Pedigree Query

Hi!
Someone posted to the retraintb yahoo group about help getting track photos so I thought I'd give it a whirl.
My gelding's name is Red Valor. He was foaled in 1995. He's been with me for five years. I do have his pedigree from the Jockey Club and I've found one winner's cirlce photo online at the Imperio Stables website, but it is low quality. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Erin

Hi there,

it appears that you have five options for getting a win photo from your horse's past successes.

Listed below are the dates and tracks on which he won.


March 26, 1998 Aqueduct Race Track, NY

April 13, 1998 Aqueduct Race Track, NY

June 21, 1998 Belmont Park, NY

November 28, 1998 Aqueduct Race Track, NY

June 23, 1999 Rockingham Park, NH


With those dates and his registered name you should have little or no trouble obtaining win photos of full quality and suitable for framing. Cost might be $15 to $22 per.

Finally, if I were in your shoes, I would first attempt to buy the photo from June 21, 1998 at Belmont Park because, at least once a year, it is rather fun to know and prove that your horse won at Belmont.

You might first contact the New York tracks at www.nyra.com and ask them to put you in touch with the track photographer.

(The one you've seen is probably Nov. 28, 1998, and from that you can get a sense of what the others at Aqueduct might look like, or how they might be arranged)

I hope this helps you.

Rockingham is a harness track now - they may not still have the photo records from their TB days. There'd certainly be no harm in asking, though.

Thank you so much for the quick reply! I will definitely start hunting down the contact info for the track photographers. Just out of curiousity, why is it more exciting that he won a race at Belmont? I don't know a lot about racing so that bit kind of went over my head!!
Erin

LOL - oh boy...

Well, every year they have the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes. If someone wins all three of them, they have won the Triple Crown of horse racing.

Nobody has won the Triple Crown since 1978, but in several of the past 10 years a horse has won the Kentucky Derby and The Preakness, and went to Belmont Park with a chance to make history.

Perhaps you heard of Smarty Jones, in 2004, who went to Belmont Park for "the test of champions" and ended up losing narrowly in "The Belmont Stakes".

Anyway, that should make it clear why "Belmont Park" is a picture that you should go for, in the absence of other criteria by which to select one photo over the others.

But pick any of them you like, it was just an idea.

And about Rockingham Park. There is a reasonable chance that the track photographer there is the same one as at Suffolk Downs in Boston, as they made a circuit with one another. Also, because that win was fairly recent, there is every chance that the people at Rockingham will have a path through which they can get you in touch with that photo.

Good luck with it all.

I thought that was why, but wanted to hear it from someone else!! Since I've had Red, I have watched some of the major races just to see what his life before me was like. I did watch the Breeder's Cup this past time around and the races for the Derby, Preakness and Stakes. I know the last place he raced was at Suffolk for Ron Dandy. That was the race he fractured his sesamoid.
Thanks a lot for all your help. It is really appreciated!
Happy Holidays,
Erin

Hi again,

Actually, the last place he raced was at Rockingham Park, on July 5, 1999, so perhaps the one picture you could get from Rockingham would be bittersweet for that reason. His last race at Suffolk had been a month earlier, on June 5.

You spoke of the Breeders' Cup, well you probably caught on very early that it, too, was at Belmont Park (this year). So y'see, Belmont Park has some importance on the grand scheme of things.

Let us know if you obtain pictures.