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03/15/2012 - Champion Informed Decision Produces First Foal
Courtesy of Stone Farm.
2009 Eclipse Champion INFORMED DECISION produced her first foal, a colt by Street Cry, at Arthur B. Hancock III’s Stone Farm in Paris Kentucky on March 11.
“INFORMED DECISION had a crackerjack colt,” said Hancock. “He is a ‘10’ and is a tribute to both his mother and to Street Cry.”
RACED by George Strawbridge’s Augustin Stable and trained by Jonathan Sheppard, INFORMED DECISION won graded stakes at three, four, and five – every year she raced. Her most spectacular campaign was her four-year-old season when she dominated the division and earned the Eclipse Award as Champion Female Sprinter. That season, she won six graded stakes from seven starts, including the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint-G1, Humana Distaff S.-G1, and Vinery Madison-G1.
12/11/2011 - Horse Slaughterhouses May Return
By Gregory A. Hall
Courtesy of the Courier Journal
Staci and Arthur Hancock found Gato Del Sol was living in Germany and brought him back to their Paris, Ky., farm in August 1999. / WILLIAMS KEITH/Copyright 2004 The Courier-Journal
A provision that effectively banned horse slaughter for human consumption in the United States wasn’t renewed by Congress last month, opening the door for the return of slaughter plants after a four-year absence and reigniting a hot debate within the horse community.
Slaughter advocates say it’s a necessary alternative to paying thousands of dollars to care for aging horses — and more humane than letting horses languish abandoned or be mistreated when shipped to Canada and Mexico, where slaughter plants continue to operate.
Opponents say that slaughter is inherently inhumane and that the congressional action will result in the reopening of U.S. slaughterhouses.
“It’s pretty depressing to take a huge step backward,” said Staci Hancock, wife of Kentucky thoroughbred breeder Arthur Hancock and an outspoken slaughter opponent.
Both she and the Humane Society of the United States dispute the notion that there’s a connection between the absence of U.S. slaughterhouses and an increase in cruelty to or abandonment of horses.
“We have had an economic downturn which has affected everybody,” Staci Hancock said, arguing that the economy, and not the ban, is to blame for mistreatment of horses. “It’s affected people with dogs. It’s affected with people with cats. It’s affected the people in Texas who had to sell their cattle because they couldn’t feed them.”
The slaughter debate took on a higher profile nearly a decade ago amid reports that 1986 Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand had been slaughtered in Japan in 2002. Although the idea may be anathema to Americans, horse meat is eaten in some countries.
In 2005 Congress removed funding for mandatory pre-slaughter federal inspections, which effectively ended the practice in the United States by 2007. That provision survived until last month, when Congress stripped it from a massive agricultural appropriations bill, which was subsequently signed into law by President Barack Obama.
The resumption of inspections would again allow U.S. slaughterhouses to operate.
But it’s unclear what impact that will have. A Government Accountability Office report to Congress, released in June, found that the funding ban has had little impact on the number of U.S. horses slaughtered. It said about 138,000 horses were exported to Canada and Mexico for slaughter last year — roughly the same as the number slaughtered when the U.S. slaughterhouses operated.
The study also found that the slaughterhouse closings reduced by 8 percent to 21 percent the prices paid for the lower- to medium-priced horses that it said tend to be the ones slaughtered.
The GAO report concluded that Congress should either reconsider the funding restrictions or pass an outright ban on slaughter, which would prevent U.S. horses from being shipped anywhere for slaughter.
Humane Society President Wayne Pacelle said his group favors an outright ban, agreeing with Hancock that the argument that closing American slaughterhouses led to more instances of neglect isn’t valid. As evidence, Pacelle cites the the GAO report’s finding that the number of horses slaughtered remained about the same.
“It’s the exact same process except a different end point for the horses,” he said. “... Any modest uptick in those (abuse) cases is related to the broader economic crisis.”
Another animal rights group, however, has a somewhat different viewpoint.
A recent Christian Science Monitor report quoted the founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals as saying that the U.S. ban on slaughter inspection funding was misguided and that the group supports domestic slaughter. The Monitor quoted founder Ingrid Newkirk as saying that “the amount of suffering that it (the funding block) created exceeded the amount of suffering it was designed to stop.”
PETA spokeswoman Kathy Guiermo said in an interview that the organization opposes horse slaughter. But if it is going to occur, she said, it is better to have it in the United States than to force horses to be shipped across borders in a “miserable, hellish journey.”
