Coming through Kentucky on our journey home recently, we stopped at the Kentucky Horse Park, something I’ve wanted to do for many years. We visited the Hall of Champions and met several racing champions. Upon asking one of the handlers if she had a favourite; she replied no. She loved them all but none of them as much as she had loved John Henry who was a resident of the Horse Park until his death in October 2007 at the age of 32. “ John Henry,” she said, “ has touched all of us who worked with him. He was a very intelligent horse. There was just something different in his eyes when you looked at him. He knew he was different. He knew he was a champion.”
John Henry was a Kentucky horse of dubious breeding lines. His sire was “Old Bob Bowers,” a moderate racing horse who was known more for his bad disposition than his racing ability and sold for $900 as a stallion. His dam, “Once Double,” was also a moderate runner and had problems carrying her foals to term. As a foal, John Henry was remembered as small, ugly and foul tempered. He had a conformation defect called “calf Kneed” which is a serious fault as it places such stress on the back legs that most horses cannot withstand training let alone racing. Nobody expected anything from him and he was sold at the mixed sale at Keeneland which usually draws the bottom of the barrel for $1,100. During the sale, John had a temper tantrum cutting his head. He was cleaned up as much as possible but went in the ring looking like a drowned rat with blood running down his face. As he grew, his knees worsened along with his disposition as he would tear buckets and tubs off the walls of his stall, stomping on them, and pitching them out the stall door at people walked by. This habit earned him his name, “John Henry” after the steel driving man of the folk song. John’s first owner never did break John to saddle and in less than a year, John was back at the Keeneland mixed sales as a 2 year old selling for $2,200. John’s new owner managed to break John to saddle but it wasn’t easy. Again John was sold but he kicked his stall walls so hard, the walls had to be kept in place using 55 gallon drums of molasses.
Despite his off track antics, his on track professionalism and a few early track wins led a few people to scratch their heads and wonder if within John might be the makings of a champion . But John never made it easy for them and after being sold eight times, he finally found a friend and wise trainer in Ron McAnally who had a reputation of working with horses that nobody else wanted. For the next four years, John established his reputation as a winner with many wins in important races on both dirt and turf. When most horses his age were retiring, John was coming into his own stride. He finished his racing career in 1984 at age 9 with 4 straight stake race wins. Injury forced him into retirement. In eight years of racing, he won 30 stakes, earned $6,497,947 in earnings, won seven Eclipse awards and Horse of the Year twice, the last coming at the unprecedented age of nine. At the time of his retirement, he was the highest money earning thoroughbred of all time.
“John Henry was a truly gifted thoroughbred who kept horse racing alive during a difficult decade. John Henry’s true legacy was written in the people’s heart far more indelibly than his superlative racing career could ever reflect,” said John Nicholson, executive director of the Kentucky Horse Park. “John Henry was a testament to the fact that a horse’s value is far greater than the sum of his pedigree, conformation, sales price and race record.
Winston Churchill said that the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man, but I would add that horses like John Henry prove that the inside of a horse is even better for the inside of Man.”
John possessed the courage to overcome obstacles; courage that all people strive to find. John found his stride in the bare fact that he would not give up. If you ran head to head with John, he would beat you every time as he was such a fierce competitor. The only way to beat him was to come from behind so he couldn’t see you and get to him at the wire. John was so determined to get to the winner’s circle in 1983 when he just lost by a neck at the Arlington Million, he dragged his groom to the Winner’s Circle. It took quite a few people to drag him kicking and biting away.
Behind the legend of John Henry that continued to grow in his retirement…what really made him a champion were a few people who believed in him and patiently worked with him. Had it not been for these people in his life, he probably would have been euthanized at a much earlier age and been known as a horse who “also ran.” It always comes down to that …whether a parent-child, teacher-student, trainer-horse….mutual respect.
It was that way between Ron McAnally, under whose training, John flourished and John –John as he affectionately called him. It was McAnally who saw how special John was and patiently worked with him. When John was celebrating his 28th birthday at the Horse Park, Sam Rubin, his owner, remarked “The only one he’d really recognize is McAnally. McAnally would holler “John-John” and he would jump up. If I called him, he wouldn’t move, unless I had an apple in my hand.” McAnally continued to visit him, always bringing apples, carrots and sugar. He would holler John’s name coming through the stable as John would nicker back.
John was a horse that you might never want to turn your back on, especially if you did something to him that he didn’t like. Despite his ornery side, he also kept his youthful playfulness throughout his senior years. Occasionally, when walking with his trainer, John Henry would put his left leg out in front of him and try to trip him. He did that with those he loved. Somewhere He learned to play the broken leg game. He would stand infront of his stall and nicker until you came over. He waited for you to ask him if he had a broken leg. He nodded his head, nickered, raised his front leg off the ground and held it up as he waited for a treat to be placed in his feed trough.
John Henry was not the best race horse…not the fastest or the busiest. He wasn’t the greatest weight carrier and certainly not the handsomest or the the most personable but he had a big heart and did not know how to quit. Many of us have dreams but we let them slip away. We let the mundane things of life, people, circumstances slow us down. We grow weary, losing our momentum. We forget we are still in the race as we slow to a leisurely pace. We forget we have been gifted with special talents to use. We forget that we do not travel alone.
No comments:
Post a Comment