Remember Tahoe Warrior? A lot of people do, because he's crossed a lot of paths in the last 12 years. The still-got-game Thoroughbred gelding chalked up his 19th career win on Thursday, in his 102nd career start.
Tahoe Warrior is what you might call an artificial surface specialist. He lives and runs without shoes, for the most part. In 2014, he was claimed (at age 11) and his new trainer shod him. He won both with shoes on and shoes off last year, since his longtime trainer, Florida's Wayne Rice, claimed him back a month later.
After a long winter off in Florida and an unsuccessful test on the new dirt track at Keeneland in Kentucky in April and May, Tahoe Warrior returned to the Tapeta surface at Presque Isle Downs on Lake Erie in Pennsylvania but trainer Wayne Rice said today that he thought a foot abscess "or something" was bothering him, until this week.
"It wasn't something you could see," he said. "But you could hear it when he walked. He was just a little off."
Rice prefers to race on synthetic tracks, and keeps most of his string barefoot.
Tahoe Warrior runs about every two weeks. He went off as second favorite at 5-2 under his usual jockey, Arienne Cox.
"He's back," trainer Rice said cheerfully today. But it's not like he ever left.
More articles on Tahoe Warrior:
Just Wait Til Next Year: Shoes Off, On, and Off Again as Shoeless Senior Racehorse Tahoe Warrior is Claimed and Re-Claimed
More articles on Tahoe Warrior:
Just Wait Til Next Year: Shoes Off, On, and Off Again as Shoeless Senior Racehorse Tahoe Warrior is Claimed and Re-Claimed
Shoeless in Lexington: Polytrack Podiatry at Keeneland's Last Artificial Surface Meet
Ageless Tahoe Warrior Runs Again: In Shoes, This Time, for Keeneland's New Dirt Track
Top photo by Bradley P. Johnson.
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