Interview with Holy Bull

[juliab]

This is a cute article about Giacomo's sire:

www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sports/horse_racing/11673171.htm

also wanted to add Holy Bull's pic:

[NancyL]

He's always been one of my facorite Lexington stallions and the photo ads the Bloodhorse has for him are spectacular.

[Pam]

Here's the whole article so you don't have to sign up:

Shooting the bull with Holy Bull

Giacomo's sire gets his turn to talk about famous son

By Maryjean Wall

HERALD-LEADER RACING WRITER


Darley at Jonabell Farm -- Holy cow, Holy Bull. Can't believe 10 years have passed since you left the track. And now you've sired a Kentucky Derby winner -- Giacomo.

Way to go, Bull. Congrats. But gosh, you sure don't look like your old self. Here you are at Darley, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum's stunning new spot on Bowman Mill Road, and you look like a different horse than on the track.

At the tender age of 14, you've turned white. And flea-bitten. We can't sugarcoat that one, Holy Bull.

But you do seem happy. Smug, too. You ought to be. Siring a Derby winner is no small feat.

Tell us, Bull. Did you see this one coming? Or were you as surprised as everyone else when your son, Giacomo, won the Derby with a $102.80 payoff, the second-highest in the history of the race?

Holy Bull: "If only horses could talk. Well, I'm talking now. Let me tell you something. I've had 667 children in eight years; their mothers' people gave names to 448 of them and 233 were winners. So, you expect me to remember each and every one of them and all their birthdays? Sometimes, though, your children do surprise you."

Well, Bull. That's interesting. But inquiring minds want to know: The Kentucky Derby was the big race you blew. You finished 12th in 1994, the beaten favorite. Folks are calling Giacomo's Derby win your redemption. Are you, in fact, reliving life through your son? Or are you jealous of his Derby win?

Holy Bull: "Look, I didn't even know about it until they put some extra carrots and mints in my feed that night. I mean, we're in the middle of breeding season out here. I've got fillies to see, fillies to meet. Sometimes, three times a day if I'm really lucky."

Bull, that's nice. The second phase of your life. As for us, we've always been fond of you. I know, I know. We never write. But now seemed like the right time to pay a visit, with Giacomo racing Saturday in the Preakness Stakes.

Tell us, Bull. If he wins this one, too, are you going to be one of those parents who live off their kids' glory?

Holy Bull: "Heck, yes. They'll be advertising my services in all the horse magazines. They already are, you know."

So, how about it, Bull. Do you think he can win this next one? People are, after all, saying he got the Derby by default when the other 19 wore out.

Holy Bull: "Hey, he got the roses, right? They can't take that Derby trophy away from him. Preakness, smeakness. The Derby trophy is the one everybody really wants. I mean, do you think people really remember who won the 1933 Preakness?"

But Bull, how are you going to feel if he fails to win the Preakness?

Holy Bull: "Look, I might not even see the race. I've got mares to breed; more Giacomos to make. I'm really very busy. And a date with me costs $15,000, sweetie."

Bull, just a few more things. We all loved your life story: how your owner, Rachel Carpenter, sent trainer Jimmy Croll to Keeneland with orders that if he found a nice gray horse to buy it. He bought Al Hattab for her -- and Al Hattab wound up as the grandfather on your mother's side.

Then the rest of the story: Carpenter died in 1993 at age 78, the same day you won your first race, at Monmouth Park. And Croll became your owner because she willed you to him.

Holy Bull: "I got passed around, but from one good home to another. That old man, Jimmy Croll, he doted on me like I was a pet. But I won all the big ones for him: the Florida Derby, the Blue Grass Stakes, the Metropolitan Handicap, the Dwyer, the Haskell Invitational, the Travers and the Woodward Stakes."

And, then, Bull, you left racing early in your 4-year-old season because you strained a tendon during the Donn Handicap.

Holy Bull: "True, but it didn't keep me down. I mean, I've never had trouble with the fillies on account of that front leg."

Bull, you acquired Sheikh Mohammed of Dubai as a minority owner when he bought Jonabell Farm. And we couldn't help notice that the Sheikh replaced the old stallion barn here with new state-of-the-art buildings. How did it feel to go from living in the Sheraton to the Ritz Carlton?

Holy Bull: "Can't say it hurt. I have the largest stall in the barn, about 2 feet larger than anyone else's."

One last thing, Bull. About your Derby. You ran so uncharacteristically that day that your trainer always said you must have been drugged.

Holy Bull: "Oh, come on. How would I know? I'm just a horse."

"I've got mares to breed; more Giacomos to make. And a date with me costs $15,000, sweetie."