Trick or treat!!!

Trick or treat!!!, originally uploaded by Rock and Racehorses.

Horses all over the United States are breathing a sigh of relief after surviving another Halloween. Did you dress your horse up? It seems like more and more people are having fun decorating their horses for Halloween. Here's one of our favorite models, the late great Alibar sulking under his sheet one Halloween a few years ago. Photo by Sarah K. Andrew of Rock and Racehorses Photography--thanks!

This May Be All the Colts Will See of Rachel Alexandra Today

Rachel Alexandra's Braids, originally uploaded by Rock and Racehorses.

UPDATE: Since this post was written, Rachel did devastate the boys and all they did see was her back. Jockey Calvin Borel finished the rainy race with clean white plants. Scroll down to the watch the race on YouTube, thanks to Mr. Partymanners.

She's the one to beat. You'll see her in this month's Vogue magazine. Her stall at Saratoga is protected. She's the best, jockey Calvin Borel says confidently.

In an hour or so, Rachel will run against Belmont Stakes winner Summer Bird and that sharp gray colt Munnings in the $1.25 million Haskell Invitational at New Jersey's Monmouth Park.

Normally, Monmouth would be baking in the August heat on Haskell day. But it's been pouring this afternoon. The television crew had to abandon their set. Horses are reported to have had mishaps in earlier races, details are not available yet.

Rachel's run in the rain before. She can do it again.

The Kentucky Derby begins with the singing of "My Old Kentucky Home", the Preakness with "Maryland, My Maryland". The Belmont, of course, likes "New York, New York".

So what will they sing in Jersey today when Rachel prances onto the track? It's perfect: Springsteen's "Born to Run".

Then get out of her way.

Thanks to Sarah K. Andrew and Rock and Racehorses for this great photo straight from Monmouth. Click the link under the photo to see more great shots of the filly enjoying her brief vacation on the Jersey Shore.

Barbaro Is Now Eternally Flying Toward the Finish at Churchill Downs

by Fran Jurga | 1 May 2009 | The Jurga Report

Barbaro memorial statue at Churchill Downs, originally uploaded by Rock and Racehorses.

I'm sure you will see this on the telecast of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday but check this out: the new statue of Barbaro outside the Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs features a larger than life sculpture of the 2006 winner...and not one of his feet touches the ground! The sculpture is somehow suspended from the rail so the horse flies. Thanks to lucky-to-be-there New York photographer Sarah K. Andrew for sharing this photo.

Kentucky Derby Barbie, Meet Backstretch Barbie: Which Would You Buy?

by Fran Jurga | 3 April 2009 | The Jurga Report

The Louisville's Courier-Journal tells us that the Kentucky Derby Museum's gift shop's shelves are stocked with a special commemorative Kentucky Derby Barbie doll. And I'm still scratching my head.

I guess my initial reaction is surprise. They still make Barbie dolls? People still buy them?

My next reaction was more positive, as in: Wow, Mattel thinks that horse racing is worthy of creating a commemorative doll. Maybe the industry isn't as deep in the gutter as it thinks it is.

But if we lived in a perfect world, which we don’t, how great would it be to give shoppers and collectors a choice of dolls? Yes, you do think of women in hats and fab frocks on Derby Day, because that’s what the media shows us.

But what about the women on the backside of the racetrack--shouldn't they be portrayed in a doll? Little girls could choose either the frock-and-heels Turf Club Barbie or maybe Backstretch Barbie, an exercise rider dressed in black fringed chaps, with some great tattoos, a body protector vest and a jock helmet with cool goggles.

Exercise riders have arms even Michelle Obama would envy...

One of my key memories of last year's Belmont was when exercise rider/assistant trainer Michelle Nevin ran out into the deep track toward Big Brown as he was pulled up at the finish. She was dressed in her in-case-we-get-to-the-winners-circle clothes and looked so different from the athletic figure who'd been photographed in her work clothes a million times in the months running up to that moment. You wouldn't have recognized her on the street.

Every summer, the thought flashes before me that the New York Times is missing a great photo feature for the Style section by not doing a fashion shoot of the exercise riders at Saratoga--male and female. I could see an assemblage of them on the cover of Vanity Fair. Annie Leibovitz, are you reading this?

Maybe flowered-frock Barbie is the image the Derby's marketing department wants to project. But little girls would think that Backstretch Barbie was Way Cool. She's got style, and the attitude and guts to pull it off.

And how about a sunburned Infield Barbie, wearing a tank-top, cutoffs and carrying a Churchill Downs beer cooler?

Thanks to Sarah K. Andrew of Rock and Racehorses equine photography for her use of the photo of Saratoga exercise riders. Sarah writes, "I owned exactly one Barbie, and her only purpose in life was to ride the Barbie Horse."

Kentucky Derby Barbie is for sale online for $47 at the Kentucky Derby Store web site. Maybe, like Michelle Nevin, she comes with a change of clothes.

Good-bye, New York! Beloved Kentucky Derby Winner Funny Cide Will Retire to Kentucky Horse Park

by Fran Jurga | 26 November 2008 | The Jurga Report at Equisearch.com

Funny Cide at Belmont Park, originally uploaded by wRock and Racehorses.

Horse lovers in New York will be in mourning this Thanksgiving. The Kentucky Horse Park announced today that beloved Funny Cide, winner of the Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness (G1) will become the newest resident of the Kentucky Horse Park when he packs his bags and moves south on December 5.

Since his retirement as a race horse in 2007, the eight-year-old gelding has been used as Barclay Tagg’s stable pony on the track in New York and Florida. According to Barclay, “The rigors of racing and training for several years have started to cause him mild discomfort recently as he continued working on a regular basis as my stable pony.”

Funny Cide was an overachieving New York-bred racehorse who captured the imagination of New York racegoers and the nation. No one ever told him that New York breds were not supposed to win the Kentucky Derby, but win he did...and the Preakness...and other graded stakes. His popularity with New York horse lovers and betters grew as he aged, and some people turned out at Saratoga just to see if they could catch a glimpse of him in his retirement, being ridden by trainer Barclay Tagg in the early morning light.

Funny Cide Facts: Funny Cide (Distorted Humor – Belle’s Good Cide, by Slewacide) was bred by William Casner and Kenny Troutt’s WinStar Farm in a collaborative venture with McMahon Thoroughbreds of Saratoga Springs, New York where he was foaled, raised and then sold as a yearling for $22,000 at the August 2001 Fasig-Tipton NY Bred Preferred Yearlings Sale. He was later purchased privately as a two-year old by Sackatoga Stable for $75,000. For them he went on to earn $3,529,412 and an Eclipse Award as Champion Three-Year-Old Colt, becoming the highest-earning New York-bred in history for trainer Barclay Tagg, under Jose Santos. His nine stakes wins also included the prestigious Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1).

Funny Cide has his own website, FunnyCide.com, and a fan club.

The public is invited to the Kentucky Horse Park for Funny Cide’s Welcome Reception on Friday, December 5 at 2 p.m. Funny Cide will join another Kentucky Derby winner, Alysheba, who came to the park in October.

I hope they don't make fun of his New Yawk accent! And I hope he never loses it!

Thanks to Sarah Andrews (Rock and Racehorses) for her great photo of Funny Cide at Belmont Park with assistant trainer Robin Smullen up.