A ‘Joy Ride’ for Team Hardest Core

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Arlington Park Chairman Richard Duchossois and Andrew Bentley celebrate Hardest Core's victory in the Grade 1 Arlington Million on Aug. 16. (Photo by Four Footed Fotos/Arlington Park)
The Arlington Million is one of our most fabled and highly anticipated turf races.
This year, the usual pack of top-flight European and North American horses jetted in. But for Team Hardest Core, it was the overland route.
They drove all night from Coatesville, Pa. to Chicago — 13 hours total — to get Hardest Core to the million-dollar race. They are all longtime Chester County horse people — trainer Eddie Graham, barn manager/groom Brianne Slater, exercise rider/champion jump jockey Jody Petty and Keith Cooper, the van driver.
The travel itinerary didn’t faze Hardest Core. Piloted by a Parx Racing jockey, Eriluis Vaz, the handsome, dark bay gelding roared down the stretch to defeat five Group or Grade 1 winners, including reigning Breeders' Cup Turf winner Magician, to capture the 31st edition at Arlington Park on Aug. 16. With the victory Hardest Core earned an automatic berth, with a travel allowance, to the $3-million Breeders' Cup Turf at Santa Anita Park on Nov. 1.
And, that's just a slice of this hard to believe tale. Roll cameras.
In the compelling back-stories that often illuminate the horse racing world, few can match that of Hardest Core.
The 4-year-old gelding by 2007 Kentucky Derby runner-up Hard Spun is conditioned by steeplechase trainer Graham at Fat Chance Farm just outside of Unionville, Pa. where the colt battled for his life last fall. 
Greg and Caroline Bentley purchased the horse mainly as a steeplechase prospect at 2013 Keeneland November breeding stock sale for $210,000. Hardest Core was a 30th birthday present for the Bentleys' son Andrew, who was born with Down syndrome. Hardest Core races in the name of Andrew Bentley Stables.
ANDREW BENTLEY CELEBRATES THE ARLINGTON MILLION WIN

Photo by Eclipse Sportswire
In front of a crowd of 31,164, Hardest Core stunned the racing world with his scintillating victory in the 1 1/4-mile Million at Arlington. Closing outside from third off the turn with tremendous strides, Hardest Core (11.50-to-1) stormed down the stretch (a final quarter run in :23.79) to run down Side Glance, a Group 1 winner in Australia and 9-to-5 favorite Magician, winner of the 2013 Breeders' Cup Turf, in the final strides.
The Arlington Million was Hardest Core’s first time competing in a graded stakes. Displaying his impressive athleticism and a devastating turn of foot, Hardest Core earned a 117 Equibase Speed Figure.
“Vaz rode with total confidence in the Million, he believed the horse had a good shot to win,” said Graham, who has four steeplechase horses in training and two on the flat. “Arlington seems like a big galloping course and [Hardest Core] really liked it out there. He’s a very straightforward horse. He’ll let you know how he’s doing just by how he acts. We all joke and call him the big, strong beast.”
HARDEST CORE STREAKS CLEAR IN ARLINGTON MILLION

