In this series, Melissa talks about the horses who have helped shape her career and create Pyrois Media.
Most people probably have a faint memory of Z Dager, who was on the 2012 Kentucky Derby trail but for me, the horse is one takes a big spot in my memory.
I was pitched a story before the 2012 Risen Star about a horse on the Derby trail but when I looked at the race’s entries it wasn’t that runner who caught my eye – it was Z Dager.
“Z” had finished on the board in his prep for this race and was owned/trained by the connections who had the second-place finisher in the previous year’s Louisiana Derby and Kentucky Derby. In my opinion, he was where the story really was.
But what makes Z so important to me isn’t the story itself but that he was the reason for my first one-on-one interview with a racehorse trainer.
Z Dager in retirement at Old Friends.
I had covered my first live racing event a few months previously when I was a member of the media but all my interviews there had been in big groups and press conferences. I had also done plenty of one-on-one interviews with coaches at my college since I covered WTAMU sports but stepping up to interviewing a person who I had watched for many years was brand new to me.
The interview didn’t go as smoothly as one would hope but Steve Asmussen spent 15 minutes on the phone with me talking about his entrant, even though I think he was a little baffled about who I was calling about. That year he had multiple Kentucky Derby prep winners in his barn and Z Dager was not one of them.
It turned out that he also wouldn’t even be a Kentucky Derby runner after finishing eighth in the Louisiana Derby behind 109-1 shot Hero of Order and would never run in a stakes again. The (now) gelding knocked around in the Allowance Optional Claiming ranks for another year before being retired in August of his 4-year-old year and that’s when I figured I would never hear of him again.
It wasn’t until planning a trip to Old Friends to interview Michael Bowen a few years later that I came upon a familiar name – Z Dager. He was claimed out of that final race and had taken up residence at Old Friends the year after he retired. Before we started the interview, he became a topic of conversation and I think Michael was a little shocked I was such a fan.
Michael took me to visit Z once our work was done and it wouldn’t be the last time I’d see him. I tried to make it a priority to visit him every time I stopped by Old Friends until he was moved to a satellite farm. Luckily for me, Old Friends is now a Pyrois Media client so I was able to visit him at that satellite farm just a few weeks ago.
While I never had any part in Z Dager’s career other than that one interview and tracking him as a racehorse, he holds a special place in my heart. For me, he is the horse who helped me hit a major milestone. For him, I am the lady who brings him treats (almost) every time I see him.
So incredibly thrilled to see Z Dager at @Oldfriendsfarm. This horse means so much to me for many reasons. pic.twitter.com/QHs4CvJq1J
— Melissa Bauer-Herzog – Pyrois Media (@PyroisMedia) February 26, 2015