centennial

Written by racing fan Patrick Kenneally

I want to express my thankfulness for all that Centennial has done with Wicked Strong and the story of the name. Not only have you shown support for Boston and the Marathon survivors, Wicked Strong has provided my father with inspiration while he battles leukemia.

We live right near Saratoga Race Course but are currently in Louisville, Kentucky for my father’s chemo treatments. The Travers race has always been exciting for us being near Saratoga. My father immediately picked Wicked Strong as his pick for the race once the field was set. As a family we embraced the mentality to be Wicked Strong. Our motto is that “Bill is Wicked Strong”; Bill is my father. My father has President Don Little’s quote about “no matter the highs and lows in life you must move forward” on the wall in his hospital room.

As Travers day came my dad was all aglow about watching Wicked Strong’s race, he even had me place bets on the race which he never does. The whole Travers day was a great distraction from the normal routine of being in the hospital. Dad could not have been happier watching that race. He was filled with so much inspiration watching Wicked Strong’s effort that he got out of bed and went for a walk for the first time in two days. He was like a thoroughbred how fast he was going through the halls.

His treatments will be over in a week and on Labor Day they will be doing a bone marrow test to see how successful it was. If he is able to come back to New York we will be so thankful.

My father is wicked strong and will beat leukemia; we thank you for giving us Wicked Strong to rally around.

**Update as of September 9 – the results of Bill Kenneally’s bone marrow biopsy came back and he is officially in remission from his leukemia. We wish him continued “wicked” good health.

Courtesy of NYRA – Adam Coglianese

Wicked Strong became Centennial Farms newest millionaire earner on Saturday when he held off Belmont Stakes winner Tonalist and won the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga. He now has career earnings of $1,244,610 and a record of 3-1-1 out of nine lifetime starts.

From The BloodHorse Online:

After the race Jimmy Jerkens said, “This is great. This is really great. The way he works in the morning, I don’t think Secretariat worked any better than this horse does in the morning,” he said. “I know the talent’s there. It’s just getting him to put it all together.”

Jerkens decided to shake things up a bit, adding a slight blinker. The addition had its desired effect as Wicked Strong showed speed while pressing the pacesetting Legend on the outside before taking the lead leaving the turn for home. Tonalist, ridden by Joel Rosario, presented a formidable challenge in the drive, but Wicked Strong took command in the final furlong to win impressively.

Wicked Strong, who drew the outside post in the field of six, was sweating heavily heading to the post but that was not unusual for the high-strung colt, Jerkens noted.

“We basically had cheaters, just enough to keep him focused,” said Jerkens after his first Jim Dandy win. “They did exactly what we wanted.”

As for Wicked Strong’s pre-race appearance, the trainer added, “He’s always like that. It’s gotten to the point I’d worry if he didn’t sweat. He’s been doing that since he was a 2-year-old.”

“Rajiv took him a couple of horse widths out when he saw Tonalist coming and that discourages a horse that’s coming up from behind you, too,” noted Jerkens. “That’s race riding. That’s what you have to do. It was probably just enough to discourage him a little bit and when we straightened away we kind of kicked away and it made the difference.”

Maragh said he liked the blinkers on Wicked Strong. “He was very aggressive today; he put me in the race, which I was happy about. Tonalist made a bold move, and I thought, ‘It’s going to be a good horse race’ from there and Wicked Strong just dug in and found extra and pulled away at the end.”

“He wasn’t loafing down the backstretch. He was running into a nice rhythm and didn’t go on and off the bridle, which he was doing in his prior starts. He was more focused today and more aggressive.”

Read more on BloodHorse.com.

Courtesy of NYRA – Adam Coglianese