I was grateful for the opportunity to visit these properties in October 2017. Hill n Dale has long been one of my favorite farms. It exudes serenity, with the trees close to the farm roads, and the architecture of its barn also captivates me. And to visit the farm where Man o’ War held court at stud as part of the commemorations of the 100th anniversary of his birth, marked in a myriad of ways in Lexington throughout 2017, was an opportunity that had never presented itself to me before, and one I was eager to have. The history of racing, from its earliest days to some of its most golden eras, as well to during more recent times, has always fascinated me. To have a chance to see where one of the top Thoroughbreds ever foaled spent so many years invoked a feeling of reverence, just to see where he once lived.

 

A look inside Man o’ War’s roomy stall; (low quality due to being a phone photo, the lens on my “real” camera was too large to get a photo of it this close up)

Another look at the bell rung when his progeny won races

Headstones of some of the famed horses buried near Man o’ War’s barn

Highlighting the October meet with some of my favorite photos and moments

 

Matt Winn

 

 

Wise Dan Stakes

 

 

Fleur de Lis

 

 

Stephen Foster Handicap

My main lure to Downs After Dark, in addition to just being at live racing again, was Gun Runner. He appeared to be the class of the field, and rocketed to the lead almost immediately when the gates opened. Not only did he run as one would hope the class of the field would, even when the horses began to bunch up around him at the top of the stretch and I wondered if he had enough left to hold them off, he found another gear and drew away to win by seven lengths, the largest winning margin in the race’s history. He looked incredible in the paddock (though it was getting tricky with the low light to get an image that properly reflected that), and it was incredibly thrilling to see how dominant he was in the race and how the way he looked in the paddock translated to such a topnotch performance. I also included my video from the race.

 

Conclusion

 

I lingered a bit longer after the last race for a bit more of the party atmosphere as a DJ spun some songs and the plaza became a dance floor. I definitely felt celebratory after witnessing Gun Runner’s win!

My drive to Denali Stud for a late morning appointment to see Serena’s Song was incredibly idyllic and leaving was even more so, reminiscent of how I felt after my very first visit ever to horse farms in the central Kentucky region. Back then, I felt like I was in heaven after having been able to feed a peppermint to Charismatic, who I had previously only seen on television racing, and then drove down a road lined with trees whose branches met overhead, forming a cathedral-like setting.

Serena’s Song looked as amazing as ever. It’s hard to believe she is 26 years old. Her feisty nature and physique don’t betray her age at all. She still appears to be in robust good health and it shows in her temperament and physical condition. I felt quite lucky to see her again, to feed her peppermints and the unexpected bonus of being offered a chance to hold her on the lead rope! It felt like a real privilege and the first time I’ve been offered that opportunity. It was a brief visit – she isn’t patient to stand still long, especially if the peppermints don’t keep coming, but that made it no less wonderful.

 

 

I love mornings at the track, the chance to see all the potential of what may be. There is a quiet too, a more serene atmosphere in most cases, than found in afternoons at the track. Yet the excitement of race day is not missing, particularly in Derby week at Churchill. There is the anticipation of awaiting the first sight of a Derby or Oaks hopeful. Royal Mo was on the track ahead of the time slot reserved just for Derby and Oaks horses, as he is sitting “on the bubble,” needing a defection to be in the Derby field.

 

While I and everyone gathered had enjoyed the camaraderie and the sight of the horses, in some ways seeing them was like setting the stage for the main event, like the opening act for the rock stars you came to see. It truly did feel like that, given the usual practice of freshly harrowing the track for the Derby and Oaks horses and the quiet hush that hid a buzz of anticipation building again.

 

Someone stepped in front of me at the last moment, but I still like this look at Classic Empire’s facial markings

Then it was on to the afternoon’s racing.

As I left the track with one race remaining (as I was on my way to see the Pegasus Parade preview since I wouldn’t be in Louisville for the actual parade), I and other patrons were serenaded out, fittingly, by a rendition of “My Old Kentucky Home.” It was yet another prelude to what was to be, since my next visit here would be on that famous first Saturday in May.

Here’s to safe trips to all on Derby weekend!

This post is in homage to what draws me to take photographs of these horses time and again, the glimpses of heart that I see in them, whether in the paddock, in repose, or in full flight down the track. It is what speaks to me most about them, that will to win and that drive to excel that so many of them possess.