Photo by Eclipse Sportswire
The Bentleys live near Unionville, Pa., and Greg is the CEO of a highly successful software company in Exton, Pa. that produces solutions for the design, construction and operation of infrastructure.
The Bentley family has been involved in racing since the late 1990s, owning seven horses overall. The family currently has a two-horse, flat-racing stable — Hardest Core and the filly Giant Shadow, a daughter of Giant's Causeway who has won her last three races.
“Hardest Core came from a very conscientious trainer in Kiaran McLaughlin, who didn't run him a lot,” said Bentley, who earlier this year purchased the 550-acre Runnymeade Farm near the village of Gum Tree in Chester County, Pa.
“The idea was to give him a few more shots on the flat then turn him into a jumper. I guess the steeplechasing might have to wait for a while. He loves being turned out, feeling like a horse. Being around steeplechase horses over the years, you see how much they enjoy life on the farm.
“He’s a gentleman at all times, a very thoughtful horse. He’s got great composure, but also is tough-minded. Here at the farm it’s so much more relaxed compared to the racetrack. It definitely helps all our horses mentally, which in Hardest Core has translated to his success racing this year.”  
A former jump jockey and primarily a steeplechase trainer, Graham has elected to train Hardest Core at Fat Chance Farm and the Fair Hill Training Center leading up to the Breeders' Cup Turf, a 1 1/2-mile race that will feature some of Europe's top-class runners.
“There was some thought of a stakes race the end of September, but he had a pretty active summer racing so I decided to just keep him fit and happy on the farm,” Graham said. “Nothing bothers him, he’s just pure class. He’s doing really well. He thrives here.”
Still, the Arlington Million wasn’t Hardest Core's greatest triumph. Last November, he was gelded at the southern Chester County farm. Things went terribly wrong as the horse developed complications. Graham shipped the colt to the George D. Widener Hospital for Large Animals at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center, where surgeons had to cut out 18 feet of his intestines to save his life.
“I turned him out the day of his castration and he looked great, but later he looked like he was colicking,” said Graham, 43. “When I got to him in the field his intestines were coming out. It took seven people to help get him up and into a trailer. We weren’t sure he was going to get up, by some miracle he did and we got him over to New Bolton.
“I’m not sure any other horse would have made it, but he recovered. Three days after the surgery he was banging the feed tub against the wall, asking for more to eat. It was unbelievable. He is a remarkable horse with such a great disposition and a winning attitude.”
Rusty Carrier, a former steeplechase rider and trainer, discovered Hardest Core in the Keeneland catalog at the 2013 November sale and purchased the horse for the Bentleys. Carrier has an ownership stake in the gelding.
 When Carrier gave up training, he sent his horses to Paul Rowland who was undergoing treatment for Mesothelioma (lung cancer). Rowland was a transplanted Englishman who worked for trainer Michael Dickinson at Fair Hill Training Center in the 1980s. Unfortunately, Rowland died, but before he passed away he spoke with the Bentleys about Graham, his best friend, taking over Rowland’s horses.
EXCITEMENT BUILDING FOR TEAM HARDEST CORE
On a dazzling October morning, I walk into a small, vintage barn at Runnymeade Farm. There is Hardest Core munching on a meal with Giant Shadow and retiree “babysitter” Rainbows for Luck in nearby stalls. Rainbows for Luck triumphed in the Radnor Hunt Cup, a premier steeplechase race, in 2012.
Trainer Graham arrives and we walk Hardest Core out near a split-rail fence above a rushing stream. The Arlington Million winner grazes contently and mugs for a photographer. Graham talks about his friend Rowland.
AN IDYYLIC SETTING

Photo by Jane Conway
“We were friends for 15 years and he was like a brother to me,” recalled Graham, trying to keep his composure. “I think Paul is looking down watching all this success and just smiling and smiling. Like myself and countless other small trainers, he was a guy who trained seven days a week, caring for and doing his best for all his horses. Guys like [Todd] Pletcher and [Bob] Baffert, they get these big victories practically every month. For us little guys, it’s the dream of a lifetime. It’s why we get up each morning and come to the barn.”
The members of Team Hardest Core have been friends and racing rivals in the steeplechase world for nearly two decades. Graham, the son and nephew of steeplechase jockeys of the 1950s and 1960s, worked for highly touted steeplechase trainers Bruce Miller and Sanna Hendriks before hanging up his own shingle. His wife, Wendy, works as an official at Parx Racing.
Graham incorporates a steeplechase regimen into the conditioning of all of his horses. They start out jogging uphill or on roads for six weeks, no matter the weather, then start routine gallops.
“Hardest Core loves training on the farm and then gets turned out every day,” Graham said. “He trains on hills and gallops, basically like a European steeplechaser; that builds his endurance. The farther he goes racing, the better he is. Building the top end and the hindquarters. It’s just like training for the sport of cycling, giving him back-up muscles.”
GRAHAM AND HARDEST CORE

