Category: History

Horse racing is truly in my blood.  Although, we have only met on a few occasions, my great-uncle owned and bred Thoroughbreds.  I have at-least one more relative in the business too. I got these 2 winner’s circle photos from my family.  This particular horse was owned by my great-uncle and named for my grandfather.

C. Russell Run was bred in Illinois and born in 2001.  He was a chestnut colored gelding, a sterile male horse.  I do not know of his current whereabouts, or if he is alive, but naturally his pedigree stopped with him.  He had a very nice breeding that included his great sire, Mr. Prospector.  He was one of the best studs of all time, siring several big name winners and offspring that have run in all legs of the triple crown.  When he died, in 1999, he was buried next to the great Secretariat at Claiborne Farm in Paris, KY.  During his racing life, C. Russell Run, had 41 starts, 5 wins, 7 placing races, and showed 9 times.  The breeder was my great-uncle.

C. Russell Run had at-least two owners, two jockeys and one or more trainers.  Originally owned by my relative, by 2007, or before, he was owned by Patrick A. Blanchard. Blanchard has no top winnings in the past 12 months but has had several since 1991 or prior.  Before he bought this horse, Eddie M. Essenpreis was the trainer.  He still had horses running at Fairmount Park as late as September 2014.  He has had 6 winners in the past 12 months and several since 1991.  Many of those were stakes winners, some earning 6 figures.  In the first photo, the jockey was Cynthia Medina.  That win occurred in October of 2003.  She had over a thousand wins before her retirement.  That is a large number of wins for a female jockey. The second photo shows the horse winning with jockey Argelio “Gino” Velazquez.  He worked for Essenpreis for 5 years as an exercise trainer before he was approved to be an apprentice jockey.  At age 25, in July 2001, he road his first race at Fairmount.  He rode for Essenpries. The partnership was still winning together at late as May of 2008.  Essenpries still had horses run at Fairmount as late as this past September.  This picture shows a win in May of 2004.

Both races pictured were from Fairmount Park in Collinsville, IL.  It is one of just 3 Thoroughbred flat racing tracks in Illinois.  Located close to St. Louis this race track opened in 1925.  It is a dirt track made of sand and clay.  Up until 1999 Standardbred harness racing took place there as well.  The track has seen some rough times. They closed during the Great Depression, burnt in 1974, and now suffer competition with the casino riverboats.  They have a live racing schedule for March through September 2015, but only 3 days per week.  The track is open year-round for simulcasting too.  The style was patterned after Churchill Downs in Louisville, KY.  That makes this track a great practice course for horses planning to run there.  Fairmount is oval in shape and about a mile in length.  Two chutes provide options for races of 6 furlongs or one and a fourth mile.  The property has over a thousand stalls and the grandstands can accommodate two thousand fans.  There are restaurants there as well.  The Fairmount Derby used to run there as did the St. Louis Derby, but not after 2006.  Several important horses have run there including Kentucky Derby winner, Whiskery.

The two other Illinois race tracks are Arlington Park and Hawthorne Race Course.  Both are located near Chicago.  Arlington, of Arlington Heights, was created in 1927.  Hawthorne, in Cicero, opened in 1891.  I would love to see any and all of the three tracks in Illinois.  I have been to both St. Louis and Chicago, and had a great time in each city.

Great racers come from great breeding.  I could bet that my love for Thoroughbreds came through my ancestry.  Hopefully, I can make my mark in the industry and share that experience with you all.

No sight of any grass in the Bluegrass today.  I spent my day snowed in, thus I did not make it to the field trip I had in mind.  A shoveling neighbor declared we had 10 inches of the nasty white stuff as we dug deep.  Well then, Happy President’s Day!  So, what do our nation’s leaders have to do with horses?  More than I would have thought.  12 United States Presidents owned horses and 10 more rode.

Our very first American President, George Washington, was considered the best horseman of his era.  He owned horses and was involved with breeding.  He attended races in Virginia regularly.  The first White House stable was built in 1800.  Another was built in 1806 and then burnt in 1814.  John Adams had a horse too.  Thomas Jefferson was a breeder and attended most races at the National Race Course in Washington, D.C., located just 2 miles from the White House.  James Madison, James Monroe and John Quincy Adams enjoyed riding horses.  In 1834 Andrew Jackson, who owned many horses, had another White House stable built.  Martin Van Buren and William Henry Harrison enjoyed horse back riding.  John Tyler, James Knox Polk and Zachary Taylor owned their own horses.  Franklin Pierce was a rider.  James Buchanan was a fan of racing.  Abraham Lincoln had several horses die at a White House stable fire in 1864.  That stable was replaced in 1871 by Ulysses S Grant.  He had many horses and may be the greatest Equestrian in U.S. History.  He replaced the White House stables.  His favorite horse was Cincinnati, of sire Lexington.  Lexington was named for Lexington. Kentucky.  He set a record for the fastest in four mile Thoroughbred racing and many records as a lead sire fathering winners of the Kentucky Oaks, Preakness and Belmont Stakes.  This horse was dedicated after his death to the Smithsonian Institution and his bones travel to many museums, including time spent from 2010 to 2013 in Lexington, Kentucky for the World Equestrian Games.  He was in the first group of horses inducted to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame and is the image used on top the trophy vase for the Preakness.  His son, Cincinnati, was also memorialized artistically in many ways, including a large bronze figure at the Ulysses S Grant memorial in D.C.  Rutherford B Hayes, James Garfield and Ben Harrison owned horses as well.  Harrison added on to the White House stable in 1891.  Theodore Roosevelt owned horses too.  When he was President, he was offered a car, but declined saying, “the Roosevelts are horse people.”  Unfortunately, his predecessor, William Howard Taft, had a poor history with horses and he had the stables torn down in 1911 for an automobile garage.  John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson owned hoses too.  Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were known to be horse riders.

I think, for the 2016 Presidential election, we need a candidate who wants to bring back the horses and the stable.  After all, Reagan put it best when he noted, “I’ve often said there is nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse.”