Tale of Gift Horse And
Home for Kids
by Lew Zagnit - The Daily
Racing Form
Editor's note - This was another horse I got from the
children's home. Eventually, he went to Canada and I lost track of him.
OLDSMAR, Fla. - You take a horse
with a broken leg, add a trainer, a divorcee trying to make it on her own,
and tie in a home for dependent children, and what have you got? No, not a
remake of "Annie Meets National Velvet." You have the Gold Coup-Janet
Del Castillo-Florida Horsemen's Children's Home story, which is being played
out at this meeting. You can catch the latest installment of this real life
melodrama on Saturday, when Del Castillo runs Gold Coup in a $5,000 claiming
race here.
Now a little background on the cast. "The Florida Horsemen's Children's
Home offers long term residential care for neglected and dependent children;
children from families with problems or whose parents are divorced,"
explained Ed MacClellan, when contacted by phone at the Florida facility.
MacClellan had for 12 years served as the director of the Rodeheaver Home,
a boys ranch in Putnam. Thus he was an obvious selection when people within
the horse industry here, particularly Joe Durkin of the Florida Horse Magazine,
decided there was a need for a similar facility in Marion County.
"We started raising money four years ago, and George Steinbrenner, through
his New York Yankee Foundation, gave us a grant for one half of the land purchase.
We raised the other half by donations. We do not receive any government funds.
We are supported entirely by donations.
"We turned 1-year old in November," said MacClellan. "We have
one cottage for 12 kids, 60 acres of land, and 15 head of horses. Our staff
consists of one set of cottage parents and a relief set of cottage parents,
one of whom doubles as a secretary. We also have a thrift store in Ocala.
"We have paddocks for the horses, but no barns, but we are trying to
raise funds to build barns."
Part of the support the horsemen contribute comes in the form of horses who
are donated for the children to take care of, or, if possible, are sold to
race, which is how Del Castillo became involved.
A couple of years ago, she paid $5,000 for two thoroughbreds who had been
donated to the home. One of them just recently broke his maiden, but the other
one turned out to be a pretty good runner. Her name is First Prediction, and
the 5-year old On To Glory mare just went over the $170,000 mark in earnings
with a second in an allowance race at Hialeah last Saturday.
First Prediction, who was donated by breeder Paul Marriott, has been a steady
and useful campaigner partly by design, and possibly partly due to a mistake
by Del Castillo, who took out her trainer's license three years ago after
she and her husband divorced.
"I think part of the reason she's so strong," said Del Castillo,
the mother of three teenage children "is that I never start my horses
until they're 3-years old. And, when I was galloping First Prediction around
the orange grove I thought I was going three miles a day, but I was actually
going closer to five and a half."
"She was the first one I got from the children's home. They've gotten
wonderful support from the horse community, certainly from Clayton O'Quinn,
and Helmuth Schmidt. I've worked with them the most at picking up the horses
that were donated, trying them out and either getting rid of them, or trying
to run them. And Gold Coup, who was donated by Evelyn Poole, was the first
one good enough to run in the childrens home's name."
"I got him sometime in the middle of last summer" continued Del
Castillo, who spent time serving in the Peace Corps. "He had a fractured
cannon bone, a was very body sore. The first thing I did was bring him home,
geld him, and turn him out. Then I started long slow gallops. I tried him
a few times in Miami, but I think he was just tuning up, and he's gotten better
since. He's been on the board or won every race he's been in since."
Gold Coup is owned in partnership with the children's home, (even though the
children, who are of course minors, are not allowed at the track by state
law) and Del Castillo's mother and stepfather. Thus half the money the 5-year
old Gold Stage gelding makes, which totals about $4,000 so far, goes to support
the home.
And the best thing about this story is there's no happy ending, just a happy
continuation.