Derby’s early days
October 11, 2011 2 Comments
In doing my research on Derby and his identity, I discovered that he was bred by Airdrie Stud, which is owned by consummate horseman (and former Kentucky governor) Brereton C. Jones. Derby romped on some seriously hallowed ground in his early days. Poking around on the Airdrie web site, I found a contact form, and on a whim, sent them a note, not really expecting to hear back, because they’re in the throes of the fall sales, and, well, Airdrie is a big operation. I don’t have rights to this picture of the farm, but this will give you an idea of the kind of place it is. Gorgeous, isn’t it!
Today, I opened my email and found a message titled “Photo of Derby as a foal” from a woman named Laura, who works at Airdrie. She had trawled Airdrie’s archives, and had found some pictures of Derby as a foal, which she scanned and emailed to me.
He was a cute little dickens!
Importantly, the photos included an up-close shot if his forehead, and there, wandering toward is left eye, is a distinctive smudge of white hairs. This evidence closes the blooks on Derby’s identification. There were a few little doubts, but I am now 100% sure he is, in fact, Holy Vows.
Yep, that is definitely Derby! And dang, he was a cutie.
And many thanks again to Laura at Airdrie. A long retired, unsuccessful gelding means nothing to their business, but despite that, Laura tracked down those photos and sent them to me. I’m really grateful. Thank you, Laura!
About Sarah Skerik
Collecting Thoroughbreds 
He is absolutely adorable!! That first shot is precious.
That’s fantastic! I managed to get two year old photos of one of my old horses (QH/palomino) from the people who had him at that age. At that point in time the couple were judges who judges up to the world show level in addition to busy training programs, but they had a picture on file which they sent me, as well as their notes on why he hadn’t shown in futurities. Those notes also told me why he was still sound at an age when most QH show horses of his type weren’t… he had nice gaits, but didn’t want to go slowly enough for western pleasure futurities. They weren’t the types to work the legs off a horse to get it slow, so they left him alone for a year to get him an all-around home at a later age, where he could be worked without having to run him into the ground for the money shows.