will make up our mind whether we will breed [High Price Hit] back in Oklahoma and sell her baby,” Trout said. “We are kind of up in the air right now.”

Of what Monday's results for Oklahoma's breeding industry, Trout said, “It means so much for Oklahoma. We don't have a big breeding program, but it's building.”

Watch Hip 202 HITS PRICEY LEGACY sell for $230,000 at Kentucky Winter Mixed!#FasigKY @BucklandSales @ClearskyFarm pic.twitter.com/NPNJIby9Ks

— Fasig-Tipton (@FasigTiptonCo) February 6, 2023

The post Munny Spunt Brings $340K To Top Solid Fasig February Opener appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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“I would like to thank my mentors, my parents and my sister for supporting me through all the ups and downs in my early broadcasting career,” said Stortzum. “Without their support, I wouldn't be in this position today.”

The post Dustyn Stortzum Named New Fonner Park Announcer appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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“This is kind of a very historic moment today in the history of Nebraska racing,” Dennis Lee, chairman of the Nebraska commission, said at Friday's meeting.

The Journal-Star reports that all six of the state's racetracks—located in Lincoln, Omaha, South Sioux City, Columbus, Grand Island and Hastings—will seek to add casinos.

Nebraskan voters first approved a constitutional amendment allowing casinos at the racetracks in November of 2020. No decision has been made about sports betting in the state.

Read more at the Lincoln Journal-Star.

The post All Six Nebraska Racetracks To Seek Casinos After Commission’s Initial Rules Approval appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Fonner Park begins its 11 weekends of racing this Friday, just as we begin to break free from record-low temperatures that caused the racetrack to be closed for training for the last two weeks. Many horses and horsemen have yet to arrive from Oklahoma and Texas as the polar vortex has frozen nearly an entire nation.

The interruption in training and disruption of arriving horses means short fields and fewer races for opening weekend. Fonner has begun their season in February for decades and the show will mush on.

Last year, “Fon” was at the center of the racing universe due to COVID-19, and tens of thousands of new fans were born and exposed to five-eights-mile racing. Four-furlong races, up-close action and the return of the Dinsdale Pick 5 Jackpot is all on tap as they ready to Bring On The Fon!  For updated information, click here.

Groom Willie Moon gives Pickles N Me a face clip ahead of a start in Friday's opening day card at Fonner Park.

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The little track is back. Fonner's 2021 meet begins Friday, but it won't be anything like last year. While the coronavirus is still a serious problem, most racetracks are running, so there are no openings on the simulcast schedule for Fonner to take advantage of and the competition from places like Gulfstream, Aqueduct and Santa Anita means that Fonner's handle will dwindle back into the low six figures. They're back to running a Friday-through-Sunday schedule and know that their season in the spotlight is a thing of the past.

“In 2020, we knew there was something very specific going on because of COVID,” said Fonner CEO Chris Kotulak. “We were running on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday at a time when there were just five racetracks in the country running. During the week, it was just us and Will Rogers Downs. Of course, that isn't the case anymore. On top of that there are quite a few other sporting events and other wagering opportunities now. Vegas is back. Sports betting is certainly more profound than it was a  year ago. The rest of the world has other betting options now so I'm not sure that anybody in Paris or Santiago, Chile will be betting on us like they were last year.”

Not that there will be a pall over this opener. It's just that Fonner will go to back to being what it always was, a local track that has learned how to survive without bells, whistles, million dollar handles or graded stakes. It's the people of Nebraska that have made Fonner special, something out of a different and better era for the sport. Pre-pandemic, the on-track crowds were so healthy that they sold out all the seats in the grandstand on Saturdays. This year, the fans will be allowed back, but, because of COVID-19, Fonner plans to limit the crowd to 75% of capacity. That will allow them to seat about 4,000 fans.

“These people love their horse racing and they love to have a good time in the afternoon,” Kotulak said. “We're here to give them what they want. They are rabidly eager to return.”

Kotulak said that a mask mandate will be strictly enforced and that anyone who refuses to wear one will be asked to leave. It's personal for him. In October, both he and his wife tested positive for the virus.

“It knocked me out for almost an entire month,” he said. “I had tremendous fatigue and body aches, a little bit of a headache. I'm over it but that doesn't mean I am invincible. I want everybody else to go by that same mantra.”

Some things will be the same from last year. Jake Olesiak will be back to defend his riding title. The Isai Gonzalez barn and the Kelli Martinez barn will likely battle it out for leading trainer. And Fonner, which added several horizontal wagers last year to satisfy demand, will be back with a betting menu that includes Pick Fours and Pick Fives.

“We're going to resume as if there was no change at all in our presentation,” Kotulak said. “That means offering all of the additional Pick Four and Pick Five wagers we added to our wagering menu last year. When we did that, people just gobbled them up.”

