CRACKMEUP: 2001 Bay Gelding
by General Royal, out of Full of Happiness
On June 1st 2001, the Fighting Fit mare, Full of Happiness, delivered a small bay foal at 2:00 p.m.. Though the birth was unremarkable, the circumstances surrounding it were anything but. The little colt had survived in utero through Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome (MRLS), a phenomenon that occurred in late April and May and claimed the lives of over 500 late-term fetuses and 2500 early-term pregnancies. MRLS took the life of the foal of Let’s Dance (Full of Happiness’s pasture mate) — a beautiful copper chestnut colt with a blaze and three white stockings that was born alive but died two days later.
It was evident that Happy’s little colt was different from most other foals from day one. His silly antics in the field often prompted me to remark “that little foal just CRACKS ME UP!” Hence his registered name was easy to decide. He did funny dances, always off by himself, making up games to keep himself entertained. He was always in a playful way; running afer me and then turning and running when I chased him. Oddly, he much preferred human contact to equine, a trait he still exhibits today.
Crackmeup, affectionately known as Buster, was extremely easy to break and became very strong and powerful to gallop as the training progressed. On July 6, 2003, Buster was about 60 days from breezing, so he was sent to a trainer in New York to become a racehorse.
On December 29, 2003, he made his first start in maiden company, going 6 furlongs at Mountaineer Racetrack and Gaming Resort in West Virginia. How exciting it was for me and my five girlfriends to watch my colt race on TV from my living room! When the first call of the race was made, he was nowhere to been seen. He never got a call until the sixteenth pole, when he came flying on the outside—and got up for second!!! That night, little Buster looked like he might be the real thing!
For his next start he was fifth, and then he was second again. He made $10,000 in a two months, and I was thrilled to have bred a good racehorse. But soon thereafter, his form dropped off and so on July 6th, exactly one year from the day he left, Crackmeup was back on a van to come home to Kentucky. He'd was in need to some well earned R & R.
In January of 2005, I sold my farm and Buster and my cats moved with me to a house in Frankfort. In addition, thinking he might need a friend to be turned out with to reduce stress, I bought him a miniature donkey named Pedro. Buster and his playfullness was then aimed at poor Pedro. He would pick up Pedro by the neck and shake him. (Needless to say, the donkey was soon sold and sent to a safer home.)
After awhile I was riding Buster regularly, even taking him for weekends to the Smokies in Tennessee for trail riding, and to the Kentucky Horse Park where he learned to jump stadium and cross country fences, ditches, banks, and water jumps. His dressage was coming along too; he clearly recalled how to move from off his hindquarters and my leg from his early days in training on the farm with me.
By October 2005, I took Buster on the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers' Club Trail Ride at Stony Oak farm and Training Center in Paris, KY. After seeing how beautiful that facility was, I decided to send Buster back to race training.
Cracker lived in a half-acre paddock at Stony Oak. He trained well all fall, winter and spring and ran his first race in nearly two years on April 13, 2006, at River Downs, going six furlongs in a $5000 claiming race. He finished fifth that day and was lucky not to be taken down with a horse that heat-stroked and fell in the stretch right next to him! (Fortunately, the horse that fell was OK.)
What a crazy thing to have happen in his first race back. In his next race, he ran one mile at River Downs for $5000, and at the top of the lane, Cracker took the lead! It looked like he was a winner that day, but a horse caught him on the outside in just the last 70 yards or so. It was the first time he has ever made the lead in any of his races. He dug in hard and showed he did want to win.
UPDATE: In August 2006 he was permantly retired from racing. He is back under saddle training for his career as an event horse! We never got our win but the joy this horse has given me is more than I could ask for and I know we will be great partners in the event world for many years to come.....
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