CANTER Mid-Atlantic will host its annual online fundraising auction this year from Aug. 14-21 with items for everyone from racing fans to horse owners.
Proceeds from the auction benefit CANTER’s program to care for, evaluate, and retrain donated former racehorses as they prepare for new careers off the racetrack.
On June 27, hundreds of mourners filed into Manhattan’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine to honor the late actor James Gandolfini. Nearly 89 years earlier, a similarly large crowd made that same solemn procession down the same broad aisle, in the same massive sanctuary, celebrating the life of a very different kind of man.
“I have been an amateur in every phase of my life,” Paul Mellon wrote in his 1992 autobiography, “Reflections in a Silver Spoon.”
“An amateur poet, an amateur scholar, an amateur horseman, an amateur farmer, an amateur soldier, an amateur connoisseur of art, an amateur publisher, and an amateur museum executive. The root of the word ‘amateur’ is the Latin word for ‘love,’ and I can honestly say that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all the roles I have played.”
Historic Saratoga Race Course kicked its summer meeting into high gear last weekend with the Grade 1 Whitney Invitational Handicap on Aug. 3 and the Grade 1 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap on Aug. 4. Those races preceded a busy week in Saratoga Springs, with two Fasig-Tipton yearling sales scheduled and the annual National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Friday, Aug. 9.
King Cyrus was much the best in his debut effort, powering down the final eighth of a mile of the Saratoga Race Course stretch on Monday to best a maiden special weight field by 11 lengths.
The bay son of Bellamy Road completed the seven-furlong race in 1:24.68 over a fast main track under the urging of jockey Javier Castellano. King Cyrus, who is owned by WinStar Farm and trained by Todd Pletcher, earned $48,000 for his debut victory.
Silver Ray, winner of the Grade 3 Hoist The Flag Stakes and sire of 13 crops, will be sent to Old Friends Equine Retirement in Lexington, Ky. after being purchased for $30 out of a livestock auction in Mira Loma, Calif.
The 24-year-old Silver Hawk horse went through the ring at Mike’s Livestock Auction in mid-July emaciated and missing his front teeth, having cribbed them off. He sold to April Smith for $30 and was placed in the care of Polo Pony Rescue in Glendale, Calif., after Jockey Club papers confirmed his identity as a horse with a notable résumé.
L.R. “Bob” French Jr., a successful owner and breeder of Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses, died August 2 at the age of 86.
A native of Brownwood, Texas, French was president of French Tool and Supply and was an independent oilman. He resided in Midland and Fort Worth, Texas, as well as Palm Springs, Calif.
