Rescue Foal Magna Fortuna
Jan 15, 2013 10:45:07 GMT -5
Post by cait on Jan 15, 2013 10:45:07 GMT -5
Rescue Me Racing, LLC
So what do you do when you suddenly find yourself with possession of a foal by a multiple graded stakes winner out of a mare that no one wanted?
In the months following Taxi's birth, when we discovered his true pedigree and saw how incredibly athletic he was, the question came up about what exactly would be his path. We could try to find an adoptive home for him as we would with any other Illinois Equine Humane Center horse. And this would not have been hard given his personality and looks! But the more Taxi grew and the more we watched him running and playing in his paddock with Lulu, the observation was made that it would be too bad, given his pedigree, if he didn't get a chance to do what he was born to do - run!
The idea came up in a conversation about what to do....Would it be feasible to create a partnership for Taxi that could adopt him from the ILEHC? He would be raised, trained, and raced under the partnership with a percentage of any earnings (if we were lucky enough) to go to the ILEHC. Then we thought of the awareness that his story would bring to the issues of retired race horses and slaughter. So we set about learning how to form a partnership! And the name - Rescue Me Racing - speaks for itself!
The partnership consists of like-minded people and supporters of the ILEHC that agree that this is more about Taxi than it is the racing! An Equine Welfare Manager was named - Gail Vacca - and she will be responsible for any decisions to be made regarding the welfare of Taxi. Other than Gail, there are no other "titled" positions in the partnership as well as no partnership fees. The initial payments for shares were made in the form of donations to the ILEHC as the adoption fee. Taxi's expenses are equally divided among the partners for board, care, vets, etc. and all payments from the partners go directly to these expenses.
While we were trying to figure out how to get a partnership off the ground, we soon discovered there were other details to be taken care of pretty quickly! First and foremost we had to get the little guy registered with the Jockey Club! And in order to do this, we had to have the stallion certificate. The great folks at Darby Dan farm in Kentucky where Magna Graduate stands were kind enough to waive a substantial amount of the stallion fee for us and we were able to get the certificate. Then came the full force effort by the initial partners to come up with an "official" name for Taxi! After several weeks of proposed names - which were all great - we all settled on Magna Fortuna (latin for great fortune/luck). Very appropriate! Once submitted, we were approved and Taxi was officially registered with the Jockey Club as Magna Fortuna! Then came submitting a DNA sample from Taxi to validate his pedigree. Next up will be registering him as an Ilinois-bred...
Then we had to come up with a contract for the partnership. This proved to be a crash course in legalese but Gail came through and made sure the contract contained all of the points we had decided on as to how the partnership and Taxi would be handled.
It's been an adventure for all of us so far and if the future sees us in the Winner's Circle - great! But if Taxi never runs a day in his life - still great! We are all just thrilled to be able to be a part of this adventure with Taxi and to provide him with a well-cared for life given that he almost didn't even make it into this world in the first place!
So stay tuned for more news on RMR! Now that contracts are done the next event is to design our silks!
magnafortuna.weebly.com/rescue-me-racing.html
Magna Fortuna, the Illinois-bred juvenile featured in a recent Three Chimneys presents Good News Friday segment, finished ninth in his career debut at Hawthorne Park Wednesday.
The story of Magna Fortuna has captured quite a following. His dam was rescued from slaughter two years ago for $300. No one knew at the time that the mare was not only pregnant but pregnant with a son of Darby Dan sire Magna Graduate. Magna Fortuna, originally named Taxi, was born at the Illinois Equine Humane Center and a group of people associated with the rescue operation formed a partnership to race the colt. They hoped to draw attention to the issue of responsible horse ownership.
Jennie Rees of the Louisville Courier-Journal, which is hosting a blog about Magna Fortuna, describes the colt's first race:
"Though 6-1 in the morning line, Magna Fortuna was bet down to the 3-1 second choice, and in the early wagering was 7-5. I think a lot of that came from people pulling for the ultimate underdog, but the colt also showed some good workouts.
"Magna Fortuna raced wide in the second flight of horses, then was in between a swarm. He still seemed to have a shot at the top of the stretch before fading to ninth of the 12, losing by a total of 16 1/2 lengths."
