By Teresa A. Genaro. Original article from The Daily Gazette.
Last fall, JoAnn Pepper got a phone call from eminent New York breeder and owner Vivian Malloy. Malloy had brought her homebred stallion A Shin Forward back from Japan a few years earlier to stand stud in New York, and when his stallion career didn’t take off, she knew it was time to find him a retirement home.
The owner and general manager of Old Friends at Cabin Creek, Pepper didn’t have any available spots for more horses, but when Cool N Collective died in December at age 25, A Shin Forward had a new home.
“I’ve been to Old Friends in Kentucky and at Cabin Creek several times,” said Malloy, who makes her home in Dutchess County. “The people are great, and the farm is here so that I can see him when I want to.”
Photographer: Erica Miller. A Shin Forward with JoAnn Pepper, owner of Cabin Creek, enjoys his morning at Old Friend’s at Cabin Creek in Greenfield Center on Saturday.
A Shin Forward was born in 2005 at Edition Farm, the breeding and racing operation that Malloy founded in the early 1980s; the son of Forest Wildcat sold as a yearling for $125,000 at the Fasig-Tipton select yearling sale in Saratoga the following year, and six months later, Hirotsugu Hirai paid $290,000 for him.
A Shin Forward headed to Japan to race for Hirai’’s Eishindo Co. Ltd, running 31 times with a record of 6-3-3 and earnings of $3.4 million. Among his wins is the Group 1 Mile Championship at Kyoto Racecourse.
“This horse ran from age two until age six, and he retired sound,” Malloy said. “He never raced on Lasix or any other medication, and I’m so proud of that. He was fast, too; he broke a track record in Japan.”
Malloy brought him back to the U.S. in 2018, retiring him from stud duty last year.
Located in Greenfield Center, about a 15-minute ride from Saratoga, Old Friends at Cabin Creek is home to more than a dozen retired racehorses, most of them Thoroughbreds, many of them New York-breds. A Shin Forward was a little antsy when he first arrived earlier this month, but, said Pepper, “he settled in right away.”
“He spent one night in the barn, and he threw a fit pretty much all night,” said Pepper. “He’s been outside ever since and he seems pretty content, and he’s very good with people. He caught on to the tours the second day he was here, and if he’s in his shed, he comes right out to see everyone.”
On Monday, Cabin Creek will hold its annual fundraiser. This year, it will team up with Racing For Home, a Thoroughbred retraining and adoption facility in Ellington, Connecticut, that was founded in 2010 by Acacia Courtney Clement, now a racing analyst for the New York Racing Association.
“Acacia has always been so good to us,” said Pepper. “She was our model when we did Hats Off For the Horses, and we became friends years ago. We honored her at one of our galas two years ago, and we joined forces because Saratoga is a better place to raise money for racehorses than Connecticut is.”
The event will be hosted by Nove, on Route 9 in Wilton, a few miles from downtown Saratoga Springs. Tickets are $150 and include food and drink provided by the restaurant.
“I give JoAnn all the credit for having this event,” said Clement. “Years ago, when I came up to Saratoga on vacation with my family, we went to Cabin Creek because we always wondered what happened to Zippy Chippy. From there, we got to be friendly with JoAnn and her team, and they are so wonderful.
“We’re hoping that we can take advantage of my associations with Fox’s broadcasts of NYRA racing, and this is a great opportunity to support two aftercare organizations that are both accredited by the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance.”
(Zippy Chippy was among Cabin Creek’s most famous residents. Best known for losing all 100 of the races he ran, he retired to Cabin Creek in 2010 and died at the farm in 2022 at age 31. The Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance funds and accredits Thoroughbred retirement organizations throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada.)
Unlike Cabin Creek, which is a sanctuary for horses where they will live out their days, Racing For Home transitions horses from the racetrack to second careers, rehabilitating and retraining them and connecting them with potential new homes.
Among the auction items available at Monday’s event are a halter worn by Kentucky Derby winner Mage and signed by his trainer, Gustavo Delgado, and one worn by Belmont Stakes winner Arcangelo, signed by his trainer Jena Antonucci.
On Aug. 15, Old Friends at Cabin Creek will hold its first summer barn party, with a food truck, an ice cream, a wine tasting with offerings from Lake George’s Ledge Rock Hill Winery, raffle items and a silent auction. Visitors can wander the farm to learn about its equine residents from volunteers.
“There’s no cost to attend, though donations will be appreciated,” said Pepper.
A Shin Forward was a star in Japan; Malloy said that whenever she’d talk to people interested in Japanese racing, they knew who he was. Most of the people who have toured Cabin Creek this summer don’t know who he is, but, said Pepper, they love to hear his story, especially when they learn that he raced throughout his career without medication.
Pepper and her husband Mark live in a house that overlooks the farm, and when she stands on her porch, she can look right down into his paddock.
“I talk to him from the porch, and he listens,” she said. “When I call his name, he looks right up at me. He stands at the front of his paddock and looks around at the farm and the other horses, and I’m impressed with how calm he is.
“It’s like this is what he was hoping for.”