forego

[heatherk]

Hi JB
Just finished reading an article by Haskins about Forego from Bloodhorse. I\'m not a big fan of Haskin\'s but this is a great read.  I\'m a big fan of Forego and this article shows the metal of the animal. Was this before Thoro-graph\'s time? If not is there a Forego sheet. If so, were you working with the raggies then.  What ever the case may be, could you equate some of forego\'s performances and compare them with those currently. He was always very very wide in the grandstand turn. Below is a link to the article.  Thanks in advance.

http://cs.bloodhorse.com/blogs/horse-racing-steve-haskin/default.aspx[/url]

[richiebee]

Sorry, double dipped.

[richiebee]

Thanks for the link.

In 35 years of going to the races, Forego perhaps the most courageous specimen
I had the privilege of watching.

In the 70s I went to the track with a lot of folks who loved the \"action\"
without really caring much about the horses; much to his credit, Forego made a
lot of these people into his fans.

To quote Geraldine Page in \"Pope of Greenwich Village\", Forego was \"as tough as
a bar of iron.\"

[TGJB]

Forego was way pre-TG, back when I was a young pup with Ragozin. As I recall he had a couple of figures that were very big for the era, but his claim to fame was 5 straight years of figures that were at least very good, no bad ones.

I also recall I bet him in Secretariat\'s Derby, before Forego was a gleam in the public\'s eye. Probably wasn\'t the only one in that office to do so. I was a huge fan of the horse, which didn\'t stop me from betting against him every time he spotted huge weight as an older horse. Didn\'t work out too well.

[basket777]

here  comes forego on the outside moving like a freightrain   never forget that call.   him and a5 g claimer in maryland that won 11 timesone year   muckaluck  were  the best

[bellsbendboy]

Clearly Forego was one of the all-time greats and while I was nothing more than a fan, I did have some contact with his full-sister Foredate.

It would have been around 1980 or so, while I was working at Claiborne in Paris Ky.  Foredate was a huge mare that had one eye, a mind of her own and after Le Fabuleux died, was the meanest horse on the 3,000 acre farm.

She was housed with the barren mares in the concrete barn down near Stoner Creek, and being a new (and green) employee I was assigned that barn.  To get mares in heat lights and teasers (small male horses and ponies) are used and the mare\'s follicles are checked periodically by the vet sticking his arm into the mare and actually feeling for growth on her uterus.  Thoroughbred mares are bred to the exact day if not hour of maximum conception.

My job was to hold Foredate with a shank and a twitch.  The latter is a three foot long or so, three inch in diameter hickory stick with a small rope attached to the end.  You stick your fingers thru the rope and grab the horses upper lip, pull it thru and twist until tight.  Most horses will not move when twitched.

Doc then put his arm into the mare to check her and told me to tighten the twitch, which I did.  A few seconds later he said \"tighter\", again I complied.  At that point Foredate tried to kick Doc, missed but reared up and struck the twitch with her front foot knocking it against the stall wall with tremendous force.  Doc, a very strong man, uttered a string of expletives picked up the twitch and struck Foredate across the back with all his might.  Foredate didn\'t move a muscle and looked at him with her good eye as if to say \"Is that all you got\"?  Both Forego and Foredate had very strong wills and thats what makes a good horse great.

Not to prattle any further, but both Foredate and Forego are by the South American champion Forli.  When a stallion arrives at the farm where they will stand they are kept in their stall overnight.  The next morning they are turned out in the two acre or so paddock where they will live out there days.  EVERY employee on the farm lines the inside of the paddock and the stallion with a lip shank is walked around the entire paddock where he can see the human wall.  Then he is taken to the center of the paddock where some alfalfa and sweet grain awaits.  His handler, slowly takes the shank off and for the first time since a weanling the stallion is \"free\".  Once they realize this they start running and the employees wave their hands and hollar getting the stallion to turn and after some ten minutes everything is fine and the stallion starts eating grass.

Not Forli!!  He ignored the waving hands and hollaring voices, ran through the line of men, continued through a solid wire fence before plowing through a concrete wall then turned left on highway 627 with about fifteen yellow Claiborne vehicles in hot pursuit!!  BBB

[Silver Charm]

Hey wait a minute. The year you bet on Forego in Secretariats Derby:

YOU WERE 14 OR SO!!

What the F is this. And I tried to beat Citation in his Derby.

[pj]

Jerry,

  I could swear that you (or maybe Ragozin) posted Forego\'s sheet (Rag\'s version), back in the early-mid 90\'s. As I recall, the figures were very consistent in the 5-6 range.

  pat

[jma11473]

Not sure how to post links here, but here is video of Forego winning his four consecutive Woodwards.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RXt4RfCIMI&feature=PlayList&p=49A30158A76D22FC&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=21

[Sandreadis]

BBB, Thanks for sharing. Awesome stuff!

[heatherk]

great stuff,thanks to all

[TGJB]

Would have to be Ragozin, and I think he ran some 2\'s, which were big in those days.

[TGJB]

SC-- well, maybe a little older...

So you waited until you were old enough to vote before making your first bet on a horse? Seems unlikely.

[Silver Charm]

Jerry there were two things I nothing about in my early teens.

Betting on horses and women.

Some people say I am still working on it..........

[richiebee]

Silver:

Where can you bet on women?