Burt Bacharach

The world we share with these amazing animals may be an ever-changing one, but its mysteries abide. We consider ourselves ever more knowledgeable, ever more certain, riding the slipstream of science. Yet how much do we truly know, when Afternoon Deelites holds out for all those years and then waits just six days before following his owner to whatever shore may (or may not) lie beyond the horizon of life?

The passing of Burt Bacharach last week evokes a couple of complementary tales that reflect instructively not only on the great man himself, but also on the different ways that different farms go about their business. Back in the early 1980s Bacharach was staying in downtown Lexington, having been driven down from a concert in Cincinnati the night before so that he could visit his mares and foals before flying on to his next show. Catherine Parke was still in her twenties, having barely established Valkyre Stud on a parcel...

Trainer Tom Amoss has never been shy about sharing his feelings about his filly Hoosier Philly (Into Mischief), saying she's the best horse he has ever trained. With Hoosier Philly ready to make her 3-year-old debut in Saturday's GII Rachel Alexandra S. at the Fair Grounds, the TDN team called upon Amoss to join them for this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland to get his latest thoughts on a filly who could be a superstar. Amoss was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week. It didn't...

Just six days after the passing of his owner Burt Bacharach, Afternoon Deelites, a six-time graded-stakes winner, was euthanized Feb. 14 at Old Friends, the Kentucky-based Thoroughbred retirement farm, due to complications from colic. He was 31. Old Friends President and Founder Michael Blowen announced his passing Wednesday morning. The dark bay stallion, who was the farm's oldest resident, was just two weeks shy of his 31st birth date. Bred by Blue Seas Music Inc., the son of Private Terms--Intimate Girl, by Medaille d'Or, was foaled in West Virginia on...

Valkyre Stud cared for Burt Bacharach's Kentucky broodmares for many years. His champion filly Heartlight No. One is buried here. He was a wonderful, caring man who truly loved his horses. He kept personal contact with the people who cared for his horses and was very interested in their well being. He would call during concert breaks and check to see if a mare had foaled and ask about Heartlight. So many memories--in a limousine with him on the way to the Kentucky Derby, he became very quiet and started...

How apt that one of Burt Bacharach's very first hits was The Story Of My Life. Because reading the tributes prompted by his loss a couple of days ago, it turns out that his music was pretty well a soundtrack to the lives of millions who--especially in the Sixties, an era of profound societal tension between materialism and idealism--wanted assurance that the essential bonds of humanity still united them all. He transcended those divisions much as he did musical genres, knowing that the middle-aged hosts of suburban cocktail parties and...