David Cassidy’s passion for horses
David Cassidy moved to California from New Jersey at age 11 to become ridiculously famous, with reportedly more fan club members than the Beatles and Elvis Presley combined. But while he was out there singing the smash hit "I Think I Love You" with his TV mom and real life step-Mom Shirley Jones, he also was dragging his real mother to Santa Anita Park.
"There was a cameraman on the Partridge Family who had a ranch, and he used to drive two hours to Burbank, and he started bringing in The Blood-Horse and the Thoroughbred Record, and I started reading," “In about two years, I went to the California Thoroughbred Breeders' Sale and bought my first horse. I was 23. It was something because I had done a lot of research. I wasn't interested in racing horses. I wanted to breed them."
“Everything in my life was about performance when I was doing The Partridge Family. I was in the studio every night, on the set every day, touring on weekends. I've had a passion for horses since I was very young - I used to sit on the floor in front of the races on television and pretend to be a jockey - and I first began reading the racing form on the set of The Partridge Family. It provided a tremendous balance. I got to go and be among people who cared about what I cared about. They weren't interested in my fame and celebrity, but in the fact that we had the same passion: horses and being on a farm. It was in the middle of this passion that Secretariat broke on to the scene.
I flew on the red-eye from LA, where I was filming, to Maryland to watch him. They couldn't let me out in the crowd because of security, so the man who was then running for governor took me on to the roof of Pimlico racetrack. There were only about 10 of us on the roof, and the roar from the crowd beneath at the way he moved was awesome. Seeing him glistening in the sun was truly remarkable. He was a perfectly conformed, very large chestnut, Herculean in his power. They called him Big Red. To many people, he is the greatest horse of all time. He captured the imagination of the whole country like no other horse had ever done. He was the only horse in 25 years to win the Triple Crown, and he set a new record almost every time he raced. From that point on, I began to buy and breed horses.
I saw Secretariat at a farm in Kentucky after he was retired to stud - and every time anyone would come by with a camera, he would pose, he was so aware of his greatness.
"I am impressed by who David Cassidy is, and I'm impressed by his knowledge. You could sit down with David Cassidy for an hour and talk about pedigrees and breeding and race mares. He has a phenomenal racetrack mind."
Mayan King, is in deep in the Lane's End, light on experience and facing proven stakes winners. Still, Cassidy, who turned down a $1 million offer for the horse, hopes a win today will lead him to the Kentucky Derby.
Still, because of the demands of being David Cassidy, he won't be at Turfway Park in Kentucky to see the race. He is committed to two shows tonight at the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Conn.
"I couldn't move the dates. It's my profession," he said with bemused resignation. "When we booked the date seven or eight months ago, I wasn't looking at the calendar saying, 'That's the Lane's End Stakes.' "
David Cassidy is hoping that a victory in today's Lane's End Stakes will lead his horse, Mayan King, to the Kentucky Derby.
David delivered the keynote speech at the 2005 National Thoroughbred Racing's Hall of Fame induction ceremony at Saratoga. He annually spent summers at Saratoga, where he had a home and an owner's box at the track.
"Through the years there have been tens of thousands of people who have been in the game as trainers and jockeys, so it's such an honor for these individuals, as well as the equine athletes, to have achieved the Hall of Fame," Cassidy said during the ceremony that had Nick Zito among the inductees. "It's one of the highlights of my entire adult life and career to be asked to speak at the induction ceremony and articulate my passion for racing. To say I'm flattered would be a gross understatement."
“I want to celebrate the fact that we are in the greatest race place of all time,” Cassidy said in his speech. “It has been so for 120 years, and I hope it will be so for another 120 years. It has been a place that I have visited at least for one day, whether I was touring the world, being on Broadway, making films, being on tour in Europe, being in the west end of London, playing in Las Vegas,” he said. “Every contract said, 'His week off is between Aug. 7 and Aug. 14.' That's no lie.
“I want to be an ambassador for this sport. We need an ambassador; we need a face. I would be delighted and honored if I could assist all of you in taking the next step to see that Thoroughbred racing becomes the No. 1 sport in our country again.”
"I'd had a lot of success in breeding in the late '70s and the '80s and sold a lot of very good, high-priced mares and yearlings," Cassidy said.
Cassidy, along with partners Ed Lipton and Our Canterbury Stables, bought Mayan King for $210,000. Cassidy liked what he saw in Mayan King, named after Mayan Drive near Cassidy's residence in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
"I said there's a horse I really have to have and I'm going to buy him," Cassidy said. "And I don't know how much he's going to cost, but I'm going to buy him. “And as it turned out, when they dropped the hammer, it's the only time I've ever high-fived anybody in the sales ring. I thought he'd probably bring between $300,000 and $400,000. The day we bought him, I thought he was a Derby horse."
Trained by Gary Contessa, Mayan King won a six-furlong maiden race at Aqueduct on Jan. 28. A month later at the same track, he won a two-turn mile allowance race. Cassidy said a Kentucky Derby win on May 7 would rank higher than anything he has accomplished in the entertainment industry.
"I would have to say, if I could win the Kentucky Derby, there would be nothing on earth, nothing other than the birth of my son 14 years ago, that would compare to the thrill and the high of it," said Cassidy, who said he is leaving May 7 open on his schedule.
Among the best horses he bred and/or owned individually or in partnership were 2008 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (G2) winner Sweet Vendetta , five-time stakes winner Half Heaven , and stakes winners Doll Baby , Jenny's So Great , and Citrus Kid . Although not a stakes winner, Mayan King was among the best-known horses campaigned by Cassidy and partners, as he won or placed in eight of 12 starts and was a hyped horse early on the Triple Crown trail in 2005 before being sidelined.
David’s dream of winning the Kentucky Derby was not to be.
David Cassidy passed away on Tuesday, 21st November 201
