September 21, 2023

Amazombie
(April 18, 2006 – September 18, 2023)

One of the most talented horses ever to live at Old Friends, 2011 Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner and 2011 Eclipse Award Champion Sprinter, Amazombie, passed unexpectedly on Monday. He was euthanized following a fracture from which there was no hope of healing with quality of life. We’ve had remarkably few fatal fractures in Old Friends’ two decades, but it hurts all the more to lose two of our longest and most loved residents in a short time.

Amazombie’s remarkable race career, from being thrown in with the sale of another horse to owner-trainer Bill Spawr, through a sizzling 2011 sprint campaign and win in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, to being elected 2011 Eclipse Award (the highest championship honor in American racing) in the sprint division, can be read at the Bloodhorse.

You can watch his 2011 Breeders’ Cup Sprint victory here.

Amazombie, a gelding would have no stud career. To our delight, owners William Spawr and Thomas Sanford entrusted us with his retirement. He arrived in October 2014. On arrival, every new resident is alert to the essentials: Is this place free of scary monsters? What horses are nearby? What’s the food situation? Then comes: Are the people ok? Amazombie immediately asked a question many horses don’t get around to first thing: Who can I make friends with?

Amazombie in his early retirement. Equisport Photos.

He was such a charmer that we were all his friends from day one. During initial turnouts in the round pen by the barn, as he was getting acclimated and was in the precautionary quarantine all newcomers go through, he kept signaling that he wanted to be patted, scatched, treated, or something equally and fun. He made obeying the quarantine for the whole 21 days so hard! Once he was cleared to really make friends and meet and greet his visitors—Amazombie had many keen fans—he loved getting carrots by hand. I don’t know who enjoyed the other more, Amazombie or his visitors. Race fans who admired him left loving him. Those who didn’t know racing fell in love with him for his elegant looks, bright-eyed curiosity and friendliness. Many, many repeat visitors specifically asked to see him.

As Amazombie settled in, Rapid Redux had finished a rest following his long, strenuous race career and was ready for a paddock mate. The two geldings were the same age and both entering a new lifestyle, so it was decided to see if they hit it off together. They may not have proved most placid twosome on the farm, but the two formed a strong bond that lasted to the end of Amazombie’s life.

with Rapid Redux. Photo by Laura Battles.

They were great fun for the tour guides too because both had Eclipse Awards yet had earned them via completely different routes. Amazombie was a late maturer but never saw the gritty side of racing and ended up as one of the sport’s elite. Rapid Redux was a claimer at working class tracks, a situation that often lacks predictability and long term associations with handlers. Rapid’s record-setting 22 race win streak had moved in out of claiming ranks, but he was a kid from a tough neighborhood and at first he bossed Amazombie around.

Gradually, Amazombie achieved the leadership. It took them about a year of negotiation and occasional rumbles, but they continued to graze and doze in tandem and they settled comfortably into their new balance.

Mostly. Neither was a pushover. That may be what made their bond so strong. Every once in awhile one would sass the other, like the day I fed them lunch and Amazombie claimed his feed tub, then decided though Rapid’s was some distance away it also his. He raced back and forth between the two feed tubs, gleefully possessing both. The upshot was that Rapid ate more lunch that day because he got in mouthfuls from his own tub while Amazombie was dashing back and forth.

Photo by Laura Battles.

As they matured, both settled into middle aged ways, but Amazombie was always an athlete. He ran for pure joy. You could see it in his eyes. He was one of those horses who gave rise to beliefs that horses are embodied wind.

My one regret about the “Remembering Amazombie” video below is that since Laura’s camera sessions usually happen at evening, I had no photos of Amazombie with the many humans who loved him and none of the tours where he was such a charmer. His bright inquisitiveness, playfulness and kindness are now a matter only of memory. They were a genuine part of who he was. Yet there was also some essence that was less tangible and more eternal. Of all the ways I will remember him, the most vivid is of him running with the wind in his mane and joy in his eyes.

Remembering Amazombie

Beth

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