Hey Kids!
In this area you can find out about current and past contests. Keep checking back because you never know what we'll have next!

Congratulations to

PARVANalp@aol.com

The winner of the "trip to the races" for Cal Cup '99

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We are ready to draw for our 6th "Trip to the races!"

Destination:

California Cup Day, Oct. 30, 1999

Oak Tree @ Santa Anita Park

We will be drawing 1 or 2 names on October 9, 1999

(All names will be put into a container and 2 will be randomly draw by a "mystery person" to be named later.)

We will be attending an exciting day of Cal Cup races on Saturday, Oct. 30th, and then possibly visiting some local farms on Sunday, Oct. 31. Also on Sunday, we will have breakfast at Clockers Corner, tour the barn area at Santa Anita, and maybe even check out the Jockey's Room before the races!

If you would like to be entered in this drawing, and you are 18 years old or under, please send us your name, age, and city/state you live in. Please DO NOTsend me your address or phone number, yet! If your name is drawn we will get that information from you later. BE SURE to ask your parents permission before you enter! We don't want to draw names of kids who will not be able to attend.

This trip is an all-expenses-paid trip. Winners will be required to bring a chaperone if they are under the age of 12. If older, it will be at the parents discretion.

Send you entries here unitedtbfc@aol.com


NOTE:

Oak Tree Racing Association and California Thoroughbred Breeders Association have been generous enough to donate to us a table for ten "10". This means that we will have room for several others if you can find your own way out here. Please email me if you are interested in joining us for Cal Cup Day!

United Thoroughbred Fan Clubs has sponsored several "trips to the races" already.

We have taken kids to:
the 1997 Breeders' Cup UTFC Kids @ Breeders' Cup 97& A Dream Come True,

the 1997 Malibu Stakes UTFC Goes to the '97 Malibu!,

the 1998 Kentucky Derby - read about Jenny's trip in her own words... click here! Jenny's Kentucky Derby,

and the 1998 California Cup Day!

Visit the links above and see some pics from those trips!

Essay Contest #1 (1998)

This was our first Essay Contest. It was held last year, entries were due April 15, 1998.

The subject:

"What it would mean to me to have a Thoroughbred race horse named after me..."

The winner:

Susie Raisher (PonyAce), age 12 of Merrick, New York

The Prize:

Susie will have a Thoroughbred of 1998 (a yearling now) named after her. The horse is owned by Mr. Mike Pegram, owner of last year's Kentucky Derby winner, Real Quiet.
Susie will get to choose either a filly or a colt to be named after her.

Congratulations Susie!

Mike Pegram named a filly after Susie...
her name is

Susie's Big Blast

Here is the winning entry:

"What it would mean to me to have a Thoroughbred race horse named after me..."
By Susie Raisher

My love of horses goes back about five and a half years, when I was 7. That was when I started to read the Black Stallion series, by Walter Farley. The thought that a young boy could tame and race a wild stallion amazed me! I had soon read every Black Stallion book that existed. I then moved on to other Walter Farley books, mainly the Island Stallion series. It was one of Farley's books that brought me into horseracing. The book was about Man O' War, arguably the greatest racehorse of all time. When I had outgrown the Farley books, I started to read a series of books that I consider the best ever, a series that I still read, a series called Thoroughbred. The Thoroughbred books are about racehorses and the people around them. The original main character's favorite horse was named after her; the horse was Ashleigh's Wonder, after the girl, Ashleigh Griffen. Wonder went on to win the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont Stakes, narrowly losing the Preakness Stakes because she was badly bumped in the shadow of the wire. The mare was a blue hen and produced many champion foals that carried her name.
In the midst of reading the Thoroughbred books, I also read Ruffian: Burning From the Start and Big Red of Meadow Stable for the first times. I was more into racing than ever!
I began to follow Tabasco Cat, after stumbling upon him winning a Kentucky Derby prep race at Santa Anita; I believe it was the San Rafael. Then, for my ninth birthday I was presented with a certificate that entitled me to one full day at Belmont Park! It was a dream come true. I would get to see the racehorses in real life!
I love horses, I always have and I always will. When I think of the lucky few that have racehorses named after them, I long to be one of them. Owning a racehorse is a lifelong dream that only few can do. Having a Thoroughbred athlete named after you is even better.
Chris Evert was a tennis player, a woman, who was one of the best in the world. She had a filly, Chris Evert, named after her. Chris Evert (the horse) went on to be a champion who most notably won the Triple Tiara.
Lillian Durst is a woman who also, like Chris Evert, has a racehorse named after her. That horse is Lil's Lad, a leading contender for this year's Kentucky Derby. Lil's Lad has most notably won the Fountain of Youth Stakes.
I know that, unlike the story of Chris Evert and Lil's Lad, that all racehorses are not champions and some never even make it to the track. If a racehorse, perhaps a young filly named Susie'sSpeedDemon, or Speeding Susie, or Susie's Charm ever hit the track, she might run in the claiming ranks her whole life, sold from person to person, maybe never winning a race. That would not matter to me. Just to know that so many people know my name, and my name is shared with an athlete of the greatest kind, a Thoroughbred, would be the greatest reward on the face of the earth.
If that same filly became a stakes winner, or even a champion, the thrill would be no more. Sure, she would have spread her fame throughout the country, beating fillies and colts, but in horseracing, that isn't really the important thing, is it? The important thing is a love of the sport, and, above all, a love of the gorgeous horses that compete. My namesake, this filly, would be one of those, striving to win, to compete, to make it into the Winner's Circle, maybe even to have a blanket of roses draped over her neck, or maybe to have her picture taken after breaking her maiden, after her first start or after her hundredth start. To look in the "Daily Racing Form" and to see her name listed, even under the list of horses with no chance to win, place, or show, would give me, and I hope anyone, a very special thrill, a thrill that would make me want to scream and let everyone know that, hey, that horse is named after me! People might look at me like I am nuts, wondering why I am pleased that some horse is on that list. They might be right, or they could be wrong. I just know that right then, to me, that horse is the greatest horse that ever lived; greater than Man O' War, greater than Ruffian, greater than Secretariat. This filly might come in last all the time but is never a loser, to me anyway. That's what matters, the love of the gorgeous horses that compete.

To go back to...

[ United Thoroughbred Fan Clubs] [ UTFC's Education Paddock] [ UTFC Kids @ Breeders' Cup 97] [ UTFC Notes News!] [ UTFC Creative Exchange] [ UTFC's Parents Page] [ UTFC's Links Page]