November 21, 2023

Work All Week
(March 9, 2009 – November 13, 2023)

We have lost an admirable champion and a quietly kind friend, Work All Week. According to Old Friends’ head veterinarian, Dr. Bryan Waldridge, the cause of his death was a paddock accident. At this time we’re still waiting for the full results of the necropsy (equivalent to a human autopsy). We already know, fully and sadly, that we miss him. So do his friends who shared his paddock. Work All Week got along well with all in his herd, but he was a very independent spirit, as happy doing his own thing as he was hanging out with others. He seemed to have an instinctive wisdom for getting along quietly and peaceably.

He dominated impressively where it mattered, on the track. He made his win at in the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Sprint look easy, but he beat some exceptionably fast horses, such as Fast Anna and future Old Friends resident Private Zone (2009-2018). His sire was the speedy City Zip and his dam, Dancing Matilda, was by Repriced. Richard and Karen Papiese, owners of Midwest Thoroughbreds in Illinois, bred and raced him, and generously allowed Old Friends to retire him, along with his friend and stablemate, The Pizza Man.

Winning the Breeders’ Cup Sprint wasn’t Work All Week’s only remarkable accomplishment. His list of stakes wins includes the Phoenix S (G3) at Keeneland, and in 2013 and 2014 he blazed a mostly-stakes win streak through 7 races, part of a 17-race run where he was always either first or second. That remarkable feat lasted nearly through his entire career, and only once in his life did he ever finish off the board. Yet, Work All Week was one of the most modest, unassuming horses on the farm.

When he arrived at Old Friends in August 2020 with his friend, Arlington Million winner, The Pizza Man, it was Work All Week who settled in the quickest. Once he’d seen there was plenty of good grass, he set to work on it. When he saw his home also featured admiring visitors bringing plenty of carrots, he took this in easy stride. When he and The Pizza Man joined a herd, The Pizza Man was the extrovert, but Work All Week gradually and surely bonded with all his new friends.

I have no amusing or outstanding stories to tell. Work All Week was the opposite of quirky. He never created soap operas and was never a squeaky wheel. He was a good paddock citizen, good to his equine and human friends, always a bit reserved but with a kind heart and good head. He never seemed to realize how remarkably beautiful he was. Though he didn’t brag, I pay heartfelt tribute to his accomplishments and hope all who read this will take a few minutes to relive his championship victory in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint before scrolling down to see him in retirement in “Remembering Work All Week.” We would give anything if only his retirement could have been longer.

2014 Breeders’ Cup Sprint

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Remembering Work All Week
in his retirement at Old Friends

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Beth
photos by Laura

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November 4, 2023

Tom’s Ready
February 1, 2013 – October 30, 2023

For an all too short three years Old Friends was fortunate to be the home of Tom’s Ready. He died last Monday due to complications from colic surgery, and we miss his kindness and the sweet, expressive ways he convinced us that a carrot is ok but a few more are much nicer.

Bred in Pennsylvania by Blackstone Farm LLC, he was a son of More Than Ready our of Goodbye Stranger by Broad Brush. He raced for G M B Racing, trained by Dallas Stewart. At three he won the 2016 Woody Stephens Stakes (G2) (formerly the Riva Ridge S) at Belmont and the Ack Ack Stakes at Churchill Downs—very fittingly, since the Racing-Hall-of-Famer Ack Ack was his great-grandpa. He ran in the 2016 Kentucky Derby and participated in that year’s Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. At four, Tom won the Leemat Stakes at Presque Isle and the 2017 Bold Ruler Stakes (G3) at Belmont and finished second or third in other graded stakes for $1,036,267 earnings.

He entered stud in 2018 at Spendthrift Farm right around the corner and down the road from Old Friends and sired his best progeny there, Quite Ready, a 2019 gelding out of Vindication’s daughter, Sweet Revenge. Quite Ready is still racing, with wins this year, as are others of his progeny. However, he didn’t attract the book needed for a competitive stallion career at a top Bluegrass farm, and in 2019 he was relocated to Red River Farms in Louisiana. In November 2020 he was pensioned from stud and Gayle Benson of G M B Racing enabled his retirement to Old Friends.

Tom settled into a paddock on the south side of the main farm, the prettiest part of the property where the best grass and most sheltering trees grow. This isn’t on the regular tour route, so not every visitor had the pleasure of meeting him, but his friendliness and handsome looks won the hearts of many who took private tours and all of the volunteers and staff. We only wish we could have known him a whole lot longer.

I’d like to have done a “Remembering” slide show video for him had I managed to pull together enough photos, but Laura did take some beautiful ones of him. For those who weren’t fortunate to meet Tom’s Ready, they give a good idea of his handsomeness and his expressive face.

Beth

photos by Laura