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DEL.ICIO.USAny sympathy for Charismatic?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Atlanta’s consciousness of thoroughbred racing has never been so compassionately expressed ever before Barbaro. Barbaro, winner of the Kentucky Derby and about 100 yards into the second step of his pursuit of the Triple Crown at Pimlico, broke down and millions of Americans broke out in a compassionate response.
Tough stuff. If he had been a claimer, he would have been put away on the scene, but Barbaro was unbeaten and an odds-on favorite to bring home the most elusive trophy in horse racing. This was a matter of millions of dollars. Nothing was to be spared to save him for a career in the breeding shed. Which reminds me of a similar story, of a horse even further into his Triple Crown pursuit, but whose name has been blotted out in the keening and mourning for Barbaro.
Charismatic had won the Kentucky Derby at odds of 31-to-1 and followed that up winning the Preakness, though he didn’t go off the favorite there. The public still wasn’t convinced. He was about 50 yards from completing the classic sweep in the Belmont when he broke down, a bone in his left foreleg snapped.
“No, more like 30 yards,” his trainer, D. Wayne Lukas, said Tuesday.
Two longhots swept by him at the wire, Lemon Drop Kid and Vision and Verse, but even wounded, Charismatic completed the journey and finished third. Jockey Chris Antley leaped from the saddle, kneeled by his wounded mount and cradled the leg in his little hands. The leg was splinted at the spot and Charismatic was vanned to the barn, where, coincidentally, the same veterinarian who attended Barbaro was on duty, Larry Bramlage by name.
“His injury was not nearly as severe as this one,” Lukas said. “We were able to put his leg together with a lot less surgical procedure. They did a beautiful job. It was a tribute to the doctors.”
As Bramlage said of Charismatic later, “He’s through as a race horse, but he should be fine as a stallion.”
Once healed, Charismatic was retired to Lanes End Farm, where, for a pedestrian $10,000 stud fee, he covered 106 mares his first year. After three years, he was sold to a group in Japan and drifted out of sight and out of mind. His breeding was not classic, though his sire, Summer Squall, had finished second in the Derby and won the Preakness for Cot Campbell and Dogwood Stable. Neither would you consider Barbaro’s bloodlines classic, though his sire, Dynaformer, now ranks fifth on the general sire list this year.
Charismatic kind of got into the Kentucky Derby through the kitchen door. Just two months earlier he had finished second in a claiming race at Santa Anita, and second again in an allowance race. “He hadn’t shown me much in the spring, so when we brought him east, there wasn’t much left but the Lexington Stakes,” Lukas said.
The Lexington is a Grade 2, run at Keeneland, last possible entre to the Derby. Charismatic won by two lengths with Jerry Bailey up, and after the race, Lukas said, “Jerry told me, ‘If I wasn’t already committed to the Arabs, I’d ride him in the Derby.’ ”
That’s when Lukas turned to Chris Antley, who was trying to make a comeback after a long bout with drugs and making weight. Antley had a chance to be a national hero after so devotedly attending Charismatic, but Lukas again:
“They made such a warm, fuzzy story about Chris and how he had teamed with Charismatic. I’ll bet he never spent more than 10 minutes with him. He would show up in the paddock for the race, then disappear. I’d never seen him again until the next race. He was already back on the stuff.”
Antley, who grew up in Elloree, SC, would later die under mysterious circumstances involving drugs in California, a real tragedy in death.
Charismatic would have only moderate success as a stallion in Japan, and lately has been reduced to hauling pleasure riders about. A Kentuckian named Michael Blowen, devoted to caring for aging stallions, is trying to bring him back to this country. Surely to avoid the fate of Ferdinand, the 1986 Derby winner who wound up in the meat market.
But strange that Charismatic’s wounded state never aroused such compassion as Barbaro’s. The break in a foreleg would have little effect in breeding, whereas Barbaro’s rear leg must bear all that weight in mounting a mare, thus critical in performing as a productive sire. Charismatic was voted Horse of the Year. Barbaro may have been on his way, but that’s out of his reach now. Just to stay alive and produce healthy offspring is the best his connections can hope for.
Permalink | Comments (11) | Categories: Furman Bisher, Other
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By Scooter11
May 23, 2006 06:50 PM | Link to this
Just trying to stay alive myself, but not looking to produce any offspring - healthy or otherwise. My bum leg is affecting my fee, also.
By Mart
May 24, 2006 08:30 AM | Link to this
What year did this happen?
By calmak
May 24, 2006 12:13 PM | Link to this
Furman,
Thanks for bringing back the memories of Charismatic.
