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Perfect, the son of Triple Crown winner Affirmed, is now permanently retired at Equine Rescue of Aiken with Jim Rhodes.

Perfect landing for a Triple Crown winner’s son

Thirty-six years ago, the old stallion’s father won the Triple Crown. That feat of racehorse mastery, much in the news as California Chrome attempts to accomplish what Affirmed did in 1978, threw into sharp contrast the life of the great racehorse’s 24-year-old, little known son. Last month, an old stud named Perfect sold in a farm dispersal and onto a broker, and was facing an uncertain fate when a team of Thoroughbred advocates stepped in to provide him a retirement befitting the son of Affirmed. “When I got the call asking if I had the facility and the room to […]

California Chrome is led to the Kentucky Derby. Photo courtesy Wendy Wooley/Equi Sport Photos

Chrome’s pony is hot stuff, won $4 million racing

The din of loudspeakers and jubilant Kentucky Derby crowds failed to jangle the nerves of the classy bay Thoroughbred who once ran the Derby himself, placing 3rd in 2002, and who this year led Triple Crown hopeful California Chrome to the starting gate. With the steely confidence of an alpha male who’d been there before, now dressed in purple flowers in his neatly braided mane, Perfect Drift moved alongside the flashy red racehorse who won the Derby (and later the Preakness) and stands at history’s door. In a career that earned more than $4.7 million, Perfect Drift’s career highlights include […]

Franziska Pütz took her OTTB Not From Texas to Germany after pulling up stakes in America. She sold her car and used every cent to pay the fare for her grumpy mare.

How a T-bred named Texas landed in Germany

When Franziska Pütz abandoned her new life in America a year ago and returned to her native Germany, she took with her a little souvenir named Texas. Texas was just a grumpy Thoroughbred mare who, for reasons Pütz can’t readily explain, touched her so deeply that she threw caution to the wind in January 2012 and purchased the Pennsylvania-bred animal. Even now, pondering a decision that to some would seem absurd, Pütz laughs as she recalls how she, a liberal arts student at a tiny college on Boston’s North Shore, would think to buy a horse. After all, she was […]