Legislation to ban slaughter — the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act of 2011 — is pending in both houses of Congress, but it hasn’t received a hearing. Republican Rep. Ed Whitfield of Kentucky’s 1st District is a co-sponsor of the House bill and one of the most outspoken congressional critics of slaughter. He was unavailable to comment on the measure, a spokesman said.
Meanwhile, removal of the funding ban has raised the prospect that investors will back new slaughterhouses in the United States. The Associated Press quoted Dave Duquette, president of the nonprofit, pro-slaughter group United Horsemen, as saying that he has lined up investors interested in financing an American-owned processing plant.
Pacelle said that he isn’t convinced that the country will see a rash of slaughterhouse startups because of a possibility that slaughter could be banned in the future and local opposition that could erupt in a specific location.
“There’s a lot of bluster on this, but I’m not really sure that people are going to make capital investments in something that’s such an uncertain business enterprise,” he said.
The effective ban was in an earlier version of the bill passed by the House, but Pacelle said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who has said ending the ban could bring jobs and reduce horse neglect, and others helped get the funding ban removed from a Senate version of the bill, and the language was then left out of a conference committee’s final version of the bill. Baucus thanked conference committee members for heeding his call.
Slaughter opponents have blamed not only Congress but also Obama, who signed the bill, for eliminating the ban.
Hancock, however, said she doesn’t equate the president’s signature with support for slaughter.
“It was a huge ag bill, so of course the president signed it,” she said. “... It’s very depressing for all of those who have worked so hard to try to get the (slaughter ban) bill passed, but on the other hand, maybe this will push it.”
Internet petitions are being circulated in the wake of Congress’ action, including one begun Nov. 20 at whitehouse.gov opposing slaughter that has attracted more than 13,000 signatures, according to a counter at the web site.
Pacelle said that the bills to ban slaughter have picked up more than a dozen co-sponsors, mostly in the House, since the president signed the appropriations bill.
“I think it (the lifting of the funding ban) is going to give greater lift to the authorizing legislation,” he said.
Hancock said she hopes the inspection-funding cutoff can be reinserted in next year’s appropriations bill, and she believes efforts to ban the practice will be stepped up.
The recent developments led Three Chimneys Farm, a prominent Central Kentucky breeding operation, to publish its policy on retired thoroughbreds, which a spokeswoman likened to taking care of its own.
That protocol states that Three Chimneys will attempt to rescue from slaughter any horse it bred or previously owned, or that was sired by one of its stallions.
Spokeswoman Jen Roytz said the cost of the policy varies from year to year and the farm doesn’t disclose the amount spent. She did say the farm’s costs related to the policy have increased in recent years because of the increase in information-sharing online about at-risk horses.
Racetracks, for their part, have a variety of policies aimed at preventing racehorses frombeing sent to slaughter, but there is no comprehensive approach because the regulation of racing is left to individual states. For example, Churchill Downs says it won’t assign stalls at any of its tracks to any trainer or owner found to have sold a horse for slaughter.
Hancock said that she’s worried that the potential availability of slaughter “makes it easy for some people to continue to overbreed or overproduce because they have an out at the end.”
She said she hopes there can be momentum to approve a ban before there’s another Ferdinand, or a case like that of Exceller, a stallion who defeated two Triple Crown winners on the racetrack and who also is believed to have been slaughtered.
“But whether it’s Ferdinand or Exceller, or whether it’s a $5,000 claiming horse at Turfway (Park), it shouldn’t happen and it is,” Hancock said.
11/15/2011 - Racing Commission Hears Debate about Lasix
By Janet Patton
Courtesy of the Lexington Herarld Leader
FRANKFORT — A panel of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission heard testimony Monday on the current front in the war on drugs in racing: the anti-bleeder medication furosemide.
Farmer said after the daylong hearing that the panel has no timetable but it probably will make a recommendation to the full commission next year.
Kentucky would be the first American jurisdiction to act if a ban is passed. Furosemide is legal in North America but isn't used in Europe, Asia, Australia or the Middle East during races. In the United States, about 95 percent of all Thoroughbred racehorses (and about 98 percent in Kentucky) get a shot of the medication four hours before each race.
Exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage is common in racehorses all over the world, said Dr. Alice Stack, a Michigan State University veterinarian who is an expert on the condition.
