There’s a horse running Friday at Pimlico that you need to see. He is not a classically bred stallion-in-waiting, in fact, he can’t even reproduce. He never ran for the roses, or shipped to Saratoga or sipped from the Breeders’ Cup. But make no mistake, he is a legend.

His name is Ben’s Cat, and you just have to see him go.

Ben's Cat with rider Jeremy Rose (Jim McCue/MD Jockey Club)

Ben’s Cat with rider Jeremy Rose (Jim McCue/MD Jockey Club)

 

If you’re privy to the Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred scene, then surely you’ve watched at least one of the 10-year-old gelding’s 54 career races. If so, you’ve probably seen him win—after all, he’s won an astounding 31 times in his 6+ years on the track to the tune of $2.5 million in earnings. And he’s done it all without ever leaving the I-95 corridor.

There’s no such thing as a sure thing in horse racing, but Ben’s Cat is as close as it gets. In 54 starts he’s finished outside the top four just seven times. Although he’s a sprinter by trade, he’s hardly a speed rocket. Instead, he lopes behind his rivals for a couple of furlongs before unleashing his signature stretch drive, astutely sniffing out the wire just in time with hardly any urging from his rider as if to say, “Just hang on Johnny, I’ll take it from here.”

Though Ben’s Cat does the running, much of the credit for his success goes to his trainer, who also happens to be his breeder and owner, King Leatherbury—that’s King Leatherbury—HIS NAME IS KING LEATHERBURY! At 83, Leatherbury is an Old Line legend who just so happens to be the third winningest trainer in the history of American racing (6,468 wins to be exact), even though he’s never set up shop in Kentucky, New York, Florida or California.

The King and his Cat (Photo by Tom LeGro)

The King and his Cat (Photo by Tom LeGro)

 

Like his most decorated runner, Leatherbury is Maryland bred and raised and he’s comfortable right where he is, just as his dark brown homebred is perfectly content to keep on winning turf sprints within a couple hours drive.


Ben’s Cat and Leatherbury are as Maryland as Old Bay seasoning on Cal Ripken’s crab cake, but you do not have to be a local, nor even a fan of racing to appreciate the partnership of these two elder statesmen. Consider the timing of Ben’s Cat’s arrival:

“I sold my farm [in Sudley, Md.] nine years ago,” Leatherbury told the DRF in 2013. “I sold it because it was costing me a lot more than I could make. You’d put $15,000 into raising a foal and get $7,500 out of it. I just couldn’t keep going like that.”

Then, one of his uncelebrated mares named Twofox did something quite celebratory: she gave birth to a “sweet-tempered” foal by Parker’s Storm Cat they would later name Ben’s Cat. The rest, is history…history that’s still in the making, Friday at Pimlico in the Jim McKay Turf Sprint (post time 3:13pm ET), a race the gelding has won four times before including the last three.

In a sport where the brightest stars seemingly come and go through the turnstyles of the top training stables, you have to stop and appreciate these homespun fairytales; when good things happen to good people, and good horses stay healthy and full of run.

“He doesn’t seem to get older,” Leatherbury said earlier this week. “That’s the amazing thing. We have the same exercise boy galloping him now as when he first got to the track and he keeps saying he’s as good as ever.

“He’s got a lot of fans, and some people send him treats. Some lady keeps sending treats and I don’t even know her. She just sends this big box of cookies and she says, ‘This is for Ben. Tell him to share them with all the horses in the barn.’”

 

It’s time you got to know this timeless war horse, and his King.

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