Favorite things: Ben’s Cat

Over the next couple of weeks, The Racing Biz will celebrate the holiday season by sharing a few of our (and your) favorite pictures, articles, and videos from 2013.  Our folks have been on the spot for many of the most important racing days of the mid-Atlantic season and have come up with compelling words and images to tell the tales they’ve heard and seen.  We hope you’ll enjoy them…

BEN’S CAT

If octogenarian trainer King Leatherbury ever makes the Hall of Fame — which he certainly should — the horse as responsible as any other for that achievement will be Ben’s Cat.  The gelded son of Parker’s Storm Cat, now seven, was bred and is owned and trained by Leatherbury.  After the start of his career was delayed by injury, he hit the ground running, with eight straight wins.  He’s since established himself as one of the best grass sprinters in the country, and one who can also run with top horses on the dirt.  During his seven year-old season this year, he won five times, including a win in the Grade 3 Parx Dash over Tightend Touchdown, who subsequently ran second in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.  Ben’s Cat earned more than $500,000 this year, pushing his career earnings past $1.8 million.  In the sequence below, he edges Mr. Online — later second in the Grade 1 Nearctic — in the Laurel Dash.

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