OTTBs | Horse Racing Free Tips

Finnick The Fierce Retires From Racing, Could Point To 2022 Makeover With New Owner

Finnick The Fierce, the one-eyed chestnut gelding who captured many fans' imaginations ahead of last year's Kentucky Derby, has retired from racing and found a new home.

Jackie Barr, a long time fan of Finnick The Fierce, is the fan favorite's new owner and will be guiding his transition from the racing life to his next life.

“I followed his racing up until he was supposed to be in the Derby,” she said. “You just root for him, being an underdog. He's such a handsome horse.”

Finnick The Fierce had taken an extended break after being a late scratch out of the 2020 Kentucky Derby, returning to the races with an allowance win at Turfway Park in March of this year. Since then, however, Barr said his connections noticed he wasn't really competitive at the same levels he had been before, finishing third in his last outing at an allowance at Mountaineer Park. Although he was sound, co-owners Dr. Arnaldo Monge and trainer Rey Hernandez agreed it was best to let the horse find a new job. Monge's wife, Thena, knew Barr and learned she had been casually looking for her own horse.

Barr has previously ridden hunter/jumpers and fell in love with dressage while working at Hilltop Farm in Maryland. She also worked for Millennium Farms, and has recently been trying to figure out whether her time there overlapped with time Finnick may have been on the property as a weanling. Barr keeps track of several of her favorite Thoroughbreds from her time at Millennium and was excited to hear from Thena Monge at just the right time.

Finnick arrived at his new home at BTE Stables in Paris, Ky., earlier this week and will get some letdown time before Barr decides what his next move is. Her tentative goal for now is the 2022 Retired Racehorse Project's Thoroughbred Makeover, contingent on his progress and their admittance to the competition. Barr said that for now, all doors are open to them. She is inclined to point for dressage and/or competitive trail with Finnick, but is happy to take him in whatever direction he expresses interest in, even if that includes hunters or eventing.

“I don't want to push him too hard on anything; I'll just take it real easy and see how he likes being a sport horse,” she said. “We'll go from there. If he's enjoying it we'll keep going, and if he doesn't seem to, maybe he'll be a trail horse, who knows.”

Barr watches Finnick in the field. Photo courtesy Erin O'Keefe

Finnick's right eye was removed when he was young due to a rare congenital cataract in the eye. Barr said that he doesn't seem to have any residual anxiety due to his limited vision, romping and playing around his new paddock comfortably.

“It really is amazing,” she said. “I've met a couple horses that only had one eye and were spooky on that one side [where the eye was missing]. When I first met him, we were all standing on that side and he didn't mind us being there. He would turn his head so he could see people but he had no problem with it at all. He gallops with his head tilted a little bit, I think so he has a greater range of vision, but other than that you'd have no idea.”

Whatever comes, Barr said she's just happy to be a part of the story she had followed so closely as a fan.

“It's been really great — I've just posted on social media in the past hour or so and there are so many people who remember him,” she said. “It's so cool that he has this built-in fan base. It just shows that you owe it to the horse to make sure he has a good landing and to continue letting him have a good story.”

The post Finnick The Fierce Retires From Racing, Could Point To 2022 Makeover With New Owner appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Horowitz On OTTBs, Presented By Excel Equine: Thanks To Genetics, Thoroughbreds Are The Ultimate Shapeshifters

Let's talk about what a Thoroughbred truly is.

A Thoroughbred is an athlete. Through centuries of crafting a vision and meticulous breeding to bring that vision to life, the Thoroughbred has become the wonder of horse lovers and sports lovers and the source of big business and cultural richness around the world.

The vision for the Thoroughbred started about 350 years ago with the goal of producing the ultimate racehorse, but the selective breeding to create horses that could excel at racing has also produced horses that can be successful at many other equine sports. That's because of what has become intrinsic to the breed beyond just physical prowess.

