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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Second son of Ferdinand moves to Old Friends

A second son of Ferdinand, the Kentucky Derby winner that was apparently sold for slaughter in Japan, is now living at Old Friends, the Thoroughbred retirement farm in Scott County between Midway and Georgetown.

Ferdinand’s Star, a son of the 1986 Derby winner and the Dare to Command mare Rose and Betty, is a 16-year-old gelding who was retired from racing after winning one of 10 starts. He was retrained for competitive dressage, then was donated to the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation "after he was no longer able to compete due to soundness issues," said a story in The Blood-Horse.

TRF send the horse to the Maker’s Mark Secretariat Center in 2008, where he was a lightly used school horse and a mascot for the facility, "but a tendon injury ended his career for the second time," the story said. "Before retiring to Old Friends, Ferdinand’s Star was briefly part of the equine rehabilitation program at Blackburn Correctional Complex near Lexington and also spent several months being 'clicker' trained by Kentucky-based artist and equine advocate Marti McGinnis. Ferdinand’s Star will spend his remaining years at Old Friends in a paddock alongside Bull Inthe Heather, another son of Ferdinand." (Read more)

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