Rush Rush at the 2004 Keeneland September Yearling Sale - Joe D'Orio Photo

One night, in 1955, my dad is sitting in a bar in Glendale, California, having a post-softball game beer with his teammate, Ed Deter. The subject turned to horseracing, as it most often does when a Feld is present.

Deter said, “Jack, have you ever thought about owning a horse?”

Believe it or not, the thought had never really crossed Dad’s mind. He loved to go to the races, but he also went to the World Series every year, played softball twice a week, was the Boy Scout master at St. Bernard’s Catholic Church and had a day job as a structural steel engineer for United States Steel.

“Sounds interesting,” Dad said. “Tell me more.”

“My aunt is a trainer at Agua Caliente, Deter said. “She bought a two-year-old out of the L.K. Shapiro dispersal. He is three thousand bucks. I really want to buy him but I need a partner. You’re the only guy I know with the money and the love of the game.”

“I’m in,” Dad replied. “I’ll give you a check right now.” (He always kept at least one in his wallet.)

At a later trip to the bar, the men would design their silks – brown jacket (Deter’s favorite color), blue sleeves (Dad’s favorite color) and a white diamond with a blue, stylized, lower-case ” df ” that Dad drew on a cocktail napkin.

The colt, who Shapiro cleverly named Rush Rush (by Count Speedout of Quicklime), raced several times for the partnership, finishing in the money a few times, but never winning.

Around the same time, Dad proposed to Mom, and later on expressed to her his desire to have a large family.

“You can have kids or horses,” Mom told him. “You can’t have both.”

Rush Rush would have to go.

Dad sold his interest to some of trainer Mary G. Ellis’s other clients, who would win with Rush Rush as he matured and the distances increased. The California-bred even set a track record for a mile and nine-sixteenths at old Rillito Park. He wasn’t the greatest horse that ever lived by any stretch of the imagination, but in our family, he was a legend.

We painted pictures of him in school, drew his likeness on my Dad’s birthday cakes, and we bought Dad blue and brown sweaters, blue and brown shirts and blue and brown neckties for Father’s Day and Christmas, all in honor of Rush Rush.

This little known horse, who ended up running in $900 claiming races in New Mexico, spawned three generations of racegoers, with no doubt countless more to come.

Almost half a century later, my brother Bob and I came across a More Than Ready colt at the 2004 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. We both really loved his presence. He had a great walk and was very correct. We were ecstatic when the hammer fell to Bongo Racing Stable at $100,000.

Bob had secretly saved the name Rush Rush with the Jockey Club, waiting for a special horse to honor our father and our family mascot.

“I think we should name the More Than Ready colt Rush Rush,” he said to me during an afternoon phone call. “I got a feeling he’s gonna be a good one.”

I had that feeling too.

One night, when friends Mike and Michelle Penna came out to the farm for dinner, Mike mentioned that he really wanted to buy a piece of a racehorse.

“Look out the back door,” I said. “That’s the horse you should buy. He’s a running son of a gun and handsome sucker to boot. I love him.”

The Pennas went out and spoke to the colt who would become the next Rush Rush and when they came back in, Mike said, “I’m in!”

Five wins and $210,000 in earnings later the current Rush Rush has been a joy to all of his owners, but the Mike Machowsky trainee could step into a different dimension on Saturday, when he takes on some of the best turf marathoners in the country in the Hollywood Turf Cup (G1). It is a tall order, but there is reason for optimism.

“Machowsky says the horse is doing better than ever,” Bob told me. “I think Victor Espinoza really knows how to ride this horse and we were lucky enough to get him. We all thought Rush Rush could have won the Sunset Handicap (G2) with a better trip. This field is a little deeper, but we know he likes the course and can get the distance.”

If Rush Rush wins the Grade 1, it would be a 53-year dream come true for everyone in our family and a very special victory for Bongo Racing Stable.

Majormotionpicture fires a game effort in his racing debut at Del Mar - Benoit Photo

Bongo is looking for the fireworks to continue this summer "Where the turf meets the surf!"

Arcadia, California - Bongo Racing Stable has started 55 times in the first half of 2008, winning 14 races, finishing second nine times and third nine times. That gives the syndicate a 25% win percentage and an in-the-money percentage of 58% prior to the All-Star break.

Our trainers have done a magnificent job with our horses and Bongo Racing looks forward to continued success with our loyal partners as we race an exciting stable of live horses at Del Mar.

