Rahy?s Attorney was a blue collar horse with a white collar bankroll.
On Tuesday, the 7-year-old gelding was retired from racing with earnings of $2.2-million, with 14 wins, 10 seconds and four thirds in 41 starts. But those are just numbers.
He has his own Facebook page. He?s the pride of a small group of owners, friends and relatives spread from Ottawa to Calgary. In the past couple of days, his Facebook account has bulged with notes from well-wishers from around the country.
On Saturday, Rahy?s Attorney ended his career with a typically gallant effort in the $500,000 Sword Dancer Stakes at Saratoga, in upper New York state, the summer mecca of the horse racing world, with an injury to his left front leg.
?What a big blow to a little stable,? said part-owner and breeder Joe MacLellan.
With Woodbine jockey, Emma-Jayne Wilson aboard, he set a lively pace and when the stretch runners swelled up behind him at the head of the stretch, he marched on, very unwilling to let them by. In the final strides, Winchester sailed past, but not easily and Rahy?s Attorney finished second, trying hard until the final step.
?He ran a huge race,? said trainer Ian Black, who watched Rahy?s Attorney win honours as Canada?s top male turf horse in 2008, the year he won the $1-million Woodbine Mile against the best horses in the world.
?Apart from the Woodbine Mile, that was one of the bravest, best races he?s ever run,? Black said. ?It looked as though they were getting to him and going to pass him, but he just said: ?No.? That?s the type of horse he is.?
There?s no telling where this sort of spirit comes from. Obviously, it doesn?t come from the price tag they bring in a sales ring. Joe MacLellan, now retired from his accounting job with the Treasury Board in Ottawa and wife Ellen, now also retired from her job with Health Canada, bred their mare, Rahy?s Hope to Crown Attorney, which stood for a fee of only $3,000. Crown Attorney had been a stalwart for the stable of their friends, Anthony and Mary Lamb and had won a cascade of top stakes races and close to $1-million while racing at Woodbine.
Then the MacLellans (known as Elle Boje Stable) sold a half-interest in Rahy?s Attorney for $4,000 in his early days. He?s now also owned by MacLellan?s mother, Jean, former president of the Canadian Figure Skating Association, his brother, James, and friends Mitch Peters and Dean Reid of Calgary.
They hoped only to have a horse that could win a few races at Woodbine. He turned into much more.
But it all ended on Saturday and most people watching the race missed the drama. ?I didn?t even realize it had happened, until I went down to meet Emma,? Black said. But pulling up down the backside, he had taken one bad step and then another one. Wilson sensed something wrong and pulled him up. He was vanned off the track.
Back in the grandstand, his owners knew nothing of what had happened. They knew only that the horse had not returned to the unsaddling area in front of the grandstand. He had pulled up on the backstretch and they could not see him past a large tote board in the infield. They heard only Black being told to get into a van.
?It was not a good scene,? MacLellan said.
?He got off the van fine, and he cooled out,? Black said. ?But he looked like he might have been walking a little slightly short on his right side. He got better as he cooled out and he cooled out quickly. He did everything right.?
MacLellan said the horse showed only a slight limp while being cooled out and the veterinarians couldn?t really tell which leg was ailing him.
boston bankruptcy attorneys boston bankruptcy lawyer bankruptcy attorney boston
