Originally written a few years ago, this seems like a fitting re-run after Point Given passed away on September 11.
With the Kentucky Derby taking place in a few days, it seemed like the perfect time to salute my original racehorse love – Point Given.
While I was aware of racing before watching Point Given run – the Thoroughbred series was a staple on my bookshelf (and still is) – I didn’t actually know anything about racing. To give you an idea of how little I knew, my argument to try and convince my trainer to teach me to be a jockey was “How hard can it be to ride a racehorse?” I learned later on that she’d worked with racehorses in her past, so she knew exactly how hard it could be.
My last visit with “PG” in July 2023.
My knowledge changed when a 4-H friend of mine introduced me to Calracing.com in 2000.
Popping in one of those fancy AOL free internet CDs, she told me she wanted to show me the site. We both had turned our horses into “racehorses” at some point (the mare I leased barely tolerating our “fast” gallops across the cow pasture – her pony trying to buck her off every time she went faster than a slow jog) and I remember her insane excitement at being able to watch racing since our knowledge of the Portland Meadows schedule was almost nil.
Fate must have decided that was the day to make me a racing fan (or we just turned on the very slow live stream at the right time) because as she clicked it the horses were about to run in the seventh race at Del Mar.
I don’t remember much about the race, I just remember what looked like a HUGE chestnut (my memory isn’t wrong) loading into the gate and towering over all the other horses. I was hooked.
It was soon after that that I discovered Equibase’s Virtual Stable and email horse racing groups … and I quickly joined both. For some reason or another I wasn’t able to watch Point Given race for most of the year so we “reunited” during the 2000 Breeders’ Cup broadcast – him looking like a lock to win the Juvenile to my clearly expert eye.
The Juvenile was my first taste of equine heartbreak, with the Kentucky Derby my second. I watched every Point Given race I could get my hands on and taught myself what a lot of the “fancy” (to a pre-teen) words meant that I heard. I’m sure I asked a lot of silly questions in those email groups but my love of the sport quickly grew between May and August of 2001 when he went on his four race win streak.
Because of Point Given, I learned about leg injuries then about the life top colts going on to after their racing careers. A $125,000 stud fee blew my mind at the time (and still does today) and I was amazed to hear there were horses who stood for even more than that!
I’m pretty sure I tried to talk my parents into breeding horses for a while with the same “how hard can it be?” reasoning I used with my trainer to try and convince her to let me be a jockey. I can also safely say that Point Given played a big part in making racing such a big part of my life that I moved to Kentucky. He also played a big part in leading me to meet one of my good friends, Jen Roytz, who let me intern for her in his last few months at Three Chimneys.
To say getting up close and personal with my “racing hero” and spending time alone with him on Thursday evenings after work was a dream come true would be an understatement. I quickly learned that he LOVES mints and if I didn’t save my last mint for him after visiting the rest of the stallions, he would not be thrilled. Somehow it was reassuring to know that a horse I had built up to immortal status in my head could act like a normal horse.
It was his move to Calumet Farm a month into my internship that also led to me writing my first ever press release. I won’t lie by saying I didn’t fangirl a bit seeing the news I had written in all the major publications – but it was also filled with sadness knowing I wouldn’t be able to see him one-on-one regularly anymore.
That move did lead to even more adventures, however, with Calumet nice enough to let me visit him every year. Every one of these visits also led to a tour of the farm, something I highly recommend you take advantage of if you ever get the chance.
All-in-all because of Point Given I not only fell in love with racing (and quickly learned about the heartbreaks) but I also made friends I still have today.
While I don’t see Point Given nearly enough, I do visit him at the Kentucky Horse Park a few times a year and it’s safe to say he’s the gift that just keeps giving – as long as I give him treats!
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