Breaking News! A Big Week for Big Girls!

This has been a big week for Thoroughbred girls! Personal Ensign, the mare who retired with a 13-0 record and who earned an Eclipse Horse of the Year Award, Champion Older Female, and then a Kentucky Broodmare of the Year for her fine babies and who also delivered a defeat to Winning Colors in the Breeder's Cup Distaff before retiring passed away at Claiborne Farms this past Thursday. I want to remind you that Winning Colors was only one of 3 mares who ever won the Kentucky Derby, so Personal Ensign's achievement is amazing.

Then the next day, just yesterday, Zenyatta showboated and bowed and danced to the Oaklawn track in Arkansas and snapped up her 16th win in history without even breaking a sweat or taking even a little instruction from her loving jockey, Mike Smith. She just smoked it with her usual "don't get me dirty, run along ahead, I'll catch up later" strategy. She is one big bold girl!

She ties Citation and Cigar's 16-0 records, but they earned theirs over longer durations and with more races, so she really is a stand-alone in the 20th century and is matching records by a few amazing horses in the 19th century. Let's just put it this way -- I was right to place my vote on her for Horse of the Year -- just wish I could have a little vote for her for horse of the 21st century! Much love, you beautiful beautiful girls -- Zenyatta, Personal Ensign, Winning Colors, Violet, Hailee, Better than Honour, Rachel Alexandra and Rags to Riches!

Breaking News! Rags to Riches Only Living Triple Crown Filly

Here's a photo by Terence Dulay after Rags won the Belmont Stakes for her family. Here is some important news: Now that Winning Colors has passed, Rags to Riches is the only living filly to have won either the Kentucky Derby, Preakness or Belmont Stakes. She is a precious, precious girl.

Here's some history. Of the 112 fillies to have run in any of the jewels, only 10 have won. Of the 38 fillies to run in the Kentucky Derby since 1875, only three won: Regret (1915), Genuine Risk (1980) and our recently dearly departed Winning Colors (1988).

Of the 52 fillies to run in the Preakness Stakes since 1873, only four have won: Flocarline (1903), Whimsical (1906), Rhine Maiden (1915), and Nellie Morse (1924).

Of the 21 fillies to run in the Belmont Stakes since 1867, only three have won: Ruthless (1867), Tanya (1905), and Rags to Riches (2007).

1915 would have been a fun year -- two girls taking the Kentucky Derby and Preakness!

Bless the strong champion hearts of these good girls and their 102 other big-hearted racing sisters.

Fond Memories of Winning Colors

Here is a photo from 1988 of Winning Colors with her trainers D. Wayne and Jeff Lukas, father and son. Today the Daily Racing Form and NTRA webpages had very nice stories about this proud, big girl.

Her grandma was purchased with a filly at side by the Sucher family at Echo Valley Farm in Georgetown, Kentucky. That filly became Winning Colors' mama. When they went to sell Winning Colors as a yearling, D. Wayne Lukas saw her and knew that she was a big girl with big muscle. He purchased her for Eugene V. Klein. The daughter in this family, Carmie, now 44, said that she remembered Winning Colors as headstrong -- her first word for her.

Carmie said, "She was one of those horses that did what she wanted to do. She had a plan. She was a strong, husky filly, and she was always very attractive with her roan color. She stood out. She was a good horse, but she could drag you around when you walked her, if she wanted to go look at something. She wasn't laid back. She always had a mission."

They sold her as a yearling, and then didn't see her again until she was 3 in the Derby. The 1988 Derby that she won was the only Derby Carmie has been to. Winning Colors gave the first Derby victory to her entire family -- to her parents -- the Suchers, to her trainers Jeff and Wayne, and to her new dad, Eugene V. Klein. They had never had a taste of the roses before this big girl won the roses for them.

Carmie said of that Derby day, "We hadn't seen her since she was a yearling, and she was just huge. She was larger than life then."

Another nice story about Winning Colors came out of Southeast Oklahoma from the little town of 2,988 people Atoka. Jeff Lukas, WC's trainer, now lives in Atoka. He said fondly of her, "She was always a big, tall, long-striding filly -- an extremely well-structured individual. The thing about her was just controlling her. She was not the kind that would just settle down. We had to keep her from doing too much because she tried to put a lot into her training that wasn't necessary. "

In the Daily Racing Form article today, he discusses the need for strong understanding exercise riders and about how she'd bring her heart to specific tracks.