While Kotulak understands that handle will fall dramatically at the upcoming meet, he's hopeful that at least some of the horseplayers who discovered Fonner last year liked it enough that they will be back for more.

“People realized that Fonner Park is a charming little gem of racing in the United States,” he said. “There were people who had never seen racing from Fonner Park before and I think many of them were pleasantly surprised. How many Thoroughbred tracks are there that conduct racing over a five-eighths of a mile racetrack? That was new for a lot of people and I think they liked that up close, tight action that happens on a five-eighths racetrack.”

This year's meet will run through Kentucky Derby Day, May 1. The highlight will once again be the April 24, $75,000 Bosselman Pump & Pantry/Gus Fonner Stakes. It was won last year by Sleepy Eyes Todd (Paddy O'Prado), who will attempt to become the first horse in history to pull off the Bosselman-Saudi Cup double.

It's easy to be optimistic about Fonner's future. In the November election, Nebraskans voted to allow the state's racetracks to open up casinos. Fonner has yet to select a company it will partner with to build the casino, but Kotulak said expectations are that the casino will be up and running toward the end of this year. That will mean that the track's future is guaranteed and that the 2022 meet will feature a healthy bump in purses. Kotulak expects they will double.

That won't make Fonner Park Santa Anita Park or anything close to it, but that's OK. Fonner has never tried to be something that it's not.

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Farm owner Judy Pryor, whose background comes in the Quarter Horse realm, said the decision to purchase Thoroughbred stallions came after the state passed racino legislation in November, opening up future opportunities for the state's breeding and racing programs. However, she said the process of finding the stallions wasn't easy.

Pryor went to the recent Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale looking for a stallion, but the horses she landed on were scratched from the sale either because the owner decided to hang on to them or a private sale was made before the horse entered the ring. She did, however, take note of Giant Expectations, who was being shown as a stallion prospect at a farm near the sales grounds.

“I kind of came home from there with my tail between my legs, thinking, 'I don't need to work this hard, anyway,'” Pryor said. “I started really researching and asking a lot of questions, and the gentleman that owns Giant Expectations, Justin Border, won the Breeders' Cup and an Eclipse Award with a horse by one of the stallions I was interested in.”

Border, through the nom-de-course Exline-Border Racing, campaigns Storm the Court, who won the 2019 Breeders' Cup Juvenile en route to champion 2-year-old male honors. Storm the Court is by Court Vision, who had been standing at Acadiana Equine in Louisiana.

Pryor had always been keen on sons and daughters of Gulch – a rapidly shrinking population in 2021 – so seeing the Gulch sire line run through Storm the Court via Court Vision gave her another target for acquisition.

“I started thinking, 'This guy likes what I like,' so I started researching Storm the Court, and I got it in my head that I was going to get Court Vision,” Pryor said.

After plenty of research and phone calls, Pryor ended up with two new stallions; both of them tied to Border's stable either actively or passively.

Giant Expectations, a son of Frost Giant, won four of 25 starts during his on-track career for earnings of $1,343,600. The 8-year-old is best known for his victories in the Grade 2 Pat O'Brien Stakes and San Antonio Stakes.

Bred in New York by Sunrise Stables, Giant Expectations is out of the winning Is It True mare Sarahisittrue, whose five foals to race are all winners. He hails from the family of multiple Grade 2 winner C Z Rocket.

Court Vision, a 16-year-old son of Gulch, is best known on the racetrack for his victory in the 2011 Breeders' Cup Mile at Churchill Downs, a swan song that brought his career record to nine wins in 31 starts and earnings of $3,746,658. His other wins of note included the G1 Hollywood Derby, Woodbine Mile, Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap, and Shadwell Turf Mile Stakes, the G2 Remsen Stakes and Jamaica Handicap, and the G3 Iroquois Stakes.

From seven crops of racing age, Court Vision has sired 156 winners, with combined progeny earnings in excess of $13.9 million. He began his stallion career in 2012 at Park Stud in Ontario, then moved to Kentucky for one season at Spendthrift Farm in 2016 before relocating to Louisiana.

Storm the Court is Court Vision's best runner to date, conceived during Court Vision's lone season in Kentucky. In addition to bringing in an Eclipse Award and a Breeders' Cup trophy, Storm the Court finished a solid sixth in last year's Kentucky Derby, and he most recently ran second in the G2 Mathis Brothers Mile Stakes on Dec. 26 at Santa Anita.

Court Vision's other runners of note include Grade 2 winner Mr Havercamp and Canadian champion King and His Court.

Pryor said she was still deciding on stud fees for her two new additions, but her goal would be the same no matter the price: raise a horse that could take her to the Kentucky Derby as a connection instead of a spectator.

