Excerpt
Chapter 3
Unleashing the Fire
The early morning fog lay low on the track. Tony Bencivenga heard birds singing and a dog barking in the distance. Tony’s Thoroughbred mount, Bardstown, was prancing beneath him, but the bay gelding obediently waited for his rider’s cue to run. Tony did not know it then, but the upcoming race that weekend would be one of the last ones for Bardstown.
Tony urged Bardstown into a gallop, and the racehorse did not need a second request. He bolted down the dirt track kicking up dust behind him. Tony rode with his head low, feeling the power in the horse’s stride.
“Bardstown was galloping faster than ever,” reminisced Tony. “Even with my face almost in his mane, the wind blew so hard that I thought it would blow out my eyeballs!”
The bay with a small star on his forehead was by Alibhai, out of Twilight Tear, a mare that foaled several champions. Bardstown had foaled in 1952 at Calumet Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, the largest racing stable in the world at the time. It was the home of eight Kentucky Derby winners and two Triple Crown winners in the 1940’s: Whirlaway and Citation.
In 1939, the owner of Calumet Farm, Warren Wright, Sr., hired a young horse trainer from Missouri. Ben Jones became one of the greatest trainers in racing history, enabling the stable to produce five decades of champions. Jones was elected into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 1958.
The Thoroughbred colt named Bardstown suffered ankle and hip problems due to an accident in his early years of training. But the scrappy youngster eventually returned to his training, and Bardstown was entered in his first race as a four-year-old gelding. In 1956, Bardstown won the Buckeye Handicap in Cleveland, Ohio. That year, Bardstown was considered the third best handicapped horse in the nation.
During the 1950’s, Tony was Bardstown regular exercise rider.
Tony had grown up in Hoboken, New Jersey. He often rode in his grandfather’s vegetable wagon pulled by a horse. He’d watch the gentle animal and had decided he liked horses. As a teenager, Tony rode a friend’s horse around the city. One day, the friend tied eighty-pound Tony to the saddle and blew a horn right behind him, just to see how fast the horse could run. Tony hung on to the galloping mount and loved it. He became hooked on racing.
When Tony was older, he learned to ride racehorses at a nearby training track. After gaining experience, Tony worked at Greentree Stables in Red Bank, New Jersey. He began with breaking yearlings but soon moved on to exercising the Thoroughbreds. Tony was tall, and at 106 pounds, he was considered too heavy to be a jockey.
Determined to ride in a race, Tony moved to Ontario and worked at a stable there while attending the Detroit Jockey School just across the border. After graduating in a year, Tony was entered in a race at the Detroit fairgrounds in 1948.
He finished last.
That didn’t deter the determined jockey. After serving in the military and returning from the Korean War, Tony had his first win on racehorse named Imperial War at the Thistle Down track in Cleveland, Ohio.
When Tony arrived at Calumet Farm in Kentucky, he realized he had found his home. There, he made the decision to have a career with horses, especially after riding Bardstown.
“My goal was to make a horse catch a pigeon,” said Tony. “I’d make the horse happy, fit and sound so that he could win.”
Tony’s first ride at Calumet was on Bardstown, a tough horse to exercise. Previous riders were unable to handle the strength of Bardstown, and the horse hurt many riders. However, Tony was fascinated with the beautiful animal. With Tony’s soft hands and smooth voice, they developed a great rapport and soon Tony was the only one to exercise him. Tony worked several other horses, but he always rode Bardstown first. He also ponied the racehorse to the starting gate and cooled him off afterwards.
Bardstown raced until he was seven, all over the east coast. In 31 starts, he won 18 races, took seven seconds and one third, earning $628,752 during his racing career. His successes included the Buckeye Handicap, Trenton Handicap, the Equipose Mile, the Gulfstream Handicap and two of the Wideber Handicaps.
Tony traveled with Bardstown to all the races and exercised him. The gelding was considered a champion at Calumet Farm and Tony’s name was always associated with Bardstown.
“Bardstown was quite a character,” said Tony fondly. “That horse loved to eat sausage! He was nicknamed ‘Shorty’ because he was smaller than the average Thoroughbred, but he was powerful. Just before his last race, when I galloped him on that foggy morning, I knew he would do well.”
Bardstown won that race, the Widener Handicap at Hialeah Park in Florida, in 1959. He also won the Tropical Park Handicap in Miami that year. After the race, Bardstown was retired to pasture when he ended up with a suspensory problem.
“Bardstown made me realize that I felt at home in the saddle, upon a powerful horse, ready to unleash the fire within.”
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