G’Day Mate Stakes 2/17/2011 (NYRA/Adam Coglianese)
By Sarah Mace
Accomplished New York-bred runner Icabad Crane will proudly sport the silks of his sponsor, New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc. (NYTB), when he joins nineteen other off-track thoroughbreds competing in the inaugural Real Rider Cup on Sunday, September 17.
The jumping competition will take place at the Plantation Field International Horse Trials in Unionville, Pa., one of the East Coast’s premier three-day events. Proceeds will benefit Plantation Field and the Retired Racehorse Project (RRP).
Bred by Gallagher’s Stud, Icabad Crane had an outstanding career on the racetrack. He placed in multiple graded stakes, including a third-place finish in the 2008 Preakness. In 33 career starts he earned $585,980 from seven wins, seven seconds and nine thirds.
The 12-year-old Jump Start gelding has also already left his mark on the eventing world. Ridden for owners Graham and Anita Motion by two-time Olympic gold medalist Phillip Dutton in the 2014 Thoroughbred Makeover, Icabad Crane won the title of Most Wanted Thoroughbred. Owner Earle I. Mack, who campaigned the gelding on the flat, transferred him to the Motions for $1 upon retirement at age eight with the idea that he would have a second career in eventing.
At Sunday’s Real Rider Cup, four teams of five riders each will compete over a show-jumping course of approximately a dozen 2 1/2-foot fences, and the scoring will be based on time and penalties. In addition to Icabad Crane, Sunday’s Real Rider Cup will feature retired runners Twilight Eclipse and Eighttofasttocatch.
Real Rider Cup NYTB silks
Icabad Crane will be ridden by Lauren Baker Cannizzo, who has retrained many Thoroughbreds for careers in jumping and eventing. The riders in the Cup come from all quarters. Others piloting their OTTB mounts over the fences include flat jockeys Rosie Napravnik, and 12-time leading Delaware Park jockey Mike McCarthy, former jump jockeys including Sean Clancey and a variety of OTTB trainers and coaches and exercise riders.
While the Real Rider Cup is the brainchild of Phillip Dutton, Icabad Crane’s NYTB connection is the product of a chance meeting at the Saratoga yearling sales last month. Anita Motion was chatting with Lauren’s husband, Jeffrey Cannizzo, executive director of New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc. at the auction.
As Motion recounted to the DRF, “[Jeff] had asked about the [Real Rider Cup]. He mentioned that Lauren had a background in show jumping, and I asked if she would be interested in riding. He loved the idea, but we hadn’t asked Lauren yet! We were not thinking of using Icabad at that time, but based on Lauren’s experience and the connection of New York Breeders and Icabad being a New York-bred, it was a great fit.”
Motion also explained that Dutton will do double duty at the Trials, riding in the main event at Plantation Field and advising Cannizzo and several other riders.
