Happy/Feel Good Tale - Magna Fortuna
Mar 13, 2013 23:05:21 GMT -5
Post by Evelyn on Mar 13, 2013 23:05:21 GMT -5
Congrats to Rescue Me Racing and this gallant boy!
Hail, Taxi! Rescue horse Magna Fortuna wins by 9 3/4 lengths
by Jennie Rees ·
It was the second race at Hawthorne Race Course on a frigid afternoon in Chicago, with seven Illinois-bred maidens going to the post. But it could have been the Kentucky Derby for the partners in Rescue Me Racing, as their 3-year-old gelding Magna Fortuna led all the way for a 9 3/4-length victory Wednesday.
“I can’t even describe it right now or I’ll start crying again if I try,” Laura Donohoe, the Bellarmine graduate turned Chicagoan who is co-founder of Rescue Me Racing, said by phone shortly after the race. “We’re just so proud of him.”
Magna Fortuna, the subject of a blog at courier-journal.com/magnafortuna, is the foal that the mare Silver Option was carrying when rescued for $300 from a slaughter auction by Gail Vacca, founder of the Illinois Equine Humane Center. With Silver Option’s identity unknown at the time, it took considerable detective work to figure out who the mare was in order to make her new son a registered thoroughbred.
Magna Fortuna, whose yellow and black checkered silks and blinkers fit his nickname Taxi, won by 9 3/4 lengths in his two-turn debut at Hawthorne. Photos courtesy Four Footed Fotos
Vacca and 15 friends and center volunteers pitched in to give Magna Fortuna the opportunity to try to make it to the races. Wednesday’s $28,000 maiden race was his third career start, following defeats of 16 and 17 lengths, both in sprints. Under Julio Felix, Magna Fortuna went wire to wire for the 1 1/16 miles in his two-turn debut, earning $16,800.
“It’s the culmination of everybody who have been a part of this since the very beginning,” said trainer Michele Boyce. “It’s such a good group of people. We had confidence in him from the very beginning. Like anybody else, they have to learn. But we knew early on that he was going to be much better going a route of ground, where he can relax and really run all day – I really feel. His father did, and on the mother’s side, the blood is there to go long. And I’m sure he’s going to transition very nicely to the turf, too, with Silver Hawk on the mother’s side.
“He’s sound, he’s sturdy, he’s healthy. Has a wonderful attitude. I said from the very beginning, he’s going to be a very nice horse… This track tends to be a little speed-favoring sprinting. Well, it was today for us, too, thank goodness, going long. But to keep him up in the contention like last time, he had to be kind of rushed. And Taxi doesn’t like that. When he can get there and do his own thing and relax, he’s going to run all day for you. He’s just that kind. But if you rush him off his feet, he loses his momentum
“I can’t imagine what it would feel like to win the Derby,” said Julie Smoak of Lexington, one of Magna Fortuna’s owners, who call the horse Taxi because he was born on tax day. “But for us I can’t imagine it would be any more rewarding than what we’re feeling today, given the entire story and how far he’s come and just the miracle he is. To have it culminate in an actual win is beyond incredible.”
Asked if she’d have to put a lip twitch on her owners to keep them on the ground, Boyce laughed and said, “Everybody is enjoying themselves very much. It was such a thrill, the whole deal. It was great.”
Jockey Julio Felix celebrates with the owners, who all pitched in to try to get the formerly anonymous foal to the races.
blogs.courier-journal.com/magnafortuna/2013/03/13/hail-taxi-rescue-horse-magna-fortuna-wins-by-9-34-lengths/
Hail, Taxi! Rescue horse Magna Fortuna wins by 9 3/4 lengths
by Jennie Rees ·
It was the second race at Hawthorne Race Course on a frigid afternoon in Chicago, with seven Illinois-bred maidens going to the post. But it could have been the Kentucky Derby for the partners in Rescue Me Racing, as their 3-year-old gelding Magna Fortuna led all the way for a 9 3/4-length victory Wednesday.
“I can’t even describe it right now or I’ll start crying again if I try,” Laura Donohoe, the Bellarmine graduate turned Chicagoan who is co-founder of Rescue Me Racing, said by phone shortly after the race. “We’re just so proud of him.”
Magna Fortuna, the subject of a blog at courier-journal.com/magnafortuna, is the foal that the mare Silver Option was carrying when rescued for $300 from a slaughter auction by Gail Vacca, founder of the Illinois Equine Humane Center. With Silver Option’s identity unknown at the time, it took considerable detective work to figure out who the mare was in order to make her new son a registered thoroughbred.
Magna Fortuna, whose yellow and black checkered silks and blinkers fit his nickname Taxi, won by 9 3/4 lengths in his two-turn debut at Hawthorne. Photos courtesy Four Footed Fotos
Vacca and 15 friends and center volunteers pitched in to give Magna Fortuna the opportunity to try to make it to the races. Wednesday’s $28,000 maiden race was his third career start, following defeats of 16 and 17 lengths, both in sprints. Under Julio Felix, Magna Fortuna went wire to wire for the 1 1/16 miles in his two-turn debut, earning $16,800.
“It’s the culmination of everybody who have been a part of this since the very beginning,” said trainer Michele Boyce. “It’s such a good group of people. We had confidence in him from the very beginning. Like anybody else, they have to learn. But we knew early on that he was going to be much better going a route of ground, where he can relax and really run all day – I really feel. His father did, and on the mother’s side, the blood is there to go long. And I’m sure he’s going to transition very nicely to the turf, too, with Silver Hawk on the mother’s side.
“He’s sound, he’s sturdy, he’s healthy. Has a wonderful attitude. I said from the very beginning, he’s going to be a very nice horse… This track tends to be a little speed-favoring sprinting. Well, it was today for us, too, thank goodness, going long. But to keep him up in the contention like last time, he had to be kind of rushed. And Taxi doesn’t like that. When he can get there and do his own thing and relax, he’s going to run all day for you. He’s just that kind. But if you rush him off his feet, he loses his momentum
“I can’t imagine what it would feel like to win the Derby,” said Julie Smoak of Lexington, one of Magna Fortuna’s owners, who call the horse Taxi because he was born on tax day. “But for us I can’t imagine it would be any more rewarding than what we’re feeling today, given the entire story and how far he’s come and just the miracle he is. To have it culminate in an actual win is beyond incredible.”
Asked if she’d have to put a lip twitch on her owners to keep them on the ground, Boyce laughed and said, “Everybody is enjoying themselves very much. It was such a thrill, the whole deal. It was great.”
Jockey Julio Felix celebrates with the owners, who all pitched in to try to get the formerly anonymous foal to the races.
blogs.courier-journal.com/magnafortuna/2013/03/13/hail-taxi-rescue-horse-magna-fortuna-wins-by-9-34-lengths/
