Hengstenverhalen

Bekroonde auteur Margaret Ransom vervolgt haar serie Stallion Stories, die af en toe focust op ruinen. Eerdere onderwerpen in de serie zijn onder meer Seattle Slew, Silver Charm, Grindstone, Storm Cat, Go For Gin en de ruin John Henry.

J.O. Tobin

Storm Cat

Sigaar

Go For Gin

Wild Again and Slew o' Goud

Springstart

Door Margaret Ransom

Wes Lanter, geboren in Lexington, Kentucky, heeft het grootste deel van zijn leven omringd door enkele van de beste volbloeden van de laatste generatie.

De ervaren ruiter diende als hengstenverzorger en/of hengstenmanager bij enkele van de meest succesvolle en bekende fokkerijen in de Bluegrass, waaronder Spendthrift Farm, Three Chimneys en Overbrook Boerderij. Hij heeft ook gewerkt in het Kentucky Horse Park. Gedurende zijn meer dan 30-jarige carrière heeft de 54-jarige gewerkt met drie Triple Crown-winnaars, zowel volbloed als standaard gefokt, vijf extra Kentucky Derby-winnaars en meerdere kampioenen en Hall of Famers.

Lanter is een wandelende encyclopedie over de meeste dingen die met volbloed racen te maken hebben. Hij deelt zijn favoriete verhalen over de paarden wiens leven hij als bevoorrecht beschouwt. Sinds hij in 2015 vertrok als Equine Section Supervisor bij de Hall of Champions van het Kentucky Horse Park, heeft Lanter verhalen verzameld over 'zijn paarden' en beslist waar zijn volgende hoofdstuk in zijn leven vandaan zal komen.

Het paard

• Stamboom: A.P. Indy—Steady Cat, door Storm Cat
• Kleur: baai
• Geboren: 18 januari 1999 - 19 mei 2019
• Eigenaar/fokker: Overbrook Farm (W.T. Young)
• Trainer: D. Wayne Lukas
• Carrièrerecord: 5-2-1-0
• Carrière-inkomsten: $ 221.265
• Opmerkelijke overwinningen: 2001 Saratoga Special (G2)

Een hengst weer in elkaar zetten

Hengstverhalen :Jump Start - Foto met dank aan Wes Lanter

Lanter was nog niet zo lang op Overbrook Farm toen Jump Start in zijn wereld kwam als een van de meest veelbelovende jonge zelfgefokte dieren van de boerderij. De zoon van A.P. Indy werd uiteindelijk niet een van de beroemdste in zijn leven, maar hij zou om een ​​aantal redenen wel een van de belangrijkste worden.

Als renpaard wist iedereen in 2001 natuurlijk wie Jump Start was. De knappe bruine D. Wayne Lukas stagiair won de Saratoga Special (G2) en ging naar een zeer diepe en getalenteerde Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) 2001 die redelijk hoog aangeschreven stond toen het ondenkbare gebeurde.

Jump Start liep een condylaire breuk op aan zijn linker voorste kanonbot en onderging vervolgens een uitgebreide operatie om de blessure te herstellen.

Ik herinner me dat Pat Day hem plotseling op zijn achterste trok', herinnert Lanter zich over die ietwat sombere dag kort na de terroristische aanslagen van 11 september op Amerika. “Maar een paar dagen later was hij letterlijk terug op de boerderij. Ik had een kleine stal met drie paarden bovenaan waar hij een tijdje moest herstellen. Zijn been was moeilijk te zien en we waren voorzichtig, we hebben hem niet meteen gefokt zodat hij eraan kon wennen, maar het duurde niet lang voordat hij in de hoofdhengstenstal was en zijn dekcarrière prima begon.

Zijn röntgenfoto's (na de operatie) waren ongelooflijk, ik heb zoiets nog nooit eerder of daarna gezien. Ze hebben zijn enkel gefuseerd en hij had er ongeveer 20 schroeven of meer in. Maar hij deed het er heel goed op en kon er goed mee rondkomen, hij fokte er ook zonder problemen zijn merries mee.”

Vaak duurt het even voordat een paard overgaat van renpaard naar fokhengst, maar dat was niet het geval voor Jump Start. Lanter zegt dat het veulen altijd gemakkelijk was en er meteen in paste.

Jump Start had altijd zoveel klasse", herinnerde Lanter zich. “Ik bedoel, vanaf het begin, toen hij amper van de baan was, deed hij nooit echt dingen die paarden die amper van de baan waren normaal deden. Hij was nooit dom of dom.

"Hij had altijd een professionele houding. Op een keer kwam Seth Hancock (van Claiborne Farm) naar buiten om hem te zien en hij vertelde me dat hij op een ochtend in Churchill Downs Pat Day een lift gaf naar de voorkant van de stal en Pat Day zei:'Lukas heeft een AP Indy colt die van welke aard dan ook kan zijn', verwijzend naar Jump Start. En als je van een rijder als Pat Day kwam, wist je dat het waar was. Jump Start was zeker een geval van onvervuld potentieel.”

De beste vriend van een kind

Tijdens zijn hele ambtstermijn bij Overbrook Farm was de paddock van Jump Start het dichtst bij het huis van Lanter, dat zich het dichtst bij het hengstencomplex op het terrein bevond. Bijna elke ochtend als

Lanter ging op weg naar zijn werk, Jump Start was daar, wachtend op zijn bruidegom om hem binnen te halen voor het ontbijt of op wat aandacht van degenen die door de achterpoort van de boerderij kwamen en gingen. En vanwege de nabijheid van zijn huis vormden Lanters jonge zoon Noah en de hengst een benijdenswaardige band.

"Eigenlijk had ik Jump Start in mijn voortuin rondrennen", legt Lanter uit. “Toen Noah klein was, aaide en speelde hij altijd met Jump Start. En Noah liep dan regelrecht naar het hek om hem te zien en hij rende langs het hek en ze speelden. Noah hield echt van hem en ik maakte me nooit zorgen. Hij wist de paarden te respecteren, maar ik kon me niet voorstellen dat Jump Start ooit iets zou doen.

"We gebruiken geen schattige bijnamen voor de paarden, maar Noah noemde hem 'Jumpy' en ik liet hem dat doen. Toen Noah naar (college in) Wisconsin verhuisde, vertelde hij al zijn vrienden over hem en het was alsof hij ze vertelde over een van zijn beste vrienden thuis. Hij had zoveel geluk dat hij was opgegroeid met mensen als Seattle Slew en Storm Cat en dat soort types, maar Jump Start was zijn favoriet."

Een nuttige hengst, zo niet soms een onwillige

Het is gemakkelijk voor te stellen dat het voor geen enkele hengst moeilijk zou zijn om in de schaduw van de legendarische Storm Cat te schitteren, maar Jump Start had zeker zijn deel van de successen als vader. Lanter blijft trots op wat hij heeft bereikt.

"Hij is echt een nuttige hengst geworden", zei Lanter. 'Ik bedoel, zo uit mijn hoofd verwekte hij (miljonairs) Prayer For Relief en Rail Trip, en ook Icabad Crane. Hij is wel naar Zuid-Amerika geweest en heeft daar een zomer doorgebracht en heeft daar ook een aantal kampioenen verwekt. Ik was altijd blij met zijn prestaties.”

Het enige probleem dat Lanter zegt dat hij ooit met Jump Start heeft gehad, is dat het paard liever in zijn paddock rondhing of met mensen op bezoek ging dan een echte hengst te zijn.

"Ik bedoel, hij zou wel fokken, maar het was alsof hij er niet echt om gaf", herinnert Lanter zich. "Soms zetten we hem in de stal van de teaser om hem de merries te laten plagen en hem in de stemming te brengen.

"Over het algemeen was hij beter dan de meeste hengsten. Te veel mensen geloven in het geheel, 'hengsten zijn slecht en ze kunnen je vermoorden', en hoewel het zeker waar was voor sommigen - en ik heb er zeker een paar gehad - zijn de meeste niet slecht en Jump Start was het verste ding ervan. Hij had een geweldige instelling en was een genot om in de buurt te zijn. Hij kreeg niet veel bezoekers die hem kwamen bezoeken, maar als mensen dichter bij een hengst wilden komen, voelde ik me altijd veilig om ze bij hem in de buurt te laten zijn.

En hij was knap, vooral voor zo'n groot paard. Soms zijn grote paarden niet zo verfijnd en zien ze er natuurlijker uit, maar Jump Start was een heel mooi paard.”

“Als het om hengsten gaat, gingen we altijd met realistische verwachtingen in, dus als ze succes hadden als vader was het altijd leuk als ze die overtroffen en Jump Start deed dat zeker ’, herinnert Lanter zich. "Ik heb genoten van het kijken en lezen over zijn lopers en hun successen.

"Toen ik las dat hij geslaagd was, was ik verdrietig, we waren maatjes, hij was de vriend van mijn zoon," herinnerde Lanter zich.

Hengstenverhalen:Raise A Native

Door Margaret Ransom

Wes Lanter, geboren in Lexington, Kentucky, heeft het grootste deel van zijn leven omringd door enkele van de beste volbloeden van de laatste generatie.

De ervaren ruiter diende als hengstenverzorger en/of hengstenmanager bij enkele van de meest succesvolle en bekende fokkerijen in de Bluegrass, waaronder Spendthrift Farm, Three Chimneys en Overbrook Boerderij. Hij heeft ook gewerkt in het Kentucky Horse Park. Gedurende zijn meer dan 30-jarige carrière heeft de 54-jarige gewerkt met drie Triple Crown-winnaars, volbloed en standardbred, vijf extra Kentucky Derby-winnaars en meerdere kampioenen en Hall of Famers.

Lanter is een wandelende encyclopedie over de meeste dingen die met volbloed racen te maken hebben. Hij deelt zijn favoriete verhalen over de paarden wiens leven hij als bevoorrecht beschouwt. Sinds hij in 2015 vertrok als Equine Section Supervisor bij de Hall of Champions van het Kentucky Horse Park, heeft Lanter verhalen verzameld over 'zijn paarden' en beslist waar zijn volgende hoofdstuk in zijn leven vandaan zal komen.

Het paard

• Stamboom: Native Dancer - Raise You, door Case Ace
• Kleur: Kastanje
• Geboren: 18 april 1961 – 28 juli 1988
• Kweker: Happy Hill Farm
  
• Eigenaar: Louis Wolfson (boerderij met uitzicht op de haven)
• Trainer: Burley Parke
• Carrièrerecord: 4-4-0-0
• Carrière-inkomsten: $ 45.955

Opmerkelijke overwinningen

• Grote Amerikaanse inzet, jeugdinzet

Prestaties

• Amerikaans kampioen 2-jarige (1963)

Spendthrift's eigen "Big Red"

Zijn naam komt ook voor in de vaderlijnen van bijna twee dozijn Kentucky Derby-winnaars - Country House, Justify, American Pharoah, Always Dreaming, I'll Have Another, Super Saver, Street Sense, Smarty Jones, Funny Cide, War Emblem, Monarchos, Fusaichi Pegasus, Real Quiet, Grindstone, Thunder Gulch, Strike the Gold, Unbridled, Alysheba, Genuine Risk, Affirmed en Majestic Prince.