His story is amazing because it's a miracle he has memories at all. On December 15, 1993, he was knocked into the ground by a runaway colt, Tabasco Cat, who would go on to win the 1994 Preakness and Belmont Stakes. Mr. Lukas received a head injury so severe that he went into a coma and was under peril of dying because blood kept going into his lower brain column's entry into the spine. They drilled a hole into his head. The doctor said that the injury was as severe as a serious automobile or motorcycle accident.

Jeff Lukas left horse training and lost his marriage, though he still has a good fathering relationship with his growing children. Now he works for a bank of a family friend in Atoka. And he says of the hand that life dealt him, "Getting out of the house, working full-time, it feels great. I turned 5-0 last year, and it was no problem. After all I've been through, I'm glad to have birthdays."

Isn't this a nice group of people and a nice powerful, bossy, girl with a mission? We don't have any more living fillies

Breaking News! Winning Colors Passes at 23

This past Sunday morning, at age 23, Winning Colors was euthanized after complications from colic surgery. She was one of three fillies to win the Kentucky Derby. Her sisters in pride are Regret and Genuine Risk. This good girl was born on Valentine's Day, 1985.

Here is a photo of Winning Colors defeating 49er for the Derby win back in 1988. Before this race, she had won both the Santa Anita Oaks and Santa Anita Derby, and Gary Stevens, her jockey, rode her to the first derby win for her trainer, Wayne Lukas, after 12 tries.

Secretariat's son, Risen Star, then beat her in both the Preakness and Belmont, but her record still shines! She won the 1988 Eclipse Award for Champion 3 year-old filly.

Lukas said of her, "Of all the horses that we had in our stable, and we've been blessed with some good ones, she was probably the one that was closest to Jeff (Lukas' son)." Jeff assisted his dad in preparing Winning Colors in preparing for her Derby win.

She passed hands a few times when she retired, but was a good broodmare and well beloved. Rest in Peace, you champion girl!

Personal Ensign and my Girls!

In 1984 Personal Ensign was born. She is an amazing mare. At age 2, she broke her left rear pastern and required a surgical implantation of 4 stainless steel screws. She came back from this major event by having a perfect race record. She raced 13 times for 13 wins! Among her stakes wins was a 1988 Breeder's Cup win in a muddy field of 9 horses, including Goodbye Halo and Kentucky Derby winner Winning Colors. She came from far behind to win by a nose in what is considered the most exciting finish in Breeders Cup History. She retired following this race as the first undefeated champion in American racing in over 80 years! She was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 1993 and was voted by Blood Horse as the #48 of the Top 100 race horses of the 20th century. She earned the Eclipse Award for U.S. Champion Older female in 1988, and earned $1,679,880. She was voted Kentucky Broodmare of the Year in 1996. Her last foal was a 2006 colt by Forest Wildcat. She's now pensioned as of this year at Claiborne Farm and the breeding shed manager said that at age 22, "She's still in good shape, looks good, and gets around fine. She'll be spending time out in the field with other mares." She's an amazing example of the importance of animal biomedical research. She required major orthpedic surgery and then in her breeding career, she needed major uterine surgery. My girls are related to Personal Ensign in numerous ways. They share these recent relatives: War Admiral, Hyperion, Gainsborough, Man 'O War, Swynford, Isinglass, Pharos, Canterbury Pilgrim, Teddy, Blue Larkspur, Sweep, Ben Brush, La Troienne, Nasrullah, and Princequillo. You can read more about this champion mare at the following sites! Make sure you read the news story about her thrilling "come from behind" victory in the Breeders Cup or perhaps her trouncing of the boys in the Whitney Handicap.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Ensign

or

http://breeding.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=35388

or

http://www.racingmuseum.org/hall/horse.asp?ID=117

or

http://horseracing.about.com/library/blpensign.htm

Julie Krone -- Amazing Jockey!!

