Via TD Thornton
When Coach Tom Van Berg won two crown races Saturday with his first horses in that series, most racers have a connection to his father, the late Hall-of-Fame operator Jack Van Berg. But the connection to another family legacy in that series may not be so obvious: 25-year-old John Timothy Kirby, who also shouldered his first Claiming Crown initiator to win the contest. His first race at Churchill Downs, was a third generation rider with strong roots running deep in New England.
In fact, after more than half a century of breeding and racing Massachusetts hybrids, the Kirbys have outlasted all the Thoroughbred races in their home region. That meant that even before the Suffolk Downs stopped running well in 2019, the youngest coach in the family was forced to hit the road and move to Parx in Pennsylvania to focus on his business.
The Claiming Crown likes to bill itself as the “Blue Collar Breeders Cup,” and that’s a pretty fair analogy. But how many coaches at the national level are willing to do a 675-mile van ride in a trailer with their sole participant for that event, like Kirby did with Tiger hero (Hero of Order), a $100,000 Ready’s Rocket Express 4-1 winner?
“I rode in the back. Just wanted to make sure he shipped well and everything,” Kirby told video reporter Dani Gibson of the Pennsylvania Hybrid Horse Association (PTHA) after the win.
“Bobby Mosco’s horse was there too,” Kirby added, referring to Unusual (Dramedy), who offers 10 lengths of $150,000 Tiara, who would have completed a Parx-based double in the Claiming Crown if it weren’t for the scans by the Kentuckians watching at home.
“Everything is going very smoothly and the stars are aligned. We are so lucky,” Kirby said.
Neither does the tenacity and pioneering work ethic honed by three generations.
John T.’s grandfather, John F. Kirby, always worked around growing horses, and he began training Hybrid Horses in 1953, when races in New England included a vigorous lap in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Maine, plus a variety of regional county fairs in the summer and fall.
Kirby began breeding Purebred dogs at his Smokey Valley Ranch in Dover in 1967, about half an hour southwest of Suffolk Downs, and he had built up a small flock of broodstocks by the time Massachusetts began first monetized state-bred wallet incentives in 1972. .
After training outside clients for more than two decades, eldest brother Kirby retired to focus on his home-grown racehorse line in 1975. As the Massachusetts-bred program expanded to include state-bred shares in 1981, at least one horse raised by Kirby would win at least one of those shares each year for a record that spanned three decades.
The family’s blue-and-white silk ponies are known for their durability and good sound. A foal from Kirby’s 1968 crop named Brik (“Kirb” and earlier) won 23 races from 184 starts.
This family was also difficult, and although they were not at the top of Suffolk, they were respected by everyone for their riding ability. In 1985, John F. Kirby said in a Boston Globe records that between the farm and the track, the work schedule is “seven days a week, from dawn to exhaustion.”
Timothy Kirby, father of John T., started training in 1991 and still has a small stable at Parx. Cardinal John F. Kirby stopped training in 1999 and died in 2011. The 40-acre family farm used to be shrunk to pieces as the horses left the property and trading business. The blood in New England dried up and disappeared.
The youngest Kirby recalled in a 2019 interview with PTHA’s Dick Jerardi that as a high school student he was often reprimanded for reading a Race form hidden inside his binder.
John T. Kirby said: “If we had a horse race, odds were I would be on the track, not in the classroom.
But Kirby went to school in other, more meaningful ways. Just as important as the race results, he learned from his father and grandfather, that’s what happens after finishing.
“We always have Mass.-breds,” Kirby said in that PTHA post. “They have treated us well. We mainly keep them when they are finished and let them live to old age on the farm.”
On a Saturday, heavy snow fell at Churchill that must have given Kirby a flashback to the bygone, brutal days of winter racing in Suffolk, there was a moment overhead the house looked like a Hero. Tiger, despite his full run, will be left out of contention because a narrow slit targeted by track runner Luis Saez turned into a wall into a horse before the 6-year-old could pierce it.
“Honestly, when that hole closed in on him, I think he lost momentum. But Luis really rode it the hard way and got the momentum back, and this horse just has the biggest heart – the biggest heart,” Kirby said, his voice cracking momentarily with emotion after the top victory. highest in his career.
With limited runs, Kirby won 14 races from 98 that started this year, hitting a 45% run while competing primarily at Parx, Delaware and Penn National. But he is no stranger to New York, where he has won a race at Saratoga and Belmont in 2021 and 22, the most recent victory being a 21-1 defeat in June with a rotator. claims $45,000, who hit six that lasted for a quick 1st round: 07.34.
Back on September 4, Kirby voted on behalf of owner Gregg O’Donnell for a $40,000 request for Hero Tiger at Spa, and Saturday’s Crown win returned $56,000 on the investment. there.
Instead of giving credit, Kirby commended his rider in a post-race interview while brimming with enthusiasm about bigger and better things to come.
“First horse we ever ordered [Saez] In, he won at Saratoga. And then earlier this year they [nearly] broke the record at Belmont,” said Kirby. “So we are 3 to 5 with Luis, and this is just the beginning. We’ll get him even more mounts. “
