The 12-day-old foal was led out of her stall at Stonerside Farm in Paris, in the heart of Kentucky horse country. Never straying too far from her mother, the broodmare In Step, with a Godolphin Flying Start trainee holding a rope shank, she sized up the 11-year-old girl standing in front of her.
Kylie Dorman had been in this situation before – 6 1/2 years prior as more of a spectator when a 5-month-old foal approached her brother’s wheelchair and lay his head on his lap. She has spent plenty of time around horses since then, the magical adventure of Cody and Cody’s Wish taking her to Churchill Downs, Saratoga, Santa Anita and Del Mar.
As the filly drew closer, she seemed especially enamored with Kylie’s jacket, nipping at the Breeders’ Cup logo and the writing beneath it: “Cody’s Wish.” The irony of that was not lost on the group – which included Kylie parents, Leslie and Kelly, Dan Pride and Danny Mulvihill of Godolphin, Bob Mullins and me – for this was a daughter of the 2023 Horse of the Year.
A few stalls down at Stonerside – a magnificent 2,000-acre property that is one of four Godolphin farms in the Bluegrass – there was another daughter of Cody’s Wish, this one a 6-day-old foal out of Enrichment, with a small white blaze reminiscent of the perfectly symmetrical white diamond on her daddy’s head.
This was a full-circle moment if there ever were one, this family from Richmond, Kentucky, meeting the offspring of the horse that changed their son’s life, from the day in 2018 when they were introduced at Gainsborough Farm, to the 2023 Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita, when Cody’s Wish captured his second straight Dirt Mile with his best friend watching, 24 hours before he fell asleep on his mother’s shoulder on the flight home and did not wake up. Cody, too, went out on top.
It was a whirlwind journey for all concerned, including this Saratoga Special correspondent for whom an assignment to cover the 2022 Forego Stakes has led to a book project – and three new family members. Watching Kylie interact with that foal was the latest in a plethora of emotional experiences since Cody’s Wish stormed down the Saratoga stretch to catch heavy favorite Jackie’s Warrior to win the Forego and start this snowball rolling.
The proximity so many farms with so much history is an added-value aspect of coming to Keeneland, where there is a palpable appreciation and respect for racing that is rivaled in American racing only by Saratoga. As you exit Keeneland, there is a large photo on the wall with information on the construction of a spectacular new building overlooking the paddock with this headline: “Racing as it was meant to be.”
Those seven words perfectly capture the essence of Keeneland, where world-class racing seamlessly co-exists with one big party, with the majority of attendees dressed at least business-casual. One of the most difficult things to do at this venerable racetrack is to open a door for yourself, only accomplished by sneaking up on one of the hundreds of green-blazer-clad employees who provide impeccable service with a sincere smile.
People like Jim Navolio and Kevin O’Keeffe, who work the gate at the horse path leading from the paddock to the racetrack. Approaching his 85th birthday, Navolio is part-historian and part-ambassador, the latter of which seems to be part of the Keeneland job description. He recalls forced blackouts as a child of World War II and being in a crowd of 60,000 at Aqueduct one day in 1960.
O’Keeffe lives in Maryland, but has worked the Keeneland spring and fall meets for the last several years, the allure of being here strong enough to have him relocate for a cumulative six weeks out of the year.
I learned the hard way last October about just how important tradition and respect are at Keeneland, when I failed to stop moving as “My Old Kentucky Home” was played to start the day’s festivities.
“We stand at attention for ‘My Old Kentucky Home,’ ” a dining room hostess told me, at least as firmly as politely. Duly noted and I will never make that mistake again.
Jonabell Farm, only a few miles from the track, is the home of Godolphin’s Darley breeding operation. You can walk the shedrow and see stallions such as the ageless Medaglia d’Oro, who is still covering more than 50 mares at the age of 26; Nyquist, who has sired seven Grade 1 winners in the last 12 months; Street Sense; and a second-year stallion named Cody’s Wish, who is proving to be as prolific in the breeding shed as he was on the racetrack.
On Saturday morning, in between breeding sessions, Cody’s Wish was outside when visitors arrived. Pride whistled to try to coax him into coming over from the other end of his expansive paddock, but it was only when he heard peppermints being unwrapped that he started in our direction.
Within a few seconds, this massive son of Curlin was in full flight, traveling as if he were again trying to run down Cyberknife in the Keeneland stretch at the 2022 Breeders’ Cup. As he got closer, you wondered how he would be able to stop without running into the fence, but Cody’s Wish reminded everyone that he still knows exactly what he is doing, putting on the brakes just in time, as his head swung over the fence.
Always a physical specimen on the track, he has filled out even more as a stallion, though his impromptu blowout in the paddock would make you think he could still be formidable going a one-turn mile. Between mints, Cody’s Wish was engaging and playful, even a tad ornery, as he greeted the visitors. It’s impossible to know if in his equine mind he was wondering why Cody was not there for him to again lay his head on his lap, a routine that was repeated at several racetracks in 2022 and 2023, creating a Hallmark moment every time.
Any of the humans in the group could have told him that Cody was indeed there, looking down on his sister, mother, father and the racehorse whom he considered his best friend. The bright sunshine and cloudless sky on this cool, picture-perfect Kentucky spring morning seemed to indicate he was pleased with what he saw.