Bongo's Sun Boat (GB) - John Edwards Photo

Saratoga Springs, New York - Renowned artist Susan Sommer-Luarca of Springfield, Missouri, spent Travers afternoon putting the finishing touches on a painting titled “Travers” in the paddock area prior to the 138th running of the historic horse race at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Saturday, Aug. 25.

The truly amazing thing about the painting is that it depicts Bongo Racing Stable’s Sun Boat (GB), as he wins the San Diego Handicap (G2) at Del Mar, super-imposed on a backdrop of the Saratoga grandstand - artistic license at its finest!

The spectacular ”larger than life” painting can be purchased for $20,000 plus a $5,000 donation to the Disabled Jockey’s Fund.

Ms. Sommer-Luarca is known globaly for her nature murals, especially the ones commissioned by the Bass Pro Shops across the United States. She has provided official paintings for the PGA Tour and will be an official Olympic artist for the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.

Sommer-Luarca's "Travers" painting next to Sea Hero's statue in the paddock garden at Saratoga - John Edwards Photo

Sun Boat coasting to his San Diego (G2) victory under Michael Baze - Benoit Photo

Del Mar, California - Under a perfect ride from talented young jockey Michael Baze, Bongo Racing Stable, Capen and Tjosvold’s Sun Boat captured the mile and one sixteenth San Diego Handicap (G2) stopping the clock in 1:45.39 over the Poly Track.

Breaking from the outside, Baze reserved the British-bred son of Machiavellian until the half-mile pole until he allowed Sun Boat to gain ground on his own. Sitting behind a wall of horses nearing the quarter pole, Baze shot Sun Boat through a narrow opening straightening in the stretch and drew away to win by a length over Awesome Gem. Salty Humor finished third, followed in order by Raise the Bluff, Heat Seeker, Arson Squad, Soul City Slew, the 3/2 favorite Buzzard’s Bay and C’mon Tiger.
“The last time I rode him, I didn’t know him so well,” said Baze. “It turned out he wasn’t a big fan of the right-hand stick. I hit him left handed that day, and he responded; but when I switched to the right, he changed leads ‘cuz he didn’t like it and I got beat a nose.

“So today I wasn’t going there again, but the way he exploded when he turned for home, it didn’t matter. This was a way better race for him. There was dramatic improvement. Even galloping out he was still strong. I think he’ll like that mile and a quarter (Pacific Classic (G1)) even better.”

Interviewed before the race by TVG’s Christina Olivares, trainer Mike Mitchell indicated that between the six pound weight shift Sun Boat received from Buzzard’s Bay and the fact that he breezed so well over the Poly Track might be enough to turn the tables on the millionaire favorite. Mitchell reiterated his opinion post race.

“He just ran super,” Mitchell said. “The six pounds is great, but he just blew out so nice over this track and I was so happy with the way he worked on it and the way he galloped out. I’ve worked a bunch of horses on this track, and he’s handled it better than anybody else has handled it. It looked like Michael had plenty of horse, he moved in time and, when it opened up, he got through. That was great because he didn’t have to go around anybody.”

With his San Diego (G2) victory, Sun Boat improved his record to 12-4-3-1 and his bank account to $314,345, most of it for Bongo Racing Stable and partners. He paid $15 to win, $7.20 to place and $5.00 to show.

Bongo Racing Stable’s Mananan McLir, owned in partnership with Mike Atkinson and Carl Van Berger, followed stablemate’s Sun Boat’s victory with one of his own in Del Mar’s nightcap. Also trained by Mitchell and masterfully ridden by Baze, the son of Royal Academy mounted his patented closing charge to win in a waltz, covering the mile and one eighth in 1:49.42 over the firm Jimmy Durante turf course. He returned $7 to win, $4.40 to place and $3.20 to show.

The Bongo-Mitchell-Baze late daily double returned $32.80 – much less than the $52.50 parlay price – indicating the Bongo partners and their friends hammered the combination.

Debie Ginsburg - CTBA Photo

By Kevin Modesti

Horse racing, and horses, lift the heart as sure as they break it.

What’s true of all sports, and many sportsmen, is truer of a game in which animal athletes serve people as mute symbols of devotion and destiny, living symbols worth more than their 1,200 pounds in gold.

When the seemingly inevitable news came that Barbaro had lost his fight for life Monday, the jolt was harder for those who watched racehorses grant new life only two days earlier.

