Aylward

Tomorrow I'll transport this big fellow to his new job as a stallion at a breeding farm near Cassville, Missouri down near the Arkansas border. Al continues to be a lucky horse as I think he'll be in superb hands, and I myself will look forward possibly to one of his foals.

Yet, taking a horse away from home that's been with you this long is a little like taking your kid to college. They're moving on to better things, but it sure seems otherwise.

Al was one of those class horses that due to circumstances never show what they can do, at least to the rest of the world. I saw Al's talent every day, and for his modest record on the track the blame was none of his.

We finally got things together for Al as a five year old at Eureka. I still visualize the horse tearing around that track in 2000 getting such lift from his powerful rear end after I'd finally recognized after three years that this horse needs toe grabs.

Al that year won a training race, finished second, then two more wins and 2000 was looking like the year of our coming out party. After the last one I took him back home to the farm as a reward, and then that terrific thud from lower barn, and Al stood there with a busted nose. He'd been kicked just at his very height. .

We took Al to the University where he received a $3000.00 nose job. And the next year he was ready again, but this time it was me that was kicked on the first day of the meet. Al never made it back to the races till 2003, and after his first win the bad luck thing came again which I'll avoid describing because I'm still smoking about it.

Al as a two year old was broken in the field pictured below by the son of Russia's Olympic equestrian team who was visiting KC. This fellow announced to me that Al would be a champion. To me, regardless of his race record, he was. Al went out there through some of the toughest training a horse would get almost every available day for eleven years. He gave it everything every day.

There's lots of horses like that, I'm sure. When they're your own, they're special.

Al is in his normal position at the head of the herd,