Off Track Thoroughbreds

Bomb Site, a $225,000 yearling by Gulch, became a Point-to-Point star before his death in August.

A horse once valued at nearly a quarter million dollars, but who was priceless to his family, died this past August leaving an indelible imprint on the heart of his longtime owner.

“He was a one-of-a-kind horse,” says Greenville, S.C. equestrian Jane Patten Polk. “I swam him in the river. I galloped him on the beach. He was just a perfect little jumper who loved to gallop, and who made me the best steeplechase rider I could be.”

Bomb Site
Barn name: Bomber
Sire: Gulch
Dam: Orseno, by In Reality
Foal date: March 30,1998Polk speaks of a diminutive chestnut Thoroughbred named Bomb Site. The son of great racehorse Gulch, the classy racehorse sold for $225,000 as a yearling before retiring after 17 races and $116, 957 in earnings.

After acquiring Bomber through the Second Stride program, Polk was 12 when she began taking lessons on her beautiful Thoroughbred. The careful jumper was originally purchased for Polk’s father, but soon chose the young girl as his rider instead. “He was a better fit for me. He was small, and so careful and honest that I rode him in a snaffle,” she says. “He was easy to control in the saddle, and on the ground, we played. He’d chase me in the field.”

Bomber’s calling was chasing other horses in point-to-point races, however. “We really found our niche on the junior steeplechase circuit in Virginia,” Polk says, noting that after some basic riding lessons and a few clinics, the pair soon hit their stride.

In this old photo, Bomber decides to inspect the grass on the other side of the fence.

In one of her favorite photos, Polk and Bomber prepare to take on the 2006 North American Point-to-Point Association Championship in Leesburg, Va. Dressed in her stock tie and grinning at the camera, she stands proudly beside her beautifully turned out chestnut. After the snapshot, Polk and Bomber won the race.

“My Dad was offered $30,000 for Bomber after one of our point-to-point races. He turned it down saying that there was no sum of money he would take in exchange for breaking my heart,” Polk says.

They had 12 happy, successful years together until Bomber died at the end of August from severe laminitis. The night before, she called her parents in tears. They drove seven hours to see her and Bomber together one last time.

“Losing Bomber was losing an enormous piece of my childhood. He was there through the many trials and challenges and changes a girl experiences between the ages of 12 and 24! He was my heart horse.”

Will Wilson is an award-winning blacksmith who got his start with his new career in a prison program taught by the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation.

A once somewhat shy inmate at the James River Work Center in Virginia, who parlayed skills acquired through the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation’s prisoner/racehorse Second Chances program, recently took top honors for his farrier skills at the World Championship Blacksmiths competition in Doswell, Va.

Will Wilson, a former inmate whose hard shell softened after he bonded with ex-racehorse Thoroughbred Haps Online, an injured chestnut mare he nursed back to health, has done himself and the entire Second Chances program mighty proud, says Dr. Reid McLellan, curriculum developer of the program that teaches real-world horsemanship and life skills to prisoners, while providing love and care to retired Thoroughbreds.

“As I was giving the final assessment of four prisoners today at a graduation, I told the guys about Will Wilson,” McLellan says. “I told them that here’s a guy who went through the program, who got out of prison and established a positive reputation for himself, and for our program … and that if they really want to work with horses when they get out, and they get a recommendation from this program, they’ll have an opportunity.”

William Wilson, with horse, forged a new career while learning the artistry of horse shoeing at the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation’s Second Chances program. Photo courtesy Anne Tucker

With evident pride, McLellan says William parlayed all the opportunity he could get, even taking on extra tutorials and reading materials, to help him fine-tune a natural talent for hoof trimming and farrier work. And today, McLellan says, Wilson isn’t simply a former-inmate working in society: he’s downright excelling.

“I’m real proud of him,” McLellan says. “The fact that he’s taken the opportunity he had a James River to the level of winning at the World Championship Blacksmiths, well, Will has done an outstanding job.”

Wilson was the overall winner in the novice category and in hind shoeing during the competition held at the Virginia Fair in Doswell, Va., last weekend.

Anne Tucker, cofounder of James River’s TRF Second Chances program says the changes in Wilson from the day he arrived, withdrawn, quiet and shy, to the day he left with squared shoulders and a new lease on life was a remarkable and happy thing to see.

“He left our program for a while to do some other classes at James River, but he came back and became a teaching assistant and farrier. By this point, he had really changed, really matured. He was a much stronger individual,” Tucker says, noting that when Wilson returned to society, it was as a gifted farrier, and a mature contributor to horses and the world.

News of his recent victories fills her heart with joy. “It’s just so wonderful,” she says. “When I first met him, I never would have imagined this. He’s come a long way.”