Odd Racing Partnerships

Thoroughbred horses are generally nervous, but frequently make friends in the barn, where they spend quite a bit of their time indoors, and need pleasant distractions. Today, several goats reside on the Saratoga Racetrack backside, and their fossil record reveals a hoofed relationship with horses, yet their present-day rapport is what makes them good companion animals.

The Westbury Stables won the 1902 Saratoga Special with Irish Lad, who had a goat companion named Billy, naturally. The Seagram Stable’s goat evinced a strong desire to masticate Mr. Whitney’s newly planted shrubs on his rebuilt racetrack. 

Trainer George Phillips had an extensive menagerie, with a rooster and a pair of monkeys at his barn, along with a rambunctious goat named Eli, who loved to butt unsuspecting visitors to his stable.

Cats seem like natural stable mates, and besides camaraderie, they help to control the unwelcome presence of vermin.

Hall of Fame trainer Sam Hildreth, whose worldly remains repose just down Lincoln Avenue from the track, employed a parrot named Dick as a companion to his champion McChesney. The bird perched on a beam above Big Mac’s stall and exercised a salty vocabulary, similar to that coming out of the White House these days.

When Pierre Werthheimer’s French champion Epinard arrived in Saratoga in 1924, he was accompanied by his mascot and talisman, Peter, a hyper-alert Airedale terrier.

Leader on the turf Joseph E. Widener had an old German shepherd dog travel and reside with his horses at Saratoga. The notion of a “dog-in-the-manger” goes back to Aesop. Another owner who valued the shepherd dog was Liz Whitney who also employed a white circus horse with china-blue eyes for her lead pony, which the racers adored.

Hirsch Jacobs was a Brooklyn boy who started by racing pigeons, and each year at the Spa he would rehabilitate birds injured at the track. Both he and his horses appreciated the cooing.

Willis Sharpe Kilmer had built a personal fortune with quasi-medical products, a crafty man of business who would do anything to keep his prized equine herd healthy and happy. An introduction he made, and what became another breeding interest for Mr. Kilmer, was the Sicilian donkey stock he had acquired in his travels to Mediterranean countries. These composed animals had a calming effect on his high-dollar, high-strung thoroughbreds and provided a sense of familiarity, especially when traveling together with his racing strings on railcars to remote racetrack stables.

Recognizing that thoroughbreds like donkey company, many other owners and trainers sought these contented little companions. A portion of this sought after donkey production, with their distinctive cross-marks along their spine and over their shoulders, were gifted by Mr. Kilmer to others in the industry, with Racing Hall of Fame members Alfred G. Vanderbilt and Max Hirsch being among the recipients.

Legend has it that Jesus Christ arrived in Jerusalem on the back of a Sicilian donkey when he was welcomed there on the first Palm Sunday, and the faithful quadruped followed the fateful procession up Calvary, and stood in the shadow of the cross, which henceforth has marked the breed.

The fat, placid, dove-gray Sicilian donkey would live in the same stall box, travel together in a motor van, and walk together to the paddock, helping the thoroughbred to maintain composure while moving through the excited summertime crowd at Saratoga Race Course.