Happy 33rd, John Henry

When Louis XIV died in 1715, most of the people he ruled over had known no other sovereign. He had been King of France for 72 years. His great-grandson inherited his throne and the magnificent palace the Sun King had built at Versailles.



When the great John Henry retired from racing at the age of 9, he'd acquired 39 wins, 15 places and 9 shows in 83 starts, with an earnings total of over $6.5 million. He was (and is) the oldest horse to win Horse of the Year--and assuredly it must have felt like John had been racing forever and would always be back for another campaign. Those who raced against him may well have had offspring who were racing when John still covered the turf with that mighty 18 ft. stride.

Then, John retired to the Horse Park in 1985. The Kentucky Horse Park had only opened in 1978, and was still struggling to find its identity. John Henry quickly became its heart.

I first went to the Horse Park when we moved to Lexington in 1986. It was a strange thing to go to the park in January of 2008 without being able to see the ol' Steel Drivin' Man. Just as there were those who had never knew a king other than Louis XIV, there were those of us who had never known a Hall of Champions without John Henry. It seemed like he would live forever. But John passed peacefully on October 8, 2007.

The Kentucky Horse Park will welcome the world's equestrian royalty when it hosts the FEI World Equestrian Games in September 2010. This will be the first time the games have been held outsides of Europe. The World Equestrian Games will be the largest equine event ever held in North America, and the largest sporting event ever held in the state of Kentucky.

Louis XIV converted a hunting lodge into Versailles.

The Kentucky Horse Park, the finest equestrian venue in the world and the only park exclusively dedicated the the horse, is the house that John built.

Happy Birthday, John Henry. Have a chocolate covered Krispy Kreme in horse heaven on us.

JOHN HENRY (Ol' Bob Bowers - Once Double by Double Jay): March 9, 1975 - October 8, 2007

Racehorse names

C'mon, now, Jockey Club!

How come you can't name a horse Nutzapper or Sally Hemmings, but you can name her Panty Raid?

Inquiring draft horses want to know.

Like a racehorse...

In honor of tomorrow's Belmont Stakes, I found this column on Slate today. Apparently racehorses pee 1.5 to 2 gallons a day. And Clydesdales pee more. (I could have told y'all that, having seen some of the draft horses around the barn down a five gallon bucket of water, and then having sat through not one, but TWO cycles of a traffic light waiting for Bud to finish up.)

Trump's favorite place is in front of Signer Park.

Many of the carriage horses participate in the long history of public urination outside of the Powel House (Samuel Powel and his wife Elizabeth were famous for their parties there...).