The Longines Kentucky Oaks is the marquee race for 3-year-old fillies and the sister race to the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve, taking place on the Friday before the run for the roses each year.
In advance of the 144th Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve, ABR’s Dan Tordjman takes a look back at the 10 most recent winners of the run for the roses and checks in on their current endeavors, be they at stud, in training, in the case of Always Dreaming, or, in Mine That Bird’s case, simply living the R ‘n’ R life of a retired Derby winner.
For more than eight decades, The Jockey Club has compiled and published a list of theoretical weight assignments ranking the best and most promising 2-year-olds of the previous year. Over the course of those eight decades, a handful of horses have been assigned a higher than normal rating to signify their superiority over their rivals, but no horse has ever matched the extraordinary standard set by Count Fleet in 1942.
Laffit Pincay Jr. was 12 years old when he received life-altering advice. The wise words that were difficult to hear came from a man who had overseen his development into a solid Little League second baseman. He knew him only as “Mr. Charlie.”
“You are a good baseball player, but you are going to be too small to be a professional baseball player,” said Mr. Charlie, eyeing the slightly built youngster who stood before him. “Why don’t you be a jockey like your father?”
For those who appreciated how special Arrogate was, the Breeders’ Cup Classic was painful to watch as he finished in a dead heat with Gunnevera for fifth place in the finale of a career that will very likely baffle historians.