“The Thoroughbred looks out into the far distance,” said Chris Ryan, who has worked with Thoroughbreds at the highest levels of horse racing and eventing for more than four decades. “His horizon is way out there and he feels he can get there whenever he wishes. This gives him tremendous forward thinking. A horse thinking forward is going forward. Watch his ears!”

After finishing his education in 1976, Ryan entered the horse racing world, working with Thoroughbreds in both flat and jump racing, first for trainer Thomson Jones in the United Kingdom. He would then become head lad for trainer Jim Bolger in his native Ireland, among other roles as jockey, trainer, breeder, and sales producer.

“A chestnut race mare, Stanerra, winner of two Group 1s, two Group 2s now upgraded to Group 1s, a Group 3, and European Champion Older Horse of her year, probably gave me the best insight into the Thoroughbred,” Ryan said. “I was on my own with her for long periods of time and got to know her so well and she me. What a privilege to be accepted by her to such a level you could tell what she was thinking while on her back and even at 200 yards distant.”

Ryan's understanding of what made Stanerra tick took the mare from winning just one of 13 starts as a 4-year-old in 1982 to winning two races in one week at Royal Ascot and then becoming the first European-trained winner of the Japan Cup in 1983.

Now, Ryan serves as a judge for the United States Eventing Association's Young Event Horse Series and Future Event Horse Series, where he evaluates the potential of horses to excel at the highest level of the equestrian sport of eventing that the website for the FEI, the international governing body for equestrian sports, dubs “the most complete combined competition discipline.”

“I love their intelligence, their beauty, their refinement, and their courage under fire,” Ryan said of the Thoroughbred. “Nature (100 percent genetics), and nurture (everything else) have given the Thoroughbred a most amazing anatomy and physique, a designer heart to lung ratio and a mind which can process data at speed which allows their engine to 'tick over' at an amazing 35 miles per hour — the Formula 1 of the equine species.”

Ryan's assessment of Thoroughbreds — now one that I'm embracing as I've gone from announcing horse races to eventing on OTTBs — is that the nature of the breed goes beyond its original intentions of racing. So, a Thoroughbred does not lose its nature once it finishes what those in horse racing perceive as its primary purpose. Nor does it take on a new identity if it goes from racing into a new sport like eventing or show jumping or barrel racing or any of the other disciplines that retired racehorses can now excel at as part of the Thoroughbred Makeover.

In fact, the qualities that the Thoroughbred possesses have inspired crossing other breeds with the Thoroughbred. For example, the Irish Sport Horse Stud Book that has excelled in eventing has developed through crossing with Thoroughbreds.

Horses with a high percentage of Thoroughbred blood were some of the highest sellers at the recent Monart Sale and Goresbridge Go For Gold Sale for event horse prospects in Ireland.

“The Thoroughbred is the most noted Studbook improver,” said Ryan, who was the pedigree announcer for the Goresbridge Go For Gold Sale.

From the sale of eventing prospects then to the highest level of the sport, the Thoroughbred has stood out.

“We saw in the recent excellent Maryland 5 Star cross country the ease of travel of the pure Thoroughbred and those with a high Thoroughbred influence,” Ryan said. “Those that lacked found it hard work.”

The author in his role as an announcer of OTTBs at Twin Rivers

The impact of the Thoroughbred goes beyond anything Captain Robert Byerly, Thomas Darley, and Lord Godolphin could have ever envisioned when they each imported a stallion from the Middle East that would bear their name and become the three foundation stallions for the modern Thoroughbred.

So, when you see a Thoroughbred leave the starting gate or the cross country start box or the barrel racing chute, it's an opportunity to appreciate how the breed has evolved over more than three centuries to be an elite sport horse, regardless of what that sport is.

Understanding and embracing the true nature of the Thoroughbred means that events like the Retired Racehorse Project Thoroughbred Makeover, programs like The Jockey Club Thoroughbred Incentive Program, and retired racehorses competing at horse shows can be appreciated as representations of the strengths of the breed, and not just something different that happens after a racing career ends.

