Familiar Names Taking Part in Most Wanted Thoroughbred Contest

Off-the-track Thoroughbred Pookie's Princess will be competing in the Retired Racehorse Project's America's Most Wanted Thoroughbred competition. (All photos courtesy of Retired Racehorse Project unless otherwise noted)
Perhaps one of the most anticipated events of the summer in aftercare circles is the retraining competition the Retired Racehorse Project (RRP) coordinates every year. This year is no different with many recognizable names among the 10 teams taking place in this year’s challenge, known as the ‘America’s Most Wanted Thoroughbred Contest.’
“This is the fourth competition that RRP has organized to prove to the public that Thoroughbreds off the track are the most trainable, generous, and talented four-legged animals on the planet,” said Steuart Pittman, the founder of RRP. “The trainers this time are some of the best in their disciplines and the past racing connections of the horses are engaged. Everyone is in it for the horses and the result will be a larger and better educated market of buyers and adopters.”
RRP will have pages on its website for each horse in the competition where training updates and videos will be posted. Fans will be asked for commentary and opinions on the updates as the horses prepare for their final showdown at the end of the summer.
Competitors will get a chance to show off their final skills at RRP’s Thoroughbred Makeover: a Marketplace and National Symposium on October 4-5 at Pimlico Racecourse in Baltimore with the winner taking home a $10,000 purse. Both fans and judges will choose the winner with celebrity judges giving their input on who should take home the prize and a popular vote also weighing in.
EVEN EQUINE FANS OF THE COMPETITORS ARE TAKING SIDES

Photo by Melissa Bauer-Herzog
The 10 horses taking part in the competition have made 228 combined starts for over $1.38 million in earnings and include the classic-placed Icabad Crane and Grade 2 winner Discreet Dancer. You can learn more about each of the competitors below or by visiting www.retiredracehorseproject.org.
Meet the Competitors
Representing show jumpers is Grade 2 winner Discreet Dancer. Trained by Todd Pletcher, Discreet Dancer won four of his eight career starts from 2011 to 2013. The 5-year-old last raced in the July 6, 2013 Grade 3 Salvator Mile Stakes where he finished fourth. Bred by Paul Robsham Stables, Discreet Dancer was on the Kentucky Derby trail in 2012 but had to be taken off due to an injury. He returned for a few starts last year before the injury flared up again.
DISCREET DANCER

Photo by Eclipse Sportswire
Discreet Dancer started his second career with New Vocations in late March of 2014. Discreet Dancer will be pairing up with 1980 Olympic show jumping rider Armand Leone for the America’s Most Wanted competition. Leone is currently the Chairman of the Board of the United States Equestrian Team Foundation and the Vice President of High Performance Activities at the United States Equestrian Federation in addition to practicing law in Glen Rock, N.J.
Coming into the competition after a year break from the track, Mad Bomber will show that Thoroughbreds are great for experienced Pony Club riders. Mad Bomber spent his whole career in New York and last raced on June 26, 2013 in a claiming race. After suffering an injury in that start, his owners retired him and started looking for a second career for him this spring after the injury was fully healed.
MAD BOMBER

Sixteen-year-old Hannah Gilhool entered the picture in June of 2014 at Steuart Pittman’s urging and will be preparing Mad Bomber for his new career. While Gilhool has trained young horses in the past and has qualified for Pony Club Nationals the past four years, Mad Bomber will be her first experience training an off-the-track Thoroughbred.
Perhaps the most well-known team in the competition, Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Graham Motion and his wife Anita Motion own Icabad Crane, who will be ridden by Phillip Dutton. Icabad Crane is in training for eventing and has already competed at a few events since entering Dutton’s program in November of 2013.
ICABAD CRANE

