An Owner’s Faith Is Shared : Lame Colt, Back on Track, Pays Off for Needy
Harness racer Fred Pratt of San Juan Capistrano likes to tell the story about a colt named Malibu Beach who pulled up lame in training when only a yearling.
“The trainer wanted to destroy him,” said Pratt, who owned the colt and its mother. Instead, Pratt decided to put the horse through rehabilitation at a horse hospital.
It was an expensive investment. But Pratt likes to gamble if he thinks he has a winning edge. Besides, he was too chicken to destroy young Malibu Beach, he said. Pratt vowed that if the colt ever won a race, he would donate a quarter of the winnings to the St. Vincent de Paul Society Food Center in Orange.
At Malibu Beach’s first meeting a month ago, the colt came in first twice and second once, showing no visible signs of the leg injury.
Malibu Beach has brought in $1,600 so far to help feed Orange County’s needy during the holidays. And more is possible when the colt returns from Canadian race tracks in January to compete at Los Alamitos Race Course.
Pratt, 41, a real estate developer, said he chose the food center as a beneficiary because he does volunteer work there and is a member of its board.
“As far as the donation to the food center, I did it because they’re always involved in feeding the poor. And I thought that it was just going to be a miracle, or something close to that, that the horse would ever race. . . .”
Part of Malibu’s rehabilitation included a halter around his flanks to prevent him from lying down and reinjuring a broken right hind ankle bone.
“The problem was in getting up and putting stress back on the leg and injuring it again,” Pratt said.
After therapy at a second horse clinic, Malibu was ready to compete. In his first race at Los Alamitos a month ago, Malibu Beach, a 20-to-1 shot, won. In subsequent races Malibu came in second and won, the latter in a little more than 2 minutes flat.
Pratt said exceptional harness horses can cover the same distance, a mile, in 1 minute, 52 seconds. “Malibu did this in only his third race. Just the fact that the horse got there at all was exciting for me,” Pratt said.
“I guess somebody upstairs is helping out because the horse runs faster. We’ll see when he gets back to Los Alamitos whether or not he’s a flash in the pan.”
The St. Vincent de Paul food center has had other unusual donors who have helped raise the center’s annual budget to $354,000, director Daniel Harney said.
“But none with the faith that Pratt had in the horse,” Harney said.
The food center has operated only two years but already is the largest in Orange County, and on Nov. 8 distributed its 10-millionth pound of food.
The center acts as a clearinghouse for 179 nonprofit agencies throughout Orange County, helping to feed about 90,000 residents.
