second career | Horse Racing Free Tips

Successful Racing Quarter Horse Now Besting Barrel Competition

Second career racehorse This Is Debt and owner Ty Lloyd receive an award. PHOTO: Courtesy of Brandi Lloyd

A warhorse, in racing parlance, is a horse who has made more than 50 career starts. By its very definition, a warhorse has to be not only talented, but also sound and gritty enough to withstand the rigors of an extended campaign.

This Is Debt, a 2005 sorrel gelding, is a warhorse –and is now a first-race speed event horse.

Bred in Ontario by Brian Farrell, he was campaigned by the Farrell family–owned by Bill, trained by Laurie–exclusively at Ajax Downs in a career that spanned from 2007 to 2011. He won or placed in 15 of his 52 starts, earning $57,698, including appearances in the 2008 Maple Leaf and Ontario Bred and Foaled derbies.

Sired by Royal Evening Snow, he is out of the Pacific Bailey mare Pipe Dream Bailey.

Brandi Lloyd is a lifetime horsewoman and is friends with the Farrell family. She served as a groom for This Is Debt during his racing career and loved his Pacific Bailey bloodlines. She asked the family if she might be able to get him when his racing career was over and train him for speed events like barrel racing and pole bending.

“They called and said he's ready to come and get,” Brandi says. “I picked him up and we gave him about a year off, and then I started him back. He's been super easy. He's light, runs to the snaffle, took to the barrels really easily. He's excelled in pole bending. He keeps getting better and better.”

The horse the family calls “Pretty Boy Roy” or “Roy” has adapted well to his new life. Brandi trained him on the barrel pattern by riding exhibition runs at events while her two sons were running their ponies. She says that Laurie Faurell's horsemanship and early training of Roy made the horse's transition from racing to arena competition especially easy.

When her son, Ty, was old enough, Roy was given to him for a Christmas present. They have been competing together for about four years.

“Roy and Ty just click,” the proud mom says. “They make a great team. I trained the horse, but he runs harder for Ty. Ty motivates differently than I do, too, and kinda hangs it out there, and Roy really tries for him.”

Roy has earned 6.5 points in limited AQHA competition, as well as several Top 10 finishes in barrels and pole bending at the prestigious All American Quarter Horse Congress in Columbus, Ohio.

The family goes to events together, mainly competing at National Barrel Horse Association and Ontario Barrel Horse Association competitions, with Brandi and Ty riding, and her dad and younger son sitting together in the stands, providing priceless Statler-and-Waldorf-type commentary on their videos.

“He's pretty great,” Brandi says of Roy. “He has an attitude some times, but as far as working with him, he has a great work ethic, he's happy to do his work and do his job.”

While Roy is the family's first second-career racehorse, he's probably not going to be their last. In addition to having a great horse, they've also gotten checks from the Ontario Quarter Horse Racing Industry Development Program, which promotes the careers of Ontario-bred racehorses even after they leave the racetrack.

“Honestly, I'd do it again in a heartbeat,” Brandi says. “I'd encourage anyone interested to look at one for sure.”

This story, which is part of the Second Career Stars series, originally appeared on the American Quarter Horse News website and is republished here with permission. Second Career Stars is an ongoing series on retired racing American Quarter Horses in new careers. If you know of a horse that should be featured, write to acaudill@aqha.org. AQHA News and information is a service of the American Quarter Horse Association. For more news and information, follow @AQHARacing on Twitter, “like” Q-Racing on Facebook, and visit www.aqha.com/racing.

The post Successful Racing Quarter Horse Now Besting Barrel Competition appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Fiery Off-Track Quarter Horse Becomes Barrel Racing Star In Two Countries

She lit the board in her career as a racehorse, and now Biscuit De Feu is lighting the board as a barrel horse in two countries.

Biscuit De Feu–whose name is “fire cookie” in French–was bred in California by Bryan and Pamela Scheer, owned during her racing career by Jeannie Baldwin and saddled by champion trainer Kenneth Roberts in Louisiana.

The strapping 2013 brown mare has an unusual racing pedigree, as she is sired by First Down French, a son of one of barrel racing's all-time leading sires, Frenchmans Guy, out of a mare sired by A Classic Dash.

Her dam is High Tide, a daughter of champion runner Ocean Runaway and the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame stallion Strawfly Special's daughter, Casual Slip Knot.