These images are all from the Keeneland spring 2017 meet, one of the most perfect places to be.

 

A few more favorites from the meet just past:

 

 

When the chestnut colt who entered this world 100 years ago today was foaled, it is natural to wonder if there was any inkling of how he would practically come to be the standard by which any racehorse would be measured.  This can be asked now that we can look back on how his life and career unfolded, but when he was foaled that day so long ago the few brief lines jotted down about his foaling don’t reveal much more than particulars of gender, color and markings. Yet his pedigree spoke of the hoped-for potential possible for the young colt, with his sire being the highly-regarded Fair Play and his dam the daughter of  an English Triple Crown winner.

While Man o’ War was born and lived before my time, I too see him as the standard by which all racehorses should be measured. I had only to read Walter Farley’s biography of him which brought him to life so vividly to be captivated. While considered fiction, it wove enough fact into the tale to be a good account of Big Red’s life and career.

 

The celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of Big Red’s foaling began aptly enough in front of the life-sized likeness of him sculpted by Herbert Haseltine at the Kentucky Horse Park.  The statue is a masterpiece–compared to photos of its famous inspiration, the proud stance and the head held high are very evocative of how Man o’ War presented himself to visitors over the years in retirement.  There even seemed to be a freshly restored gleam to the statue’s eye that may have always been there prior to the recent application of a new patina, a gleam that also seemed to give a further glimpse of the living horse.

 

For  one historian, the day was a perfect time to share his personal recollections of Man o’ War, and I was as captivated by his speech as I had been by Walter Farley’s book about Big Red. The difference was, it felt like being even closer to getting a sense of who Man o’War had been as recounted what he had personally meant to him, particularly in regard to the day of his funeral. For many of us today, while revered, Man o’ War exists only in these stories, photos, and video. That is more than enough to keep his legacy alive, but only when hearing from someone who grew up in close proximity to “Red” can the truest measure of what he meant to people be fully realized.  The historian (regrettably, I did not catch his name) had to take a moment to regain his composure when saying he and his father stayed on the outskirts of the funeral service, for they did not want to see Man o’ War in his casket or remember him that way.

 

I can understand. Any great horse should always live in our memories as “near to a living flame as horses ever get,” as Joe Palmer famously described Man o’ War.

The Horse Park showed a video about Man o’ War’s life, which had footage of him running with a burst of such power and speed in his paddock in retirement it engendered awe. The might of Man o’ War was truly incredible, and there is no doubt even 100 years later, he still deserves every bit of the accolade and to be the standard by which all racehorses are measured.

I never saw him in the flesh, yet for all those reasons and more, I know I will never forget him. I do sometimes wish I had been one of many who poured through the gates to see him in retirement, but much like Farley, Palmer, and the historian helped bring him to life for new generations, naturally his devoted groom Will Harbut has to be mentioned for perhaps burnishing Man o’ War’s already significant legacy possibly more than anyone else.

Therefore, it seems only fitting to close with his famous words that have stood the test of time in transmitting across the years what his charge represented to him and to all who came to visit.

“This is Man o’ War. He ran in twenty-one races and won twenty of them. A horse named Upset beat him at Saratoga when he was turned sideways at the start. He beat that hoss bad afterward. As a three-year-old he ran in eleven races and won them all. He ran a mile in 1:35 4/5 and broke the track record. He won the Lawrence Realization by a hundred lengths and set a new record. There wasn’t anything to run with him when they retired him to stud. He is a great sire; he sired horses that have won three million dollars. There was American Flag, Crusader, Mars, Bateau, Battleship, Clyde Van Dusen, War Admiral, and War Relic.

The year War Admiral won the Derby he had four sons that were champions. War Admiral was the champion three-year-old, Battleship was the champion steeplechaser, Blockade was the champion timber hoss, and Holystone was the champion hunter.

Folks talk about ‘second Man o’ Wars.’ There ain’t any second Man o’ Wars. This is the greatest hoss of them all. Nobody will ever know how good he was—there wasn’t anything to run with him. There ain’t ever been anything like him and maybe there won’t be ever again.

Man o’ War didn’t need no excuses. He broke all the records and he broke down all the horses, so there wasn’t nothing for him to do but retire. He’s got everything a horse ought to have, and he’s got it where a horse ought to have it. He’s just da mostest hoss. Stand still, Red.”