"The horse is just an incredible athlete, unrivaled in the animal kingdom," she said.
The equine heart goes from pumping 28 to 40 beats a minute at rest to 250 beats a minute at a fast gallop, Stack said. At rest, the horse's heart pumps nine to 12 gallons of blood a minute but, at a gallop, it leaps to 53 to 80 gallons a minute.
That causes a tremendous increase in the blood pressure in the lungs, Stack said. "No other mammal experiences an increase like that."
And that almost inevitably causes bleeding during the stress of racing, she said.
Horses with less bleeding are much more likely to win or finish in the money, she said.
Furosemide reduces blood pressure in the lungs and reduces the severity of the bleeding, but it doesn't eliminate it, she said.
Trainers around the world commonly use furosemide in training even when they can't use it in racing, and they often use other therapies, including water deprivation, to try to achieve the same effects on race day.
Furosemide has been in use in horses since the late 1960s and, in the 1970s, racing programs began noting whether horses were running on it. In the past year, it has become controversial as industry groups moved to phase it out.
Matt Iuliano of The Jockey Club said that research has settled the question of whether Lasix works on bleeding, but other issues outweigh those concerns.
"If medication regulations were based solely on efficacy, we think the argument would end here, but it doesn't," Iuliano said. He said that opens the floodgates for other drugs.
"Salix certainly seems to have all the attributes of performance-enhancing drugs," he said. Although most horses have exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage, he argued that the condition doesn't negatively affect their performance.
Iuliano said the effects on fans are as important as the effects on horses.
"Fans are basically becoming more and more intolerant of performance-enhancing drugs in sports," Iuliano said. Racing fans don't think the sport takes the drugs seriously and don't distinguish between different types of drugs, he said. "Clearly, we need to reverse these perceptions to attract fans needed to sustain long-term growth."
Those comments stirred up the Kentucky panelists, who questioned The Jockey Club's conclusions, particularly that the majority of horses could race successfully without medication.
"I have a real problem with the sudden performance-enhancing effect (discovered) in the last 20 years," said Dr. Foster Northrop, a veterinarian on the Kentucky panel.
Several groups, including the Jockeys Guild, the American Association of Equine Practitioners, the Kentucky Association of Equine Practitioners and the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, support continued use of furosemide.
Iuliano said The Jockey Club, which is the registry for the Thoroughbred breed, has not determined how long-term furosemide use might affect the breed. But others who testified Monday said foreign breeders and buyers are already making judgments.
"The American breeding industry has been denigrated in international eyes because of race-day medication," said Craig Fravel, president of the Breeders' Cup, which voted to eliminate the use of furosemide for its 2-year-old championship races next year.
"The American breeding industry has been denigrated in international eyes because of race-day medication," said Craig Fravel, president of the Breeders' Cup, which voted to eliminate the use of furosemide for its 2-year-old championship races next year.
Dr. J. David Richardson, a Louisville surgeon who is on the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association's Graded Stakes Committee, said that some foreign breed registries have suggested that top U.S. races should not be given the same status as foreign stakes, called "black type" because of the way they are presented in sales catalogs.
"The potential damage to our breeding industry in Kentucky would be catastrophic if that happened," Richardson said. So his committee agreed to institute a pilot ban on furosemide for 2-year-old horses in 2012 in 49 graded-stakes races, which he called "a baby step" in the best young horses in the top races.
"We could not ignore the public-perception problem that exists because American races are not medication-free," he said.
Rick Hiles, president of the Kentucky Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, said that the sight of horses bleeding on the racetrack will create a greater public-perception problem than the one the industry is trying to address.
"I don't believe the public's crying out for us to stop using Lasix," Hiles said. "I think it's an excuse."
But Kathy Guillermo, a spokeswoman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said five days of calls to her organization after the on-track death of Eight Belles at the 2008 Kentucky Derby indicate the scope of the fan disaffection.
"Perception isn't the problem. Reality is the problem," Guillermo said. The wonder, she said, is that it isn't worse. "Yesterday alone, five horses suffered catastrophic breakdowns."
PETA supports a ban on all race-day medication, she said. "We think racing can be done better and can be done humanely."
Breeders and horse owners including Arthur Hancock, Neil Howard and Bill Casner also spoke in support of moving toward an industry ban.
