When Carleigh Fedorka agreed to ride a friend’s horse for a video advertising him for sale in 2012 she didn’t expect that she’d be the one buying him. But that’s exactly what happened.
Sunday was a historic day at the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event for rider Michael Jung, who became the first rider to win the event three consecutive times. But the nine off-track Thoroughbreds (OTTBs) that started at Rolex weren’t as lucky.
The first phase of dressage started off well for the group with Houdini (registered name Rocky Times) leading dressage during the lunch break on Thursday. Houdini wasn’t able to keep that lead but was sitting in 12th at the end of the phase, leading all OTTBs going into the rest of the weekend.
Every spring, horse lovers flock to Lexington, Ky., during the last weekend of April, and this year is no different. A week before the Kentucky Derby takes place about 75 miles to the west, the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event kicks off a busy few weeks for equestrians in the Bluegrass from April 27-30.
It’s been five years since an off-the-track Thoroughbred (OTTB) won Rolex — Parklane Hawk provided rider William Fox-Pitt with the blue ribbon in 2012 — but the 10 OTTBs currently entered will try to end that drought this year.
Primal Humor had sunk to the nethermost rung on the claiming ladder at Suffolk Downs by 2010, and his owner, convinced he was worthless, was giving him away.
Jockey Tammi Campbell Piermarini implored her niece to adopt the Kentucky-bred son of Distorted Humor, who had sold three years before for $200,000 at the Keeneland September yearling sale.
“My aunt rode him in races, liked him and was worried about him,” said retired jockey Janelle Campbell, who at the time aspired to be like Piermarini, the third all-time leading woman rider by wins.
When Mandy Alexander heard millionaire Mister Marti Gras was looking for a second career late last year, she tried to tell herself she wasn’t interested.
She had decided that she was taking a break from horse ownership and figured a horse with Mister Marti Gras’ long race record may not be the best candidate for a second career at the level she once competed at due to how long he’d raced – but that all changed when she saw him.
