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| Keeneeland Racecourse in Kentucky has a Polytrack all-weather surface that has been used by trainers as a test for a few horses each week to run without shoes. |
And it’s not every day that a horse with no shoes wins a race.
Because if one did, you'd probably have read about it here.
Rice was doing much better with his unshod starters in the spring Keeneland meet; this fall, they’ve been up the track until the aptly-named senior citizen (by track terms) Tahoe Warrior set his bare hoof on the Polytrack today.
This was Tahoe Warrior’s 15th start in 2013, and his sixth win this year; it was his 16th career win. He's earned more than $60,000 since January and has won almost $500,000 in his career. In 2010, he won the $100,000 Bob Umphrey Turf Sprint on the grass at Calder in Florida after being claimed for $20,000 from leading New York trainer Linda Rice. And he’s still running. He was twice the age (or more) of most of the 11 other horses in the race.
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| Keeneland's Polytrack all-weather surface has a different friction co-efficient from the dirt surface that most horses race and train on at other tracks. When they come to Keeneeland to race in the spring or fall, trainers may use a different shoe, remove turndowns, and even remove some or all of the shoes for training and/or racing. |
It was a seven-furlong claiming race for a $10,000 tag if anyone wanted to take Tahoe Warrior back to a different barn, or take him home and turn him out.
No one did.
But I wanted to write what will probably be the only article that anyone, anywhere will ever write about this old horse, whose name may or may not ever show up in a racing form again. But if it doesn’t, he left the game a winner, and a lot of people who follow odd statistics--like shoeless starters on Polytrack--will know old Tahoe Warrior's name.
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Horses running at Keeneland are taking advantage of the track surface and are not likely part of a holistic hoofcare regimen. It's interesting to see how these horses do.
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| A shoe identification board at Keeneland identifies most of the shoes that might be seen under the horses in a race, but it doesn't mention that a few trainers race horses without shoes. |
Photos by David Paul Ohmer, Skpy, and Lisa.
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