2005 Santa Anita Handicap Winner
April 5 - Rock Hard Ten
As I tell these stories associated with horses’ birthdays, last year the stories were typically about the horses and their connections. This year, I have wandered a little bit.
That's what I'm going to do on Rock Hard Ten. This past weekend was opening day at Keeneland and one of my longtime fans / friends drove down from Wisconsin for the weekend of races. Jody is known by many of her friends as Ruffian. She has a great knowledge of horse racing history. I know she also sponsors a few horses that have retired off the track.
When she gets to the Bluegrass, she spends all of her time either at the races, the morning works, or visiting farms to see as many of the stallions and mares as she can, remembering their racing careers. Did I mention she drove from Wisconsin for opening day at Keeneland?!!!
I saw her at the track Friday and as she and her friend, Blaze, were starting their drive back to Wisconsin. They drove to the my gallery in Georgetown. During the weekend, she was telling someone how she met me, which I frankly didn't remember. She told me about being on an airplane and reading a magazine and there was this picture of my painting of Rock Hard Ten. She sought me out because of it and bought the print of this painting. I had totally forgotten that it was this painting that started our friendship more than 16 years ago.
I thought about that a lot over the last couple days. I started thinking of the many friends that I have gained over the years because of my artwork. There is no doubt that the number is in the hundreds, and as with this painting of Rock Hard Ten. It's so often when I see someone I haven't spoken with in a long time, they will tell me what horse I was painting when we met at a racetrack.
Saturday in the my gallery, a family from Michigan came in. They were visiting the area mainly for a combo trip to Keeneland and the Horse Park. After a fun visit and of course a few stories for their entertainment, the mother said, "You have the dream job." I agreed, but then I thought about it and said, "Actually, I just have a dream . . . no job."
And you thought this was about Rock Hard Ten.
Rock Hard Ten was a massive, imposing colt who looked the part of a champion and ran like one in his finest moments. He was foaled in 2001, a son of the great Kris S. out of the mare Tersa. He raced for Jerry Moss and Mercedes Stables, the same powerful ownership group behind future Horse of the Year Zenyatta. Trained briefly by Jason Orman before going to Hall of Famer Richard Mandella, Rock Hard Ten was a giant of a horse who could make jaws drop just walking through the paddock.
Rock Hard Ten caught the racing world's eye as a three year old in the spring of 2004. He had only made his first start a couple of months earlier, but his connections were so impressed they pointed him toward the Preakness Stakes. Despite being lightly raced, the big colt ran a huge race in Baltimore and finished a courageous second to the unbeaten Smarty Jones. He skipped the Belmont Stakes but came back at the end of the year to win the Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita, his first Grade 1, with Gary Stevens in the saddle.
His best season was 2005, when he matured into one of the top older horses in California. Rock Hard Ten rolled to a powerful win in the Santa Anita Handicap, the Big Cap, one of the most prestigious races in the country for older horses. He followed it up with another Grade 1 victory in the fall, capturing the Goodwood Breeders' Cup Handicap at Santa Anita. He showed in those races that his combination of size, stride, and class could carry him with the very best handicap horses of his time.
After his racing career, Rock Hard Ten went to stud at Lane's End Farm in Kentucky. He sired several stakes winners during his time at stud, although he never quite became a top tier sire. He is remembered as one of the most physically striking horses of his era, a colt who turned heads in the paddock and then backed it up with three Grade 1 wins for Jerry Moss and Richard Mandella. Rock Hard Ten was the kind of horse fans always remember once they saw him in the flesh.
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