Random Retiree News

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I'll give it to Lava Man. Gorgeous as those beautiful mountains are, I see them every day...not so with Lava Man! He does look amazing!

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TDN @theTDN
13m13 minutes ago
The recently-retired multiple graded stakes winner Green Mask photographed arriving at @Oldfriendsfarm today.

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Barbara Livingston @DRFLivingston
10h10 hours ago
1/2 Wishing a very happy 34th birthday to @trfinc beloved ambassador QUICK CALL, shown here in 2007 at Walkill Correctional Facility with his friend Robert. QUICK CALL is by Quack, out of a Sadair mare (how about that), record 86-16-15-12, $807,817. He was mostly running in....


Barbara Livingston‏ @DRFLivingston
...claimers by the time of his retirement, but QUICK CALL won two G2 Forego Handicaps and the G2 Tom Fool, and clearly relished Saratoga, winning four years straight there.

[Sparrow Castle]

No pictures, but updated info about some old favorites...

Hovdey: Former stars now just old folks on the farm

Wise Dan lets you lead him around and snap a photo. Declan’s Moon will stop goofing off with his mates long enough to take a carrot. Main Sequence lords over the paddock already made famous by a previous occupant. And among the peaceful herd at his owner’s Pennsylvania farm is the venerable ’chaser Mixed Up, nearly a decade removed from his glory days.

These are among the champions who did not go on to glitzy stud deals, nor did they end up on accessible public display at places like the Kentucky Horse Park or Old Friends Equine. They are Eclipse Award geldings of recent years, healthy and content to live out their days as just plain horses, when they are anything but.

More: http://www.drf.com/news/hovdey-former-stars-now-just-old-folks-farm

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Sarah K Andrew @SarahKAndrew
6h6 hours ago
Pennmarydel (Dynaformer - La Ville Rouge), a full brother to 2006 GI Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, romps with his long-eared friends Nigel Herringbone Bigglesworth III (center) and Reginald Striebling Cumberbatch (right) this afternoon in Vass, NC.

[BaroqueAgain1]

That's a handsome horse; you can see the resemblance to Barbaro. Is he a gelded pasture pet or learning a new career?

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That's a handsome horse; you can see the resemblance to Barbaro. Is he a gelded pasture pet or learning a new career?

When La Ville Rouge was pensioned last year, one of the publications mentioned that Pennmarydel was given to the executive director of CANTER Mid Atlantic (can't remember her name). I'm pretty sure he was for her to keep and he was gelded. I'm not sure about his OTTB career, but he's clipped so nicely I'd guess he's not just a pasture pet.

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We followed Royal F J in the War Horse thread.

Jeremy Balan Verified account@BH_JBalan
16m16 minutes ago
Woke up to good news in Dubai today.

[BaroqueAgain1]

Wow, he looks good. You'd think he was California Chrome parading for the ladies.

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At age 24, Chindi still enjoying celebrity at track

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – It was 20 years ago this week that Chindi came roaring down the Oaklawn Park stretch to win the Grade 3 Count Fleet Sprint Handicap during the 1998 Racing Festival of the South.

The gelding, now 24, has been part of the local action in some fashion every year since, whether racing at the meet or working as a stable pony for trainer Steve Hobby. Chindi has been immensely popular with racing fans and horsemen for his longevity and personality as well as the deep-closing style he employed. And it does not hurt that he now looks like a 1,200-pound snowball, a Rubenesque gray gone white who can regularly be found watching morning training at Oaklawn.

“Everybody wants to see Chindi,” said his owner, Carol Ricks. “He should have been in the movies. I think he could have been another Trigger.”

Chindi has been Hobby’s riding partner for some 20 years. Hobby not only galloped the horse when he was racing but now rides Chindi out with most sets of workers each morning at Oaklawn. That’s been the regular schedule for the horse since he retired in 2005. Chindi did not care for being turned out to pasture.

“He walks faster to the track than he does back to the barn – every set,” Hobby said. “From all these years going to the track, it just amazes me he can’t wait to get up to the track. Now, he doesn’t really want to do anything once he’s up there but stand around and look, let everyone holler his name, and feed him candy. But he loves to go to the track.”

More: http://www.drf.com/news/age-24-chindi-still-enjoying-celebrity-track