When Horse Country was launched to provide farm tours in central Kentucky, it was with the main purpose of bringing the stories of a signature industry to life for even more people.

There are few better places to to bring such a tradition of excellence in the Thoroughbred industry to life than at a farm with a legacy of 150 years of raising racehorses.

Runnymede Farm is tucked into and around a long tree-lined drive. The light yellow barns that dot the property are charming, and stepping foot onto the farm somehow imbues a visitor with a deep sense of history. Part of that is that you could almost see this farm being as it was in days gone by.

That is not to say Runnymede is antiquated. Like any top farm in this region, it has some of the best horse people and horses associated with it. It just seems to wear its legacy in a way that is indefinable, but best described by the sign at the entrance that reads, “Runnymede Farm, established 1867” – as far as records can determine, the oldest horse farm in existence in this country – and the litany of top horses that have come from this property and gone to racing glory.  Their names are well known to any racing aficionados, names like Star Shoot, Miss Woodford (described as the “first Zenyatta” – winner of over $100,000 in the 1880s and dozens of races),  and Hanover.

There was also an interesting story about how Roamer got his name, which I had never heard before. There had been a teaser and a blind mare on the farm, and no one is sure who jumped the fence into the other’s pasture, but the resulting foal seemed he should most fittingly have the name Roamer. Given his unplanned existence, Roamer went on to have an incredible racing career. The story was mentioned to point out how breedings can be so carefully planned and then one horse jumps a fence and produces a really good horse with no planning involved at all. Federico Tesio once told a story like that as well…

Runnymede, besides being a fount of quality nearly since its inception that is carried on to the present day, is associated lately with a horse of immense tenacity in Lady Eli. Her dam, Sacre Couer, grazed on a hill on the day of our visit, carrying her eagerly-awaited American Pharoah foal.

Speaking of the hills of Runnymede, their horses leave the farm wanting to run, evidenced by the number of graded stakes winners the farm turns out, and the hills and the condition they help the horses build from their earliest days of life are likely a strong contributing factor.

I realized the goal of any breeder or owner is to have a top horse, and that those horses that achieve graded stakes success are only a small portion of any foal crop, and the number of grade 1 winners is an even smaller pool. What I never considered is that means they are hoping for the outliers. That was an interesting way to consider it.

Brutus Clay, who led our tour, told us Runnymede has a great percentage of stakes winners and grade 1 winners, putting them among the top farms in the world. The statistics are even more impressive when it is considered that Runnymede usually has between 30-40 mares, and successfully holds it own with much larger operations. Quality speaks, and flows through the bloodlines of the horses that live there today just as it did through the bloodlines of the horses that lived there in the 1800s. It is incredible to think of a farm being in existence that long. Clay even joked that most people are asked what they did before they got into horses, and for his family for generations horses are what it has been all about.

Meeting the next generation was the order of the day after hearing of Runnymede’s history.

A young mare with her first foal, an Orb filly, was in the first pasture we came across. Her love of peppermints was so great that it was enough to lure her from grazing, and she followed one of the farm employees across the pasture to bring her and the filly closer to give the assembled group a better look. The filly was all leg, as foals are at that age, and there was charm in how she looked to be more leg than anything else and while she was quite agile, she stood in a way that made it look like she was still getting used to her own mobility. I had taken some of the day off work to visit, and it did me a lot of good to have time in nature and among horses again and the foals were a sweet bonus.

 

After that, we visited an older mare, Bloomy, and her colt by Uncle Mo. This foal led the mare to the fence, directly opposite how the first foal had been. The foal was pretty bold but the mare didn’t like the strangers getting near her foal and charged the fence, then kept him at a safe distance. This foal at her side was the last she would have, as she had earned her complete retirement after winning over $100,000 racing and being named 2012’s Pennsylvania Broodmare of the Year. She is 20 this year, and after her foal is weaned she will live out the rest of her days at her owner’s farm in Pennsylvania.

 

I had to leave sooner than anyone else, past fields of mares still in foal and a few yearlings in the pasture nearest the entrance. They were like the send-off crew concluding an enjoyable visit and interlude from the artificiality of the warehouse environment where I had stolen a bit of time from to reconnect to nature and horses, the essentials for my soul.