LEXINGTON, KY–With a rainy, cloudy afternoon turning into a perfect sunny and 72-degree evening, the racing industry was out in full force to support retired Thoroughbreds in the Real Rider Cup. Typically held in the fall at Fair Hill, it was the first time the event was being held in Lexington at New Vocations' Mereworth Farm and the rail was packed with familiar faces, such as Christian Black, Mike McMahon and Aidan and Leah O'Meara, to support this great cause initiated by Anita Motion.
Thirty-one riders completed a 2'6″ jumper course Saturday evening, all sporting the racing silks of a sponsor stable and all riding off-track Thoroughbreds. Some of the human standouts were jockeys Rosie Napravnik and Aaron Gryder and the equine celebrities included Cozmic One (Bernardini), first foal out of Zenyatta, and GSW Stickstatelydude (First Dude).
The riders were split into nine teams and, in addition to their stable sponsorships, were tasked with garnering monetary donations, all of which went to aftercare organizations, such as New Vocations and the Retired Racehorse Project.
After 31 exciting rounds in the ring with Terence Collier on the mic, New Vocations' Anna Ford announced that over $89,000 had been raised so far and they were still counting.
In the individual results, first place went to Jesslyn Woodall, who rode Lead Player (Posse), while sporting the WinStar silks. Second went to Keira Nygaard, wearing the Thord-Bred silks aboard Judge Johnny (Empire Maker) and third was awarded to Tara Coombs, donning the silks of September Farm on the unraced Baptizo (Magical Eight).
The top team of the evening was team Blood-Horse, comprised of Woodall, trainer John Ennis on Sound Prospect (Eastern Echo) and Lauren Gash aboard Collaborator (Any Given Saturday). Second went to the Breeding and Bloodstock team, comprised of Sergio de Sousa and Cozmic One, Jocelyn Brooks on Perpetual Optimism (First Defence) and Nygaard. The third-place team was Off-Track Sporthorse, led by Napravnik on Banana Thief (Kitten's Joy), Emily Crow and Emily Swirsky, who both rode Old Ironsides (Rubiano), Anne Czerwonka on Subtle Hope (Dialed In) and Kelsey Buckberry on Docktarri (Preachinatthebar).
The Real Rider Cup returns to its traditional home at Fair Hill Sept. 16.
The Kentucky leg of the Real Rider Cup, a charity show jumping event created by Anita Motion to benefit Thoroughbred aftercare, will be held Saturday, July 9–two days ahead of the start of the Fasig-Tipton July sales–at New Vocation Racehorse Adoption Program at Mereworth Farm in Lexington.
Among those set to participate are Zenyatta's son Cozmic One (Bernardini), who will be ridden by Real Rider Cup veteran Sergio de Sousa; and Grade III winner Sticksstatelydude (First Dude) with exercise rider Kristin VanMeter.
1/ST Racing is furnishing an entire team coming in from the West Coast, consisting of Jodie Vella-Gregory, Manager of Innovation; Aaron Gryder, Vice President, Industry Relations and former jockey; and Dr. Dionne Benson, Chief Veterinary Officer.
Fasig-Tipton's longtime announcer Terence Collier will announce the Real Rider Cup event. Riders are still accepted, and fundraising continues through the Maryland leg of the event in mid-September. Title sponsorships are also available for the Kentucky event. All proceeds benefit the Retired Racehorse Project, New Vocations Thoroughbred Adoption and the Fair Hill Thoroughbred Show. For more information, visit www.therealridercup.com.
In this new TDN column, Christie DeBernardis will tell the stories of popular and/or accomplished former racehorses who are now enjoying second careers as show horses, track ponies, etc.
The first two foals out of the mighty Zenyatta, Cozmic One (Bernardini) and Ziconic (Tapit), never reached the winner's circle during their brief careers on the racetrack, but they are both thriving in their second careers as jumpers and ambassadors for off-track Thoroughbreds.
The elder brother, Cozmic One's second career has been well documented in these pages (Cozmic One: Shining New Light on OTTBs and Checking in on Cozmic One) in the past, but we checked in with Hidden Brook Farm's Sergio de Sousa and his daughter Isabela for the latest update.
