In honor of Ferdinand, ex-racer given good home
Still reeling from the news that Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand had been destroyed in a Japanese slaughterhouse, Sandy Porter-Gonyea spotted something that would change her life. Emblazoned across a full page of the 2003 edition of the New York newspaper she was reading, was a picture of Ferdinand winning the Kentucky Derby. And beneath it, was a photo of a dinner plate and the statement: “Eat an American Champion.” At that moment Porter-Gonyea promised herself this: “If I was ever ready to buy a horse, I’d buy an off-track Thoroughbred,” she says. “I decided I was going to save at […]
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After Rolex, Ashker ready to take on the world
That horrible day vanished from thought as Laine Ashker burst from the start box aboard Anthony Patch. Galloping toward the first obstacle at the 2010 Rolex Three-Day, each stride put emotional distance between the young rider and the devastating accident that claimed the life of her horse Frodo Baggins, two years earlier. The black New Zealand Thoroughbred, who was lovely enough to appear in the movie Lord of the Rings, was euthanized, and Ashker was airlifted to a hospital with multiple broken bones, two collapsed lungs, and a severely fractured jaw. For two months, after the fall, Ashker remained hospitalized. […]
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Safe haven for broodmares is Our Mims legacy
As a young filly, Our Mims was racehorse royalty. At three, she was named the 1977 Eclipse Champion, and by age four, she’d won over $368,000 in her racing career. By the time she was 22 her many foals carried the bloodlines of superstars such as Seattle Slew and Spectacular Bid, and passed great genes along to notable stakes performers including 1997 Breeder’s Cup Sprint winner Elmhurst. But when she could no longer get in foal, Mims was turned out to pasture among cows, and far from any winner’s circle or breeding shed, grew old trying to forage food to […]
