Caretaker, Aqueduct Remember Peeping Tom

There weren't press releases issued when Peeping Tom, a former claimer turned grade I winner and millionaire, died in the summer of 2014 at age 17. The gelding's death went largely unnoticed, but for the woman who was his caretaker for the last eight years of his life, his warrior days on the racetrack will never be forgotten.

Alcina Rawles' introduction to Peeping Tom came in the latter stages of his career, when he was trained by her then employer, Michael Dickinson. Rawles, who was in her mid-20s at the time, had been riding upper-level three-day event horses before she turned her interests to another equine pursuit, and began galloping horses for Dickinson.

And it turned out that Peeping Tom proved to be the perfect partner on which to learn a new riding style.

"Tom was the horse that I, and everybody in the barn, learned to gallop and breeze on," said Rawles, 34. "It was funny because he was such a good racehorse, but he also was unfazed and just a totally cool dude. If he worked in company, he would just go at the same speed as the horse next to him he wouldn't go any faster or any slower. He was the most laid-back, classy type of horse you would ever want to deal with.

"The only time he got fired up was when you put the blinkers on, and that's when he got serious."

By the time Peeping Tom came into Dickinson's care in the fall of 2004, the gelding's best racing days were behind him. But when he was at his prime, while in the care of trainer Pat Reynolds, Peeping Tom's brilliance as a sprinter was on full display, particularly during an incredible eight-month stretch that began in October 2000.

During that period, Peeping Tom won six of his eight starts, including the 2001 Carter Handicap (gr. I) and 2001 General George Handicap (gr. II). He also finished second in both the 2001 Metropolitan Handicap (gr. I) and 2000 Cigar Mile (gr. I).

Peeping Tom's owner for all but two starts in his 55-race career was Louis Milazzo's Flatbird Stable. It was Milazzo, on the advice of his daughter-in-law, Danielle Milazzo, who plunked down $40,000 to claim Peeping Tom on a March afternoon at Aqueduct in 2000, the day the 3-year-old son of Eagle Eyed broke his maiden for his breeders, actor Albert Finney and Karen and Mickey Taylor of Slew Slew fame.

Peeping Tom and other claimers who achieved glory at the top level of competition will be remembered when the New York Championship Claiming Series is run for the second year at Aqueduct April 2. The series of stakes bears the names of several horses with humble beginnings, including Peeping Tom and Eclipse Award winner Xtra Heat.

Rawles, who currently trains a small stable of racehorses at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland, was delighted to learn of the Aqueduct race run in Peeping Tom's name. "He was a classy, old warrior, who deserves the recognition," she said.

It was Rawles' acknowledgement of the heart and determination the gelding showed through seven seasons of racing that led her to offer the Milazzo family a home for Peeping Tom on her 25-acre farm in Oxford, Pa., when he retired in the summer of 2006.

"I just wanted to be sure he would end up in a good place," Rawles said. "They all deserve a good end, but especially those old guys who have run so many times and have left everything on the track. Those type of horses are not easy to find homes for, because they aren't really sound and won't be able to jump big jumps and go onto (second careers).

"Tom loved being turned out. I think after so many years of being a racehorse, and stuck in a stall, he didn't like going back to his stall. He was very nice to trail ride, and loved to go out hacking."

In the summer of 2014, when Peeping Tom began to show degenerative arthritic changes in his spine, and was no longer able to function like a "normal horse," Rawles said it was in his best interests to euthanize him. 

"It's always sad to see them go," said Rawles, who continues to open the doors of her farm to retired racehorses. "You try to give them all the best you can. It was emotional, but it was the best thing for Tom. At least he had eight good years of retirement and enjoyed his buddies, the other geldings on the farm, and had someone do right by him."