By Michael
May 24, 2006 02:47 PM | Link to this
I thought about this the moment Barbaro got hurt. Can anyone find a link to the video of the race? It was in 1999.
By Faye
May 24, 2006 04:13 PM | Link to this
Wow - like Michael, I immediately thought of Charismatic, and I wondered where he was and what he was doing - seems awfully sad.
That was the race that got me into racing - I attended my first Kentucky Derby the next year, and I’ve been to every one ever since. I even had money on Barbaro this year! I really thought he’d be the one to get the Triple Crown.
Oh well - there’s always next year.
By Maureen
May 24, 2006 05:09 PM | Link to this
Thank you for mentioning Charismatic, the Rodney Dangerfield of Thoroughbreds, the beautiful, personable, story-book horse that got me interested in racing again. Will somebody please make the movie of that horse’s life, and the sad story of Chris Antley? Why is Charismatic forgotten? (other than the excellent book about him, Three Strides from the Wire). Please publicize the efforts of the organization that is trying to bring him back to Kentucky. There are some of us out here who would make a considerable donation for a “pony ride” on the 1999 Champion. Since he’s reduced to that in Japan now, why not?
By Sharon
May 24, 2006 08:19 PM | Link to this
Excuse Me! Do you have any idea what you are talking about?? Charismatic is the sire of SUN KING here in the US. He left for Japan in the fall of 2002, stood his first season in Japan in 2003, those are foals of 2004, now 2 year old - they have not even started racing. How can you say Charismatic is a “moderate success”. Also, Charismatic has a very good pedigree. His sire won the Preakness, is bred the same as Storm Cat, is out of a daughter of Secretariat. His female family is good as well. I can tell you know nothing about breeding or horse racing other then the spring classics. Stick with writing about something you know about.
By KenS
May 24, 2006 08:51 PM | Link to this
Your comments about Charismatic’s breeding are the first tipoff that you have no idea whatsoever what you are talking about and call your later information into question. Do you have any documentation concerning Charismatic’s current status? Where does this information come from? Does the Atlanta-Journal Constitution have a Japanese bureau which follows and reports on horse breeding? You really need to offer a follow up here with complete, verified information
By Lynda
May 24, 2006 09:08 PM | Link to this
Please, sir, refrain from talking about horse racing. You have no earthly idea WHAT you are talking about. Your article is hilarious to the point of stupidity. I will refrain from making more comments, because everyone else has proved the point.
By LouiseQ
May 24, 2006 11:14 PM | Link to this
Dear Mr. Bisher
I contacted Michael Blowen directly about the current situation of Charismatic. He had no knowledge of you or your ‘information’ regarding Charismatic’s status. He tells me that he received an affirmation today from the person who represents his organization in Japan, that Charismatic “is standing successfully at stud, and is in good health”. He further says that Old Friends Equine(www.oldfriends.org), which arranges and hosts the retirements of champion stallions and other racehorses, is keeping an eye on both Charismatic and War Emblem (who is also in Japan) and will facilitate their return when their breeding careers are over. I am ashamed to say that out of concern I related the elements of your column to others prior to contacting Mr. Blowen for the facts, because I trusted your reporting to be accurate. I also believed your assessment of the pedigree of Charismatic as I am relatively new to the U.S. and as yet unfamiliar with breeding lineages. I need say no more on that topic as others posting to this column are clearly more knowledgeable than you. I would add, though, that Dynaformer, Barbaro’s sire, has been in the top five of the general sires list for four of the last five years, including number 1 during 2005, and as of today he is at the top of the general sires list as published by Thoroughbred Times. This ‘hardly classic’ sire commands a stud fee of $100,000. While I realize that your column is an opinion piece, it should nevertheless be correct in its factual content, and your editor should be made aware of the manner in which you are misleading the general public.
By Michele
May 25, 2006 02:19 AM | Link to this
Mr. Bisher,
Your comments about Charismatic in Japan are totally off base, as other readers have noted. He is standing at a very fine farm, the Shizunai Stallion Station, run by the Japan Bloodhorse Breeders Association on the island of Hokkaido. On a visit to the farm two years ago, I had a chance to see Charismatic, and he was galloping across a spacious and grassy paddock, clearly in excellent health. Additionally, his injured leg was so well repaired in surgery and his recovery so complete that he was being ridden daily by farm personnel (not fee-paying tourists or “pleasure riders,” as this column claims). This exercise strategy for stallions also is employed on some American stud farms such as Three Chimneys in Central Kentucky. On another note, I think you must have forgotten the tremendous outpouring of concern for Charismatic when he did break his leg. The key difference between his case and Barbaro’s is that Charismatic’s injury was not as complex and therefore not as perilous.