Het is moeilijk om naar een moderne volbloed-stamboom te kijken en er geen Raise A Native in te vinden, en het is veilig om te zeggen dat zelfs mensen met een voorbijgaande interesse in volbloed racen en fokken weten wie Raise Een Native was en zijn belang voor het ras.

"Hij was al wie hij was tegen de tijd dat ik de hengstenstal bereikte", herinnert Lanter zich. “Maar ik leerde al snel veel over hem. Ik bedoel, ik herinner me dat ik naar hem keek en zijn vaderstatistieken bestudeerde en het tragisch vond dat hij maar vier keer rende. Ik denk dat hij ook elke keer dat hij rende een baanrecord vestigde.

"Charles Hatton, de grote turfschrijver, schreef ooit als 2-jarige over Raise A Native:'Raise a Native werkte vanmorgen over de rug van Belmont. De bomen zwaaiden.’ En daar moest ik altijd aan denken als ik aan Raise A Native dacht.”

Raise A Native was ver in de twintig toen Lanter en hij elkaar voor het eerst kruisten, maar wat hem opviel aan de hengst was hoe jeugdig hij eruitzag en hoe fit hij was.

"Hij was een oudere hengst, maar hij was zo gespierd", zei Lanter. “Hij is gebouwd als een tank. Ik denk dat elke quarter horse persoon onder de indruk zou zijn geweest van hoe hij eruitzag. Zelfs op die leeftijd zag hij eruit als de belichaming van ultieme fitheid.”

Eén ding waar Raise A Native van hield, was zijn baan als hengst, zegt Lanter. De meeste hengsten houden van hun werk, merkte hij op, en Raise A Native was altijd een 'goede fokker'. Maar elke keer na zijn afspraakje met een merrie kreeg hij wat speciale tijd met haar voordat hij werd weggeleid.

"Clem (Brooks, de beroemde bruidegom van de grote Nashua) noemde hem 'Big Red'," herinnert Lanter zich. “Dus we noemden hem allemaal ‘Big Red’. En na elke dekking brachten ze Raise A Native naar het hoofd van de merrie en Clem zei dan:'Kus haar, Big Red. Kus haar." En dat deed hij, hij zou zijn merrie zoenen. Raise A Native had een goede persoonlijkheid, echt waar.”

Raise A Native, The Teacher

Raise A Native, die in 1963 met pensioen ging nadat hij een gebogen pees had opgelopen, verdiende absoluut zijn recht om zich te gedragen zoals hij wilde, hoewel de bemanning van grooms op Spendthrift Farm nog steeds deed hem voor het grootste deel aan zijn manieren denken. Dat betekende niet dat de hengst zijn mensen niet testte, vooral Lanter niet.

"Raise A Native was helemaal geen slecht paard en had een goede persoonlijkheid", herinnert Lanter zich. “Maar hij kende zijn publiek zeker. Hij had jongens die hij oppikte en maakte alles gewoon moeilijk voor, en ik was zeker een van die voor hem.

"Clem (Brooks) zou me vertellen om Raise A Native te gaan halen. Dus ik zou erheen gaan om hem te halen en hij zou gewoon een ezel zijn. Ik zou hem bijna vangen en hij zou zich gewoon omdraaien en wegrennen. Het was alsof hij zei:'Je vangt me niet, jongen. Je hebt het nog niet verdiend.' Hij kon echt een klootzak zijn, maar hij was Raise A Native."

Ondanks zijn stempel op het volbloedras, trok Raise A Native niet de meeste fans om te kijken toen Triple Crown-winnaars Seattle Slew en Affirmed opdaagden naar Spendthrift Farm, herinnert Lanter zich. Maar hij werd altijd beschouwd als het 'voetstukpaard' en toen hij aan bezoekers werd getoond, waren de meesten onder de indruk van zijn schoonheid.

"Ik bedoel, iedereen kwam in die tijd vooral om de Slew and Affirmed te zien," zei Lanter. "Dat was logisch aangezien ze allebei net de Triple Crown hadden gewonnen, maar we hebben Raise A Native veel laten zien en ik hoorde mensen Raise A Native vergelijken met een paard Adonis, wat een perfecte beschrijving van hem was."

Lanter had Spendthrift Farm verlaten voor nieuwe kansen tegen de tijd dat Raise A Native in 1988 op 27-jarige leeftijd werd geëuthanaseerd vanwege spinale degeneratie, maar voelt een enorm gevoel van trots als hij terugdenkt aan zijn tijd met de kastanje, die het ras voor altijd meer heeft gevormd.

"Ik weet nog dat hij stierf", herinnert Lanter zich. “Op de omslag van het Blood-Horse, het laatste nummer van zijn leven, stond een foto van Seeking the Gold en Forty Niner die het uitvechten in de Travers Stakes van dat jaar. Het was me niet ontgaan dat zijn twee kleinzonen aan het duelleren waren om de Midsummer Derby te winnen, misschien wel een van de grootste inzetten op de racekalender. Ten goede of ten kwade veranderde hij het ras en dat beeld was een klassiek voorbeeld en een groot eerbetoon.

"Met hem hebben gewerkt betekent nu zeker meer voor mij dan toen ik 19 was. Wat valt er over hem te zeggen? Hij was een geweldig paard, een grote invloed en ik had zeker het geluk om ook met hem bij Spendthrift te zijn geweest.'

Hengstenverhalen:J.O. Tobin

Door Margaret Ransom

Wes Lanter, geboren in Lexington, Kentucky, heeft het grootste deel van zijn leven omringd door enkele van de beste volbloeden van de laatste generatie.

De ervaren ruiter diende als hengstenverzorger en/of hengstenmanager bij enkele van de meest succesvolle en bekende fokkerijen in de Bluegrass, waaronder Spendthrift Farm, Three Chimneys en Overbrook Boerderij. Hij heeft ook gewerkt in het Kentucky Horse Park. Gedurende zijn meer dan 30-jarige carrière heeft de 54-jarige gewerkt met drie Triple Crown-winnaars, zowel volbloed als standaard gefokt, vijf extra Kentucky Derby-winnaars en meerdere kampioenen en Hall of Famers.

Lanter is een wandelende encyclopedie over de meeste dingen die met volbloed racen te maken hebben. Hij deelt zijn favoriete verhalen over de paarden wiens leven hij als bevoorrecht beschouwt. Sinds hij in 2015 vertrok als Equine Section Supervisor bij de Hall of Champions van het Kentucky Horse Park, heeft Lanter verhalen verzameld over 'zijn paarden' en beslist waar zijn volgende hoofdstuk in zijn leven vandaan zal komen.

Het paard

• Stamboom :Never Bend-Hill Shade, door Hillary
• Kleur :Donkerbruin/bruin
• Geboren :28 maart 1974; Overleden:1994
• Fokter/Eigenaar :George A. Pope Jr.
• Trainers :Noel Murless, John H. Adams, Laz Barerra
• Jockeys :Lester Piggott, Bill Schoenmaker
• Carrièrerecord :21-12-2-2
• Carrière-inkomsten :$668.159

Opmerkelijke overwinningen

Laurent Perrier Champagne Stakes (G2T); Inzetten van Richmond (G2T); Swas-inzetten (G1); Coronado-handicap; Californische inzetten (G1); Malibu-inzetten (G2); San Bernardino-handicap (G2); Première Handicap; Handicap Los Angeles (G2); Tom Fool Handicap.

Prestaties

1976 best beoordeelde Britse 2-jarige; 1978 Eclipse Award co-kampioen sprinter (met Dr. Patches); set NTR Hollywood Park, 1 1/8 mijl in 1:47

De hengst en de nieuweling

In de tijd dat Lanter J.O. Tobin, hij was een 19-jarige bruidegom die net van school kwam en zijn korte periode werkte met jaarlingen bij Spendthrift in Lexington toen hij "geroepen werd voor de grote competities" om met de hengsten te werken. Dit was een groot probleem voor de rookie, die er alles aan wilde doen om zijn carrière met hen door te brengen.

"Om de hengstendivisie te halen, promoveerde je zeker naar het 'A'-team," herinnert Lanter zich die dag in 1983 toen hij de oude U- binnenliep. gevormd hengstencomplex bij Spendthrift. “Dus ik was het – de jongen – die deze groep oudere mannen tegenkwam die er altijd waren geweest, alle oudere heren, de oude hengstenverzorgers. Ze konden een beetje knapperig zijn, maar het was hun leven en ze waren er trots op; ze waren allemaal erg trots om hengstenstalmeesters te zijn.”

Spenthrift fokte destijds meer merries van zowat overal en het hengstencomplex had enkele van de beste dekhengsten in de geschiedenis.

"Het was een groot compliment dat ze me genoeg vertrouwden om me door te stoten naar de hengstenafdeling", herinnert Lanter zich. 'Toen je die schuur binnenliep en rechtsaf sloeg, was er Seattle Slew, J.O. Tobin, Valdez, Caro, Gallant Man, Affirmed, Wajima, Lord Avie, Raise A Native, Mehmet, State Dinner en Northern Jove, die eigenlijk een teaser was in Maryland voordat ze erachter kwamen dat hij ook een goede vader was.

“Ik was nog maar een kind, maar ik was een grote racefan en ik had alles gelezen over de hengsten, vooral de oudere. Het was een eer om elke dag naar je werk te gaan.”

Naast Seattle woonde Slew J.O. Tobin, wat interessant was in die J.O. Tobin bezorgde zijn voorheen ongeslagen Triple Crown-winnende buurman zijn eerste carrièrenederlaag in de Swaps Stakes van 1977 in Hollywood Park. De goed gefokte zoon van Never Bend, die zijn racecarrière in Engeland begon voordat hij als 3-jarige naar huis werd gebracht, werd genoemd naar een van de stichtende leden van de San Francisco Chronicle.

“J.O. Tobin, die we gewoon Tobin noemden, zou best nog steeds het knapste paard kunnen zijn dat ik ooit heb gezien', herinnert Lanter zich. 'Ik bedoel, hij was verbluffend knap. Hij was eigenlijk een olieverfschilderij. En natuurlijk wist ik dat hij Slew versloeg en ik was een grote fan van Slew, dus dat respect was er. Ik herinner me dat Karen (Taylor, mede-eigenaar van Seattle Slew) zei dat er de dag ervoor een aardbeving was in Los Angeles (de Swaps) en dat het ook Slew deed schudden, maar ik denk dat Tobin die dag gewoon meer klaar was voor de winnen om een ​​aantal redenen.”