My next column, a conversation with outgoing Retired Racehorse Project executive director Jen Roytz, who, like Ryan, also has both a racing and sport horse background, will explore how the nurture side of Thoroughbreds' evolution through the racetrack has also prepared the breed for success as sport horses.

Indeed, horse racing is the catalyst for the Thoroughbred's success across the entire equine world.

The post Horowitz On OTTBs, Presented By Excel Equine: Thanks To Genetics, Thoroughbreds Are The Ultimate Shapeshifters appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

Lost And Found Presented By LuibriSYN HA: Alphabet Soup Lives On Under Careful Watch Of Donkey Protector

Twenty-five years after the nearly white and cleverly named Alphabet Soup made headlines by narrowly defeating the legendary Cigar in the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) at Woodbine, his name and pedigree (Cozzene—Illiterate, by Arts and Letters) live on through his 18 crops of offspring that often sport equally creative monikers such as Egg Drop, Alpha Bettor, No Soup for You, Lentil, Soups On, Souper Douper and Vocabulary. The stallion himself also lives on, thanks to a lifetime of extraordinary care and perhaps because of his bromance with a different kind of equid.

Alphabet Soup turned 30 in March at Old Friends Equine Retirement, a hybrid living history museum and horsey petting zoo, in Georgetown, Ky. He has resided there since 2015 after being pensioned from his longtime stallion duties at Adena Springs about 30 miles northeast in Paris. Former stud barn mate Touch Gold — winner of the 1997 Belmont Stakes — is also at Old Friends. Awesome Again, another Adena Springs stalwart who won the 1998 Breeders' Cup Classic before evolving into a breed-shaping sire, passed away at Old Friends at age 26 in December.

“When Adena Springs called and said they were going to let us take care of some of their horses — in particular Alphabet Soup — I was astonished,” said Michael Blowen, who founded Old Friends in 2003. “We were thrilled that they think so highly of us.”

The far-flung Adena Springs breeding and racing operation started by Frank Stronach, is revered for producing quality runners exemplified by seven Eclipse Awards as outstanding breeder. Before Thoroughbred aftercare moved to the forefront, Adena Springs established their own rehoming program for their former racers. Stronach fully funds the Adena Springs-connected horses that reside at Old Friends.

Soup at home

Alphabet Soup's glamorous looks were once summarized by Blowen as “the most gorgeous horse who ever stepped foot on the farm.” Paired with his exceptionally gentle nature, Alphabet Soup is reminiscent of a hornless unicorn. He quickly settled in to life as host to admiring fans.

“We hear the most amazing stories,” Blowen said. “Handicappers tell stories about cashing bets on him. Some people have pictures of his babies in their wallets. His former jockey [Hall of Famer] Chris McCarron visits all the time.”

Alphabet Soup met the farm's first resident donkey Gorgeous George when Blowen introduced the little long-ear to potential paddock mates. Gorgeous George showed particular interest in the famous racer and the two soon became inseparable. They share a water bucket and treats and when Alphabet Soup is led to and from the barn, Gorgeous George follows untethered.

“It is like watching the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace only better,” Blowen said. “George is like the Secret Service. If you try doing something to Alphabet Soup that George takes exception to, he lets you know it. He is a protector.”

Soup and George share some grass

Bred in Pennsylvania by Southeast Associates, Alphabet Soup was listed as not sold on a final bid of $28,000 at the 1992 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. The following May, he again did not meet his reserve at $29,000 at Fasig-Tipton's Maryland 2-year-olds in training auction. On April 2, 1994, he debuted with a third-place effort at Santa Anita for Ridder Thoroughbred Stable and trainer David Hofmans. A winner in his third start five weeks later at Hollywood Park, Alphabet Soup methodically climbed the class ladder prior to becoming a graded stakes winner late in his four-year-old season.

He peaked as a 5-year-old in a season highlighted by three graded stakes scores in Southern California prior to the Classic.

