Requiem for the 7 Dead Horses of Kentucky Derby Week

1. Freezing Point (nicknamed Snowball)

Her voice falters and tears threaten to follow, but Randy Gootzeit wants you to know how a burly gray colt nicknamed Snowball brought some horse lovers back to the track, and how she broke their hearts.

Snowball, known on the course as Freezing Point, had a fatal breakdown at an undercard race at Churchill Downs on May 6, becoming the seventh horse to die in an agonizing eight days leading up to the Kentucky Derby. The deaths, so far unexplained, have clouded this year’s Triple Crown and once again raise questions about the safety of the animals as the sport prepares for Saturday’s Preakness Stakes in Baltimore.

But for Gootzeit and her trainer Joe Lejzerowicz, the problems in horse racing are just a backdrop to their personal grief.

“We did everything we could to save him, but we couldn’t,” said Gootzeit. “We miss him terribly.”

Gootzeit, 71, lives near Phoenix. She galloped and trained horses in the 1970s and 1980s at Belmont Park, but left the racecourse to return to school and become a physical therapist. She works on people, but also has applied what she learned to horses.

She hadn’t given much thought to returning to the game until she talked to Lejzerowicz about buying a 2011 Volkswagen from him. An experienced trainer, he had learned his horsemanship under Hall of Fame trainer Allen Jerkens and had spent over 30 years working in barns from New York to California. Lejzerowicz was also in Phoenix, where he sold cars and took a break from sports while learning to deal with Ménière’s disease, an inner ear condition that causes severe dizziness and ringing in the ears.

He and Gootzeit instantly connected. Their love of horses made them friends, but it was their shared view of how to treat the animals that made them business partners: don’t push them, keep them healthy, choose rest over medication.

“We came out of the pandemic and obviously no one’s timeline was guaranteed,” Gootzeit said, “I told Joe it was time to bet on ourselves.”

With Gootzeit bringing in a bankroll of just $20,000, it took the pair some time to get back into the sport. They lashed out at three auctions before Lejzerowicz fell in love with it No. 954 at the Ocala, Florida, 2-year training sale last June. The foal was balanced, muscular and declared perfectly healthy by a vet.

They certainly thought they couldn’t afford him.

“He’s perfect, but we don’t have a snowball chance to get him,” Lejzerowicz told Gootzeit.

Lejzerowicz was so confident that their electronic bid would be beaten that he was taking a nap in his truck when someone knocked on the door and told him the foal was his for $13,000.

The pair took time with the colt, whose legal name was Freezing Point (a nod to his father, Frosted), to sort out his eccentricities and admire his work ethic.

“He was a bit of a hothead,” said 53-year-old Lejzerowicz. “He was playful. I’d shake my finger at him and he’d try to push him back to me.

Lejzerowicz took Snowball to Keeneland in Kentucky to get him race-ready. Gootzeit came by every few weeks to help train and care for the foal. Winning once in three tries as a 2-year-old, Snowball began to attract attention from outfits with deeper pockets. Gootzeit turned down offers of $150,000, $480,000 and, after Snowball finished third in the Lafayette Stakes last month, $600,000.

One of Gootzeit’s mentors had advised her years earlier to only accept an offer for a horse if the money was life-changing. This was a lot of money, but Snowball was already life-changing.

The gray colt had reconnected her to some of her happiest times and offered her a chance to apply her knowledge of physical therapy and test her theories about what makes a happy horse.

In Lejzerowicz she had not only found a friend, but also a rider who shared her values. “We loved the horse too much to leave it to anyone else,” said Gootzeit.

And that’s why the pair were in Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May. A few hours before the Derby, they saw their horse run in the $500,000 Pat Day Mile Stakes.

They watched from the railing near the winner’s circle. Snowball broke cleanly from the starting gate, but within a quarter of a mile Gootzeit and Lejzerowicz recognized their horse was in distress.

“His head was in the air,” said Gootzeit. “It swung to the left. It swung to the right. Something happened. I knew something bad had happened.”

Within 30 minutes, Snowball was diagnosed with a broken bone in his left front ankle. Within an hour, Gootzeit and Lejzerowicz said goodbye to him in tears. After the foal was euthanized, the vet passed on a locket of his mane as a talisman.

Snowball will never be replaced, but the pair will continue. They are looking for another solid thoroughbred whose talent they can help to emerge.

“We will not let ourselves be knocked out of the game,” said Gootzeit. “We want to pass fair and decently and give our horses the love and respect they deserve. “

2. Game on ice

3 year old gelding

Injury to his left hind leg during training and was euthanized

The jockey of this feisty, Texas-bred horse, Ken Tohill, has won more than 4,100 races, but the gelding’s victory in the Sunland Derby in March was his first in a graded stakes race. At the age of 60, Tohill would become the oldest rider in Derby history. “A gift,” Tohill described Wild on Ice one morning last month. He continued: “He’s been well bred and his talent is starting to show.”

3. Code of Kings

3 year old gelding

Flipped in his paddock and broke his neck

This son of Empire Maker was promising enough to make his Saratoga debut, but he failed to deliver on his promise, finishing no higher than fifth in six starts. Code of Kings was saddled when, according to his trainer, he became enchanted by party lights in a DJ booth and flipped once, twice, and finally a fatal third time.

4. Parental pride

4 year old filly

Collapsed and died on April 29 during the eighth race at Churchill Downs

This filly had won two in a row and tripled her purchase price with over $153,000 in earnings. She was the second betting pick at odds of 2-1 and had Churchill’s lead rider, Tyler Gaffalione, on board. Parents Pride was a comfortable second in the back stretch when suddenly Gaffalione pulled her up. She was thrown from the racecourse, collapsed and died in Churchill’s back.

5. Pursue Artie

5 year old gelding

Collapsed and died on May 2 after finishing the eighth race, in which he finished last

This versatile gelding achieved victories on grass and dirt. He believed in Albin Jimenez two summers ago at Monmouth Park when the jockey rode him as a last-minute replacement. “It was a good surprise to tackle this mountain,” said Jimenez. “I said, ‘Great. Let’s get the money.’” They did and earned the check for first place in the My Frenchman Stakes.

Chasing Artie was trained by Saffie Joseph Jr., just like Parents Pride. Churchill and the state regulators refused to allow Joseph’s colt Lord Miles to race in the Derby.

“It crushes you. It affects your self-confidence, it makes you doubt everything,” Joseph said of the deaths.

6. Take charge Briana

3 year old filly

Was injured and fell during a May 2 race and was euthanized

This filly was bred by Willis Horton, a rancher and builder who passed away last year. She was trained by his old trainer, Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas: “He had a great eye for a horse himself and he understood the game,” Lukas said at the time of Horton’s death last year. “He was game and he wasn’t afraid to step up and spend money on a good horse.”

Take Charge Briana was ridden by Luis Saez, the same jockey who was on Chasing Artie.

7. Chloe’s dream

3 year old gelding

Broke down in race two on Kentucky Derby day and was euthanized

Chloe’s Dream is named after the daughter of a Brook Smith business partner who runs the Rocket Ship Racing syndicate. Smith and his wife, Pam, are involved with the Backside Learning Center in Churchill, which offers education and welfare programs for racetrack workers and their families. Rocket Ship donates 10 percent of its profits to the center. Smith took Chloe and her family to the paddock where he said Chloe’s Dream looked “beautiful”. When the gelding stumbled out of the first turn, Smith said he and his party were traumatized.

“It leaves a hole in your stomach,” Smith said. He added that he and his wife were not ready to return to the track. “I can’t go through it again.”