Tobin de leraar

Hengsten kunnen in de regel notoir slecht gedragen, maar weinigen hebben dezelfde negatieve eigenaardigheden. Sommige zijn naar verluidt gemeen en/of moeilijk, andere kunnen eigenzinnig zijn in de kweekstal en weer andere kunnen gewoon onvoorspelbaar zijn. Tobin, herinnert Lanter zich, was gewoon moeilijk.

"Tobin was de eerste hengst die ooit bij me wegkwam", herinnert Lanter zich. “Hij richtte zich op, zette zijn been over de schacht en deed die truc, en het was voorbij. Iedereen schreeuwde:'laat hem gaan, laat hem gaan' en dat deed ik, maar het was een les die hij me leerde. Hij was altijd moeilijk, dus hij was gewoon hem. Hij was aan het douchen en toen deed hij het. Ik leerde toen hoe ik het moest repareren, door gewoon naar boven te reiken en de schacht bij het hoofd vast te pakken, maar hij was mijn eerste les en ik ben het nooit vergeten. ''

En elke dag op het werk met Tobin was een les in geduld, herinnert Lanter zich.

"Hij was gewoon gespannen", legde Lanter uit. “Hij was niet hard, echt, of gemeen. Hij was gewoon gespannen, maar beheersbaar. Hij was moeilijk naar zijn paddock te brengen en elke dag binnen te brengen, een uitdaging. Hij was goed als je hem ging laten gaan, hij zou niet wegkomen van de poort voordat je klaar was en wegreed en dat deed, maar hij was altijd klaar om te gaan en zijn benen te strekken.

“Ik herinner me dat (jockey) Eddie Delahoussaye me eens vertelde dat elke Tobin (nakomeling) die hij ooit bereed een beetje gek en te gespannen was. Behalve Magical Mile, die waarschijnlijk een van Tobins beste zonen was. Ik weet niet of dat de reden was waarom hij nooit zo'n hengst was, maar ik denk dat hij dat helaas wel heeft doorgegeven.”

Een bezoek van "Mr. mei”

Hengsten als J.O. Tobin kregen niet veel bezoekers op Spendthrift Farm, de meeste mensen wilden de twee Triple Crown-winnaars, Seattle Slew en Affirmed, zien. Maar dat wil niet zeggen dat Tobin niet veel bewonderaars had, waaronder een zeer beroemde honkbalspeler.

Hoofdklasse-slugger Dave Winfield kwam halverwege de jaren tachtig naar Spendthrift voor een bezoek en kreeg een voorliefde voor J.O. Tobin. Lanter, die zelf ruim twee meter lang is, liet de hengst zien aan de 6-foot-6, 220-pond slugger toen er iets gebeurde dat nog nooit eerder was gebeurd.

"Winfield nam me de schacht zo uit de hand", herinnert Lanter zich. "Hij zei:'Hier, laat me dat paard vasthouden'. En Tobin draaide geen haartje. Hij stond daar als een kampioen. Ik kon het niet geloven. Daar was hij dan, deze reus van een man die zich vastklampte aan deze hengst die heel moeilijk kon zijn, maar hij gedroeg zich braaf en deinsde niet terug. Die dag gingen we allemaal (hengstenploeg) op de foto met Winfield en Tobin van alle paarden.”

Wat had kunnen zijn

Zowel J.O. Tobin en Seattle Slew begonnen hetzelfde jaar, 1979, met dekdienst bij Spendthrift, en ze hadden allebei dezelfde zescijferige vergoeding van $ 150.000. Op het moment dat ze met pensioen gingen, waren de kosten voor beide logisch.

"Ze gingen op hetzelfde moment en voor hetzelfde bedrag dekken en als je toen iemand had gevraagd wie een betere hengst zou zijn geweest, was de populaire mening zeker Tobin,' legde Lanter uit. “Hij had de pedigree als zoon van Never Bend, en kwam uit de goede vererver Hill Shade. Hij had veel positieve punten. Het is moeilijk voor te stellen dat het van toen was als je bedenkt hoe hun dekcarrière is verlopen, maar het is waar.”

En toch, ondanks het feit dat J.O. Tobin stond hoog aangeschreven voor zowel zijn pedigree als racerecord, en trok enkele van de beste merries aan in zijn eerste jaargangen - "je brengt Becky niet van de Back 40 naar een hengst van $ 150.000", zei Lanter - hij kon nooit leven tot de aanvankelijke hoop en verwachtingen die voor hem waren gesteld toen hij met pensioen ging, en verliet Spendthrift eind jaren tachtig, stuiterde op verschillende boerderijen voordat hij uiteindelijk zijn carrière afsloot in New Mexico, waar hij in 1994 op 20-jarige leeftijd stierf.

"Ik kan me niet herinneren dat Tobin voorbij is gegaan, ik was toen naar Three Chimneys verhuisd", zei Lanter. 'Maar ik heb zijn overlijdensbericht uit de Thoroughbred Times geknipt.

“Als ik aan hem denk – al degenen met wie ik heb gewerkt – zijn het uiteindelijk allemaal paarden. Hij maakte niet zo'n grote indruk op me als sommige anderen, maar hij was zo knap als een paard maar kon zijn en dat herinner ik me nog. En als je iemand vraagt ​​die met hem heeft samengewerkt, maakte hij ook op hen een positieve indruk, ook al was hij niet de grootste ster.'

Hengstverhalen:Storm Cat

Door Wes Lanter (zoals verteld aan Margaret Ransom)

Eén ding over de volbloed-industrie als geheel is dat het soms voelt alsof het net zo snel gaat als de paarden. Alleen al op het noordelijk halfrond begint elk jaar met de hoop op nieuwe veulens, gevolgd door het vijf maanden durende fokseizoen met de vingers gekruist, dan de zoektocht om Derby-rozen te dragen en de Triple Crown Trail, de grote zomerbijeenkomsten op elk kust en dan het aftellen naar de Breeders' Cup, die eindigt en viert wat altijd wordt herinnerd als een sensationeel jaar. En aan het einde kijken velen van ons terug en denken:"Hoe is het zo snel gegaan?"

Maar zo snel als het voelt alsof het voor sommigen voorbij gaat, staat de tijd soms stil voor anderen. De geweldige hengst Storm Cat stierf 5 jaar geleden en het is moeilijk te geloven dat het tien jaar geleden is dat de laatste drie volbloed veulens - plus een Quarter Horse - van de geweldige hengst arriveerden, maar zijn invloed op het ras, evenals de mensen die van hem hield en voor hem zorgde, blijft.

Voor Wes Lanter, die de leiding had over het leven van Storm Cat op Overbrook Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, beginnend in 2000 door de bekisting van de gevierde volbloed-operatie van WT Young in 2009 en zelfs daarna , de jaren zijn weggetikt - maar de sterke herinneringen en liefde voor Storm Cat blijven, soms alsof de tijd stilstaat.

Laten we, nu het dekseizoen 2019 net aan de gang is, een wandeling door het geheugen maken met de voormalige hengstenmanager van Overbrook Farm en een van de beroemdste en meest productieve hengsten in de recente geschiedenis en zijn tijd bij Overbrook Farm, waar de Pennsylvania-gefokte zijn hele leven na het racen heeft doorgebracht.

Ogen op Storm Cat de hele tijd

Kort nadat Lanter bij Overbrook Farm aankwam om zijn taken als hengstenmanager op zich te nemen, werd door de eigenaren van de boerderij besloten dat Storm Cat hem altijd in de gaten zou houden. Er was al een hightech beveiligingssysteem aanwezig en verschillende nachtwakers waren verantwoordelijk voor het welzijn van alle paarden toen het dagpersoneel naar huis was gegaan, maar met Storm Cat's dekgeld van $ 500.000 (geen garantie) was hij de meest waardevolle hengst in Noord Amerika werden destijds meer voorzorgsmaatregelen genomen om zijn veiligheid te garanderen.

"[Destijds] lieten ze een man gaan", herinnert Lanter zich. “Hij woonde en werkte op de boerderij, maar niemand was echt zeker van zijn leven en activiteiten daarbuiten. Hij was letterlijk de meest onwaarschijnlijke werknemer van Overbrook Farm, een slordige en onverzorgde man en ik weet niet hoe hij het eerste verbale gedeelte van zijn interview heeft overleefd, maar hij was absoluut niet typerend.

"Mr. Young beschermde zijn boerderij altijd uit een overvloed aan voorzichtigheid, van het hekwerk dat rolde met de topografie en niet alleen vierkante paddocks waren, tot de paarden. Hij was een architect en een kunstenaar met een architect en een scherp oog voor de kunstenaar en die beslissingen werden ook altijd in het belang van de paarden genomen. De man heeft nooit enige bedreiging geuit, voor zover ik weet, maar hij heeft zeker sommige mensen nerveus gemaakt toen hij wegging."

Een kleine bewakingshut, compleet met volledige klimaatbeheersing, werd ingebouwd in een van de twee paddocks van Storm Cat, die het dichtst bij de hengstenstal en de fokstal, of "beneden" waar hij zou het grootste deel van het broedseizoen doorbrengen, en hij had een fulltime wachter in de buurt van zijn paddock, weg van het midden van de boerderij, of "top van de heuvel" tijdens de zomer- en herfstmaanden. Niemand die niet in de buurt van Storm Cat hoorde te zijn, was ooit in de buurt van Storm Cat.

En zelfs met zijn ogen altijd op hem gericht, maakte Storm Cat het zijn verzorgers soms niet gemakkelijk. Hij was over het algemeen altijd gezond, maar hij had soms het talent om onnodige paniek te veroorzaken.

"Hij kon gespannen zijn, en soms was hij een bundel energie, dus we waren zeker bezorgd dat hij zichzelf pijn deed, maar hij was niet gemeen", herinnert Lanter zich. “He had a reputation, I suppose, when he was younger, but he was, what, 17 years old by the time I started working with him later in his life, so maybe he’d aged out of a lot of it, I don’t know.

“I remember the first time I went to put the shank on him [and] I don’t know if he was testing me or what, but he kind of acted up and I let him get over it. We always got along well after that. He always knew when it was time to come in; it was like he wore a wristwatch. He came in every day at two when he was turned out and, when we’d head up there to get him, he’d start walking — like he was reminding us it was his time to come in.

“One rainy day, he was out and he went tearing across it and he kind of did this little jump and side kick, and when he did it and landed, the wet ground kind of went out from underneath him and he did a complete somersault right in front of me. I immediately called [resident vet and general manager] Dr. Yokum and he checked him out thoroughly and he was fine, but it definitely took a couple of years off my life.”