He returned in early 1997 at age six with a runner-up performance in the San Antonio Handicap (G2) at Santa Anita with Adena Springs owner Frank Stronach as a new partner with Ridder Thoroughbreds in what would be his 24^th and final start. He was officially retired a few months later and began his stud career in 1998 for Adena Springs. His record stands at 10-3-6 and $2,990,270. He won six graded events including his lone Grade 1 score in the Classic.

Decades removed from those glory days, Alphabet Soup remains a crowd pleaser. Blowen is perhaps his biggest fan and marvels daily at the stallion's exuberance for life in general and his intelligence in particular.

“He taught me that he would rather have his back scratched than eat carrots,” he said. “He gets right up to the fence and then moves to place he wants me to scratch.”

For more information about donations and tours, visit www.oldfriendsequine.org

Liane Crossley is a Lexington-based freelance writer who has spent her entire career in Thoroughbred racing-related jobs in barns, press boxes and offices. She has worked for stables from Saratoga to Ak-Sar-Ben and from Canterbury Park to Oaklawn Park and about another dozen tracks in the eastern two thirds of America. A longtime contributor to Thoroughbred Times, her articles have appeared in Keeneland Magazine, Blood-Horse, Daily Racing Form, Thoroughbred Daily News, Breeders' Cup website, Horse Illustrated, European Bloodstock News, KyForward, Horse Illustrated, Young Rider and other publications. She is a seasonal member of Keeneland's media department.

The post Lost And Found Presented By LuibriSYN HA: Alphabet Soup Lives On Under Careful Watch Of Donkey Protector appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post

More Than 60 Breeders’ Cup Connections Pledge Portion Of Winnings To New Vocations

A growing number of prominent owners and trainers are showing their support for racehorse aftercare by participating in the New Vocations Breeders' Cup Pledge. Now in its 12^th year, the Pledge has raised over $800,000 with 100 percent of funds raised supporting the program's rehabilitation, retraining and rehoming efforts.

“Breeders' Cup is a very exciting time of year for our industry,” said Anna Ford, New Vocations' Thoroughbred program director. “It's a great opportunity for New Vocations to share its commitment to aftercare and spotlight those who are supporting our mission.”

To date, connections of more than 60 Championship contenders have pledged a percentage of their Breeders' Cup earnings. Participants include Al Shaqab Racing, Albaugh Family Stables, Jim Bakke, Bob Baffert, Richard Baltas, Bonne Chance Farm, Bing Bush & the Abbondanza Racing Partners, Cannon Thoroughbreds, China Horse Club, Coolmore, Brad H. Cox, Bradley Thoroughbreds, DJ Stable, Michael Dubb, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Bobby Flay, Brad Grady, Hat Creek Racing, LNJ Foxwoods, Paulo H. Lobo, Madaket Stables, Michael W. McCarthy, Kenny McPeek, Elizabeth M. Merryman, Peter Miller, MyRacehorse, Patricia's Hope LLC, Todd Pletcher, Richard Ravin, Larry Rivelli, J. Kirk & Judy Robison, Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, SF Racing, Joe Sharp, Siena Farm, Speedway Stables, Spendthrift Farm, St. Elias Stable, Starlight Racing, Stonestreet Stables, Stud RDI, Three Diamonds Farm, Treadway Racing Stable, West Point Thoroughbreds, White Birch Farm, and WinStar Farm.

“We are thrilled with the record number of pledges we've received this year,” Ford said. “The number of horses needing our services is also at an all-time high, so the funds raised during the Pledge are vital to allowing us to find new purposes for these most deserving equine athletes. It's a win-win situation for all involved.”

New Vocations will continue to seek pledges from connections until Nov. 6. All Pledge information is available at newvocations.org/event_detail/26 or by e-mailing anna@horseadoption.com.

The post More Than 60 Breeders’ Cup Connections Pledge Portion Of Winnings To New Vocations appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

Source of original post