Magna Fortuna's owners have said the colt will only race if he seems to enjoy it and that just getting to the races was a victory in itself. We'll see where the story goes from here.
www.paulickreport.com/news/thoroughbred-racing/rescue-foal-magna-fortuna-finishes-ninth-in-career-debut/
So what do you do when you suddenly find yourself with possession of a foal by a multiple graded stakes winner out of a mare that no one wanted?
In the months following Taxi's birth, when we discovered his true pedigree and saw how incredibly athletic he was, the question came up about what exactly would be his path. We could try to find an adoptive home for him as we would with any other Illinois Equine Humane Center horse. And this would not have been hard given his personality and looks! But the more Taxi grew and the more we watched him running and playing in his paddock with Lulu, the observation was made that it would be too bad, given his pedigree, if he didn't get a chance to do what he was born to do - run!
The idea came up in a conversation about what to do....Would it be feasible to create a partnership for Taxi that could adopt him from the ILEHC? He would be raised, trained, and raced under the partnership with a percentage of any earnings (if we were lucky enough) to go to the ILEHC. Then we thought of the awareness that his story would bring to the issues of retired race horses and slaughter. So we set about learning how to form a partnership! And the name - Rescue Me Racing - speaks for itself!
The partnership consists of like-minded people and supporters of the ILEHC that agree that this is more about Taxi than it is the racing! An Equine Welfare Manager was named - Gail Vacca - and she will be responsible for any decisions to be made regarding the welfare of Taxi. Other than Gail, there are no other "titled" positions in the partnership as well as no partnership fees. The initial payments for shares were made in the form of donations to the ILEHC as the adoption fee. Taxi's expenses are equally divided among the partners for board, care, vets, etc. and all payments from the partners go directly to these expenses.
While we were trying to figure out how to get a partnership off the ground, we soon discovered there were other details to be taken care of pretty quickly! First and foremost we had to get the little guy registered with the Jockey Club! And in order to do this, we had to have the stallion certificate. The great folks at Darby Dan farm in Kentucky where Magna Graduate stands were kind enough to waive a substantial amount of the stallion fee for us and we were able to get the certificate. Then came the full force effort by the initial partners to come up with an "official" name for Taxi! After several weeks of proposed names - which were all great - we all settled on Magna Fortuna (latin for great fortune/luck). Very appropriate! Once submitted, we were approved and Taxi was officially registered with the Jockey Club as Magna Fortuna! Then came submitting a DNA sample from Taxi to validate his pedigree. Next up will be registering him as an Ilinois-bred...
Then we had to come up with a contract for the partnership. This proved to be a crash course in legalese but Gail came through and made sure the contract contained all of the points we had decided on as to how the partnership and Taxi would be handled.
It's been an adventure for all of us so far and if the future sees us in the Winner's Circle - great! But if Taxi never runs a day in his life - still great! We are all just thrilled to be able to be a part of this adventure with Taxi and to provide him with a well-cared for life given that he almost didn't even make it into this world in the first place!
So stay tuned for more news on RMR! Now that contracts are done the next event is to design our silks!
magnafortuna.weebly.com/rescue-me-racing.html
Magna Fortuna, the Illinois-bred juvenile featured in a recent Three Chimneys presents Good News Friday segment, finished ninth in his career debut at Hawthorne Park Wednesday.
The story of Magna Fortuna has captured quite a following. His dam was rescued from slaughter two years ago for $300. No one knew at the time that the mare was not only pregnant but pregnant with a son of Darby Dan sire Magna Graduate. Magna Fortuna, originally named Taxi, was born at the Illinois Equine Humane Center and a group of people associated with the rescue operation formed a partnership to race the colt. They hoped to draw attention to the issue of responsible horse ownership.
Jennie Rees of the Louisville Courier-Journal, which is hosting a blog about Magna Fortuna, describes the colt's first race:
"Though 6-1 in the morning line, Magna Fortuna was bet down to the 3-1 second choice, and in the early wagering was 7-5. I think a lot of that came from people pulling for the ultimate underdog, but the colt also showed some good workouts.
"Magna Fortuna raced wide in the second flight of horses, then was in between a swarm. He still seemed to have a shot at the top of the stretch before fading to ninth of the 12, losing by a total of 16 1/2 lengths."
Magna Fortuna's owners have said the colt will only race if he seems to enjoy it and that just getting to the races was a victory in itself. We'll see where the story goes from here.
www.paulickreport.com/news/thoroughbred-racing/rescue-foal-magna-fortuna-finishes-ninth-in-career-debut/