Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 25, 1993 TAG: 9304250122
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG SCHNEIDER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Genuine Risk, a Virginian-owned mare that in 1980 became only the second female ever to win the Derby, is poised to deliver a live foal after 12 years of miscarriage and misfortune.
"This is the one foal of 1993 that people are most interested in," said David Heckerman, senior editor of the Thoroughbred Times racing newspaper.
The chestnut mare was bred last May 20 and could deliver any day now. Owned by Bertram and Diana Firestone of Loudoun County, Genuine Risk is playing out her drama at Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Ky.
"We find ourselves in the position of the woman who is pregnant and every day her relatives and well-meaning friends call and say, `Haven't you had this baby yet?' " said Dan Rosenberg, general manager of Three Chimneys.
As of Saturday evening the answer was still no. But hopes were strong.
"We're monitoring the fetus on a daily basis and it seems normal and healthy," Rosenberg said.
That's no guarantee; Genuine Risk's first foal seemed healthy but died at birth. That one had been especially anticipated - it was sired by Secretariat, possibly the greatest racehorse of all.
Genuine Risk has gotten pregnant every year since, but never has been so close to delivering. Two years ago, at 10 months of a usual 11-month term, the foal was strangled by its umbilical cord. "Which, you know, you can chalk up to bad luck," Rosenberg said. "Obviously, she has some problem, but it's not anything we've been able to put a finger on."
The failures have cast an aura of disappointment over one of the most beloved racehorses of her day.
The first filly to win the Kentucky Derby was Regret in 1915. Sixty-five years later, most thought the feat would never be repeated.
Going into the 106th running of the race in 1980, Genuine Risk was a 13-to-1 shot. She started well back in the field. Halfway, she had drawn to fourth place. At the one-mile mark she took the lead, then beat back late surges by two strong colts and won by a length.
Afterwards, one trainer taunted his bested colt, "Let that little girl beat you, didn't you?"
The "little girl" went on that year to place second in both the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes. By the time she retired in 1981, Genuine Risk had finished first, second or third in each of the 15 races she started.
"She was just an unusually talented racehorse. She gave it all she had every time," said LeRoy Jolley, Genuine Risk's trainer in her racing days.
While some claim that a good racing filly makes a poor breeding mare, Heckerman of the Thoroughbred Times said a computer study shows otherwise. "The clear indication is that in a large group of horses, those with the best race records will be the best producers," Heckerman said.
The study also shows that mares breed best when they are young. Genuine Risk is 16, late middle-age for a horse. If this foal dies, there won't be many more chances.
Rosenberg said the pregnancy has been entirely natural, that the horse has had no fertility drugs or special help. She has someone sitting with her 24 hours a day, monitoring fetal heartbeat and occasionally checking the mother's amniotic fluid.
A horse can have a C-section, Rosenberg said, or can be induced into labor. But those are last resorts.
"Our job is not to make it happen but to make sure there are no problems," he said. "We would like to leave nature alone to the extent that we can. . . . She is going to have to do this on her own."
Genuine Risk spends nights in a spacious, wood-paneled stall and days in her paddock. A few fields over on the same farm dwells another famous former champion, Seattle Slew.
More than 120 mares will give birth this year at Three Chimneys. Not all will be successful. "Birth and death are nothing new to us," Rosenberg said. "But it's not something we ever get callous about . . .
"This is all about hopes and dreams; every foal lying in that stall, waiting to get up, is a potential Kentucky Derby winner or Triple Crown winner or the best horse to ever walk onto a race track."
Still, Genuine Risk's pregnancy is more emotional than most, he said. It's not just that everyone expects her to produce another champion. She was mated with Rahy, a respectable young stallion, but predicting that her foal will live up to her own legacy "would be a little bit like assuming that Michael Jordan's son is going to be a great basketball player," Rosenberg said.
Instead, most are just hoping for Genuine Risk to win this last great race. No one doubts that she will give it a good run.
"If the foal is anything like her, it sure will try hard," said Jolley, the trainer. "I don't think I've ever seen a horse try harder than she did. She never gave up."
by CNB