Road Trip: Icabad Crane passes test
Phillip Dutton was pleased. “Actually I’m ecstatic,” he said when relaying his account of Icabad Crane’s maiden voyage to a horse show last weekend in Aiken, S.C.
No surprise Icabad Crane fits as eventer
Few people know more about Icabad Crane than Adrian Rolls. Assistant to trainer Graham Motion since 1989, Rolls oversaw the horse’s care from his arrival at Herringswell Stables’ Fair Hill barn as a 2-year-old in 2007 until his retirement late last summer.
Here & There – Feb. 25
Big stakes weekend and lots of movement at the top of the game. Who’s your Derby horse? Who’s your Oaks horse? Who’s your pick in the Big Cap? More food for thought comes in the Here and There contributions for this week.
Back to school for Icabad Crane in Aiken
Describing Icabad Crane’s daily training regimen, Phillip Dutton put things in simple layman’s terms: “It’s a bit like yoga for the horse.”
Here & There: February 7
Snow, snow and more snow got everyone, including the folks at the New York Racing Association, thinking about springtime, warmer weather and all that anti-winter stuff as we settled into the first week of February and the post-Super Bowl season.
Who is Icabad Crane?
Yes, he was a headless horseman and you catch him on Sleepy Hollow at 9 on Monday nights but he’s also a horse. The equine version is a dark bay/brown gelding, born in 2005. Bred in New York by Gallagher’s Stud. Purchased for $65,000 as yearling at Saratoga. Sold for $110,000 as a 2-year-old at Ocala Breeders … Read more
Icabad Crane tries eventing
Like a baseball player hanging up his spikes and turning to professional golf, Thoroughbred Icabad Crane is trying something new. The retired racehorse made 33 starts for owner Earle Mack, winning stakes and placing third in the 2008 Preakness.
Big Brown won that day, but Icabad Crane parlayed that brush with greatness into a racing career that lasted until 2013 and he’s not finished as the 9-year-old gelding recently joined the barn of international three-day event rider Phillip Dutton.
In the last month, Icabad Crane learned to jump, took some early dressage lessons, even splashed through a water hazard while impressing his new trainer, an Olympian for his native Australia and the United States during a long eventing career.
December 3: Here & There
Well, it’s taken a few weeks but Joe and Sean have finally listened to their recorders and deciphered their programs from the Colonial Cup while Tom has offered insight of life at Saratoga in December. Here is your Here and There from Camden and Saratoga, with a quote from a Hall of Fame flat trainer in there, too.
Here & There from Breeders’ Cup and Beyond
Mucho Macho Man finally got his big one. Wise Dan did what was Wise does. Mike Smith banked three, Gary Stevens banked two, including the Distaff with Beholder and the Classic with Mucho Macho Man. This is your Here and There from the Breeders’ Cup, Montpelier, Callaway Gardens and Pennsylvania Hunt Cup.
Today’s Here & There
Big weekend from Keeneland to Laurel to Far Hills to the International Gold Cup. We’ve got owners talking about Brink’s trucks, sisters and brothers talking about winning and jump jockeys on the good, the bad and the ugly. Here’s your Here & There from the October 19-20 weekend.