Icabad Crane the first horse to hit the board for Motion in an American classic, finishing third in the 2008 Preakness Stakes. The now-9-year-old raced for four seasons after that and won four stakes races in that time before retiring in August of 2013. Since going to Phillip Dutton’s barn, Icabad Crane has taken to eventing like a duck to water. Dutton knows how to prep novice eventing horses as he is a gold medalist and competes at the highest levels of the sport.
One of the more non-traditional competitors in the contest is Rikim. A 10-year-old gelding who made 75 starts and finished in the money 50 percent of the time, Rikim last raced on April 7, 2014. The gelding ran at 15 different tracks in his seven-year career, winning 12 races. Rikim entered training for his second career in May of 2014 and is currently one of Dale Simanton’s ranch horses, which is the discipline he will be showing off at the America’s Most Wanted Thoroughbred contest.
RIKIM

Simanton spent time as a jockey as a teen before getting his training license and successfully training both Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses.  Today, Simanton runs Gate to Great where he retrains Thoroughbred racehorses in western disciplines, however his horses have gone on to a variety of events in different disciplines.
The only horse who is still prepping for a career that stays in the realm of racing, So Outspoken will spend the competition time frame preparing for a new career in steeplechasing [jumps racing] after retiring from the flat races in December of last year. By Bernardini, So Outspoken made nine starts in his career and won one race. The gelding is trained by Jazz Napravnik, sister to jockey Rosie Napravnik, and will show fans how a horse transitions from flat racing to steeplechasing.
SO OUTSPOKEN

After winning one race in 17 starts, Saba Rock is now training to become a fox hunter. Saba Rock was given to Christy Clagett who had started the horse under saddle and had a soft spot for him. Today the 60-year-old trainer is preparing him for his new career. While Saba Rock last raced in March of 2013 he wasn’t retired until Pittman mentioned the RRP competition. That is when Clagett decided to turn him into a fox hunter.
SABA ROCK

Bought by Darley for $375,000 as a yearling, Now and Then had a lot of expectations placed upon him due to his price and his golden pedigree. While Now and Then started his career with a win his connections decided to retire him when he had a few injuries pop up so that he would be sound for a second career. He was sent to Nuno Santos, a former exercise rider who now runs a training and sales operation, after retirement. Santos started training Now and Then for dressage in April of 2014 and that will be their focus during the competition.
NOW AND THEN

Making 44 starts and earning over $140,000, D'Sauvage is one of the competition’s retirement newbies, racing for five seasons before retiring this year. D'Sauvage last raced at Laurel Park on March 29 of this year when his owners discovered that the horse had bled in the race. D'Sauvage is representing MidAtlantic Horse Rescue this summer with MidAtlantic’s Beverly Strauss training him for hunter classes.
D'SAUVAGE

D'Sauvage was given some time off after his retirement and was brought back into work in late May. Strauss knew D'Sauvage was the perfect horse for this project and while he will focus on becoming a showhorse, he will be trying a bit of everything to give him a good foundation.
POOKIE'S PRINCESS

Racing 16 times, Pookie's Princess only won once and didn’t seem to enjoy racing very much. But the mare seems to love her new speed-based career, quickly taking to barrel racing. Her owner Jackie Harris runs the Dreaming of Three organization and held a barrel racing training challenge for off-the-track racehorses called the ‘Ultimate X Showdown.’ She quickly decided she needed her own Thoroughbred after the challenge, and she and Pookie's Princess have teamed up with Patrick King. Fans can see how far the team has come since December by clicking here.
The smallest horse in the group, Its A Little Chili is also the newest to retirement. Standing at just 14.3 hands, Its A Little Chili made her last of eight starts on May 31, 2014. She only hit the board twice in her career, finishing third in March and April of this year. After her last start, racing owner Courtney Young decided to pull the plug on Its A Little Chili’s racing career and sold her to a polo player.
ITS A LITTLE CHILI

Viewers of the America’s Most Wanted Thoroughbred contest will be able to see how a racehorse transitions to a new career straight off the track with Its A Little Chili as she has just started her transition to polo pony with trainers Marisa Bianchi and Juan Carlos Garcia for this contest.