"Therapeutic drugs are given to a horse who is ailing or recovering. Is every horse in every race ill or injured? Europeans have a new name for the Breeders' Cup. You know what they're calling it? 'The Bleeders' Cup.' That's a sad commentary," Hancock said.
"Let's lead the way by becoming the first state to ban race-day medication."
Howard, general manager of Gainesway Farm, echoed that: "Banning of all race-day medication will be a bitter pill to swallow, but the future of our industry depends on running with the highest standard of public integrity."
10/22/2011 - Do No Harm : An Achievable Dream
Courtesy of the Thoroughbred Times
Like it or not, we live in a pharmaceutical world, with a chemical solution for every ailment. Aching knee, sore foot, bloody nose? You’re covered. Need to pump up, calm down, get bigger, grow stronger? Got that, too.
Sadly, what is true for humans is also true for equines. Horse racing has had a long, ignoble relationship with drugs, dating back to ancient Rome when charioteers risked crucifixion to enhance their steeds’ chances with fermented honey-water. Since then, our four-legged athletes have been subjected to a spectacular array of tranquilizers, stimulants, anesthetics, diuretics, steroids, muscle relaxants, blood thinners, nerve blockers, anti-inflammatories, and dilators, not to mention a rainbow spectrum of narcotics and exotic neurotoxins--from cocaine and heroin in the old days to elephant juice and cobra venom in the modern era.
While some medications today are perfectly legal and beneficial in dealing with certain problems inherent to athleticism, the public perception of drugs in racing remains as negative as ever. Wonder why? Consider the following commentary from within the industry itself through the years:
2011—Association of Racing Commissioners International Chairman William Koester: “More than 99% of Thoroughbreds have a needle stuck in them four hours before a race. That does not pass the smell test with the public.”
2011—Jockey Club Chairman Ogden Mills “Dinny” Phipps: “The percentage of starts with furosemide injections on race day … has increased from 45% in 1991 to 95% in 2010. ... Overuse of medication endangers our athletes, threatens the integrity of our sport, and erodes consumer confidence in our game.”
1991—Leading breeder Arthur Hancock III: “Drugs are diluting the gene pool … in 20 years it may be impossible to breed a sound racehorse.”
1972—Legendary Turf writer Charlie Hatton: “It is becoming increasingly difficult in this age of analgesics to give a foal sound parents, and it is surprising that some of them live down their pedigrees to win at all.”
Even the most useful of modern medications have downsides. The list of possible side effects can be longer than your arm, ranging from mild headache to cardiac arrest. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs used legally on racehorses may cause gastric ulceration; diuretics can lead to dehydration; steroids will damage cartilage if used enough. So much for Hippocrates’ oath of “primum non nocere”—do no harm.
Since the 1980s there has been a movement in America away from the “better living through pharmaceuticals” mindset, toward more natural methods of medical treatment. Back then, Canadian veterinarian Dr. John Hays predicted a potential “new customer” in racing’s future—one with an “evolving social conscience; a comprehension of ecological matters; an aversion to substance-enhanced athletic performance; a concern for animal rights; an awareness of the choices available for their entertainment dollar; and a heightened sensitivity to violence.” He nailed it.
That customer is out there today, still in possession of deeply skeptical views on drugs in racing … and, alas, still only “potential.” His presence, however, has spurred increasing interest in humane alternatives in treating racehorses—homeopathies, age-old Eastern remedies, chiropractic, acupuncture, and, scientifically-based regenerative regimens such as stem cell therapy—treatments that help ignite the body’s inner healing process rather than provide a temporary chemical fix with possible nasty side-effects. Hippocrates would be pleased.
05/04/2011 - Trio of Owners Lobbying for Federal Drug Ban
By Eric Mitchell
Courtesy of the Blood-Horse
A trio of high-profile Thoroughbred owners and owner/breeders is lobbying for support of a federal ban on performance-enhancing drugs in horse racing.
Arthur and Staci Hancock of Stone Farm, Roy and Gretchen Jackson of Lael Stable, and Augustin Stable owner George Strawbridge Jr. issued a two-page statement May 4 appealing for widespread support of the Interstate Horse Racing Improvement Act, which was filed in Congress that same day by Democratic U.S. Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico and Republican U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield of Kentucky. The legislation, co-sponsored in the House by Rep. Joe Pitts (R-Pa.), Rep. Ben Chandler (D-Ky.), and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), aims to prohibit the use of all performance-enhancing drugs on race day and implement a three-strikes-and-your-out penalty system. In addition to the suspensions and fines assessed against anyone knowingly doping a horse, the legislation would also suspend the horse from racing for periods ranging from 180 days for the first offense to two years for the third offense.