When Cozmic One first came to the de Sousas, he was Isabela's charge. An accomplished equestrian, Isabela was consistently in the blue ribbons with her OTTBs at the annual Thoroughbred Makeover, which was her first goal with “Coz” back in 2018.
When Isabela started traveling to pursue her career as a professional equestrian, Sergio took over the reins on Cozmic One. The two have been competing in jumper shows, focusing on the Take2 program, which partners with United States Equestrian Federation-rated horse shows that offer C-rated Thoroughbred hunter and jumper divisions, which are restricted to Thoroughbreds registered with The Jockey Club. They will also be competing in the Real Rider Cup for the second time this year in their new Kentucky-based event July 9.
“Isabela is around this summer, so if she wants to jump him she can, but he is basically my fun horse now,” Sergio said. “I just want to continue having fun with him and doing things like the Real Rider Cup. We did the .85 [meter jumpers] last week at the [Kentucky] Horse Park. I hope to qualify for the Take2 finals with him at the Horse Park in September.”
Cozmic One is now 10, which is considered old for a racehorse, but is the prime age for show horses.
“He has really matured,” Sergio said. “He is a much stronger horse now and I have improved my riding. We are just having fun and enjoying each other.”
“Coz is doing great and him and my dad are developing a lovely partnership,” Isabela added. “They both are learning from one another and are enjoying themselves while doing it.”
Ziconic & Sarah Pollock | Told By Film
While Cozmic One is enjoying the lush Kentucky bluegrass, his year-younger half-brother Ziconic remained on the West Coast when he left trainer John Shirreffs's barn three years ago. He was placed under the care of Linda Moss and her husband George Bedar, who already had a former Shirreffs trainee campaigned by Zenyatta's owners, Jerome and Ann Holbrook Moss, in her barn in Milyone (Maria's Mon).
Linda Moss became friends with Ann Holbrook Moss and Dottie Ingordo-Shirreffs back in 2011 when she honored Zenyatta at a local conference for women in business.
“I am a board advisor to the Professional Business Women of California and we have a conference every year,” Moss explained. “The theme for our conference in 2011 was connect, explore, inspire and I was responsible for producing the inspire section. I wanted a special woman to represent the inspired section and I chose Zenyatta to do that.”
The next thing Moss did was head to Hollywood Park to meet the queen herself.
“Shortly after the conference, I went down to the track and met Zenyatta,” said Moss, who had owned Arabs in the past, but always loved Thoroughbreds. “My older Thoroughbred Milyone was there, about three stalls down from Zenyatta. He just kept calling out to me as I was walking down the barn aisle. When I went up to his stall, he just put his head in my neck. John said, 'He has never done that with anyone before.' I jokingly said, 'Well if he ever needs a home, he has one.' A year and a half later, Dottie called me and said, 'Do you still want Milyone?'”
Of course, Moss said yes. Then, in June of 2019, she received another call from Ingordo-Shirreffs.
“When Ziconic was ready to be retired, Dottie called me and said John and I feel he should go to you,” Moss said. “We talked about it and that is how we got him exactly three years ago.”
According to Moss, Ziconic is well aware of his royal heritage and enjoys the attention that comes along with it.
“Ziconic is the type of horse who knows who he is and likes to be treated special,” she said. “He is extremely proud. He is probably the smartest horse I have ever been around. He is also very playful and loves an audience.”
Moss said Ziconic has taken to off-track life very well. He started his retraining as a jumper with trainer Sarah Pollock and the pair even won their first show together back in 2020. Unfortunately, Ziconic's show schedule was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and an EHV outbreak in the state of California.
“He is really enjoying his off-track life,” Moss said. “We give him a lot of diversity. He is kind of the king of the farm he is at right now, Eclipse Equine Sports Therapy Center in the Santa Ynez Valley. He was originally at a sporthorse farm, training with an amazing trainer, Sarah Pollock. She did an amazing job transitioning him.”
She continued, “He really loves to jump and be in the arena, getting all the cheers and being photographed. It has been a very inconsistent show career for him because of COVID and the EHV outbreak. We gave him the winter off. He is back in a jumping program now with the goal of showing in the fall jumping circuit. We will probably start him back at the .80 or .85 [meter], but he was jumping a meter previously.”
