White Thoroughbred Wins at Mahoning Valley

Wear the Mask, a rare registered white Thoroughbred, recorded his second career victory March 9, leading all the way in the fourth race at Hollywood Gaming at Mahoning Valley Race Course.

 

A 4-year-old colt by Airdrie Apache, Wear the Mask dominated four rivals in winning the entry-level allowance race by two lengths under Megan Fadlovich.

 

Clocking fractions of :23.21, :46.79, and  1:12.84 through six furlongs, Wear the Mask completed the one mile and 70 yards in 1:46.42 on a sloppy, sealed track. 

 

Wear the Mask ($19.40) was bred in Nevada by Kim Leavitt and is trained by Ivan Vasquez for owner Berva Megson of Megson Farms, located near Calvert City in Western Kentucky.

 

The colt also has five seconds and a third from 18 career starts and $21,132 in earnings while campaigning almost exclusively in Ohio. His white coat comes via Airdrie Apache's white dam, Not Quite White (by Northjet—Sad Song, by Roberto). Airdrie Apache is a chestnut son of Naevus, also a chestnut. 

 

Wear the Mask is out of the unraced Hawkster mare Ms. Dubious and is a descendant of 1999 Broodmare of the Year Anne Campbell, his third dam, who produced grade I winners Menifee and Desert Wine.

 

Megson Farms currently has the largest stable of registered white Thoroughbred racehorses and broodmare band in North America with more than two dozen horses, and also stands El Romeo, an 11-year-old bay son of Storm Cat out of 1993 champion 2-year-old filly Phone Chatter. 

 

No registered white Thoroughbred has ever won a stakes race in North America but in Japan, Yukichan (by Kurofune out of the white Sunday Silence mare Shirayukihime) won three stakes from 2008-2010. 

 

Significantly less than 1% of all registered Thoroughbreds are listed as white. According to The Jockey Club, "The entire coat, including mane, tail, and legs is predominately white." 

 

A white coat is not considered albino, but rather a genetic mutation carried by a single dominant gene.