Biscuit De Feu's racing career was limited to two starts as a 2-year-old, including a solid second-place finish, when her connections decided it was time to move her into her new career.

Leanne Marie Sine of Dewinton, Alberta, was looking for something sired by First Down French, who was himself a successful barrel racing horse and sire, and she found Biscuit De Feu on Facebook and bought her.

“She caught my eye,” Sine said. “And then I really liked her bottom side, too.”

The mare, now known as “Ferrari,” moved to her new home in Alberta, and the barn of her owner, who is a professional trainer specializing in reining and barrel racing horses.

Sine's skill has paid off for the mare her owner describes as “an absolute little firecracker.”

The mare was racetrack broke when she arrived, and Leanne was prepared to be patient teaching the horse her new job.

“I took my time with her, went back to the basics and got her really broke,” Sine said. “I train reiners, too, so I put a really strong foundation on her. She's a real sensitive horse and a little bit hotter bred too, so lots of slow work and really took my time with her. I got her broke, broke, broke.”

Ferrari is a workaholic, and is saddled up on average six days a week – she doesn't like taking time off.

They travel to events in Alberta, as well as traveling to the United States to compete. Their first year they debuted in some smaller futurities and events, allowing Ferrari to learn and build confidence. In 2019, the first of her derby years, they began stepping up to bigger events, with placings and 1D wins, including a top 10 finish at the AQHA World Championship Show in Level 2 senior barrel racing.

“She's just full of herself, but a sweetheart to have around,” Sine said. “Just a personality.”

As for 2020, it's the final derby year for the mare and Sine had plans to campaign the mare, but, well, “This year … our plans have kinda got kiboshed.”

“This is her last derby year and I had some bigger stuff planned that we didn't get to do,” she said. “But hopefully (we'll get to) some bigger races and rodeos (when things start back up), we will see what she wants to do.”

The post Fiery Off-Track Quarter Horse Becomes Barrel Racing Star In Two Countries appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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2020 New Vocations All-Thoroughbred Charity Horse Show And Thoroughbred Incentive Program September Championships Cancelled

New Vocations Racehorse Adoption Program and The Jockey Club Thoroughbred Incentive Program (T.I.P.) have jointly agreed to cancel their 2020 hunter/jumper/pleasure horse show that was slated for September 3-6 at the Kentucky Horse Park.

“We are deeply disappointed to cancel the 2020 hunter/jumper horse show, but after ongoing discussions with show management, Kentucky Horse Park event staff, and horse show managers of other events held at the park, the decision to cancel the event was made,” says Sarah Coleman, director of community and public relations for New Vocations. “Multiple factors contributed to this outcome, including the cancellation of other Kentucky Horse Park championship events, the spike in COVID-19 cases throughout the country, various state travel restrictions that would affect many exhibitors, and the inability to ensure that the regional governments would not force the cancellation of the event, potentially once the show was underway.”

The dressage competition, set to run Oct. 3 and 4 at the Kentucky Horse Park, remains on the schedule. Show management will evaluate the event in the coming weeks and will announce a decision on holding the show prior to the opening of entries in late August.

Now in its sixth year, the New Vocations All-Thoroughbred Charity Horse Show raises much-needed funds to enable the program to rehabilitate, retrain, and rehome retiring Thoroughbred and Standardbred racehorses. The T.I.P. Championships celebrate qualified Thoroughbreds in a variety of disciplines. Run concurrently, the shows typically host more than 400 Thoroughbreds at the Kentucky Horse Park each fall.

Sponsors for the New Vocations All-Thoroughbred Charity Horse Show will have several options, including shifting support to a virtual competition in late September. Details of this virtual event are forthcoming.

”Event staff held a lengthy discussion over the last few days and the cancellation was not an easy decision,” says Kristin Werner, senior counsel for The Jockey Club and coordinator of T.I.P. “Ultimately the health and safety of our competitors, officials, and staff far outweigh any event.”

T.I.P. is exploring consolation competition options for early 2021; at this time, the All-Thoroughbred Charity Show and T.I.P. Championships for fall 2021 are expected to run as planned, and horses qualified and declared by the August 3 deadline for the 2020 championships will be eligible to participate in the 2021 events. A list of those horses is available here.