My Boy Tate, winner of the 2022 Hudson Stakes and five other stakes during his productive career, is among the 29 New York-breds set to compete in this week’s Thoroughbred Makeover in Lexington, Kentucky. NYRA Photo.
By Melissa Bauer-Herzog
Recently retired racehorses flock to the Retired Racehorse Project’s Thoroughbred Makeover presented by Thoroughbred Charities of America in Lexington, Kentucky, every October to show off the skills they’ve learned in their second career.
New York-breds often make up a large chunk of the field and 2024 proves no exception with 29 horses bred in the Empire State competing including fan favorite and multiple stakes winner My Boy Tate.
Ten disciplines are on offer at the Makeover with horses allowed to compete in up to two different disciplines. Each horse competing at the show is a former racehorse with all entries having to have registered a work or race no earlier than July 1, 2022, in order to be eligible. Those who travel to the show will compete in preliminary competition Wednesday and Thursday with the top five in each discipline headed to Saturday’s Finale.
Winston’s Chance, a 14-time winner and multiple stakes winner, competes at this week’s Thoroughbred Makeover. SV Photography
Horses in the Finale will not only compete for the discipline championship but also the title of Thoroughbred Makeover Champion with the Makeover featuring more than $100,000 in prize money. Saturday’s Finale will be aired on the RRP’s website.
Here are a few facts to know about this year’s New York-bred competitors:
- New York had 41 of the original entrants at this year’s Makeover. That was the second most among all states with only Kentucky having more when entries closed in September. Twenty-nine New York-breds are still entered to compete in the competition as of Sunday evening.
- There is at least one New York-bred entered in each of the 10 disciplines with 12 entrants in dressage to lead all disciplines. Show jumpers are second with nine entrants and competitive trail and show hunters follow with six each. The only discipline that has only one New York-bred is field hunters with Resilient Courage, who is also entered in show jumpers.
- Of the 29 New York-breds set to compete, My Boy Tate and Winston’s Chance both won multiple stakes while Best Idea was placed in multiple stakes and Bobby Bo also has a stakes placing. Winston’s Chance has the most wins of any New York-bred with 14 while My Boy Tate leads all runners by earnings at $837,288.
- Only two of the New York-breds never made a start with the other 27 averaging nearly 20 starts apiece. Algorix leads at 95 starts with 12 wins for $210,015 in earnings, followed by Winston’s Chance (50 starts), Ganodagan (41), My Boy Tate (38) and March Madnez Party (26). The group also earned an average of $117,960 on the track.
- Each of the 29 entries were bred by a different group of breeders. McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds is the only individual breeder who is named as breeder on more than one horse, partnering with Chauncey David Cole III to breed Ganondagan and William Hebert to breed Elite Banker. Horacio De Paz and Michelle Nevin lead all trainers with two entrants who were trained by them when the horses retired.
McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds’ Central Banker is the only stallion with more than one entrant as the sire of Phinney’s Harbor and Elite Banker. Central Banker, Bustin Stones, Freud and War Dancer are all current New York stallions with entrants in the competition.
The New York Thoroughbred Breeders Inc. is joined by the New York Racing Association and New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association in sponsoring the $2,500 Empire State Success Story prize for the competition’s leading New York-bred.
Find out more about the Thoroughbred Makeover and the horses entered at www.tbmakeover.org.