Court Vision, in particular, has already gotten one foal to Churchill Downs when the lights were at their brightest, and Pryor hoped history could repeat.

“I'm a 71-year-old lady that always wanted a Kentucky Bluegrass farm, but I live in Omaha, Neb,” Pryor said. “That's been my childhood dream. I know I'll probably never make it, but I'd sure like to go. I've gotten to be in the paddock at all three Triple Crown races a few times.”

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Dazzling Falls, who became the only Nebraska-bred to compete in the Kentucky Derby when he finished 13th in 1995, was found dead in his field Tuesday in Mead, Neb., just outside Omaha, bringing to an end 28 years as the standard bearer for the Cornhusker State as a runner and a sire.

The son of Taylor's Falls competed as a homebred for Donald and Barbara Kroeger's Chateau Ridge Farm, and he lived out his final years at Rogers Ranch, supported financially by Barbara on behalf of her late husband. Dazzling Falls was handled for the bulk of his racing career by Omaha-born trainer Chuck Turco.

Dazzling Falls came into Turco's barn at Remington Park near the end of his 2-year-old season after establishing himself as a multiple stakes winner at Ak-Sar-Ben for trainer Robert Jorgensen. Turco could tell by the colt's ground-devouring stride that he could handle the deeper waters in Oklahoma, but he'd have to change up the gameplan from what won him races in his home state.

That decision likely took Dazzling Falls from a good state-bred horse to one that could compete with the best of his class.

“He was a front runner, and they sent him to Remington for the [Mathis Brothers Remington] Futurity, and I thought it was a lot to ask for him,” Turco said. “Plus, Evansville Slew was floating around town, so being another speedball wasn't going to help. We changed his style of running, and he just relished it. He'd get way behind, and then he was able to use the speed he was bred for in the last quarter-mile.”

The change in tactics saw immediate returns when the colt showed restraint, then blew away in the stretch to win the Prevue Stakes at Remington by 3 1/2 lengths. Old foe Evansville Slew got his revenge in the Remington Futurity, but Dazzling Falls finished the season on a high note with a win in the Hawthorne Juvenile Stakes in Illinois.

Dazzling Falls returned to Remington Park for his spring campaign and linked up with jockey Garrett Gomez, who would become his most successful partner.

After a couple in-the-money efforts in prep races, Dazzling Falls successfully dialed in his closing kick again in the Remington Park Derby. With the backing of fans from both Nebraska and Oklahoma, the colt entered the Grade 2 Arkansas Derby as one of the favorites two weeks later, and he emerged a 1 1/4-length winner.

All of a sudden, two Nebraska boys had the graded stakes earnings to enter the Kentucky Derby. While the buzz back home revolved around Ak-Sar-Ben's eventual sale, it was a needed morale boost for a state about to face some hard times.

With that being said, the culture shock of the spotlight was real.

“The thing about racing a horse from this part of the country in those kinds of races is they're just not used to the noise, the attention, the crowds, the bigger cities, the airplanes and helicopters,” Turco said. “Things are pretty quiet in Nebraska. He really handled it step-by-step as he got better. I remember him staring at me the first time we put him on an airplane like, 'Get me off this thing right now.'”

Turco said he expected the Nebraska-bred to stick out like a sore thumb in Louisville, given his unorthodox background, and the media machine rumbled to life by the time the colt was back to his stall after the Arkansas Derby. Despite coming into the Derby off an impressive win in his final prep, Dazzling Falls was still considered one of the field's biggest longshots.

“I think the question really was, 'Do you think a horse with this pedigree should go to Churchill Downs?'” Turco said. “I said, 'I'm an Italian from south Omaha, and my pedigree probably doesn't match up, either, but we're going.'”

Dazzling Falls' sire, Taylor's Falls, earned his most lucrative victory in the Beef State Handicap at Ak-Sar-Ben, and he never raced at a distance longer than six furlongs. He was a solid sire of stakes winners, and he even got four graded stakes winners over the course of his stud career, but classic success was certainly not expected of his foals.

Even though the horse and trainer were outsiders at Churchill Downs, that didn't mean they were completely separated from their people.

Tulsa-based sportscaster Chris Lincoln, a friend of Turco's from the races at Remington Park, was on the outside rail covering the Derby for ESPN that year. As the trainer prepared to compete on the biggest stage of his life, Lincoln gave him a daily reminder of his roots.

“About a week out from the race, I heard this music playing,” Turco said. “The closer we got to the ESPN scaffold there, we heard the (University of) Nebraska fight song playing. Here at Churchill, everybody was looking at us like we were yokels, but we had a hell of a football team that year. Every morning that we went to the track, he'd play that song, and we would fight off tears.”

