Evaluator, winner of the 2017 Sleepy Hollow Stakes at Belmont Park, is among the 33 New York-breds competing in the Retired Racehorse Project’s Thoroughbred Makeover this week in Kentucky. NYRA Photo.
By Melissa Bauer-Herzog
Kentucky faces a New York invasion this week with 33 New York-bred off-track Thoroughbreds heading to the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington for the Retired Racehorse Project Thoroughbred Makeover presented by Thoroughbred Charities of America.
Horses at the Makeover will compete in 10 disciplines with entrants allowed to compete in up to two. To be eligible for the Makeover, a horse had to have worked or raced no earlier than July 1, 2020.
The Makeover concludes Saturday when the top five in each discipline advance to the Finale to compete for the title of Thoroughbred Makeover Champion and $10,000 prize.
The Makeover begins Wednesday. Fans can also watch a livestream of the Finale on the RRP’s website at 8 a.m. ET Saturday.
- 54 New York-breds were entered in the Makeover in August with 33 scheduled to ship to Kentucky this week. Those 54 horses made up 12.6 percent of the field pre-scratches – up from 12.2 percent of the entries at last year’s ‘Mega Makeover’ that combined the 2020 and 2021 classes. That is the third best of all states and sits just one horse behind taking the second spot.
- The 33 New York-breds showing this week averaged 13 starts, one win and three placings in their career with average earnings of $46,274. Two of the New York-breds never made a start – but did register at least one work to qualify for the event – and one other only made one start.
- Four of the horses made at least 40 starts with the 8-year-old mare Patrona leading the charge with 47 starts. The mare started at eight tracks, including races at Fingers Lakes, Belmont Park and Aqueduct. Dearie made the second most starts with 43, including starts at all four New York tracks.
- Evaluator is the only stakes winner in the group with a win in the 2017 Sleepy Hollow Stakes. The 7-year-old gelding also placed in the Damon Runyon and Albany Stakes during his career that featured earnings of $375,148. He is the highest earner of the group and leads four horses who earned six figures during their careers.
- The Show Hunters discipline features the most New York-breds after scratches with 13 entered, followed closely by Dressage with nine entries. Every discipline has at least one New York-bred entered as of Sunday, with multiple horses entered in every discipline except for Freestyle (that horse being the aforementioned Evaluator, who is also entered in Dressage).
- Wondering which sire has the most New York-bred entries? That honor goes to Central Banker (Easy Banker and Our Lady of Winloc) and Teuflesberg (Ariesberg and Diggin For Dough), with two apiece. Overall, 31 stallions have a New York-bred entry in this year’s Makeover. McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds has the most entries as a breeder with five. Irish Hill Century Farm follows with two and Hidden Lake bred one horse on its own and co-bred Empire Station with Daniel Hoogstra.
NYTB is joined by the New York Racing Association and New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association in sponsoring the $2,500 Empire State Success Story prize for the competition’s leading New York-bred. Find out more about the Thoroughbred Makeover and the horses entered at www.tbmakeover.org.
