Son of Tom Rolfe Teaching Next Generation

Raymond Guest's Tom Rolfe won the Preakness Stakes back in 1965. Faded memories and grainy photos are what's left of that classic win 50 years ago. However, Irish Tom, a 25-year-old gelding from Tom Rolfe's last crop is still hard at work in Canada as a stable horse and a teacher to the next generation.

Tom Rolfe is featured in the May 16 print edition of Blood-Horse. READ MORE

Trainer Myckie Neubauer owns Irish Tom, or "Thomas," these days and he's stabled with her at Woodbine. While at Fort Erie last year and over the winter, Neubauer gave 11-year-old Julia Ezra a lift up on Thomas for some early equitation lessons.

"He doesn't look a day over 24," Daryl Ezra said with a laugh. Ezra is Julia's father and is also a trainer currently at Fort Erie Racetrack. "He's got a swayback but he's a good looking horse for 25.

"She got on him a couple of times last year," said Ezra, who has also been an announcer at several tracks in Canada and at Finger Lakes Gaming and Racetrack in western New York. "After Myckie has ponied some horses she'll say, 'Julia, do you want to get on Thomas?' She's doing some reining and some other stuff with him. Julia's just learning how to ride, but she's very savvy with the horses."

"She's good with the computer," said Michelle Ezra, Julia's mom. "She goes on Equibase and looked at his brothers and sisters. She's interested in that. She said, 'I guess Thomas took after his mother when it comes to the racing, but when it comes to longevity, he took after his dad'. "

Scanning The Jockey Club Information Systems' Equineline tells us more about Irish Tom, a bay out of the Nijinsky II mare Foolish Redhead. Bred in Kentucky by August Moon Farm, Irish Tom made the majority of 54 starts in Canada and he never rose out of the claiming ranks. He did manage to win seven times in a five-year campaign, and placed 10 other times and earned $33,422.

While Tom Rolfe, who was also third in the '65 Kentucky Derby, was a small horse, Irish Tom is a big horse. The fact he has big ankles, according to Neubauer, stunted his racing career. However, his stoutness set him up for his next two careers, as an outrider's pony and as a stable hand.

According to Neubauer, "Thomas" was sold by owner and trainer Rise Arnold to outrider Penny Ryan. When Ryan got out of the business 15 years ago, she passed the gelding on to Neubauer.

"He's very smart," Neubauer said. "He still knows his job as an outrider's pony even though he doesn't have to do that anymore. If something happens on the track, like if the siren goes off, he looks around looking for the loose horse and wants to help.

"One day someone got dropped close to me and he whipped right over to the guy who was laying on the ground and he planted himself right in front of the guy and guarded him until the ambulance came so no other horse could run over him. He's amazing.

"Even though he's 25, at Woodbine, he still gets a little 'up' when he goes to the track," the trainer said. "He just goes to the track with the horses and when I work with the babies. And I usually back up a horse and let them stand for a while and then we wait for them to finish training and then we bring them home. That's his job."

And helping Julia Ezra to ride, along with her interest in horses, may help her find a career down the road.

"She's really horse crazy," Ezra said of his daughter. "When I have to look up a pedigree on a horse, or see who I'm racing against, she's already scanning Equibase; she's already looking at videos. She's really sharp."