A Special Farewell to Bedouin
BEDOUIN, the son of Al Hattab, out of the dam Lady in Red, by Prince John, was foaled in Kentucky by Elmendorf Farm on March 14, 1981. He entered the Kentucky Derby in 1984 and began his descent into the claiming ranks in 1985. He won six of 26 races in 1987 earning $90,000. As the specialist of ninth race wins, Bedouin was singled on a winning ticket that earned a record $1.9 million Pick Nine payoff in 1986. On his sixth birthday (March 14, 1987), he carried Laffit Pincay to his seventh win of the day, breaking Santa Anita’s record for most wins by a jockey in one day. Bedouin was the claiming horse of the year in 1986. He closed out his career with four straight in-the-money finishes in 1987. His overall record shows 24 in-the-money finishes from 67 starts with 14 wins and a bankroll of $311,394. On April 9, 1988, Bedouin paraded on the Santa Anita track as part of the Fan Appreciation Day festivities giving him a rousing send off to the California Equine Retirement Foundation. He was retired to CERF on January 20, 1988. He has been described by Trevor Denman as “the epitome of the bread and butter racehorse”. Bedouin, the former hard-luck horse who never lived up to expectations, closed out his career as the most popular horse on the California racing scene since John Henry. Bedouin left us on April 12, 2006, at the age of twenty-five.
A Fond Farewell to Bedouin from Grace
There are times in our lives that words fail us, and it is that time for me right now. No words aloud or written can express the love, the trust and the friendship that I was blessed to have with Bedouin. His loss is extremely personal to me—yet I will try to find the words, however inadequate, and make an attempt to share that personal side of him with the many fans and individuals that knew and loved him. He was his own horse, if I may say that. He kept a distance from his fellow equines and those humans with whom he came in contact. He was most selective and trusted only a few—his savior, Dr. Greg Ferraro, who operated on him gratis with the stipulation he be retired with us, his trainer, Frank Rappa who gave him the respect he deserved and guided him to fulfill his potential as a racehorse and two of his buddies, Pettrax, who left us some time ago and Right On Red that he left behind. He really just tolerated all others, yet that intolerance and distance became a magnet that drew everyone to him. There was no mistake that he rose above his fellow equines in courage, majestic beauty and intelligence. We say of those such as him, “He was one of a kind”. We have also said of Bedouin that he was CERF. How true that has been and will continue to be as long as we remain in existence. I must thank Bed, as I called him, for the eighteen years he was one of us here at CERF and for the twenty-five years God put him on this earth to delight and please his fans, as he came down that stretch from behind to cross that finish line in front—ahead of everyone—in racing – in retirement and in life.
I hope that I have brought you closer to the Bedouin not known to his fans, and I would like also, on his behalf, to thank all of you for your love and support of him through these years. In addition I wish to extend a special thanks to his friend, our Board secretary, Patty Wells, for bringing those carrots, he so dearly loved, to him while he was away from home and at all the track functions where he was being viewed by his fans.
Bedouin 8-2-02
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