The letter from the Hancocks, Jacksons, and Strawbridge note that the use of therapeutic medication in racing has not helped the sport. Since 1960 the average number of annual starts has fallen from 11.31 to 6.11. The average number of lifetime starts has fallen from 45.2 to 12.97 since 1950, and the pari-mutuel handle has dropped 24.42% in the last three years.
“With precipitous declines in both attendance and wagering at our tracks, compounded by the plummeting bloodstock sales, it is apparent that Thoroughbred racing is at a crossroads,” said the letter from the Hancocks, Jacksons, and Strawbridge. “The industry has suffered a loss of confidence and respect with its fans and the general public.”
“In our opinion, this is the only way to end this terrible blight on American racing and to bring us in line with the rest of the world,” the letter continued. “We have been disappointed time after time over the years by promises, platitudes, and good intentions. Now, here is a way to stop the madness once and for all.”
At the bottom of the second page of the statement is a place for a person to sign that they support the legislation.
The Hancocks bred Fusaichi Pegasus, who won the 2000 Kentucky Derby (gr. I) and co-owned Gato Del Sol, who won the Derby in 1982, and Sunday Silence, who won the Derby in 1989. The Jacksons raced Barbaro, who won the Derby in 2006. Strawbridge has campaigned many homebred graded stakes winners including grade I champions Forever Together and Informed Decision.
Not everyone is thrilled with having the federal government involved with the regulation of medications. Alan Foreman, chief executive officer for the Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, has said there are very few serious drug violations and that racing already has an effective testing and deterrent system in place.
The federal legislation was filed shortly after a number of horse racing organizations called for a phase-out of anti-bleeding drugs such as Salix (formerly known as Lasix). Plans have also been announced for an international summit this summer to address the issue of race-day medication use. Organizing the summit is the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium, the American Association of Equine Practitioners, and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association.
01/02/2011 - Forever Together, No Matter What, Arthur Hancock IV and a visit to Stone Farm
By Barbara Livingston
Courtesy of the Daily Racing Form
There is a comfort to a traditional horse farm, the type that lacks bells and whistles and chandeliers. The moment you step onto Stone Farm, with its touches accented with grey and yellow, you feel as if you’ve stepped back in time. The farm’s simple motto: “We’re trying to raise you a good horse.”
When I visited last week with a friend, Arthur Hancock III and his son Arthur met us in the office. The older Arthur, who created the farm in 1970, is known far and wide not only for his horsemanship but also for his gift for storytelling. It didn’t take much goading for him to share a few tales of immortal horses he’d known such as Forli, Buckpasser, and a bold foal who grew up to be Fusaichi Pegasus.
He also discussed the farm’s method of introducing maiden mares to their new life as broodmares. Before maiden or barren mares are put together in a field, they are placed in stalls across from each other so they can ‘talk.’ Then they are put out together and eventually moved into fields with more mares.
We could have listened all day, but there were horses to see - two of George Strawbridge’s most accomplished mares. I’m a big fan of Mr. Strawbridge’s breeding program and have been honored to photograph some of his best mares, primarily at Derry Meeting Farm – including Annie Edge, First Approach, Reiko, Heartbreak, a cantankerous and amazing mare named Waya….
On this day, young Arthur was kind enough to assist us with No Matter What and Forever Together.
Broodmares are fascinating, although many people barely notice their names. A sire’s name is bandied about regularly. Handicappers talk knowingly about the brilliance of Elusive Qualitys or the ability of Broad Brushes to get a distance. But most mares seem mere words, in small font, listed after the stallions in programs and past performances.
Everything about No Matter What should be bold-faced. Bred by Arthur Hancock III and Stonerside Ltd., the daughter of Nureyev – Words of War won the Grade I Del Mar Oaks and a listed French stakes, while earning $185,726. But No Matter What’s Grade I racing career was just a prelude. Now 13, she has already produced three stakes winners: millionaire Rainbow View (G1), Just as Well (G1) and Winter View (multiple graded stakes winner).
All of those Grade Is have seemingly left her difficult to impress. The farm staff had No Matter What beautifully prepared, and even her hooves were scrubbed clean. Her rounded body reflected a broodmare in foal, and her lovely feminine features were softened beneath a bright red winter coat. Her class and beauty were readily evident as they stood her up for a portrait.