The King Meets the Queen

Sometime in about 2002, during Storm Cat’s reign as the leading sire in North America with a $500,000 stud fee, seven-figures paid for his offspring at auction, consistent stakes winners and a steady stream of the best mares in the game visiting him daily, arrangements were made for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II to visit Overbrook Farm and inspect the famed stallion. Her love of horses — especially racehorses — has never been a secret to the world, so it was not a big surprise when the farm workers were notified of her scheduled visit a couple days ahead of time.

And while the Queen was interested in seeing all the horses and touring the farm, Storm Cat was her priority.

“There was no ‘meeting’ the Queen for me,” Lanter recalls. “We were given some protocol a day or so in advance to not speak to her and things like that, but we showed her both Storm Cat and also Jump Start.

“And I know she’s a grandmother, and a great grandmother and all, and she was actually dressed like one, not like you’d think a queen would be dressed. She was wearing this little printed frock you’d probably see any grandmother wear and it was kind of nice seeing her in that context. She came with [former British Ambassador and Lane’s End Farm owner] Will Farish and she seemed to enjoy inspecting [Storm Cat]. And it’s probably the only time I’ll ever be around royalty again.

“Storm Cat always had regular visitors, but the farm was private so it wasn’t a steady stream like other farms. A few celebrities came to see him over the years and, of course, breeders and mare owners, but the Queen was his most famous when I was there.”

‘The Best Beat’ and an Unlikely Friendship

As a native Lexingtonian, Lanter was well aware of the stature of Overbrook Farm owner W.T. Young and his contributions to not only the city, but also the entire state of Kentucky itself when he started his duties as Overbrook’s stallion manager. While those of us in the racing and breeding industry remember him as a successful owner and breeder of fine thoroughbreds, the late businessman is probably better known globally for his business acumen and his philanthropic endeavors.

The University of Kentucky’s library is named the William T. Young library and he served on the board of trustees for Transylvania University. Young also revived the central Kentucky village known as Shakertown, which is now a national landmark and a popular tourist destination. He was an Army officer in World War II before founding Big Top Peanut Butter, which became the brand “Jif” after Procter and Gamble purchased the company in the 1950s, and he also built and owned just about every commercial storage facility in central Kentucky. He was personally charitable, donating a large portion of his own money to many causes both in and out of the thoroughbred industry.

To Lanter, though, he was known simply as “Mr. Young” and also as an unlikely friend.

“When I started at Overbrook in 2000 I was kind of going back between Three Chimneys [where he was previously stallion manager] and Overbrook, because they hadn’t hired anyone to replace me yet,” Lanter remembered. “The opportunity to be working with Storm Cat was too much to resist and the thought of working with him was pretty cool. He was already established as a successful sire and he was absolutely a horse to be in awe of.

“He was a good racehorse, I remember that. He won the Young America Stakes and then was beaten by a nose by Tasso in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. Once, Mr. Young told me that if he had won the Breeders’ Cup that he was gone, that he’d have been standing stud somewhere else. He told me it was the ‘best beat he ever took’ and, of course, he was right. Look where Storm Cat ended up — and where’s Tasso? In Saudi Arabia or something.

“One day, during the breeding season, I got a call from Mr. Young’s ‘Man Friday’ saying that Mr. Young wanted me to go to opening day at Yankee Stadium. He had heard I was a Yankees fan and he was one too. I said something about it being in the middle of breeding season, to which his assistant simply replied, ‘Mr. Young would like you to go to opening day at Yankee Stadium.’

“So we flew up there in the jet and sat in George Steinbrenner’s box in Yankee Stadium and [businessman/publisher] Steve Forbes was there, and Yogi Berra and all the greats. And I remember telling Mr. Young thank you for the experience and he simply said to me, ‘Wes I just wanted to spend some time with you and get to know you.’ He was that nice and generous, he really was.”

The Legacy That Is Storm Cat

Storm Cat, by Storm Bird, was out of the great Secretariat race mare Terlingua, who was bought by Young after her racing career was over with hopes she would become somewhat of a foundation mare for the Overbrook Farm breeding and racing program. And a foundation mare she was — almost from the start. Her first foal, a filly by Lyphard named Lyphard’s Dancer, never raced, but her second mating to Storm Bird produced Storm Cat.

Of her 11 foals, Chapel of Dreams (by Northern Dancer) was her most successful on the racetrack as a multiple graded stakes winner, but Storm Cat was her most successful overall and the one who would pass her blood on to generations of thoroughbreds to come. Terlingua spent her entire post-racing life at Overbrook. First as a member of the broodmare band and, then, as a pensioner alongside her buddy Island Kitty (by Hawaii, also a graded stakes winner and the dam of noted sire Hennessy), where she died at the ripe old age of 32.

“We had [champion and Hall of Famer] Serena’s Song visit Storm Cat every year,” Lanter remembers. “And Banshee Breeze came and, unfortunately, died foaling and so did that foal. And also Miesque, which was pretty cool. Flanders lived there and, when Serena’s Song came in, we’d all remember their history together in the [1994] Breeders’ Cup [Juvenile Fillies]. That wasn’t just a stretch run, that was a battle from the starting gate to the wire between the two. Really, the best mares came to see Storm Cat year after year.”

With his fertility declining, Storm Cat was pensioned following the 2008 breeding season, where he managed to get three thoroughbred mares in foal while artificial insemination helped create the winning Quarter Horse Stray Cat, who stands at stud today in Oklahoma.

Storm Cat was North America’s leading sire twice (1999 and 2000) and was the leading juvenile sire seven times (1992, 1993, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2002 and 2004), a record that stands today. He has been a leading broodmares sire and, according to The Jockey Club, has been represented by 811 winners from 1,452 named foals and 177 stakes winners overall. More than 90 of his yearlings sold for $1 million or more at auction and he also is recognized as a successful sire of sires.

“I’d have to say Giant’s Causeway was [Storm Cat’s] best foal,” Lanter said of the recently deceased stallion. “I mean, in the Breeders’ Cup when Mick Kinane dropped that rein and Giant’s Causeway dropped out of the bit, I thought for a minute I’d drive down to the Clay’s Ferry bridge and throw myself off. I am in no way knocking or blaming Kinane because he is one of the best ever, but it was terrible. Storm Cat always had the unfortunate reputation of not being able to produce classic-distance horses, even though he also had Cat Thief and Tabasco Cat, but Giant’s Causeway winning would have helped that a lot I think.

“Really it’s hard to choose just one because he had so many good ones, but Giant’s Causeway was the whole package. A world class racehorse and sire.”

The Long Goodbye

After the final three Storm Cat foals had arrived and the great stallion was pensioned, the writing was definitely on the wall. Arrangements were being made for the remaining active stallions to be relocated and the vibe around the farm was of impending doom.

“One day we all got called into the office and were told, ‘well, we’re dispersing,’ We were all kept on at least until after the dispersal [which was held at the 2009 Keeneland September yearling sale] and I stayed beyond, mainly to keep an eye on Storm Cat and Clockstopper [an old gelding the farm owned and raced] and to be a presence. I eventually got a job at the Kentucky Horse Park and moved off the farm, but I stopped by to visit Storm Cat as often as I could.

“Then, in the spring of 2014, I got the call telling me the time had come and that Storm Cat would be put down the next day, so I went to say goodbye. When I got there he had his head in his feed tub and he was eating, but when he realized I was there he came over to see me, as if to say goodbye, like he knew. And that was it. He was put down the next day.”

Storm Cat was buried whole at Overbrook in spot Lanter believes won’t be in danger of being developed if the farm is sold. When Young was alive he commissioned three statues of the great stallion, one which currently marks his final resting place.

“You’d have to know the farm to find him,” Lanter said. “It’s a safe spot. He is under one of his statues, and there’s one still standing outside the old stallion division. There were three commissioned and I don’t know where the other one is, but Mr. Young did have a lot of warehouses after all, so I suspect it’s probably in one of those.”

Looking back on his tenure as Storm Cat’s chief caregiver and protector during the majority of the final years of the stallion’s life, Lanter is aware of his good fortune having been a part of his life, but more so of the stallion’s contribution to the thoroughbred breed overall.

“He has to be a top-five stallion,” Lanter said. “The legacy he left and what he produced and his influence on the industry with more than just his genes will be felt for generations. I do feel pride, like I do with all my kids. But I spent so much time with this one. It is a little different when you live right next to them and occasionally have to get up in the middle of the night in a thunderstorm to bring them inside like I did many times for Storm Cat. Sometimes when bad weather hits, those kinds of memories sneak up on you. Overall, I just appreciate having had him in my life at all.”

Stallion Stories:The Unconquerable, Invincible, Unbeatable Cigar

By Wes Lanter (as told to Margaret Ransom)

Originally posted on December 15, 2017

A racing fan to the core, there hasn’t been an important race that well-respected Kentucky horseman and stallion manager Wes Lanter hasn’t watched, especially if it included any children or grandchildren belonging to one of his boys. But in 1994, Lanter was card-carrying bandwagoner for reigning Horse of the Year Holy Bull, who would meet up with the eventual superstar known as Cigar in the 1995 Donn Handicap (GI).

What Lanter remembers most from that 1 1/8-mile race was that it was a passing of the torch from one great racehorse to another. Cigar would earn his fourth consecutive victory on the way to an eye-popping and then-record-setting streak to tie the great Citation for the most consecutive modern day wins with 16, and Holy Bull would be shuttled off to stud at Jonabell Farm in Kentucky, suffering a career-ending injury before ever reaching the half-mile pole.

If one had to take the place of his beloved Holy Bull and carry the torch and the weight of a racing industry always looking for its next superstar, Lanter couldn’t think of a better candidate than Cigar.

Cigar

Palace Music—Solar Slew, by Seattle Slew
Sex:horse
Color:bay
Lived:April 18, 1990 – October 7, 2014

Owned by:Allen E. and Madeleine Paulson
Bred by:Allen E. Paulson (Maryland)
Trained by:Bill Mott
Ridden by:Jerry Bailey

Career Record:33-19-4-5, $9,999,815

Notable Accomplishments:U.S. Racing Hall of Fame (2002), two-time Horse of the Year (1995, 1996), two-time champion older horse (1995, 1996), 12-time grade 1 winner, inaugural Dubai World Cup winner.

In 2010, Lanter returned to the Kentucky Horse Park and would manage the care of a number of top racehorses in the Hall of Champions, including a number of other standouts in harness and thoroughbred racing, none whose light shone as bright as the great Cigar. Lanter closely monitored nearly every movement Cigar made every day for four years until Cigar’s death from complications following spinal surgery in 2014.

Instant Connection

“Honestly, I was into Holy Bull,” Lanter recalls. “I remember I went out to Keeneland to watch [the Donn Handicap] and it was very anti-climactic for me to say the least. But I did have a distant connection to Cigar, because when I flew with John Henry back to New York [for his retirement tour], Palace Music [Cigar’s sire] was on the airplane. And when I was in Australia with Chief’s Crown, Palace Music was standing just down the road.”

