rememberance

by Cathy Riccio and Jennie Rees Joanne McNamara--the first to be dubbed by the turf media as 'Exercise Rider to the Stars' for the long list of champions and world-class horses she rode in morning training--passed away this past Sunday in Ocala, Fla., after a short battle with cancer. She was 67. Working for Hall of Fame trainer MacKenzie Miller and Rokeby Stables in her first racetrack job, she galloped her barn favorite Rokeby Rose, a multiple stakes winner who also became a prominent broodmare, producing Kentucky Oaks winner Silverbulletday....

Thanks to advances in obstetrics, our own species is blessed to no longer confront quite so frequently the awful paradox that routinely confronted our ancestors: the death of a mother, as the cost of new life. And, of course, even a Thoroughbred as precious and cherished as Kind (Ire) (Danehill) is ultimately always livestock, prone to the kind of mishaps that tend to school the stockman in understatement whether facing triumph or disaster. But the consolation that we can seek, on their behalf, is the same: legacy. Undoubtedly there will...