Photo by Jane Conway
Living up to his name, Hardest Core returned to racing for Graham and the Bentley family in June where he won a 1 1/16-miles allowance race on turf by three, easy lengths. He then scored a win in the Cape Henlopen Stakes, a 1 ½-mile turf race, again by three lengths, at Delaware Park on July 12. He notched a pair of impressive 109 Equibase Speed Figures in both contests. With Hardest Core in top form on the racetrack and in training, he was entered in the Arlington Million.
“I just went with my gut,” Graham said. “I looked at the Sword Dancer [Stakes at Saratoga Race Course], looked at the American St. Leger [at Arlington], all three races were tough, but thought a shorter field would be better.
“When he ran at Delaware Park, he ran his last half-mile in 47 [seconds] flat, and he wasn’t even being asked. He just has done everything right. We knew he was training well, even if he was going up in class. All he knew [going in] was that he had won three in a row. He doesn’t read the Racing Form, so he didn't know about the top-class field and he ran his race. He just gets the job done. He thinks he’s the boss.”
GRAHAM AND HARDEST CORE

Photo by Jane Conway
Bred in Kentucky by Mueller Farms out of the Housebuster mare Lillybuster, Hardest Core has never been worse than second in seven starts since his maiden victory. With the Million win, he improved his record to six wins and two seconds from 11 starts for earnings of $842,580.
Hardest Core’s sire is Hard Spun, bred and raised by Chester County’s Betty Moran and her son Michael. Hard Spun was a tough-as-nails colt, but had the tough luck of competing against the stellar crop of 3-year-olds in 2007 that included Horse of the Year Curlin, Kentucky Derby winner and champion Street Sense and Belmont Stakes-winning filly Rags to Riches. Owned by Wilmington resident Rick Porter, Hard Spun was consistently in the money and finished second in both the Kentucky Derby and the Breeders' Cup Classic.
Hard Spun’s big career win came in the Grade 1 King’s Bishop Stakes, a seven-furlong sprint, but don’t let that convince you he was only a sprinter. Both sides of Hardest Core’s family provide the gelding with speed and stamina.
After Hardest Core recovered from his surgery, the horse built a foundation of stamina through the winter and spring with strenuous gallops over the rolling Chester County terrain with champion jump jockey Jody Petty in the irons. Petty also started schooling Hardest Core over short obstacles at the farm. Petty says he will be in the saddle when the horse makes the transition to jumping fences.
Petty knows the feel of a good horse. He rode Hall of Fame steeplechaser McDynamo to three of his five wins in Breeders’ Cup Grand National and was the regular exercise rider for Animal Kingdom before the colt won the 2011 Kentucky Derby for trainer Graham Motion. It was Keith Cooper who drove him to Kentucky for the race.
PETTY ABOARD McDYNAMO

Photo courtesy of Sarah Andrew
“He’s a gentle giant who is like an old jumper, he does what you ask,” Petty said. “He was right where he needed to be heading into the Million. When he came off the turn and went flying by all those elite horses, it was an amazing feeling. But I've got to tell you, it’s so much harder being a spectator than a rider when you can make things happen.”
When asked about the feeling of breezing the horse, Petty broke into a broad smile.
“His stride is huge and he just floats over the ground,” he said. “You don't realize how fast he’s going, he does it so easy. He’s a bit of a freak with his size and the way he moves. He shouldn’t be as quick as he is. Going to the Breeders’ Cup, that’s insane, but he proved he belongs. We’ll be ready.”
Andrew Bentley works with his father at Greg's software company and is a huge racing fan.
“When he looks through the program he can spot a winner in many cases, and I’m just very proud of Andrew’s continued interest in racing,” his father said. “It’s just another example of believing in people and what they can accomplish given the chance.”
Andrew will be accompanying his parents and Team Hardest Core to Santa Anita, awaiting the race of a lifetime. 
A friendly, effusive young man, Andrew will bring his mantra for watching his family’s horses race: get excited, don’t get nervous.
"I think the longer distance of a 1 ½’mile will be in our horse's favor," said Caroline Bentley. “We will all be there counting our blessings.”