[caffeinated]

Stoneymeadow, does the nonprofit have a copy of his papers, or was his JC name on his coggins?

All Star Team never raced, so there's no avenue for tracking down a win picture. He was also bred in California, I don't know if that makes it more or less likely he'd end up in the area where you looked.

Skookum is an Iowa bred and did race, mostly at prarie meadows, through 2007. His last race was a win, so you could probably get the win picture. There is also video of it available on equibase, though it's hard to see enough details on those to make any kind of ID.

coadyphotography.com does have photos of skookum available (they do the photos at prairie meadows). No thumbnails on the site but maybe that's a place to look? It'll run you about $20 unfortunately.

The geography matches up better with your location. But I'd be asking the nonprofit for more identifying information.

[Renn/aissance]

It could just mean the tattoo was badly done or misread. I've seen lots of 5's that look like 6's, and 3's that were actually 8's One I would SWEAR was a "36" but I had the horse's papers to refer to and it was actually "85"

So you may want to play with the tattoo search thing, leaving out the numbers that could even possibly be wrong, and searching against markings.

We did- the gray horse's lameness vet at one point was a track vet (right across from Charlestown- I am SO sad he retired, he was awesome) and he both helped us decipher the tattoo with all manner of lip flipping and lights and gave us pointers for searching partial matches. Nothing.

[stoneymeadow]

Thanks Caffinated for the tips. I found race video from Prairie Meadows. From the race video I was pretty certain it was Skookum and we now have confirmation from the breeder. So this guy is 2002 instead of 2005. the "P" is an "F".

2010 Coggins did not have his registered name, just his barn name. No papers transferred. He has a scar on his right hind lower fetlock. The breeder said he cut his foot badly at the track and that is what ended his racing career. They managed the wound care and while he was sound, they did not feel he should go back to racking. So in order to make sure no one else raced him, the horse was sold without papers.

So mystery solved!

[caffeinated]

Yay!

As an aside, though I should be working I just started looking up some of our listings on foaltrack... and found one right off the bat. It's been a while since I was on that site, it's pretty addictive!

[Bristol Bay]

I bought my horse from the older man who bred and raced him. He had a few injuries along the way that required time off, so he was 7 with only 12 starts.

He was born in the same backyard where I first saw him, right there in the manger, er, garage.

I love knowing his life story and I can tell he has never been mishandled.

[Beam Me Up]

The ones I've bought on the track I knew a great deal about (of course).

One that I have now, I bought with an unreadable tattoo and while I have identified his JC records, know very little of the history in between, heard some crazy conjectures though.

Thanks for the auction site. I just found out that my brand new one went through Keeneland in 2010. Found many pics of the auction, but not one of him, yet . . .

[Paige777]

I managed to track down my mare's breeder, sent him a letter just to let him know she's safe, and he ended up calling and we had a super nice hour-long phone call! I never worked up the nerve to ask him if he had baby pictures of her...but I might have to send him an update that she's doing well, and maybe then I'll have the nerve to ask.

I have tracked down 2 of her win photos and have them on my wall - I also have all of her racing records (from Equibase) along with her papers, of course. I'd love to find her win photos from her two other wins...maybe one day I will, though I doubt the track photographers would still have them, as they're about 10 years old.

[wildlifer]

There are a lot of race videos archived on, I think bloodhorse.com? Not many claimers, but I found one of my guy breaking his maiden in an allowance race. I found win photos of him that the org I purchased him from sent a link to. I pretty much know his whole story except for his breeder, who I'd love to track down to see baby pictures.

[DeeThbd]

What I wouldn't give for race photos, foal pictures...... :-) I hold steady in my belief that both of those boys would have been THE cutest babies in the world.

Bits, go into Equibase and look up the tracks and dates where he won. If you contact the track photographer, he or she should be able to make prints of his wins for a reasonable charge. They are wonderful keepsakes to have .
Dee
PS - if you can get a copy of his form (from the Daily Racing Form) it will give you complete rundowns of each lifetime race he ran as well

[DeeThbd]

Pony #2: Raced in Canada, failed at the track, was on trial with some BNR (or maybe his kid?) in Canada (at the time I didn't recognize the name, but I also barely knew the top US riders at the time so... meh) and the kid passed. Horse made its way into the US and was with a well-respected WNY training outfit for a little bit,

J'aideux, if you care to share his name, there are a number of us here on COTH with an interest in ON TB racing who might recognize him.

[Calamber]

I never got any of that info for any of the horses I got off the track. In fact I did not even look at the legs of one horse. I fell in love with his head and eye plus he "hugged" me. He was the best one, sound, a beautiful mover, good jumper and wonderful companion. I did know all of the people I got the horses from and I did not give a hill of beans for the videos.

