Calidoscopio 10yr old horse

Well, he was 10 years old at the time of this race…what heart for a horse to make this happen

Shades of Silky Sullivan...but is there a reason you waited over a year to post this?

Muddy track. The other horses were all kicking mud in each others faces and eyes. He was so far back he avoided that fate and was the only one that could see the finish line. Lol. Thanks for posting AoS, I really enjoyed seeing that. That really was a remarkable race and that fact that the horse was 10 years old only makes it more remarkable.

Quote: ThatDonGuy

Shades of Silky Sullivan...but is there a reason you waited over a year to post this?

I just saw it posted on Facebook from someone about never losing faith as you get older :)
I then noticed he also won the Breeders Cup Marathon in 2012

The age really isn't so unusual in some of the cheaper races at small tracks. For example, here are the entries for the first race today at the Humboldt County Fair in Ferndale, California, competing for the princely sum of $3,200:

PP NAME AGE

1 Loretta Jones 13

2 Jackson's Dream 10

3 My Allowance 7

4 Priscilla Nelson 9

5 Bizmo 5

6 Eye of the Hawk 11

I guess "Bizmo" must have been born with three legs or something to be in here. No, it isn't the Breeders' Cup, but it is what you often see filling out the race card at a lot of minor tracks. What else are you going to do with an aging half-blind arthritic gelding or a mare that never lived up to a mediocre pedigree? A cat food & fertilizer factory in Mexico for $0.39/pound? Some of them really aren't practical to try to adopt out as pets at all, and running (albeit not terribly fast anymore) is what they naturally want to do.

If I remember correctly, Calidoscopio was an intact horse rather than a gelding, and was a South American import to U.S. racing who was retired to stud back at his birthplace in Argentina after this race in the Brooklyn Handicap. That really is unusual for a horse with any potential breeding interest to continue racing that long.

Distance racing may actually be better for equine longevity, because while requiring stamina from pulmonary/cardiovascular fitness it tends to put less severe stress on their joints & tendons and suchlike than sprinting.

Steeple chasers in the UK and Ireland seem to hit their best form around ten years.

Quote: kewlj

That really was a remarkable race and that fact that the horse was 10 years old only makes it more remarkable.

John Henry was a 9-year-old when he won the 1984 Arlington Million.

You don't that often, especially in graded races. The fact that Zenyatta did it so often was amazing.