An OTTB Enthusiast’s First Trip to the Bluegrass State

Catherine Ford loved racing and owned two OTTBs but had somehow never been to Kentucky. She finally went with her husband Chris this summer and chronicled their adventures on her Horses of Seven Hearts blog, republished here with permission.

From Catherine:

My first trip to Kentucky began before dawn. Neither of us knew that the Mustang we had loaned to us had cutouts under the side mirrors. When Chris unlocked the car in the early morning dark, the side lights came on, shining the Mustang pony logo down on the ground below. It was a fitting start!

The Kentucky Horse Park is a mini Disneyland for horse lovers. After coming through front gate, I said “wow” about 10 times before reaching the visitors center. At the end of that first day, checking in to our horse art-filled hotel room, my face was literally sore from grinning so much. Horses are absolutely everywhere on the beautiful grounds, with statues that will take your breath away. Tidbits of history posted everywhere stirred up the little girl in me that poured over every horse book (non-fiction or otherwise) I could get my hands on.

I thought the Horses of the World show might be a bit cheesy for someone watching who “knew horses” but it wasn’t. Arabians cantering around in full costume are hardly dull. Seeing breeds in person I had never seen before, like the Icelandic and the Lusitano, the Gypsy Vanner and the Marwari, put in flesh what I had only ever seen in pictures.

On to the Hall of Champions, the best part of the day, to meet some racing greats. I told Chris it would be the equivalent of him taking a trip to Auburn and while he was there, meeting Bo Jackson. It’s truly awesome.

Funny Cide was the first to catch my eye.

Funny Cide, much like California Chrome, won both the Derby (the first gelding to win since 1929) and the Preakness in 2003, then finished the Belmont that year in third place on a deep mud track.

Next we met Cigar and Da Hoss. These horses couldn’t have been more opposite. Da Hoss fought injury after injury, some that most consider career-ending, to come back and win the Breeder’s Cup Mile — twice. The most memorable in 1998 when he hadn’t been raced in two years due to injuries and came back to win. The announcer couldn’t believe it as he said the quotable, “This is the greatest comeback since Lazarus!” Da Hoss won over 1.9 million in his career even with his long recovery breaks.

On the other extreme is Cigar. The horse that stayed sound through some of racing’s most grueling meets to win 16 consecutive races and was called by many not just a horse of the year, but horse of the decade. His winning races read off like a checklist of the best races there are. He won the Dubai World Cup. For those who don’t know, Dubai is the best of the best in the entire world, put together on one track for a $5 million purse. Cigar won over $9.9 million in his career. Unfortunately once he began a breeding program he proved sterile, his fertility insurance policy was cashed in by his owners, and the insurance company gave him to the Horse Park. He is something to behold in person, a radiant boy in every way. (Editor’s note: Cigar, age 24, sadly passed away last week following complications from osteoarthritis surgery — RIP Cigar.)

We spent a little time watching the national Arabian show going on in the show arena, then off to the International Museum of the Horse. I have to say that after being used to Thoroughbred heads, the faces of Egyptian Arabians in halter classes looked a little strange to us. The vendors were beautiful though!

Inside the museum, our tour concluded at the trophy cases, an entire wall of Derby, Preakness and Belmont trophies. Horse of the Years. Eclipse Awards. The last Triple Crown winner, Affirmed, had his trophy from each race and the Triple Crown itself in a case in the middle of it all.

Around the corner was a case just for Secretariat including Ron’s boots and a lock of Big Red’s mane.

Dreams loaded on to the backs of horses whose name etching was worn from years passing, bearing the weight of greatness.

We ended our day reliving the glory that was Man O War. Beaten only once by a horse named Upset, he is generally agreed to be in the top two racehorses of all time. He would have been a triple crown winner himself had Mr. Riddle not been a bit odd, deciding not to run the Derby.

Man O War is known for more than just racing. He had a great heart and died shortly after the groom, who loved him dearly, had passed. The stride markers on the pavement leading to his memorial impressed Chris — he was certainly a supernatural horse.

The next day we pointed the car to Louisville. First stop: the training track that my horse Bandon’s last racing owners were stabled at.

I was as eager to meet Jack Frost and Wendy Milligan of Flying Frost Stables in person as I was to see behind the scenes of track life. Sitting here now I can’t even find the words to tell you what arrival there was like. You know in movies when older men tell stories about the first time they went to a baseball game and saw the field in color instead of on a black and white small screen… the sounds, sights, and smells that brought it all alive and in full vision? That was my experience. Like walking into a room and someone suddenly turns on a loud stereo. Boom. It was in front of me.

Horses rule here. Horses have right of way. It is 100% human responsibility at all times to get out of the way of horses at all times — horses aren’t led around anything or asked to stop for sake of a pedestrian. Chris and I learned which side to get to as horses being hotwalked came around corners counter clockwise through the shed row every few minutes.

The horses were delightful. Gorgeous faces poked at us for apple cookies. Soft-natured horses wanted to be touched and known….

…while others were such hard workers, on the muscle and more aggressive, they didn’t want to be distracted from watching the track.

I was surprised by the overall feel of it. Of course the horses were immaculate, manes tidy and cleaner than most horses heading into a show ring, but what surprised me was that the horses were such babies! So much youth in their eyes and the way they moved. I knew that racehorses were young, but most horses in barns and at shows you see in any large number together are in their teens. It’s very uncommon to see so many horses, all of them very young, in one place. Their youth put a playfulness in the air of an otherwise hardworking place.

The exercise riders shared stories with us. My favorite listened while I mentioned how in awe I was of Funny Cide the day before, then proceeded to tell us what a **censored** jerk he was back when he was riding him. The reason he was the first gelding to win in so many years was that he was impossible as a colt. As a gelding, he wasn’t a hell of a lot better apparently.

They told me the story of Bandon coming to them, having been raced off a trailer his early years, so messed up that no one could get near him. They told me how no vet would go in his stall. That they would have him contained in every way possible and he would still be striking out.

Once they fixed his painful teeth, gave him some time and patience, he quickly became Wendy’s favorite, his fleece-crowned racing bridle hanging up next to her while she was talking.

I asked a million and one questions that Jack and Wendy patiently answered for me. One of them was how they got the horses to urinate when drug screenings were done. As a cadence of whistles broke out from the grooms all through the stables, Jack grinned and pointed. They whistle each time they urinate in the beginning and very soon, they will all go on whistle command.

Another thing I learned was how often horses were claimed. I knew that owners often entered claiming races to ease up the competition on a horse. Being bettered is hard on a horse’s mentality, and these races could be a buffer after a horse broke its maiden. I had no idea, though, that the horses actually being claimed (purchased before the claiming race by a new owner) happened frequently. I had been given the impression that it was few and far between, but it isn’t at all. Horses are claimed daily, a lot of owners acquiring their horses in this way.

Exercise riders up, we headed to the clocker’s stand for the morning’s timed runs.