[BansheeBreeze]

Oh I can't not make this long lol....
I was very lucky in finding details of my OTTB's early career, because I took him back to the tracks he raced at to work as a pony horse, and I worked with the people who knew him back then. Really interesting and helped me understand a lot about him.

His name is Smart Little Habit (Addix). By Country Cat-Busy Habit by Habtony's Ace.

I was working for a trainer in New Mexico when I first heard of him. She told me about horse she used to train who hated carrots so much he would pick them out of his feed tub and hide them in the corner of his stall. (Once I FINALLY got him to actually give them a try-took me 9 months-he realized he LOVED them. Trainer didn't believe it lol.)

He was retired on his owners ranch for a couple years but he wanted to rehome him because he didn't have much use for him. So the trainer asked if I wanted a free horse and I said sure!
Literally, the only thing I knew about him before he showed up was he was a weird bay, had 60 days "retraining", and hated carrots. And he had a giant ugly scar across his hock from getting tangled in a water trough during his "retraining". I think there was more to that story but it's good to know where it came from or I'd always wonder.

First I kept him at a farm by the track. One day jockey was there and said my horse looked really familiar(he was very distinct looking on account of his skunk tail) and turns out that he was my horses jockey and had ridden him in his maiden victory!

Once at the track, his original trainer and assistant trainer recognized him too. Every time I saw them, they had a new story to tell about my horse. How difficult he was to break because he was too smart for his own good. He used to walk on his hind legs and the exercise riders were terrified of him, but if you let him know you were on to his games, he would behave perfectly.

My favorite story is that he had a girl groom and when he saw her walking towards his stall with tack, he'd sit on the stall gate so she couldn't open it. She would smack his rump and yell, but he refused to budge. She had to call to the trainer, and when Addix heard him coming, he would move off the gate and act like nothing had happened lol.

Also found out he'd been very promising as a baby(his full brother won over $100k), but he fractured a leg as a 2 year old and didn't return with the same ability. Then he got claimed, and although I knew who the other trainer was and had met him a few times, he was pretty rude and rarely at the track. One of those trainers who has tons of horses and assistants so I didn't think he'd remember him much anyways.

With his last trainer, the one I worked for, he got a horrible abcess that required resectioning of his hoof, and being 7 and not that successful, they retired him. I know his last owners (am friends with the wife on FB, they enjoy seeing photos of him happy in his new life) and of course am still good friends with his last trainer.

I did get 3 of his win photos (missing one) and watched a few videos (though couldn't get the ones of him winning to work). I also found out that him and my friends horse raced against each other lol, we always talked about a rematch since my horse finished ahead of hers.

He has a very obscure bloodline but I tracked down his trainer on FB and he sent me a win photo of my horses sire. It's pretty amazing how much they look alike-same exact face and expression, right down to the markings.

My horse had a full brother and a half sister with all the same connections, although I didn't find that out until after I was off the track so I don't know what happened to either of them. His brother was vanned off in his last race (he was an old war horse) and his sister ran against Peppers Pride. I got win photos of both of them as well.

I have his original owner/breeders phone number and address (who also bred and owned most of the horses in mine's family going back several generations) but am too chicken to call. Maybe one of these days I'll get the courage to do it or at least write a letter.

Win Photos (hope the links work!)

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto..._5865164_n.jpg

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto..._5025815_n.jpg

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto..._4774249_n.jpg

His sire, Call Me Cat
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto..._1926386_n.jpg

Full brother, Tietjen
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto..._6208946_n.jpg

Half sister, Busy Little Pistol
http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto..._3246930_n.jpg

[bumknees]

Well my OTTB's track life is not as fascinating as other posted here. He had only 6 starts and failed to even show in any of them. I believe his best finish was 7th out of 6 ,is the best way his previous owner described it to me as he failed to get past the first quarter pole... Racing was just not his thing.
I did however manage to track down his breeder " Darley"
http://www.darleyamerica.com/ and email them and received a copy of his foal pic.
That is as much as I have done so far.. but with a record like that I imagine he is pretty forgettable.

[Schune]

When I bought my then 7yo (now 19yo) TB mare, she had her JC papers but was not tattooed. She was brought into the barn as a resale project, and we leased and eventually bought her. The only background at the time we had was that she was bred in MI, racetrained at 2 but never made it to the track, and had had a foal at 5.

It was 4 years later when I had her for sale that I was contacted by a previous owner who saw her Dreamhorse ad. From that woman, I found out that the woman had bred and kept the foal at 5, got mare going very nicely and then sold maresie around age 6 to a student at known HJ facility in MI. At said facility mare was treated very roughly and got messed up, and student sold her cheapo to the barn owner where I was, and that's the history.

If I remember correctly, I think the woman who contacted me said that she had bought mare at age 2 when it became apparent that mare was not going to be a performer on the track.