The Distinguished (Ladies and) Gentlemen's Club
 

Red Rock Creek just won the 4th at Fair Grounds. He's 11.

I know some of us have a real soft spot for the older horses so I thought this might be fun. It's a nice parallel to the waiting for newes on thread anyway.

Just a chit chat thread for the aging horses who do well and for anyone who feels like mentioning them / applauding them / whatever.

I won't start inundating this with a bunch of international horses (there are so many older ones!) but i do just want to mention Sir Slick (right, ed?).

Sir Slick is 10 and about to make his 148th start.

War horse.

He has given everyone on the New Zealand racing thread numerous heart attacks cause we've called for his retirement year after year but then the old man proves us wrong and at times in a big way. Hes had a long and illustrious, drama-filled career so I did just want to mention him.

Cheers to these fine gentlemen.

Anyone else have one they'd like to talk about?

I'm 57 and got up this morning. Winning!

:tro::tro::tro:

Well, here's one that just happened today. I'm sorry to say that I've never heard of the horse....but I have now.

El Bomba won today's 1st at Turfway in the 100th start of his career......at age 13!!

How cool is that!

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...eer?source=rss

Oh that was SO cool! I'm so happy you posted that.

Love it when the announcers sound stunned.

What a great old guy (I had never heard of him either).

Very nice!

Heart Ack Road, 9 year old grey mare. Hasn't won in over a year, makes her 79th start in tomorrow's 2nd at Oaklawn. She has no facebook page, but at least one fan. :o

Only 5 different trainers in those 100 races (Been with his current trainer since Oct. 2006.) His wins have all come between 1 mile and even won a 1 7/8th mile race. First race was Aug. 8th 2002 at Woodbine, where he finished 7th of 14, only beaten 2 3/4 length at odds of 94-1. That must have been some helluva photo finish.

Interesting information, GPK. It does appear that he's been well cared for by a relatively few connections. One thing I thought remarkable is that El Bomba ran in that race today without front wraps. Maybe it's nothing, but I just thought it was notable that a 13yo in a low-level claimer would be running without fronts. I would think that would be saying something positive about his soundness level.

Anyway, it's a great story, and I'm already looking forward to start #101!:cool:

Tom Lamarra of Bloodhorse tweeted about La Bomba yesterday. One of his favorites. La Bomba is a horse whose career has been prolonged and helped tremendously by the advent of synthetic surfaces.

:tro:
Tremendous!

Two old favorites that immediately come to mind are Awesome Gem and Musketier. Who wouldn't love to have them in their barn?

13 year old West Seattle Boy squares off against spry "young'un" 12-year old Colonel Courtney in the 9th at Portland on Monday. 'Boy has won 26 of 107 starts and the Colonel is 25 for 107, and have been able to grind out a combined $570,000. Good luck and safe trip to both.

Love both too. I had meant to talk about the seniors who were entered in or had just had races but you're right we should open it up cause they're all woth talking about. :tro:

That's fantastic!

I remember Colonel Courtney and had no idea he was still racing.

Have not heard of the other gentleman but good luck to both and please update this after the race!!!

It's really nice to see people who mostly lurk here posting. Hope you both do (a lot) more often and that others follow. :)

Punk

Was a 10yr. old maiden that lost, I think, over 100 races in a row. It's been a while but if memory serves, he finally broke through at age 11, and the owners retired him.

Didn't want him going out a loser.

I'll see if I can dig up his pp's - He was a badass.

Would love to see the pps, Rudy. :)

* * *

Bold Chieftain, a mere 9 years old, will (again) be retired after this final race.

Nice that he'll be paraded for the crowd. Wish I could be there.

http://www.drf.com/news/golden-gate-...hen-heads-stud

I'll be going to the track Sunday, would you like one of the posters? I'll take photos for you too if you want :)

Oh that would be awesome! Thank you!!! :)

Share the photos here please!

Got lots of photo of "The Chief" today at his final race. He lost by a nose but Russell rode him well and he tried hard, as always. He just got beat by a better (and younger) horse today. Papa Morey (trainer) looked like he wanted to cry, said it looked like he won from where he was watching. The old warrior left the track with his tail swishing and a spring in his step (the horse, not the trainer :D).