Just about anyone who showed even a passing interest in horse racing knew who Cigar was as he stormed through 1995, and Lanter watched along with every racing fan as the Bill Mott trainee picked up victories from coast to coast, winning stakes at Oaklawn Park, Pimlico, Sufffolk Downs, Hollywood Park and Belmont Park before making the gate for the Breeders’ Cup Classic (GI) as that year’s prohibitive 3-5 favorite.

“That year’s Breeders’ Cup, if you remember, was a miserable, terrible sloppy day,” Lanter said. “Watching that head-on after that race was surreal. I mean it was a miserable, wet day and, when Cigar crossed that wire, what stood out to me is that you could tell what kind of a trip he had because (jockey) Jerry Bailey’s silks were pristine and white, I mean I don’t think he got a spot of mud on him.”

And like every fan, Lanter celebrated the horse’s regular highs and irregular lows.

“It was a real pleasure to watch him [rack up wins] and I remember the appreciative crowd in Chicago,” Lanter said of the Arlington-Citation Challenge written by the Chicago area track to secure the coveted 16 ^th consecutive win for the Allen Paulson homebred. “And I was devastated when he lost the Pacific Classic. I don’t think there were any real racing fans who could say they didn’t feel something [when he lost].”

Breeding Industry’s Loss Becomes Racing Industry’s Gain

In 1996, after a third-place finish in his second appearance in the Breeders’ Cup Classic held that year at Woodbine, Cigar was retired to Ashford Stud in Versailles, Kentucky, to take up stallion duty as part of what was rumored to be one of the most lucrative stallion deals in thoroughbred breeding history. Early into the 1997 breeding season, however, rumors around central Kentucky started circulating about Cigar and his fertility.

“I had heard things,” Lanter remembers. “There’s a joke about how if you want to know anything about what’s going on on the farms, talk to a blacksmith or a van driver. I head he had bred 34 mares and none of them were in foal. I know at that point they hired [equine fertility specialist] Dr. Norman Umphenour, who was also the vet at Gainesway for years. Basically, he found that Cigar’s sperm had no progressive motility and would swim around in circles or their heads were largely separated from their tales.

“So the insurance company, Assicurazioni Generali, had not much choice but to pay out, but they kept trying with him before they did. And I think if he were my horse and I had to pay out on a multi-million dollar insurance policy I’d keep trying, too.

“For a while he’d go to Dr. Phil McCarthy’s place, Watercress Farm, and they’d work with him doing multiple different therapies to hopefully improve his fertility and then he’d go to the Kentucky Horse Park’s Hall of Champions for the show series. And this went on until he was 15 when they reached the end of trying and he was donated to the Commonwealth of Kentucky where he landed at the Hall of Champions permanently. It was the most interesting story and I’d never seen it before, not like that, and certainly not since.

“It’s sad that his second career ended before it ever got started, but, in the end, he did more for racing than he ever would have done as a stallion. He gave racing the most accessible and important ambassador the sport had ever seen.”

Always Everyone’s Friend

“Cigar was a very kind horse and he let a lot of people get close to him, sometimes too close if you ask me. But he never harmed anyone, he was that good,” Lanter remembers. “He’d come out of his stall and he’d stand there and pose as if to say, ‘I am the Kentucky Horse Park Ambassador.’ He loved his job and greeting people.”

Like any celebrity, the sheer volume of visitors who flocked to see him at the Kentucky Horse Park every year was staggering. He had regular yearly fans and some who lived closer who came more than once a year. With so many admirers, it was hard for Lanter to remember any who stood out, save a couple.

“One guy came from Western Kentucky pretty regularly,” Lanter recalls. “And he’d spend hours out there, sometimes three or four hours, taking pictures. I can’t imagine how many pictures he took of Cigar, had to be thousands. And one lady came on his last day ever at the Horse Park. I remember I told her I was going to groom him and I’d leave the stall door open so she could watch, and at one point I reached over and handed her a bit of tail hair and she got really emotional about it. It was nice he and I could make her happy.”

But like many celebrities, the meet-and-greets for Cigar could become exhausting. Lanter explained that the “show season” for the Hall of Champions lasts from March through Nov. 1 and while they tried to keep Cigar’s showings down to twice a day, it was sometimes hard to say no to people who came a long way to see him and had time constraints. So, the Horse Park staff compromised, sometimes much to Cigar’s chagrin.

“Sometimes, Cigar would get cranky toward the end of the season, all of the horses did,” Lanter said. “Cigar didn’t get mean or anything, he just got difficult. I don’t know if was the colder, darker days or what, but when the season was over he knew it was time.”

Signs the End Was Near

Cigar spent the better part of nine years contentedly greeting fans and visitors at the Kentucky Horse Park when, in late March of 2014, Lanter noticed that when the 24-year-old horse come in from his paddock to eat his breakfast, he was dragging his left hind leg a bit. Up until that point Cigar had only faced issues associated with most healthy horses his age, but that day was different.

“I always came in early and was the first one there to feed the horses,” Lanter remembered. “When I put his feed in he always came right up, but that day it took him longer and he was dragging his left hind leg. At first I thought he had injured it, but since I couldn’t find anything outward aside from swelling, we treated just the cellulitis.

“He had a full bandage and a sweat on that back leg and he had every treatment possible:the eStem, acupuncture, physical therapy — everything you can imagine. He seemed to improve, but by late April or early May, he was standing and kind of listing to one side so we started treatment for EPM. When that didn’t work, we took him to Haygard Davidson McGee [equine hospital] for a full x-ray, one that was better than the mobile ones he’d had up until that point.

“The x-rays unfortunately showed he had a vertebra out of alignment and it was possibly pinching his spinal cord and causing severe ataxia. So, we brought him home and did a lot of therapy, including a deep tissue massage therapy that was a five-week process. By the first week of October, though, we had shipped him to Rood and Riddle for a myelogram with the different dyes and contrasts and, right after that, the discussions started about whether or not to do the ‘Seattle Slew surgery’ and fix the vertebra.

“It all happened so fast, but [after the operation] he never could get his hind end underneath him again even with the sling. I was there with him every minute and we were all urging him to fight and once I even joked with him, ‘Come on and stand up and fight you sterile bastard.’ To which he replied by turning his head and giving me the dirtiest look. He literally gave me the stink eye and I had to laugh. But he didn’t have much fight left, unfortunately.”

Memories to Last a Lifetime

Losing Cigar at the Hall of Champions was palpable to the fans and visitors, but most especially to the people who cared for him and watched over him daily. The constant reminders of his life remain, however, right down to his final resting place.
“Every day when he was let out into his paddock he’d run down to the corner and rear straight up, as high as a horse could rear and to the point where we were afraid he’d flip over. But he never did. He just exuded greatness in everything he did and was always ready to put on a show. His attitude and demeanor was always suited to be the great racehorse he was and I’m sorry his stallion career didn’t work out, but his racehorse personality was also perfectly suited to be the great racing ambassador that he became.”

And in fitting tribute, Cigar was buried in the corner by his paddock at the spot where he was happiest — the same location he’d rear with happiness every day he was let out.

“Also there was this one spot in his paddock where he’d roll every day and it actually left an indention in the ground where he did it — the exact same spot every day. It’s Funny Cide’s paddock now, but I hope the indention is still there.”
The Kentucky Horse Park held two memorials for Cigar, one a few weeks after his death and another to unveil the Douwe “Dow” Blumberg statue just over a year later.

“The first was on a typical cold, winter day in Kentucky,” Lanter remembers. “We had to honor him closer to his death and the fans had to come pay their respects. We couldn’t get any of his connections to come on short notice, but, as cold as it was, I think at least 300 people came out to say goodbye. It was bittersweet. I gave a eulogy; it was hard, but it was something I had to do.

“Then the questions came up about his second memorial and statue and what the statute would look like. I thought of the Barbaro statue at Churchill Downs, a running statue. It was my thought that Cigar was a great racehorse and wasn’t ever known as a great stallion, so he should be memorialized not standing like a stud, like all the other statues, but as the racehorse he was. And everyone agreed.

“The artist who did it is the same one who did the statue honoring the victims of the Lexington plane crash from flight 5191 in 2006 that’s at the the Arboretum with a dove representing each of the victims. Before he started, he went to all the families and was given a personal memento in each of cavity of each dove. He’s that kind of artist, so Cigar’s statue was perfect.”

On Oct. 27, 2015 on the 20 ^th anniversary of Cigar’s first Breeders’ Cup Classic victory at Belmont Park, a crowd of people that included his Hall of Fame jockey (Jerry Bailey) and trainer (Bill Mott) turned out at the Kentucky Horse Park to witness the unveiling. The horse had been gone a year, but his absence was felt by everyone in attendance and each of his connections spoke about their memories of the great Hall of Famer.

Lanter said that once he had a discussion with someone about how sometimes living beings save their loved ones the memory of their last moments by dying when they’re not present. Looking back on the last day of Cigar’s life, he believes that Cigar chose this route, ending his fight while nobody who loved and cared for him was around.

“The day he passed Dr. [Steve] Reed said for all of us to go and take a break and get a sandwich or whatever. And while we were gone, he died. I was told that the nerves in an operation like that can sometime affect the diaphragm, so he just stopped breathing. He waited for all of us to leave so he could go… dignified ending to a dignified life.

“On the night Cigar died we had a typical Kentucky thunderstorm, tremendous lighting and thunder. I thought it was fitting, I thought it was the heavens welcoming home the lightning on earth we had for a little while.”

Wes Lanter has spent most of his life surrounded by some of the best thoroughbreds of the last generation. De ervaren ruiter was zowel hengstgroomer als hengstenmanager op de meest succesvolle en populaire fokkerijen in de Bluegrass, waaronder Spendthrift Farm, Three Chimneys en Overbrook Farm, naast een paar aparte stints in het Kentucky Horse Park. Tijdens zijn bijna 30-jarige carrière heeft de 52-jarige gewerkt met drie Triple Crown-winnaars, zowel volbloed als Standardbred, vijf extra Kentucky Derby-winnaars en meerdere kampioenen en Hall of Famers.

Lanter, een wandelende encyclopedie van bijna alles wat met rasechte races te maken heeft, deelt zijn favoriete verhalen over de paarden waarvan hij vindt dat ze het voorrecht hebben deel uit te maken van zijn leven. carrière. Sinds hij zijn positie als Equine Section Supervisor bij de Hall of Champions van het Kentucky Horse Park in 2015 verliet, heeft Lanter gewerkt aan het samenstellen van verhalen over zijn paarden en aan het beslissen waar zijn volgende hoofdstuk in zijn leven vandaan zal komen. Lanter also is the proud father of 21-year-old Noah, a standout baseball pitcher and outfielder at Ridgewater College in Willmar, Minnesota.

