Archives by date

You are browsing the site archives by date.

Silver Flash, who heads to Pine Top this month as he goes advanced, had humble beginnings as a leftover horse at the end of the 2008 Suffolk Downs meet. Photo by Jennifer Hamblin

A TB nobody wanted is an emerging star

A pale gelding so humble he once went begging off the track, and who later was passed over and dismissed by top riders as “reckless” and “lacking in movement,” was recently named by Eventing Nation as one of eight emerging stars. Silver Flash, a hard-knocking ex-racehorse who left Suffolk Downs at the end of the 2008 meet when a Georgia horseman paid $600 for him out of the goodness of her heart is today prepping to take his young owner/rider of four years, Abby Hamblin, across the ditches and fields at Pine Top Advanced CIC ** on Feb. 19. Silver Flash Barn […]

Rich Hero went to live with Lisa Molloy at ReRun, Inc., in Virginia after she stepped up to help him.

Unwanted Suffolk warhorse hits pay dirt

Passed up and overlooked, warhorse Rich Hero had nowhere to go as Suffolk Downs closed down last year. After an honorable career spent battling his way to the winner’s circle enough times to earn $250,000 in 63 starts, no kind consideration came his way at the end, when Suffolk Down announced plans to permanently close, and many horses were put up for sale. Despite several pleas on Facebook by CANTER New England that Rich Hero was in great need of a home, and after several failed attempts by horse advocate Lorita Lindemann to secure him a foster home, or placement […]

Smalltownman heads to the winner’s circle with Jackie Acksel up.

She wins $200K on beloved t’bred, later buys him

Borrowing a friend’s old jockey saddle, Jackie Acksel, a middle-aged mother of two, swung onto the back of the luckless racehorse and folded into traffic heading toward the starting gate at Delaware Park. Ignoring the gentle ribbing of stewards yelling, “Don’t fall off!” the one-time jockey set her legs into an unnaturally cramped angle caused by leather that were too short, and piloted Smalltownman to the scene of his comeback. It was August 2011 and just a month earlier, Smalltownman had put in a poor performance at Parx Racetrack in Pennsylvania. And as she watched from the sidelines as the […]