Julie Krone is an amazing woman jockey. I remember her when she broke on the scene when I was a young girl. She is a real pioneer. She was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 2000, the same year as Winning Colors, the third filly to win the Kentucky Derby. When Krone was inducted, she had won 3,545 races, or 17% of her mounts, earning over $81.8 million. She was the first woman jockey to win a Triple Crown Race with Colonial Affair in the 1993 Belmont Stakes and to take a Breeder's Cup title riding Halfbridled. At her induction ceremony, she said, "I wish I could put every single one of you on the back of a horse at the one-eighth pole, so you could have the feeling of communicating with an animal you love so much. I got to do that every day of my life." She also said, "I want this to be a lesson to all kids everywhere. If the stable gate is closed, climb the fence." She says that the love of horses "is still in my blood, in my bones, in my heart."

One of the things I think is cool about her is how brave and honest she's been about her struggles. Of the sex bias involved in horse racing, she said, "No person in this world does not have adversity that is constant to them. This is the adversity that I have. I move through it freely. I don't see it, and my numbers don't show it." She also was very honest about her struggles with posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, migraines, and sleep and eating disorders. She had some life-threatening injuries on the track and had not only her limbs shattered and her heart bruised (literally), but felt her confidence shaken.

She said of her struggles with mental illness, "Horses felt my anxiety, they got weird, they reared up. I had been given a magical talent to positive-image a loser right into the winner's circle. I had been possessed; I could pick a horse up with my will and put it right down in front. And then suddenly it was all gone, and I was exhausted." She finally completely lost it after her horse broke down and she was thrown. Her hands were smashed as she tried to protect her head. She said of this experience, "I was fried. I couldn't talk. The straw didn't break the camel's back; it gutted the sucker, left the camel for dead. I was numb, couldn't think. I was afraid of horses, hated riding." She went through extensive talk therapy and took Zoloft and was very open about her experiences as a mentally ill athlete struggling with childhood traumas as well as PTSD. Of all of this, she said, "A little boy once came up to me at the track and asked to hold my goggles. And then he looked up at me and said, 'I want to be like you when I grow up.' A boy said that. A boy! What a feeling of touching people. And then, after I first talked publically about being suicidal and how the medicine made me feel like me again, I got calls and emails from people who said I'd given them hope to keep living." She said, "You don't fully realize how weird it was until you have yourself back."

She says of being an accomplished woman athlete, "The most rewarding moments have been when little girls, 10 and 11 years old, would run up to me and say things like, 'I played soccer with the boys and I was the best goalkeeper out there.' This has happened hundreds of times. They'd say that they read about me in a newspaper or magazine, or saw an interview on television, and that they admired what I had accomplished and how I had overcome adversity. If I had made even a little difference with girls like that, if I had made some little girl more brave than she had been, then that's what's been important for me as far as being a female athlete is concerned."

And she says of horses, "You risk life and limb to share a relationship with a Thoroughbred. You go down the stretch and push on his neck and feel his desire to win is the same as yours. When you nail somebody at the wire, you say, 'This is the coolest thing in the world.'"

Here's a cool news story about her setting a world record on a trotter under saddle with Moni Maker, the richest mare of any breed:
http://horseracing.about.com/library/weekly/aa100600a.htm

Winning Colors and My Girls!!!

Winning Colors was born in 1985, and she was the third filly to win the Kentucky Derby in 1988. In the Derby, she took command early to hold off the champion Forty Niner. Her lifetime earnings were $1,526,837 and she had 19 starts, and 8 wins. Among her wins were the Santa Anita Derby and Santa Anita Oaks. She was called "The Amazon" because she was so big and bold. During her life, she needed surgery for breathing problems, but still came back to racing. She was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 2000, the same year as jockey, Julie Krone. She earned third in the Preakness and was voted Champion 3 year-old. She is related to both my girls. Among their shared relatives are Nasrullah, Gainsborough, Man 'O War, Rock Sand, Commando, Voter, Bend Or, Hastings, Pensive, Black Toney, Teddy, and Bull Dog! In these photos, you see her winning the Kentucky Derby and in the winner's circle with her roses (happy girl!). Then you see a photo of her as an older lady who turned grey! You can read more about this amazing mare at the following link:

http://www.racingmuseum.org/hall/horse.asp?ID=348