***

Stallion Stories:Go For Gin

By Wes Lanter (as told to Margaret Ransom)
Originally posted on May 2, 2018

This year marks the 24 ^th anniversary of Go For Gin’s triumph in the 1994 Kentucky Derby (G1), and while he’s not the oldest living Kentucky Derby winner – 1993 winner Sea Hero is reported to be a happy pensioner in Turkey – he is the oldest one on American soil, and is also very accessible to thousands of racing fans every year as a resident at the Kentucky Horse Park’s Hall of Champions.

Though not impeccably bred or particularly expensive, Go For Gin did boast some lofty connections in his breeder (a DuPont), owners (a board game tycoon and financier), and his Hall of Fame trainer and jockey. Everything came together perfectly for the son of Cormorant on that first Saturday in May in 1994.

Go For Gin stood several seasons at Claiborne Farm in Kentucky and was then moved to Bonita Farm in Maryland before landing in his forever home at the Kentucky Horse Park. He lived out his remaining years just about an hour up I-64 from where he earned what would be his last, yet most important career victory in the Run for the Roses at Churchill Downs.

In 2011, Wes Lanter was serving as Equine Section Supervisor at the Hall of Champions when the decision was made by Go For Gin’s living co-owner, Joe Cornacchia, to donate the then 20-year-old stallion. For more than four years, Lanter was responsible for the day-to-day life of the big, brown stallion and he considers himself very fortunate to have spent several years showing him off to racing fans from around the world.

Go For Gin

Cormorant—Never Knock, by Stage Door Johnny
Sex:Horse Color:Dark Bay/Brown
Foaled:April 18, 1991

Owned by:William Condren and Joseph Cornacchia
Bred by:Pamela DuPont Darmstadt
Trained by:Nick Zito
Ridden by:Chris McCarron

Career Record:19-5-7-2, $1,380,866

Notable Performances:Won 1994 Kentucky Derby, won 1993 Remsen Stakes (G2), won 1994 Preview Stakes (LS), second 1994 Preakness Stakes (G1), second 1994 Belmont Stakes (G1).

Surprise Resident

Lanter remembers the Horse Park – somewhat surprisingly — being asked to care for Go For Gin and place him in the Hall of Champions. John Henry had passed away and the thoroughbred stars at that point were Cigar and Funny Cide, so Go For Gin would at that time make a nice addition, Lanter remembered. “It was a bit different in that he was an in tact, breeding stallion,” Lanter recalls when told the news.

“And when he arrived he definitely let everyone know. He had quarantined for about a month at Dan Considine’s place before coming over so we had time to get ready; and though we were ready, it took Go For Gin a bit to settle in.

“When the Hall of Champions was built, it was kind of by itself with not much around, but over the years they constructed all these show barns around it so there was a ton of activity. And he arrived in the summer, so there were shows all the time. People would tie their horses to the fences around his paddock and it got him, um, worked up. There were signs to stay off the grass and there was a little space between his paddock and the fence, but it was rough for him at first because nobody stayed off the grass.

“He settled in eventually and once he got used to the crowds and that level of attention, he became thoroughly content as a resident. Anytime a Derby winner is in residence somewhere, it always brings a little extra excitement, so that was great.”

Though Go For Gin sold at auction for $150,000 as a Fasig-Tipton New York August yearling in 1992, his final sales price was on the lower end of horses selling through auctions in the early 1990s. He didn’t have a flashy pedigree and was only a $32,000 weanling the previous fall, but when Lanter first laid eyes on Go For Gin he recognized immediately what made the stallion a stand out.

“He is absolutely magnificent looking,” Lanter said. “He is very regal and even to those who see horses every day, he stood out as a very good looking horse. It is not an understatement to say he is a very, very good-looking horse. And he was smart. Though he is pushy, kind of a bully, he isn’t mean or aggressive. He just pushes you. And he’ll drag you if he could. And that’s his way, so we all got used to it.

“One young lady worked for me and she really didn’t like him at first; he pushed all her buttons, but he grew on her and before long became her favorite and they kind of became peanut butter and jelly. I noticed the other day when it was his birthday, she was the first to wish him a happy birthday on social media. He was that kind of horse, he tested you and you fell in love with him.”

Remembering a Derby Champion

An important part of life for the residents of the Hall of Champions are the shows they do for fans, sometimes three per a day. While some employees needed a class or a cheat sheet on Go For Gin, Lanter remembered the horse’s time in the sun well, being a consummate racing fan.

“I remember the weather being a blessing for him on Derby day that year,” Lanter recalled of that May day in 1994. “I remember how he loved the mud and just kind of skipped across the surface that day. Strodes Creek definitely made a run at him, but he could not get by Go For Gin. And I know the Derby was his last career victory, though he was second in the other two (Preakness and Belmont Stakes).

“One thing I definitely remember is Chris McCarron working him one last time before the Derby. He was in town, I think, for the Derby Trial that Saturday and (trainer Nick) Zito asked him to work him the next Sunday morning. I remember Chris working him and getting off and saying to everyone, ‘Yeah he’s good. That was good.’ I remembered that when he won.”

Disappointing Stallion Career Becomes Fan Bonus

Expectations for Go For Gin as a sire, who retired in 1995 to Claiborne Farm after suffering a tendon injury, were high, but he never really took off for breeders and after some dismal crops, was transferred to Bonita Farm in Maryland for nine years. Though he was represented by Grade 1 winner Albert The Great, I don’t think anyone is shy about saying his stallion career was a disappointment overall.

“The sad thing about Go For Gin is his stallion career,” Lanter remembered. “I think he sired only, like, seven stakes winners and his success as sire was sparse. Sending him to the Kentucky Horse Park was the best thing for him, he could finally be remembered for the great racehorse he was and not the disappointment in the breeding shed.

“I remember one lady had an OTTB who was a daughter of Go For Gin. She came over to see him one day. And Chris McCarron would come out and visit. I mean, that was kind of Chris’ stall since John Henry was also in there. I remember walking back from lunch one day and Chris was out there in the middle of his paddock. I was thinking, ‘Chris, you do know that is still an in-tact stallion.’ But I knew he was ok, though I think when he did that he didn’t take his time coming out of the paddock, but he was OK.

“The thing I think people learn quickly about Go For Gin is that he’s a really, really neat horse and he gets to show that to people as a member of the Hall of Champions.”

Wes Lanter has spent most of his life surrounded by some of the best thoroughbreds of the last generation. De ervaren ruiter was zowel hengstgroomer als hengstenmanager op de meest succesvolle en populaire fokkerijen in de Bluegrass, waaronder Spendthrift Farm, Three Chimneys en Overbrook Farm, naast een paar aparte stints in het Kentucky Horse Park. Tijdens zijn bijna 30-jarige carrière heeft de 52-jarige gewerkt met drie Triple Crown-winnaars, zowel volbloed als Standardbred, vijf extra Kentucky Derby-winnaars en meerdere kampioenen en Hall of Famers.

Lanter, een wandelende encyclopedie van bijna alles wat met rasechte races te maken heeft, deelt zijn favoriete verhalen over de paarden waarvan hij vindt dat ze het voorrecht hebben deel uit te maken van zijn leven. carrière. Sinds hij zijn positie als Equine Section Supervisor bij de Hall of Champions van het Kentucky Horse Park in 2015 verliet, heeft Lanter gewerkt aan het samenstellen van verhalen over zijn paarden en aan het beslissen waar zijn volgende hoofdstuk in zijn leven vandaan zal komen. Lanter also is the proud father of 21-year-old Noah, a standout baseball pitcher and outfielder at Ridgewater College in Willmar, Minnesota.

***

Stallion Stories:Remembering the First Breeders’ Cup Winner Ever

By Wes Lanter (as told to Margaret Ransom)
Originally posted on November 1, 2017

Lexington, Kentucky, native Wes Lanter has spent most of his life surrounded by some of the best thoroughbreds of the last generation. De ervaren ruiter was zowel hengstgroomer als hengstenmanager op de meest succesvolle en populaire fokkerijen in de Bluegrass, waaronder Spendthrift Farm, Three Chimneys en Overbrook Farm, naast een paar aparte stints in het Kentucky Horse Park. Over his nearly 30-plus-year career, the 52-year-old has worked with three Triple Crown winners, both thoroughbred and Standardbred, five additional Kentucky Derby winners and multiple champions and Hall of Famers.

A walking encyclopedia of most things thoroughbred racing, Lanter is sharing his favorite stories about the horses whose lives he considers himself to be privileged to have been a part of throughout his career. Sinds hij zijn positie als Equine Section Supervisor bij de Hall of Champions van het Kentucky Horse Park in 2015 verliet, heeft Lanter gewerkt aan het samenstellen van verhalen over zijn paarden en aan het beslissen waar zijn volgende hoofdstuk in zijn leven vandaan zal komen. Lanter also is the proud father of 21-year-old Noah, a standout baseball pitcher and outfielder at Ridgewater College in Willmar, Minnesota.

In April of 1994, longtime Kentucky horseman John Gaines announced his plan for the Breeders’ Cup championship racing series featuring multiple divisions and ages based on stallion nominations and foal payments. Now, 34 years later, Lanter remembers the years he spent and the global adventures he shared with the winner of the first-ever Breeders’ Cup race ever, 1994 Juvenile winner Chief’s Crown.

Chief’s Crown

Danzig – Six Crowns, by Secretariat
Sex:horse
Color:bay
Lived:April 7, 1982 – April 29, 1997

Owned by:Star Crown Stable
Bred by:Carl Rosen
Trained by:Roger Laurin

Record:21-12-3-3, $2,191,18

Notable Accomplishments:Champion 2-year-old (1984), eight-time Grade I winner.

In 1984, as a few handful of horses headed to Hollywood Park and the first-ever Breeders’ Cup, Wes Lanter was a groom at Spendthrift Farm near Lexington, KY, and readily admits his focus was mostly on Slew o’Gold and a troublesome foot that could jeopardize his chances to win the inaugural Classic. But as a racing fan, he knew Chief’s Crown, as the first big son of Danzig, would be the one to beat in the Juvenile off five straight graded stakes scores.

Stallion Geography

“I, of course, knew who Chief’s Crown was when I arrived at Three Chimneys in 1990,” Lanter remembers. “How can any racing fan not know the first winner of any Breeders’ Cup race ever? I mean, he was a four-time Grade 1 winner and really put Danzig on the map. So, I showed up at Three Chimneys and he was there and from then on he was always special to me.”

After five years at Three Chimneys with Chief’s Crown, the Kentucky farm made a deal with Arrowfield Stud in Australia for the southern hemisphere breeding season. At the time, Lanter saw it as an opportunity for an exciting travel experience with one of his favorite horses.