Turco knew he had his horse trending in the right direction heading into the Derby, having righted the ship from his defeats earlier in the spring to get him to Louisville with a two-race winning streak. However, he also knew the road he took to get there wasn't easy. No matter what Dazzling Falls did in the race, it was probably going to use up whatever was left in his tank.

“He had 13 days between the Remington Derby and the Arkansas Derby, and he had another 14 days between Arkansas Derby and the Kentucky Derby,” the trainer said. “I knew if he won the Kentucky Derby, I was going to be the most unpopular trainer in the world, because there was no way I was going to run in the Preakness, because that was another two weeks away. Even back then, that was too much.”

With Gomez once again in the irons, Dazzling Falls left the gate in the 1995 Kentucky Derby at the field's longest price: 27-1 in a group that was diluted on the odds board by two pairs of coupled entries and six horses lumped together as “the field.”

By that standard, he outran his odds. That's pretty much where the positive comments on his Derby trip end. Knocked around out of the gate from the dreaded inside post, Dazzling Falls hugged the rail for most of the race before Gomez fanned him out widest of all for the stretch run. He picked up a few placings, but he was never any kind of threat for eventual winner Thunder Gulch, settling for 13th of the 19 starters.

Dazzling Falls got his break after the Kentucky Derby, then he traveled to the now-defunct Birmingham Turf Club and won the Alabama Derby in what would be his final start with Gomez. The colt continued to barnstorm graded stakes races around the country for the remainder of his 3-year-old season, then he raced twice at Oaklawn Park at age four before an injury ended his career. He finished with nine wins in 20 starts and he made $904,622, making him the highest-earning Nebraska-bred of all-time.

Turco and Dazzling Falls went their separate ways after the horse retired, as is the way of things. The trainer went back to his base at Remington Park to find the next one, and Dazzling Falls went off to begin his stud career, first in Oklahoma, before moving to Iowa, and finally Rogers Ranch in his native state.

Six or seven years passed, and Dazzling Falls was a cherished memory for Turco, but little else. Tied up with his growing stable, he didn't have time to visit his star runner. One day, that changed. Then, Turco changed.

“I was a young man, and was busy,” Turco said. “You go through a lot of horses when you're training, and there's mechanisms you have to turn your emotions off. When I did have the opportunity to see him, six or seven of us went out there the first time, and he was out in this big pasture. He ran the length of that thing right to me and stuck his tongue out. At that point, I thought, 'My God, he remembered me after all these years,' and I felt guilty as hell. After that, I went out any chance I had.”

Between his visits with Dazzling Falls, Turco kept himself busy with a handful of his star's foals, including the best one he ever put on the track, Diamond Joe.

Over the course of seven seasons, Diamond Joe won 24 of 56 starts, and earned $507,482, joining his sire among Nebraska's highest all-time moneymakers. Among his 21 career stakes wins was a victory in Nebraska's signature race, the 2013 Bosselman/Gus Fonner Stakes at Fonner Park.

While Dazzling Falls was Turco's highest-profile runner, the trainer considered Diamond Joe his tour-de-force; an overachiever who banked a ton of money in a state where the purse structure makes banking a ton of money incredibly hard to do.

Dazzling Falls (right) comes face-to-face with Diamond Joe at Horsemen's Park.

Once again, the blueprint for success meant teaching a speed horse to use his ability at the right time.

“For one thing, I knew Diamond Joe was from a speed-happy family, and I already did this once, so I told the riders when he was a baby, 'If you work him fast, I'll fire you in a heartbeat,'” Turco said. “We never asked Diamond Joe for anything. It got to the point where he wouldn't even get published workouts, but we kept that edge off him that way.”

Though he's been pensioned for five years, Dazzling Falls still had a small handful of runners compete this year. From 18 crops at stud, he had 165 foals and 90 winners with combined progeny earnings of more than $4.5 million. He never got a graded stakes winner, but he did send 19 foals to victory in stakes company.

Turco's production as a trainer has geared down in recent seasons, and after a training career that spanned 35 years, he has not had any starters in 2020. Dazzling Falls remains his highest earner and lone graded stakes winner.

Dazzling Falls was the figurehead for his trainer's ascent in the 1990s, then as a sire, he was the catalyst for Turco's resurgence in the 2010s. The horse called it a career at stud around the same time his trainer began sizing down his stable, and he died in a year where the trainer went fully dormant on the racetrack.

The bond between the trainer and his greatest charge was special. One glowing conversation with Turco about the horse made that abundantly clear. It was the way their lives continued to intertwine over the course of decades that truly made it once-in-a-lifetime.

“It's been good for my soul over the last 10, 15 years, just going out and seeing him,” Turco said. “A lot of people don't get to do that. Some don't care to. Some trainers are too busy, and everybody's different. Some owners don't want to spend the money to take care of a horse for the next 20 years. What a testament to the Kroegers for doing that.”

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