Under the care of Moss and the de Sousas, both of Zenyatta's boys have found their callings. They have taken the athletic ability and winning attitude they inherited from their superstar dam to new venues, shining a brighter spotlight on off-track Thoroughbreds everywhere in the process.
Cozmic One, the first foal out of the champion mare Zenyatta, has joined the TAKE2 Thoroughbred League, and will compete in the TAKE2 Thoroughbred Jumper Division at the Kentucky National Horse Show in Lexington Sept. 22-26. The 9-year-old could earn a wild card berth in the Sept. 26 $20,000 TAKE2 Hunter and Jumper Finals if he finishes in the top 5 in the Division.
The wildly popular Zenyatta, racing's Horse of the Year in 2010 and winner of 19 of her 20 career starts, foaled Cozmic One on March 8, 2012, at Lane's End Farm in Lexington. Before he was named, the royally bred young colt was the subject of media coverage and even had a Breyer horse model created for him (it now sells for $125 on Amazon).
While he did not live up to his bloodlines on the racetrack, Cozmic One became a fan favorite. He still has a following today, according to Sergio de Sousa, who now owns Cozmic One in partnership with Zenyatta's owner/breeders, Jerry Moss and Ann Holbrook, and his daughter, Isabela.
“It's pretty amazing, a lot of people really enjoy seeing what he is up to,” de Sousa said. “People love the mare, and they love him, too. We post things about him on social media – from the horse shows, but also Coz playing with his buddy, rolling in the mud, just being a horse. It makes people happy to see it, and it is simple for us to do that. We get letters, Christmas cards, cookies, birthday cards, you can go on and on. My daughter started it a couple of years ago, so people could follow him, make the connection with Coz, see how he was training. She got a lot of people to participate in his journey.”
Cozmic One retired from racing in 2017 after five unsuccessful starts, and joined the de Sousa family to start a second career as a show jumper. He competed in the Retired Racehorse Project's 2018 Makeover, finishing fifth, then was sidelined for the better part of 2019.
“His transition took a while,” de Sousa said. “He pulled a muscle [after the Makeover] and needed time off. His body was changing, he was learning to use himself, but now he is really coming together.”
While daughter Isabela gave Cozmic One a solid foundation for his new career, she is now off at college, and father Sergio has literally taken the reins. A native of Brazil, he has been a horseman all his life and is the managing partner of Hidden Brook, a full-service Thoroughbred farm outside of Lexington. De Sousa is new to the world of show jumping, but he enjoys the challenge of working with Coz.
“He's a charismatic horse, he has a fantastic personality, a very strong personality,” he said. “He definitely knows we work for him, but in a good way. He knows he's a big boy, you have to be strong with him, but you have to make him think anything new is his idea. He tests me, which is great. He makes me a better rider.”
The two competed together at the Split Rock Horse Show in June and the Robert Murphy Stable Horse Show in July. They have yet to win a ribbon, but that is not the end goal for de Sousa.
“It's the two of us against the course,” he said. “We hope to improve from the day before, we want to do well, but it is not about winning. It's about being in rhythm with the horse. Riding horses for me, it reminds me why I work with the horses. That partnership, that closeness, that's why I do it.”
As for Coz, de Sousa said, “This is his second career, but he really is retired, he is just having fun. He gets excited going to the shows, he loves to watch the other horses perform, he loves to watch the people go by. He's like a boxer, ready to go in the ring. But we're not looking to be in the Olympics, this is just for his enjoyment. He doesn't owe us anything.”
The classes for the TAKE2 Jumper division at the Kentucky National Horse Show will be held in the Walnut Ring at the Kentucky Horse Park on Sept. 23-25. The TAKE2 Jumper Finals will be the second class of the day in the Walnut Ring on Sunday, Sept. 26.
The TAKE2 Thoroughbred League, launched in 2015, offers $10,000 in year-end high-score awards to the Thoroughbreds competing in TAKE2-affiliated Hunter and Jumper divisions across the country. The $20,000 TAKE2 Finals are held every September. The program was created to promote second careers for retired racehorses.
“TAKE2, promoting Thoroughbreds for jumping, for hunting, it's fantastic,” de Sousa said.