“They really wanted him down there and they wanted someone to go with him, except nobody wanted to go,” Lanter remembered. “I said, ‘Hell yes I’ll go.’ I saw it as an exciting experience, so I packed up and moved. My girlfriend at the time went with me and Chief and off we went.”

Lanter recalls his time in Australia as a learning experience.

“Australia is brilliant, but for some things they have entirely different ways of doing things,” Lanter remembers. “They do a lot of things in a group management situation. It’s definitely not as ‘hands on’ as we do things up here and they operate with less help, but it works — can’t argue with their results.”

After six months Down Under, Lanter and Chief’s Crown returned to Central Kentucky and their duties as stallion and stallion manager at Three Chimneys. It wasn’t long before Chief’s Crown became one of Lanter’s all-time favorites.

“Chief was always very easy,” Laner recalls. “He was always all-business. He knew his job and did it well. He didn’t have time for any bull.

“Once he had some visitors and, we all know the type, the ones who consider their horsemanship skills infallible. And you can’t tell them anything, so I didn’t tell him anything. So, this guy and his friend and myself went out to see Chief and I said, ‘I can bring him out if you want.’ He told me no, of course, that it wasn’t necessary and proceeded to lean up against the fence right in front of Chief.

“I told him I didn’t think it was a good idea to stand so close and to maybe give Chief some space, but he said he was fine and that he knew horses. Chief literally came charging, scaring the guy and knocking him back on the ground on his butt. His buddy couldn’t stop laughing and said to him, motioning to me, ‘He told you.’ And it wasn’t that Chief was a mean horse, he just liked things certain ways. What that guy didn’t know is that Chief was actually a very special soul and had he done things Chief’s way that wouldn’t have happened at all.”

The All-Around Horse

“Not too many horses win four Grade Is as a 2-year-old and then turn around and win four Grade Is as a 3-year-old and Chief’s Crown did that,” Lanter remembers of the Travers winner, who also beat older rivals in that year’s Marlboro Cup. “He was champion 2-year-old, but I think he should have been champion sophomore too. He didn’t win the Derby, but he just got nailed at the wire in the Preakness. He was the perfect all-around racehorse and he definitely passed that down to his offspring.

“I remember so well when Erhaab won the Epsom Derby. We were all watching at Three Chimneys and Erhaab came from so far back — like way back — and just got up in time at the wire. [Three Chimneys manager] Dan Rosenberg was so happy he brought us all out champagne to celebrate.

“He put Danzig on the map as a sire, but he was also an incredible sire himself.”

Goodbye Dear Friend

Chief’s Crown was humanely euthanized at age 15 after being found with a life-ending knee injury in his paddock. Lanter prefers to keep the details of the day to himself and instead focus on the “amazing” horse he says he was lucky to care for for so many years.

“He was my Chief,” Lanter says, voice cracking with emotion. “I don’t know how else to explain it. Yes, he won the first Breeders’ Cup race ever. And, yes, he was a champion. And he was a hell of a sire. But to me, I don’t know how else to explain it except to say that he was just ‘Chief’ to me.

“He had this air about him, a presence. Majestic, I don’t know. But of all the horses I have been lucky to have been around — and there have been many — only a couple others’ deaths hit me as hard as his . He was so much more than just a racehorse and a stallion to me. He took me around the world.”

Wes Lanter has spent most of his life surrounded by some of the best thoroughbreds of the last generation. De ervaren ruiter was zowel hengstgroomer als hengstenmanager op de meest succesvolle en populaire fokkerijen in de Bluegrass, waaronder Spendthrift Farm, Three Chimneys en Overbrook Farm, naast een paar aparte stints in het Kentucky Horse Park. Tijdens zijn bijna 30-jarige carrière heeft de 52-jarige gewerkt met drie Triple Crown-winnaars, zowel volbloed als Standardbred, vijf extra Kentucky Derby-winnaars en meerdere kampioenen en Hall of Famers.

Lanter, een wandelende encyclopedie van bijna alles wat met rasechte races te maken heeft, deelt zijn favoriete verhalen over de paarden waarvan hij vindt dat ze het voorrecht hebben deel uit te maken van zijn leven. carrière. Sinds hij zijn positie als Equine Section Supervisor bij de Hall of Champions van het Kentucky Horse Park in 2015 verliet, heeft Lanter gewerkt aan het samenstellen van verhalen over zijn paarden en aan het beslissen waar zijn volgende hoofdstuk in zijn leven vandaan zal komen. Lanter also is the proud father of 21-year-old Noah, a standout baseball pitcher and outfielder at Ridgewater College in Willmar, Minnesota.

***

Stallion Stories:Remembering the First Breeders’ Cup Classic — Wild Again and Slew o’ Gold

By Wes Lanter (as told to Margaret Ransom)
Originally posted on October 17, 2017

Lexington, Kentucky, native Wes Lanter has spent most of his life surrounded by some of the best thoroughbreds of the last generation. De ervaren ruiter was zowel hengstgroomer als hengstenmanager op de meest succesvolle en populaire fokkerijen in de Bluegrass, waaronder Spendthrift Farm, Three Chimneys en Overbrook Farm, naast een paar aparte stints in het Kentucky Horse Park. Over his nearly 30-plus-year career, the 52-year-old has worked with three Triple Crown winners, both thoroughbred and Standardbred, five additional Kentucky Derby winners and multiple champions and Hall of Famers.

A walking encyclopedia of most things thoroughbred racing, Lanter is sharing his favorite stories about the horses whose lives he considers himself privileged to have been a part of throughout his career. Sinds hij zijn positie als Equine Section Supervisor bij de Hall of Champions van het Kentucky Horse Park in 2015 verliet, heeft Lanter gewerkt aan het samenstellen van verhalen over zijn paarden en aan het beslissen waar zijn volgende hoofdstuk in zijn leven vandaan zal komen. Lanter also is the proud father of 21-year-old Noah, a standout baseball pitcher and outfielder at Ridgewater College in Willmar, Minnesota.

A racing fan to the core, there hasn’t been an important race Lanter hasn’t watched, especially if it included any children or grandchildren belonging to one of his boys. In 1984, Lanter intently followed the road to the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Classic since, at the time, Grade 1 winner Slew o’ Gold was representing his great sire Seattle Slew, who Lanter worked with at Spendthrift Farm. Back then, when he watched the slugfest that developed in deep stretch on that October day at Hollywood Park, he had no idea how much a part of his life both Wild Again and Slew o’ Gold would become — let alone how they both would become a pair of his all-time favorites or that the two stallions would spend the better part of their stud careers in the very same barn.

Slew o’ Gold

Seattle Slew — Alluvial, by Buckpasser
Sex:horse
Color:bay
Lived:April 19, 1980 – October 14, 2007

Owned by:Equuesentitiy Stable (Karen and Mickey Taylor, Jim and Sally Hill)
Bred by:Claiborne Farm
Trained by:John Hertler

Record:24-12-5-1, $3,533,534

Notable Accomplishments:U.S. Racing Hall of Fame (2002), champion 3-year-old (1983), champion older male (1984), Woodward Stakes, Whitney Handicap, Jockey Club Gold Cup, Marlboro Cup, Wood Memorial.

Wild Again

Icecapade — Bushel-N-Peck, by Khaled
Sex:horse
Color:dark brown
Lived:May 22, 1980 – December 5, 2008

Owned by:Black Chip Stable (Bill Allen, Terry Beal, Ron Volkman
Trained by:Vincent Timphony

Record:28-8-7-4, $2,204,829

Notable Accomplishments:Won Breeders’ Cup Classic (1984), won New Orleans Handicap, won Oaklawn Handicap, won Meadowlands Cup.

Fate Cannot Be Controlled

Slew o’ Gold making the gate for the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Classic (GI) at Hollywood Park was no surprise to Lanter whatsoever. As the first really good son of Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew, Slew o’ Gold had a spectacular year in 1984, winning the Woodward, Marlboro Cup and Jockey Club Gold Cup, and was the horse to beat in that year’s Whitney Handicap facing a talented sophomore in Track Barron and one other.

“Slew o’ Gold was an amazing horse,” Lanter recalled. “If you ever watch his Whitney, where he beat Track Barron, never has a horse so emasculated another horse as Slew o’ Gold did to Track Barron that day. That’s the definition of a racehorse.”

Unfortunately by the time Slew o’ Gold was confirmed for the Breeders’ Cup, he had developed some foot issues that involved a nasty quarter crack, a patch and a bar shoe. Unconcerned, Lanter remained confident nobody would turn up that day who could beat the big black horse, despite the injury.

Slew o’ Gold had earned his way into the Breeders’ Cup by his winning performances and as dictated by the stallion/foal nominations. Wild Again was coming off an allowance win at Golden Gate Fields and wasn’t stallion/foal nomination eligible, so his connections — confidence in full force — supplemented the black horse to the inaugural Classic at a cost of $360,000. Overall, though, nobody was terribly concerned with the colt from California.

“I really didn’t know much about Wild Again going into that first Breeders’ Cup Classic,” Lanter recalled. “I knew Gate Dancer because of the Preakness, but Wild Again had taken the southern route while Slew o’ Gold stormed through New York. I was as Spendthrift and, of course, everyone was concerned about Slew o’ Gold’s quarter crack and the patch and there were discussions about not even running him, but he was such a machine — all racehorse — so, they figured even not at 100 percent he’d be tough.”

The race would go down not only in racing history, but also in Breeders’ Cup history, as one of the most bizarre and controversial. At the wire, less than a length separated eventual winner Wild Again, classic winner Gate Dancer and heavy favorite Slew o’ Gold, the latter two slugging it out in deep stretch with Wild Again possibly leaning in to create the drama between his rivals. After an eight-minute stewards’ inquiry, Gate Dancer was demoted to third and Slew o’ Gold was awarded runner-up honors while Wild Again, stewards decided, was mostly free of the fracas and maintained his position as the winner at 31-1 odds.

“I watched the race at Tom Wade’s [Seattle Slew’s groom] apartment in Lexington on Alexandria Drive,” Lanter recalled. “And I know if I would watch that race today I’d think there’d be a different outcome. It was the most ‘iffy’ call I think — maybe ever. And what they didn’t know is that Slew o’ Gold got all banged up and Wild Again came out unscathed. I have to believe if his foot wasn’t at 70 percent, the outcome would have been different. It was my opinion at that time that he was a superior racehorse in every way.”

Wild Again was originally retired to Shadowlawn Farm for three seasons and then was sent to Calumet Farm for two seasons before the farm’s high-profile bankruptcy scandal and death of super-sire Alydar scattered the remaining stallions before the 1991 season. Wild Again then landed at Three Chimneys, where Slew o’ Gold ended up upon his retirement in 1985.

But on that day in October of 1984 watching the first-ever running of what has now become racing’s most prestigious day for all divisions, nobody — especially Lanter — had any clue how intertwined the two stallions’ lives would become.

