Racing is a sport made of stories. Behind every horse are the people, the decisions, and the coincidences that bring them to the paddock on race day. From names to silks, the details share a bit of the story with each step toward the starting gate. Every once in a while, the who, what, where, and why transcend a day at the races and touch the hearts of everyone bearing witness. The story of Cody Dorman and Cody’s Wish is one of those.

Paul Halloran’s new book “Cody’s Wish: A Boy, a Racehorse, and a Fight For Life” captures literal lightning in a bottle, the connection between this boy and this horse and the places that bond took Cody and his family.

Cody and Friend

The transcendent tale began with a 2018 Make-A-Wish visit to Godolphin’s Gainsborough Farm near Lexington, Ky., when a 5-month-old colt by Curlin out of Grade 1 winner Dance Card, by Tapit, laid his head in Cody Dorman’s lap. Wowed by the instant connection, Godolphin decided to name that bay colt after that special young man: Cody’s Wish.

Cody Dorman with author Paul Halloran (Courtesy of Paul Halloran)

Born with Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, a rare genetic condition which causes a number of medical issues, including seizures, heart defects, and others, Cody had already beaten the odds to get to this point, surviving dozens of surgeries and other health challenges. But the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns caused a downturn in his mental health that his parents, Kelly and Leslie Dorman, struggled to alleviate. Another visit with his equine namesake rejuvenated Cody, and from there, the boy and his horse took his family, including younger sister Kylie, places they never could have imagined that day at Gainsborough.

Along for the ride throughout was Paul Halloran, a journalist with 40 years of experience and a passion for the sport. He first met the Dormans when Cody’s Wish upset Jackie’s Warrior in the Grade 1 Forego Stakes Aug. 27, 2022, at Saratoga Race Course. From that initial conversation, the story and his bond with Cody and the family grew, to the point that the Massachusetts native was the perfect person to chronicle the journey.

Halloran’s book captures it all, from Kelly’s and Leslie’s first date to the October day when that connection between a boy and a horse was permanently captured in bronze. In between, readers dive deeper into an extraordinary life, where hope and resilience triumphed over the constant challenges that his diagnosis presented.

Zoom and Zeal

In late 2022, Cody Dorman and his friend Cody’s Wish won both the Big Spirit of Turfdom and the Vox Populi Awards, and Halloran, who had been covering Cody and his family since Cody’s Wish’s Forego win earlier that year, got an idea: this should be more than a couple of stories ... it should be a book.

Cody's Wish wins 2022 Forego Stakes (Eclipse Sportswire)

“Right around then, that’s when I really started thinking seriously about it,” Halloran recalled. “I reached out to them, right around Christmas in 2022. And Kelly and I spoke about it, and like any smart husband, he said, ‘I think it’s a great idea, but let me run it by the CEO.’ ”

Halloran and the Dormans had a conversation about the journalist’s idea the next day, where he laid out “my vision, which was not necessarily a horse racing book, but a book about Cody’s struggles and their struggles and triumphs with obviously horse racing as the backdrop,” the author said. “They right away said, ‘yeah, let’s do it.’ That was the genesis of it. They signed off and we started weekly Sunday night Zooms on that first Sunday in January 2023.”

Even with his decades of experience as a journalist, Halloran had no experience writing a book, but he took on the task of telling the Dorman family’s story with the undaunted commitment of an experienced storyteller determined to fulfill a promise. Even when “there were days where you’re thinking, well, how exactly am I going to do this, when the words are not flowing from your brain to your keyboard,” he persisted because “I was so committed to making it happen for them,” Halloran said.

“I love the feedback, it’s been great. We all like to hear positive things about ourselves, about our children, but this is really for them. This was done for the Dormans.”

The resulting book is 18 chapters of Cody’s and his family’s story, from those early days when his parents were learning to care for their son amidst a mountain of health challenges to Cody’s death the day after Cody’s Wish sealed his Horse of the Year campaign with a win in the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Santa Anita Park. Though the beginning and the end of the story may have seemed clear in early 2023, when Godolphin announced the horse would return for one more season, Halloran had to take on crafting an ending that included Cody’s sudden passing and the dedication of a monument commemorating the boy and his horse at Kentucky Horse Park.

“I did need to talk to them, relatively soon after, frankly, while the emotion is still that raw. That was probably the most difficult of all the Zooms we did since it was either two or three weeks after Cody’s funeral,” the author recalled. “I had to ask them to relive that day. And of all the things I had to have them relive in the course of the research, that was the most difficult.”

What emerges from those tough conversations is not only the chronicle of a special moment in horse racing, when the sport, from farms to fans, rallied around Cody and his equine namesake, but also the portrait of a family thrust from anonymity into the spotlight that handles all of the challenges with the tenacity and grace that makes them “elite” in the eyes of not only Halloran, but the many people who followed the Dormans on the journey.

“I think they had to be elite to get through it the way they’ve gotten through it. I really do,” Halloran said.

“To come out of it the way they did, they are frankly triumphant. No one wanted to lose Cody, but as I put at the end of the book, like the horse, Cody went out on top. Their story is very much one of triumph.”

The book captures it all between two covers, an ode to the resilience of a boy, his sister, his parents, and a horse, and the power of the bond between horse and human.

A Gift of Life

Purchase a copy of the book

“Cody’s Wish” is both efficient and evocative in its exploration of the phenomenon that is the bond between Cody Dorman and that Curlin colt, now a stallion at Godolphin’s Jonabell Farm in Kentucky. In 18 chapters plus a preface and prologue, Halloran encapsulates a life where hope and perseverance are the overriding themes. From the day Cody is born, parents Kelly and Leslie set out to care for their son in the face of an astonishing learning curve and enduring uncertainty. Along the way, they create a life where not only Cody, but also his mother, father, and sister get to live, to have experiences that evoke the spectrum of human emotion.

“I want people to look at it as a story about resilience and a story about hope,” Halloran said. “The resilience is fairly obvious — the resilience Cody had to have to make it to just about 18. The obvious resilience of his parents and his sister, taking care of him. But as far as the hope — all parents have challenges. All special needs parents have challenges. But I think people can read that and relate it to their own life. In the midst of maybe a mountain of challenges, there are, there are highlights. Hopefully, it helps people appreciate those good times when they come along a little more.”

As familiar as any reader may be with the journey of the Dormans and Cody’s Wish in 2022 and 2023, the book dives deep into those years and the joy and wonder that the boy and his horse bring to his family, those who were there, and those who may be learning about Cody’s story for the first time. Whether a reader is a racing novice or a hard-core railbird, they will appreciate these two magical seasons and the journey that now continues through Cody’s Wish’s foals and the bronze monument at the Kentucky Horse Park.

Ultimately, this book is a profound testimony to the unspoken connections that can heal and sustain the human spirit. The unforgettable image of a thousand-pound champion gently bowing his head into the lap of that courageous young man will stay with readers long after they turn that final page.