John Henry to Hear Sounds of Old Kentucky Home

Stall number 14 at the far end of trainer Ron McAnally’s barn is where he lives.

At least for a few more days.

In appearance, the stall is no different from any other at Santa Anita. Only its occupant makes it special.

By this time next week, however, that occupant will have left, and the steady stream of visitors who have stopped by during Breeders’ Cup week will no longer make the almost mandatory pilgrimage.

John Henry will have gone home. This time, for good.

Saturday’s $10-million Breeders’ Cup program has generated tremendous interest among horse racing fans, but the biggest cheer that afternoon--and certainly the most emotional moment--will be reserved for an 11-year-old gelding whose niche in the history of the sport is forever secure.

John Henry will be paraded in front of the fans in his farewell appearance in California. On Nov. 8, he’ll make a similar appearance at the Meadowlands in New Jersey, the site of his last race, and then he’ll head to his old Kentucky home.

Well, back to his old Kentucky home. This is the second retirement for thoroughbred racing’s all-time leading money winner. It was August of 1985 when he first was sent to the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, only to be brought out of retirement a few months later by his owners, Sam and Dorothy Rubin.

The Rubins felt John Henry was unhappy in retirement and put him back in training at Del Mar. Injured before he had a chance to race again, he was retired for good and has stayed in California simply to take part in Saturday’s ceremony.

Now that his days here are few, there have been emotional scenes in and around the McAnally barn as those who have been closest to John Henry during his spectacular career prepare, once again, to say goodby.

But, as McAnally, assistant trainer Eduardo Inda, groom Jose Mercado and exercise rider Lewie Cenicola all agree, this is the right thing to do. It’s what John Henry deserves.

“It’s been good to have him back for a short time even though he hasn’t been racing,” McAnally said Wednesday. “But, after all, you’ve got to think of his point of view, too.”

By that, he meant that John Henry is far better off running around a five-acre paddock in blue grass country than standing in a stall in California. McAnally feels John Henry will adapt to retirement. Like others, he’s not certain he should ever have been unretired.

“There was a lot of mixed emotions as far as that goes,” he said. “Sam wanted to bring him back. He said he wasn’t happy where he was. Maybe he was and maybe he wasn’t. Horses don’t talk. But the injury that he (later) had was enough for me to call Sam and say we’ve got to call it quits. I would have hated something to happen on the track. That would have really been bad.”

There was even some debate over whether John Henry would be able to take a curtain call this Saturday. At first, the word was that, yes, he could be paraded. Then it was no. Finally, it was decided that he’ll be allowed to walk along the stretch, turn in the winner’s circle and then walk back. All very low key.

“One of his problems is he ties (tenses) up a lot,” McAnally said. “We almost lost him on two occasions for that reason. He hasn’t been exercising enough to really do something like this, any really strenuous stuff.”

High-strung to begin with, the excitement of a large crowd and being back on the track could cause John Henry problems if not handled properly.

Kelso, for example, died of colic just hours after being brought back to his Maryland home after leading the post parade in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park in October, 1983. Admittedly, Kelso was 26, but the excitement is believed to have contributed to his death.

And so this week John Henry’s handlers have been working to prepare him for Saturday.

On Tuesday, Cenicola walked him around the barns, drawing joking comments from grooms and stable employees about the gelding’s girth. John Henry has added about 50 pounds since he stopped training.

Even Cenicola himself got into the act.

“Give me a little racing room here now, I’m trying out a big new horse,” he shouted, laughing.

And later: “If he gets loose, he’ll be ready for the Breeders’ Cup, we won’t have to worry.”

On Wednesday, John Henry was jogged on the track itself.

“He was good,” McAnally said. “He was bucking and playing a little bit, which is normal. But we came back (to the barn) and he was fine.”

Later in the day, Mercado walked John Henry from his stall to the receiving barn, then to the paddock and saddling ring and, finally, back to the barn. He behaved perfectly, in part because, on the advice of a veterinarian, he’d been given a small dose of tranquilizer.

Along the way from the barn, John Henry, the familiar shadow roll across his nose and blue wraps on each foreleg, paused frequently as usual to survey the scenery. Old habits never die.

Asked whether this was an emotional time for the McAnally stable, Cenicola replied: “In a way, yeah, but in a way, no, because I know it would be good for him to leave and go to the farm and relax.

“People say he didn’t like the farm, but I think the farm’s a better place for him because he gets to run in the paddock. If you just try to keep the horse in a stall all the time, I don’t think it’s worth it to him.

“I mean, he’s OK now, but if you had to leave him year in and year out, it’s not fair.”

John Henry does occasionally prick his ears when the call of the races echoes faintly across the barn area, but he seems content in retirement.

“He’ll keep his head out (of the stall door) and listen,” Cenicola said. “He’s always been a curious-type horse. But he’s smart. He knows he’s not racing.”

Cenicola, too, is not displeased that John Henry’s comeback attempt fell short.

“He didn’t have anything to prove,” he said. “He’d done it all. I don’t think it would have been fair to him. Not that he couldn’t have competed, but I think he would have got beat more times than he would have won.”

McAnally wouldn’t have liked that; not judging by his most pleasant memory of John Henry.

“I’ve never had so much confidence in a horse,” he said. “Occasionally, you have a good horse and you worry and fret about the competition and what the pace is going to be like and so on. With him, there wasn’t anything like that. I always saddled him with full confidence.”

Cenicola, now a trainer in his own right as well as being an assistant to McAnally, said he doubts he’ll see another horse like John Henry.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “They only come once in a lifetime. Like I said, I’m happy that I was involved, just to be with him.”

Inda, too, will miss seeing John Henry in the barn.

“Yes, for sure,” he said. “You get used to the horse so much and he’s been real good to us. He can’t be any better. He keep us very happy. We feel good when we had him here, then we lose him. Now I know we lose him for good. Now, that’s it.”

But Inda, like everyone else, believes the right thing is being done in sending John Henry home.

“That’s where John comes from,” he said, smiling. “He was born in Kentucky and he’s going back to Kentucky.”