Passailed to retire (again)

I got a call from Pat Chella, owner of Passailed. You may remember Passailed from a July horse profile in Hoof Beats. He's the Abercrombie horse who retired for six years to become a sire in Quebec, then came back to the track. Here's the story:

http://www.ustrotting.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=32772&z=43

Chella told me that Passailed had been racing competitively at Northfield Park. (In fact, I had seen him race live on Oct. 29 when I was there. He had the 8-hole and was 55-1, but I bet him anyway because I would have kicked myself if he had hit the board.) Thus far he's raced 26 times in 2009 with three wins and more than $13,000 in purses.

Passailed is going to retire from the track again, Cello said. This time he was purchased by Dr. Guy Hammond and will stand at Steuben Farms in Bath, N.Y, for $750. Passailed will have a send-off ceremony at Batavia Downs on Saturday, Nov. 28, and will go to Dr. Hammond's farm after that.

"I'm excited," Chella said. "I always thought he had some good stud potential. He's still got a lot of horses racing at Flamboro."

Passailed is an Abercrombie out of an Albatross mare, so here's hoping he brings to New York some more of the success that made that golden cross famous.

"Some of these grassroots guys on the fair circuit and in the late-closers need horses they can afford and Passailed fits that bill really nice," said Hammond. "He's a 13-year-old workhorse and that's what these guys on the fair circuit are looking for."

Have a happy Thanksgiving! TJB

Happy Birthday Ken

I hope you will all join me in wishing Happy Birthday to Ken Weingartner, my wonderful co-worker at Harness Racing Communications.

Ken is one of those people you feel lucky to know—who makes your day brighter. Our relationship is made even better by the fact that as much as we both love harness racing is as much as we also love the Philadelphia Phillies, and every year we make it a point to hit Citizens Bank Park for a Phillies game.

Ken is a terrific writer and more prolific than most of us can imagine. Be it Web stories, his weekly Web column, Hoof Beats stories, his great “Foal Patrol” series, we can always count on him to give us quality and quantitiy. Look for yet another Weingartner feature in the January issue of Hoof Beats on Lucky Jim. I know he will do a great job, as usual!