As part of our mission to help grow the sport of horse racing, we want to reach as many people as possible and help develop new friends, fans, and participants. With our monthly newsletter, you can follow our horses, learn about the horse industry, and hear about efforts to bring more diversity to the sport of horse racing. Please feel free to share our newsletter and let others follow along on our journey as well. |
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As One Adds New Filly to Stable
Looking ahead to the New Year, the As One team wanted to continue the excitement of racing and add to its stable. To do so, it turned to the Keeneland Breeding Stock and Horse of Racing Age sales in November. After studying pedigrees, past performances, and inspecting numerous possible options, As One came away with Hip No. 4180 -- Big Brass Bed.
Big Brass Bed is a three year old chestnut filly by Nyquist out of the Smart Strike mare Precision Framing. That breeding should give her a good balance of speed and stamina and the opportunity to succeed on the track. She started her career under the watch of leading trainer Chad Brown. Finishing third in a maiden special weight at Gulfstream in her debut, she broke her maiden and got her first win in her second start at Monmouth Park in May. From there she progressed to compete in the Woodbine Oaks in July before getting a break in the Fall.
Our new filly heads to the barn of Brendan Walsh and has continued training at Palm Meadows in Florida. If all goes according to plan, she could make her debut in the As One silks early in 2024.
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Murphy's Gift Runs at Churchill |
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Our two year old filly with the special name followed up her September debut at Churchill Downs with another good effort last month. Murphy's Gift made her second start in a 1 1/16 mile race on the dirt against a field of strong two-year-olds on November 11, 2023.
Murphy's Gift showed progress in her second race under the ride of leading jockey Tyler Gaffalione. Quick out of the gate, Murphy's Gift stalked the leader down the backstretch and settled in nicely. Coming around the turn into the stretch, she pulled alongside the leader and was neck and neck at the top of the stretch. She battled on as others came from the back of the pack and tired just a bit at the end to finish sixth.
Overall, trainer Brendan Walsh and the As One team were pleased. The second start was another step forward and Murphy gave the As One partners a thrill as she vied for the lead at the top of the stretch. As noted in the official chart, she "pressed two wide, bid in the three path entering the lane, and dueled through the upper stretch."
Still growing, Murphy's Gift will now get a break to develop further and prepare for her three year old campaign in the Spring.
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Bipartisanship (GB) Finds a Beautiful New Home |
As noted in our last Newsletter, Bipartisanship (GB) was our young partnership's first purchase and has delivered everything we hoped for and more. She made her debut for As One in April at Keeneland in front of many of our partners, ran in the Grade 3 Gallorette Stakes on Preakness Day (3rd) , the President's Cup Stakes (1st), the Grade 3 Matchmaker Stakes on Haskell Day (4th), and the Ellis Park Turf Stakes (3rd). Bipartisanship ran every month over the summer and competed every time. She gave As One its first win and first stakes win and introduced many of our new partners to the thrill of racing.
She then introduced us to the business side of racing, where her value as a mare led As One to enter her in the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. She was a popular mare in the barns, attracting potential buyers from all over the world. In the end, she sold to John Muir's Milburn Creek in New South Wales, Australia where she will begin her breeding career.
Bipartisanship brought us many thrills in our inaugural year. While the As One partners were sad to bid farewell, they were pleased to see her go to wonderful new owners who are known for taking great care of their horses. It will be tough to not be able to visit her on the other side of the world, but a scan of the Milburn Creek website reveals that Bipartisanship is going to a beautiful place.
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Diversity in the Industry
New Documentary Profiles History of Black Horsemen
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Part of our mission at As One Racing is to help tell the history of the sport and highlight others who are doing so.
In November, Kentucky Educational Television debuted a new documentary doing just that -- The Legacy of Black Horsemen -- described by KET as follows:
The Legacy of Black Horsemen, an hour-long historical documentary, tells the stories of Black jockeys, trainers, owners, grooms, and exercisers in the 1800s whose contributions helped lay the foundation for the Thoroughbred industry. It is an era that paralleled slavery, the outbreak of the Civil War, and the ensuing segregation and Jim Crow laws that generations would face and overcome to be successful. Utilizing contemporary interviews, reenactments, historical photographs and paintings, the film highlights the Black horsemen who were instrumental in making Thoroughbred racing America’s first national pastime. The program is funded in part by the KET Endowment for Kentucky Productions.
You can see the insightful documentary at the link below. Watch closely and you even can see commentary from As One partner and founder Ronald W. Mack. More and more educational programs like this one from KET can only help efforts to grow the sport and bring more attention to the contributions of black horsemen along the way.
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