I'll post photos tomorrow...

I can't wait to see them!

Happy retirement.

Too bad he didn't win but it sounds painfully close..

Here are photos of Bold Chieftain from his last race at Golden Gate Fields... enjoy!

LINK

:)
Nice! Well done, and thanks for sharing them.

Thanks for posting them! Very nice.

Such a great old guy... hope he has a long and healthy life.

Too bad it was sooooo close!

I love them, what a fancy old man!

You should have seen him coming back after the race to be unsaddled, he was lightly bouncing along, so proud of his run. When he was led back to the barn by his groom he was swishing his tail and looked like he had enough energy to try another mile or so. I think he loved racing, it sure seemed to make him happy. Papa Morey sure did love that old guy and I think you can see why, you can't help but love a horse that loves what he does (and makes you lots of money while doing it!).

Horses like Bold Chieftain are why I love this sport :{>:

Extra Fuse, a 10YO bay mare by Lite The Fuse out of Fetch Gold (Strike Gold), yesterday won her 9th race in her 49 starts-to-date career in the 2nd at TBD. Since November she has had 4 starts with 2 wins and 2 places. She's bred by/owned by/trained by Lloyd Lockhart.
:tro:

Missile Motor, the hardknocking 9YO gelded son of Golden Missile, will make his 72nd start on February 1 in the 5th at Aqueduct, a 6F $7,500 claiming race. 71-19-18-10, he has earned $483,410.

Thanks to Steve mentioning him several years ago on ATR, I've been following him ever since. Good luck to him in his first start of 2012!

Porfido, who is 10, won at SA last week... :)

http://www1.drf.com/drfPDFChartRaces...=20120122&RN=7

West Seattle Boy, 13, is entered tomorrow at Portland Meadows (R7)...

I had never heard of him so looked around, found this...

http://www.drf.com/news/west-seattle...-strong-age-12

I've asked this before... how old is too old?

Thoughts?

I wish him well.

Looked respectable finishing 4th.

She runs again Friday in the 2nd race.

:tro:

http://www1.drf.com/drfNCWeeklyHorse...20203&raceNo=2

:)

This was on Equidaily...

Look at how many starts this one has had.

:eek:

http://www.racingpost.com/horses/hor...abs=horse_form

Extra Fuse is back in today. 2 wins in 2 starts as a 10yr old so far.

Any relation to Super Fuse?

Scratched.

Finished 5th last Friday in his 101st.
http://www1.drf.com/drfPDFChartRaces...20120217&RN=11

He did get some local press the day before.
http://www.wlwt.com/r/30477765/detail.html

West Seattle Boy appears in the Portland Meadows Route Claiming Series today (R8).

http://www.drf.com/events/route-clai...rtland-meadows

From the Profiles:

The 13 year old veteran has been a Northwest staple for a decade now and while he hasn't fired his best shot yet in the first two legs of the series, he's still one to be respected as he appears to be able to run all day and that's what he'll need here. Also note that top rider Leslie Mawing flies up for the mount.

Best of luck to them.

West Seattle Boy is the all time leader in career victories at Emerald Downs. He's pretty cool. Trainer said they actually thought about retiring him and he hated it, so they brought him back and he just loves it at the track. He's a neat horse, hope he runs big today

Earlier in the card at Portland, 12-year old Colonel Courtney goes for his 28th lifetime win, and third this year, in the second. 'Courtney was actually scheduled to run against West Seattle Boy a couple months ago, but the Colonel had to scratch. He has quite an amazng record having won at 10 different tracks from Mountaineer to Hastings dating back to 2002.

This thread reminds me of when I used to go to the now defunct Playfair race course in Spokane, every summer they had a race called the Rocking Chair Handicap that was restricted to 9-year olds and up. Was always a fun race with a full competitve field of hard-trying vets.

The good Colonel was 4th.

Oh! This is so cool!

When was this? How long ago?

I'd love to see something like this. Old guys are the best. :)