I’m thinking of an extraordinary Saturday at the races, the afternoon of a multi-million-dollar event known as the Sunshine Millions, whose unique format matches horses bred in California and Florida on a card split between Santa Anita and Gulfstream Park.

At Gulfstream, a filly named Shaggy Mane, whose old owners showed what they thought of her prospects by letting her go for $12,500 at a Northern California fairground, won a $250,000 race. New life. And this was just an appetite-whetter in a banquet of miracles.

Fifteen minutes later at Santa Anita, a gelding called Smokey Stover won the biggest race of his career and made a winner again of Harry Aleo, an 87-year-old one-time Dodgers minor league pitcher whose time in the spotlight as a horse owner had seemed to end when the national-champion sprinter Lost in the Fog was killed by cancer.

New life. And more to come.

Not a half-hour later at Gulfstream, the old California-bred horse McCann’s Mojave, a 33-1 long shot on the tote board, won the $1 million marquee race of the day, putting $550,000 in the pocket of his owner Mike Willman.

Even in the press box – especially in the press box – it was an emotional scene, because Willman is Santa Anita’s publicity director. When friends rushed to congratulate Willman, they found him in tears in his press-box office, in front of the TV showing his horse.

“I’ve been through a divorce,” Willman said in a surreal press conference in which the emcee also starred. “I’m trying to raise two little boys. My life has been a nightmare since last summer. (The prize money) stabilizes things greatly for me and my boys.”

New life. And still, the day was not over.

Long after the last Sunshine Millions race, in a Santa Anita sprint for horses seeking their first win, a 3-year-old filly going by the name Debie Ginsburg rallied from mid-pack to win her competitive debut in a photo finish at 11-1 odds. Debie Ginsburg was re-named in honor of an admired writer for the California Thoroughbred magazine who died in June at 51. Ginsburg’s family, friends and co-workers led a bittersweet celebration in the winner’s circle.

“Some people believe naming horses for people is bad luck,” Bob Feld, managing partner among the filly’s owners said. “Some people say, `Never change a horse’s name.’ I was defying superstition on two counts.”

Feld got to know Debie the writer when she interviewed him for an article on how owners name their horses. Debie never put the article on paper, always had more urgent work to do, and Feld used to tease her about it. After she died following a short illness, Feld thought this would be a fitting honor, and Debie’s family in Fresno said they’d be delighted.

New life. Every time Debie Ginsburg runs.

“They really feel Debie is still living through the horse,” Feld said from his Monrovia home.

What contrast.

Barbaro is gone now. The Kentucky Derby winner was euthanized Monday morning in Pennsylvania after one last medical setback in the colt’s battle against his Preakness injuries led to discomfort too dramatic to medicate away.

Barbaro’s owners, Roy and Gretchen Jackson (he a former president of baseball’s Pacific Coast League), and his chief vet, Dr. Dean Richardson, gave him every chance for these past 254 days to overcome the original fracture and related hoof conditions. But to watch the colt walk on that splinted leg was to know he would never lead the life of the normal retired racing star, let alone stand sturdy enough to contribute the bloodline of the most convincing Kentucky Derby winner in 60 years to the improvement of the breed.

On the first Saturday in May, in front of the second-largest crowd in Churchill Downs history (157,000), Barbaro had kept his record perfect (6 for 6), winning the Derby by 6 lengths (the most since Assault), blowing through the last quarter-mile in 24.34 seconds (the fastest since Secretariat). On top of the objective measures of his potential greatness, Barbaro carried the aura of destiny. His trainer, Michael Matz, had been blessed before, the life-saving hero of the 1989 United Airlines crash in Sioux City, Iowa.

Barbaro’s Triple Crown promise, his veterinarian thinks, begins to account for the national following he achieved as a medical marvel.

“It think the horse was loved because he was a great athlete, and people love greatness,” Richardson said in Kennett Square, Pa. “That and the story of his bravery. Those two things, probably.”

Bob Feld, gladdened by Debie Ginsburg’s victory on that fairy-tale day at the races, was struck by the sport’s emotional swing from Saturday to Monday.

“It was a heroic effort,” Feld said of the attempt to save Barbaro. “This (death) is one of those stark realities of racing. The highs and lows are just incredible.”

Horse racing, and horses, give and take away. Sports’ swiftest circle of life is an oval.