The interesting thing about John Henry is that throughout history there have been many John Henry's and all of them seem to be quite well known within their various circles. In the circle of Horse Racing, John Henry was the total anomaly.
A working man's hero....sired by a trailer park stud.
Seriously, his father, Old Bob Bowers, sold for $900.00. Horses that sell for $900.00 are usually used for pulling the milk wagon down the back streets of Baton Rouge, not siring horses that go on to make $6,591,860.00 in their racing career.
As a yearling John Henry sold for $1,100 dollars making him slightly more valuable than his ole pappa.
The fact that John Henry was not a great race horse until they castrated him speaks volume for some other type of physiological behavior that I choose not to detail at this time.
Perhaps he was so pissed at what they did to him he just refused to lose. Apparently he was extremely temperamental before the destudation took place and then after that was still cranky but ran a whole lot faster.
Yesterday at the age of 32 John Henry was euthanized at the Kentucky Horse Park where he had been living in peaceful retirement for the last 22 years.
From 1981 to 1984 there wasn't a greater story in sports than John Henry. When he ran attendance would double at the track and in his lifetime the spermless wonder won 39 races.
It's the same thing when we discuss pitchers from "the day." During the Koufax/Drysdale era a pitcher completed games he started and pride meant everything. If you were a starting pitcher and if you put yourself in a jam....you got yourself out of the jam....
If you were a race horse you ran.....and ran....and ran.....which of course is much easier to do if you aren't selling your spermazoid on a daily basis...but normally when a horse is gelded, IT ends up in the fair circuit and then becomes a part of the Glue Stic that your kids use to make collages....not winning the Santa Anita Handicap twice, The Arlington Million twice, The Oak Tree Turf Championship three times, The Hollywood Invitational three times....be Horse of the YEAR twice......and then be inducted in the Racing Hall of Fame.
The fact that he was an undersized horse and was also back at the knee( which is a flaw in conformation)makes his accomplishments even more spectacular.
The fact that he lived to the age of 32 is also amazing and a gelding being able to enjoy 22 years of retirement....might be a world record.
I salute you John Henry.....and there aren't too many horses that have ever gotten my salute.
Imagine the size of that casket?......
but most likely they just dump him in the ground.....and then erect a statue.
When one of our horses died when I was 9....somebody came and got it......and I'm sure the Glue Stic was definitely in NANCY'S future.
A strange form of reincarnation...don't you think......the horse hooves are used for glue sticks and the glue sticks seal a letter that is sent from Southern California to Florida and then is carried to outer space by an astronaut and then released into space where it floats with the glue from the horse for all eternity....or until it burns up in the atmosphere and then it's molecular particles sprinkle down on a farm in Kentucky and where a young colt eats the grass and has a taste of some horse he never knew....and it turns him into a champion.
The circle of life...it's a beautiful thing......
MIchael Timothy McAlevey
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