Time With Wild Again

After the inaugural Breeders’ Cup was complete, Lanter spent a handful more years at Spendthrift before accepting a position as stallion groom, then stallion manager, at Three Chimneys. At the time, Slew o’ Gold was off to a tremendous start in the breeding shed and was represented by four Grade 1 winners from his first crop. Wild Again was busy and popular despite the Calumet scandal, but when word got out at Three Chimneys that he was headed to the farm, he didn’t exactly get warmest of welcomes.

“When Calumet closed down, [Three Chimneys] got Wild again,” Lanter remembers. “Slew o’ Gold and Chief’s Crown were the first big stallions at Three Chimneys and were joined by Seattle Slew. And, then, when we were told Wild Again was coming, nobody wanted to be his groom because of what happened in the Breeders’ Cup — because he beat Slew o’ Gold. So, I said I’d do it, what the hell, and it wasn’t long before I fell in love with him.

“Wild Again was absolutely the sweetest horse,” Lanter said. “And soon the people who spent their days with him like me got to know him that way too. The Breeders’ Cup became a distant memory. And, to be honest, there wasn’t much to not like about Wild Again. He was professional, and kind and easy to work with. He was handsome — what’s not to love about a black and white stallion?

“Back in the day, Three Chimneys was at the forefront of new and unique advertising ideas and I was helping Margaret Layton [communications and marketing director for the farm at the time] with some of the advertising campaigns and photos and things like that for the stallions. The farm was at the forefront of the best PR campaigns then and, once, when doing one for Wild Again, he had 62 stakes winners out of 61 different broodmares. I mean, I think now someone would need to check me on that, but I’m fairly close to certain that’s accurate. That is a statistic I don’t think any stallion has repeated.”

And while Wild Again’s sons and daughters excelled on the track and the breeding shed, he wasn’t exactly the easiest keeper, constantly battling a condition not as typical to horses as it is to humans. Wild Again, Lanter explains, was prone to kidney stones. It was a condition he’d combat for most of his life and one which Three Chimneys took very seriously.

“He was sent to Rood and Riddle once and they thought it was colic when I noticed blood dripping from his sheath. So, they slipped a arthroscope up his urethra and found the kidney stone. And it wasn’t an ordinary kidney stone, it was a monster. They ended up going in there and broke that one up, but they started to become an issue for the horse. So, Three Chimneys had their vet, Dr. James Morehead — God bless him — do whatever he could. So, Dr. Morehead contacted a human urologist and started planning for future episodes. He got equipment for an obese human and whenever the issue came up, he was able to treat him early and successfully. Dr. Morehead was the first to treat a horse that way to my knowledge.”

One of Wild Again’s regular visitors at Three Chimneys was co-owner Bill Allen, who, though known to be a high roller and risk-taker, initially didn’t want to put up the money to supplement to the Breeders’ Cup, but may have made the most money betting on the horse, or so he told to all who would listen.

“Mr. Allen came for a visit once and he told me this great story about the Breeders’ Cup,” Lanter recalls. “He said that on the morning of the race he and his wife were getting ready and she was carrying one of those little purses women just put the basics in, like lipstick and things like that — a clutch, I think. And I guess Mr. Allen said to his wife, ‘What is that?’ To which she replied, ‘Well it’s a purse, of course.’ And he said he replied to her, ‘Honey, you’re going to need a much bigger purse to carry home all the money we’re going to make on Wild Again today.’

“He told me it took him over two weeks to gather all the winnings, he’d bet so much in so many places.”

Wild Again, who died in 2008 and was buried at Three Chimneys, was probably a better sire than his pedigree initially indicated, facts not in the least lost on Lanter.

“Being by Icecapade, he was a total outcross,” Lanter said. “His pedigree brought so many different things to our bloodlines. But as much as anyone would want a Wild Again offspring, especially a mare, and that is truly his legacy, what I will remember about him most is that he was inherently a kind horse. Yes, I will certainly remember him for that.”

Big Brown Gold

In the early 1980s, it was inevitable that Lanter would become one of Slew o’ Gold’s biggest fans. As a member of the staff in the massive stallion complex at Spendthrift Farm, he joined in all the celebrating with each win, commiserated with each defeat and endlessly discussed every aspect of every one of the big, brown horse’s races.

“He was Seattle Slew’s first really big, successful son,” Lanter said. “He was almost 17 hands and gorgeous, just majestic. And watching him run? He was so determined. His ears would disappear into his neck — he was so wanting to win. And as much as I ended up loving Wild Again, I was so sad for Slew o’ Gold to end his career that way in the Breeders’ Cup.”

Yet, as good a racehorse as Slew o’ Gold was, his first years at stud exceeded even the experts’ expectations. Lanter was still at Spendthrift when Slew o’ Gold produced his first crop and, as a son of Seattle Slew, watching Slew o’ Gold succeed as a sire was a treat.

“Right out of the gate he was a horse who was a statistical anomaly,” Lanter says. “From his first crop he had four Grade 1 winners. I can’t remember a sire who had four Grade 1 winners from his first crop. He had Gorgeous, Awe Inspiring, Tactile and Golden Opinion. It was a great time for Slew o’ Gold.

“And then he kind of disappeared off the stallion lists. I don’t know what happened. He had all the family behind him as a son of Seattle Slew and Alluvial, but he disappeared and I never understood it. But he was such a great racehorse and meant so much to Three Chimneys, they kept him his whole life.

“Three Chimneys owned Gorgeous and, after she won the Apple Blossom at Oaklawn, her winner’s blanket of flowers was sent to the farm. Of course, we had to put it on Slew o’ Gold for a picture. He didn’t like it much, but we did it.”

Though Lanter remembers Slew o’ Gold being fierce on the racetrack, he was much more docile and easy to work with as a stallion at Three Chimneys. Most of the grooms and staff had soft spots for Slew o’ Gold, who was never difficult or made any trouble.

“One day, the shank broke on Dynaformer,” Lanter remembers of the notoriously mean and difficult sire. “It was one of those things and it just broke and he got loose. And he ran down toward the other stallion paddocks. Thank God Seattle Slew was already in the barn, but Dynaformer got into a bit of a tiff with Capote, but I was able to toss a shank at Capote and get him away from the fence. We couldn’t catch him, so he ran into the barn and got into a bit of a face-off with Slew o’ Gold and Slew o’ Gold went totally submissive. He literally stuck his tongue out and dropped his head as if to say, ‘Don’t hurt me.’ And it could have been bad, both were really big horses. But we caught Dynaformer in there with Slew o’ Gold and it ended peacefully.”

Some of the celebrity guests to have visited Slew o’ Gold and all the stallions at Three Chimneys over the years, Lanter remembers, included five-time Academy Award nominee Albert Finney (“he brought sausage and biscuits and $100 bills for the guys”), Glenn Close, Alex Trebek, Rod Steward and Paul Tibbets (“he was the pilot of the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima.”)

In his later years, Slew o’ Gold suffered from health issues that he battled until the end of his life. When Lanter went to England to pick up new stallion Arazi in the mid-1990s, Slew o’ Gold had a fairly substantial cut on his heel. By the time Lanter returned to Kentucky, the stallion was battling a full-blown case of EPM. Lanter said that though the heel injury was concerning, sometimes even the smallest injury can set off a brewing case of EPM.

“When I got back he was pretty sick,” Lanter remembered. “Three Chimneys was determined to get him well and they did everything medically available. It wasn’t about him being a stallion anymore if he couldn’t be, he was a ridgling anyway, but he survived because of the love and dedication Three Chimneys had for him. I won’t ever forget that.”

When Lanter heard Slew o’ Gold had passed away in 2007 at the ripe old age of 27, his sadness was only overshadowed by his happy memories of Seattle Slew’s first great son.

“This is what I have to say about Slew o’ Gold,” Lanter said. “He was real. And he was such a special horse. I will remember him with affection. He was a tremendous champion and I don’t think anyone could or would deny that.

“I remember the 1983 Jockey Club Gold Cup the most. It was Slew o’ Gold vs. John Henry, with Forego and Kelso leading the post parade. Kun je je voorstellen? All those horses on track at the same time together? Of course Kelso colicked and died the next day, but it was a rare treat. Made only better by Slew o’ Gold’s victory.”

Remembered Together On Track, In The Breeding Shed

During their sire duties at Three Chimneys, Slew o’ Gold and Wild Again lived in the main stallion barn, catty-corner from each other and near the great Seattle Slew for a number of years until each were pensioned. Lanter often wondered if they remembered each other while reflecting on his great fortune having them both in his life.

“The thing about me is that I was a racing fan first; I was the little kid who would ride my bike pretending to be Ron Turcotte,” Lanter says. “I never thought — ever — in my wildest dreams I’d have the career I’ve had so far or be so blessed to have horses like the top two finishers in the first Breeders’ Cup Classic in my life. Those of us who were there with them are members of a very exclusive club and we’re all very proud of that.

“One time, it must have been during the Keeneland sales, Bill Allen and [Slew o’ Gold’s owner] Mickey Taylor and [Gate Dancer’s owner] Kenneth Oppenheim were all at Three Chimneys, the triumvirate of the first Breeders’ Cup Classic. It was a little uncomfortable, even that much after the fact. Opstein basically said, ‘Slew o’ Gold screwed me out of winning the first Breeders’ Cup.’ And Mickey Taylor, God bless him, didn’t say a word. It was kind of fun to watch them all awkwardly interact.”

Wes Lanter has spent most of his life surrounded by some of the best thoroughbreds of the last generation. De ervaren ruiter was zowel hengstgroomer als hengstenmanager op de meest succesvolle en populaire fokkerijen in de Bluegrass, waaronder Spendthrift Farm, Three Chimneys en Overbrook Farm, naast een paar aparte stints in het Kentucky Horse Park. Tijdens zijn bijna 30-jarige carrière heeft de 52-jarige gewerkt met drie Triple Crown-winnaars, zowel volbloed als Standardbred, vijf extra Kentucky Derby-winnaars en meerdere kampioenen en Hall of Famers.

Lanter, een wandelende encyclopedie van bijna alles wat met rasechte races te maken heeft, deelt zijn favoriete verhalen over de paarden waarvan hij vindt dat ze het voorrecht hebben deel uit te maken van zijn leven. carrière. Sinds hij zijn positie als Equine Section Supervisor bij de Hall of Champions van het Kentucky Horse Park in 2015 verliet, heeft Lanter gewerkt aan het samenstellen van verhalen over zijn paarden en aan het beslissen waar zijn volgende hoofdstuk in zijn leven vandaan zal komen. Lanter also is the proud father of 21-year-old Noah, a standout baseball pitcher and outfielder at Ridgewater College in Willmar, Minnesota.

[Hengstenverhalen: https://nl.sportsfitness.win/Spectator-Sport/Horse-Racing/1002050933.html ]