Celebrating President's Day

Interestingly, many of our US Presidents had horses. But Andrew Jackson had race horses. From all indications he was a wild young man who liked to dual, fight and gamble. My guess is, there might have been some "whiskey" mixed into all that too, just sayin'...  anyway, not someone you want to be with at the races if his horse lost. He did become a lawyer, a General and our 7th president but he became a hero with his success in the battle of New Orleans.


For a short time he even worked at making saddles. Back in the day, the Tennessee race horse was the finest in the country. His best horse was Truxton (or Thruxton) and he also had Indian Queen, Pacolet, Lady Nashville, Buck, Bolivia and Little Sorrel . He was also part owner of Tennessee’s most important racetrack, Clover Bottom.

Found a little book called “Horses of the Presidents”, written by Leah Taylor. Could be an interesting read.

Ok, the history lesson is over, who do you like in the Southwest today?

JP’s Gusto gets in with 117 pounds, even though he is a multiple Graded Stakes winner, including the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity and has made a half a million dollars. All because he has not yet raced in 2011. Interesting. But he comes in with a trainer switch, and is he better on synthetics?

While he is the most seasoned and the class of the field, I am going to look elsewhere.

I like the Larry Jones-trained Yankee Passion, a homebred owned by the former Governor of Kentucky, and a son of Yankee Gentleman out of a Pleasant Colony mare. I think he will enjoy the two turns and he could get even better as the distances get longer with that stamina influence on the dam’s side.

The other horse I like in here is Elite Alex. After watching the replay of his last start, going a mile,well to say he broke in a tangle was putting it mildly. That he stayed on his feet was amazing, and the way he circled the field to just come up a head short was pretty impressive. He returned with a bullet and then a nice stamina building 7/8s a week ago.

So like most horseracing fans on a Monday holiday, I will wager some “presidents” in the hopes of getting lucky to avoid a dual later on in the day.