But while she was very polite, she was as difficult to photograph as any I remember. It was nearly impossible to get her ears forward, although we tried everything we could imagine. No dice. In perhaps 15 minutes, she pivoted both ears forward only twice – and for only the briefest time. Usually, one ear – or both – stayed back.
We finally gave up and let her back into her paddock. With that, her ears propped forward and, with a light step, she eagerly jogged back to her paddock-mates. Soon joined by a dark bay friend, she burst into a relaxed gallop, and they quickly disappeared over the horizon.
 Broodmare manager Jerry Hobbs, who has worked with No Matter What for several years, said of her lack of interest: “She’s a well-mannered horse, and it’s a pleasure taking care of her. But she just likes to eat and be with her friends.”
Forever Together, meanwhile, had been at the farm only a few weeks, having retired after the Breeders’ Cup. She and her new paddock friend, Extravaganza, were waiting in the barn. Forever Together was led out, and she was comfortable and responsive for portraits. Her 6-year-old body still shouted ‘racehorse,’ and her dapples and points were still rich and dark.
After formal shots, the assistant broodmare foreman Joey Littrell led Forever Together to an expansive paddock, while young Arthur partnered with Extravaganza.
I’d visited Forever Together nearly a year ago at Jonathan Sheppard’s Pennsylvania farm and been fascinated by how she clearly ruled her paddock. Informed Decision and two other paddock mates paid heed whenever she approached for, while she seemed innocent enough, she might suddenly pin her ears and pivot her powerful hind end their way. No one debated her superiority, at least the day I was there.
But such was not the case at Stone Farm. Extravaganza obviously had not read about Forever Together’s Breeders’ Cup victory, Eclipse Award or reputation for being quirky, or perhaps she simply felt her pedigree and record – the daughter of Elusive Quality had won at Keeneland in April – were worthy of respect.
When released together, they moved gingerly around the snow-crusted field, each carefull y striding out on the slick footing. Forever Together occasionally pinned her ears, tossed her head and swung her hips toward the young bay. Extravaganza? She pinned her ears and offered her own backside, without ever really trying to connect.
When Forever Together couldn’t intimidate the filly, she instead approached me with mischief in her eyes. I waved my white flag immediately and backed away.
The mares quickly made peace and settled in to graze, and as they wandered around the large paddock seeking out the best browse, they stayed close to each other – like best buds. Fascinating animals. Blessed are the broodmares, indeed.
Despite the cold morning, the tall young Arthur helped with an unusually positive attitude and good nature. His handsome features, from sandy light hair to blue eyes to a strong jaw line, were nearly obscured beneath a large knit black hat. But his smile, showing clearly how he loved working on his family’s farm, was enviable.
Arthur, 24, is one of six children, and the only son, of Arthur III and his delightful wife Staci. Gato Del Sol won the Kentucky Derby three years before Arthur IV was born, and he was too young to remember Sunday Silence in 1989. He remembers crying when Menifee got beat in the 1999 Kentucky Derby, falling a head short in his drive to catch Charismatic. And he remembers, with laughter, the day a yearling bred by Stone Farm and Stonerside, later named Fusaichi Pegasus, sold at auction for $4 million.
“I remember sitting in the front row with a bunch of my friends, and freaking out when they hit $2 million and kept going,” he said. “I obviously didn’t appreciate it as much as I do now. I wish we could do it again, because now I understand the significance of it.”
He does seem to understand the significance of things in a manner belying his youth. But then again, his childhood was anything but ordinary.
“I think I was nine years old when I broke my arm in the foaling barn,” he said. “A mare started to foal and I ran to call someone, and I tripped over a chair and broke my arm. I used to watch mares from six at night till about ten, and do my homework there, when I was a kid.”
He smiled broadly recalling his time working with a bay yearling a few years back, a feisty daughter of No Matter What.
“Rainbow View and I used to have som e good battles in the paddock. When you turned out the babies, she would drag people around in big circles. I was pretty good at holding onto the scrappy foals because I was still playing sports then. We had a lot of fun together,” he laughed.
Like his father and the rest of his family, Arthur is unusually grounded with a love of the land and the horses.
