“A racehorse is an animal that may take a number of thousand individuals for a journey on the similar time.” – Marjorie Johnson
Stand within the paddock on a given day on the races and you might be surrounded by tales. Every horse that walks right into a stall, stands for a saddle and rider, and walks onto the racetrack carries with them the arduous work and hope of every individual they’re related to. In Miracle Michael’s case, this New York-bred 2-year-old is the equine namesake of a particular survivor.
Named for Roddy Valente’s grandson, this son of Thoughts Management is a homebred for the New York-area businessman. He additionally bred each Miracle Michael’s dam, Stonezapper, and grandam, Stone Maker, making the colt the third technology for Valente and his household, who lately gathered at Saratoga Race Course for his debut. After appearing up within the beginning gate, Miracle Michael fended off late challenges to complete second in a 5 ½-furlong maiden particular weight race for New York-breds.
“He has good temperament. He jogs my memory of his namesake,” Valente stated. “I do know he’s going to be a tough trier, and that’s what Michael is.”
Valente’s grandson Michael needed to be a tough trier in his first yr when he was recognized with retinoblastoma, a sort of eye most cancers that begins as a development of cells within the retina, the light-sensitive lining on the within of the attention, in each eyes. At 7 ½ months previous, his household sought remedy at Memorial Sloan Kettering Most cancers Heart in New York Metropolis, the place docs had been in a position to save not solely Michael’s life, but additionally his imaginative and prescient. A most cancers prognosis is frightening at any age, however particularly so within the case of somebody so younger.
“I imply, there’s no different strategy to say it: we had been simply heartbroken and scared greater than something. You get consumed by it,” Valente remembered. “Dr. Abramson advised us, if this had been 12 years in the past, he stated, I’d take his left eye out tomorrow, and I might hope to save lots of his proper eye. Michael actually responded to the chemotherapy. I feel it was like 4 remedies, and every month it simply cleared up an increasing number of.”
Now 13, Michael is a wholesome younger man, and in keeping with his grandfather, “he’s a little bit horse buff. He likes to go to the races after I’m up there in Saratoga. He loves the sport.”
Michael goes for annual checks to detect any doable recurrence of most cancers, however since his preliminary prognosis and remedy, Michael continues to be cancer-free.
“He’s an excellent little athlete. He performs basketball, and he has performed soccer, however his finest sport is basketball. He’s an excellent level guard, I ought to say,” Valente stated.
Miracle Michael is the second horse that the long-time breeder and proprietor has named for his grandson. The primary was Eye Love Michael, a 2012 gelding sired by Valente’s personal Bustin Stones, a Grade 1 winner by Metropolis Zip. An ideal 6-for-6 in his profession, Bustin Stones gained the 2008 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct earlier than standing at stud at Waldorf Farm within the Empire State. He’s a product of the identical maternal household as Miracle Michael and shares the identical coach, Bruce Levine, who Valente has recognized for greater than 30 years.
“Truly, we met after I tried to promote him a horse one time, and he didn’t purchase it. Then, he had a horse with any individual else, and it wasn’t working any good,” Levine recalled. “He referred to as me and requested me to take the horse, and I did. We did nicely collectively after which sort of by no means regarded again from there.”
A Lengthy Island native, Levine labored for John Russell and John Campo earlier than going out on his personal in 1979. In additional than 40 years on the racetrack, he has taken residence coaching titles on the Meadowlands and Monmouth Park and educated graded stakes winners Buddy’s Saint, Coyote Lakes, Restored Hope, and Valente’s Bustin Stones. Over the previous three a long time, the Levine and Valente households have shaped a bond that makes them virtually household.
“Our households are sort of shut; we’ve gone away on holidays and all. I watched his children develop up, and now I’m watching the grandkids develop up.” Levine stated. “We’ve watched his children develop; they had been like possibly 8 years previous and 10 after we first met them. Now they’ve acquired children. We’ve watched the entire tree develop.”
Valente has 25 horses in coaching, largely in New York, unfold between trainers like Levine, Linda Rice, and Chad Summers. After seeing the colt’s potential, he despatched Miracle Michael to Levine, who chosen that maiden race at Saratoga. The colt’s efficiency in his debut leaves each proprietor and coach assured that Miracle Michael has profitable performances forward of him.
“I assumed he ran arduous. He was chasing the winner right through the stretch; he may have simply spit the bit and folded, however he held on there, and he was an excellent second,” Levine stated.
“We’ll attempt to run him in a maiden race, hopefully in regards to the first week or so of October. Lengthy vary, there’s a stallion stakes Nov. 27, I feel, and he’s eligible for that. That’s positively on the agenda.”
“We’re going to level for that race, and as soon as we get a pair races in him, hopefully he goes ahead,” Valente stated. “We’ll cope with how he fares this yr. He’s solely two years and about three months previous, a younger horse. That’s why I don’t wish to press on him an excessive amount of proper now both, however he’s very sound.”
Regardless of the future has in retailer for Miracle Michael, he’s already off to a pleasant begin, a proficient younger horse named for a particular younger man. Wherever the colt goes subsequent, he stands as a reminder of what love and religion can carry to even the darkest of occasions.
“We’ve been blessed with one thing that I discuss with as a miracle. I’m so grateful, as is our complete household, for this loving younger man.” Valente stated. “Don’t ever hand over and have religion. I feel he’s residing proof of that.”