“I think we’ve all kind of lost touch, with cell phones and stuff, but not all people my age are crazy,” he said. “People are just unfocused. I live out in the country and try not to watch television. It’s been kind of tough to deal with as a young person, but the farm life is good, and the horses are good because (you know the saying): there’s something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man.”
Just before we left, he smiled and added, “Hopefully, one day I’ll be an old man full of quotes, like my Dad.”
11/15/2010 - CHAMPION FOREVER TOGETHER RETIRED TO STONE FARM 
Courtesy of the Thoroughbred Times Today
By Mike Curry
Forever Together, the 2008 champion turf female for owner Augustin Stable, has been retired to Stone Farm in Paris, Kentucky, after finishing sixth in the Emirates Airline Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1) on November 5 at Churchill Downs for trainer Jonathan Sheppard.
The six-year-old Belong to Me mare was beaten by two lengths in the Filly and Mare Turf, a race she won in 2008 to cement that year’s Eclipse Award for turf female. She amassed nine wins, five seconds, and seven thirds from 26 starts and earned $2,957,639 in five seasons.
“She went to Stone Farm a couple days ago,” said Barry Wiseman, assistant to Sheppard. “She only got beat four necks and a length last week.”
The gray or roan mare won graded stakes in Kentucky, California, New York, and Florida, and finished her career with four wins at the top level.
Bred in Kentucky by White Fox Farm, Forever Together is out of the Relaunch mare Constant Companion. She earned her first graded stakes win on dirt in the Forward Gal Stakes (G2) at Gulfstream Park in 2007 and subsequently finished second on the synthetic Polytrack surface at Keeneland Race Course in that year’s Stonerside Beaumont Stakes (G2). She won her turf debut in May 2008 in the Reluctant Guest Stakes at Arlington Park, and the rest, as they say, is history.
“Forever Together won right off the bat, but it wasn’t until we put her on the grass that she showed her true form,” Wiseman said. “She went to Chicago and won the Reluctant Guest with Earlie Fires and then ran third in the Just a Game [Stakes (G1)]. After that race, [Sheppard] said, ‘I think we can go places with this filly.’ ” In addition to the Filly and Mare Turf, her other Grade 1 wins came in the 2008 and 2009 Diana Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course and the 2008 First Lady Stakes (G1) at Keeneland.
11/15/2010 - Champion Forever Together Retired
Courtesy of the Blood-Horse
Forever Together, who was voted the 2008 champion turf female after winning the Emirates Airline Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (gr. IT), has been retired from racing to become a broodmare for owner George Strawbridge Jr.
The 6-year-old daughter of Belong to Me is boarded at Arthur B. Hancock III’s Stone Farm near Paris, Ky., and will be bred to Smart Strike . When bred to Belong to Me mares, Smart Strike has sired this year’s leading 3-year-old male Lookin At Lucky and 2010 grade II winner Papa Clem.
Campaigned by Strawbridge’s Augustin Stable and trained by Jonathan Sheppard, Forever Together was a two-time stakes winner on the dirt before she embarked on a career on the grass. She won her first three races, including the Forward Gal Stakes (gr. II), and then was beaten a neck in the Stonerside Beaumont Stakes (gr. II). After losing her next four starts, she was switched to the turf and promptly won the Reluctant Guest Stakes the year of her championship. Forever Together also captured the First Lady Stakes (gr. IT) and the first of two consecutive runnings of the Diana Stakes (gr. IT) leading up to her victory in the Filly & Mare Turf.
Forever Together went winless in six starts this year but managed to place in four graded stakes. She finished sixth in this year’s Filly & Mare Turf but was beaten just two lengths. She was retired with nine wins and a dozen placings from 26 starts and earnings of $2,957,639.
White Fox Farm is the breeder of Kentucky-bred Forever Together, whose dam, Constant Companion (by Relaunch), is a half sister to four stakes winners and three stakes producers, including the dam of grade II winner and successful sire Broken Vow .
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Reading Room Memories August 3, 2010
Saratoga Special
by Katie Bo Williams
You may think this is the story. Arthur Hancock offers a full brother to Arthur’s Tale, a 2-year-old colt who finished a green but promising fifth in a Saratoga maiden Saturday. The colt is a half-brother to War Hoot (War Chant) and Senada (Pulpit), both successful in the ring and on the racecourse. The son of Stone Farm’s Owsley is part of Hancock’s usual selective quality consignment.
Hancock will tell you about the horse, the family, the marketplace. But he’d rather tell stories.
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