Looking for a Different Kind of Equine Event to Attend?
Friday, March 16, 2007
Tim Conway hosting the 2006 Team Penning event
Dear Friend of the Kentucky Horse Park:
While celebrities of the equine kind are no strangers to the park, a much-loved celebrity of the human kind will visit us again when actor and comedian Tim Conway hosts Celebrity Team Penning on April 10.
Tim is returning to the park to raise funds for the Don MacBeth Memorial Jockey Fund, which he co-founded with Judy McCarron, wife of Hall of Fame jockey, Chris McCarron. The fund assists jockeys and exercise riders who have suffered serious injuries and/or are disabled as a result of riding.
Their upcoming event at the park, team penning, is one of the fastest-growing equine sports in the country. Thirty cows, numbered from 0 through 9, stand at one end of an arena. There are three number 0s, three number 1s, etc. Three riders enter the other end of the arena and proceed to the start line. When the timekeeper calls the start, the riders are given a number, 5 for example. They then have to remove all three number 5s from the herd and move them down to the other end of the arena and put them into a pen. The team with the quickest time wins the event.
Celebrity jockeys such as Chris McCarron, Steve Cauthen, Pat Day, Angel Cordero, Jr., Jean Cruguet, Gary Stephens, Patty Cooksey, Robby Albarado and John Rotz will partner with two paying patrons to demonstrate their team penning skills.
Jockey Gary Stevens at the 2006 Team Penning at the KHP
The fund was named for the late jockey, Don MacBeth, who rode Chief’s Crown in the 1985 classics, and who died of cancer in 1987. According to the fund’s website, “Don MacBeth, well respected by all who knew him or rode against him, was more than just an exceptional jockey, he was an exceptional man. He lived his life on principle and spent much of his time trying to help those less fortunate than he.” How appropriate that this wonderful organization would be established in memory of such a fine man.
Governed by an impressive board of directors and advisors which also includes Burt Bacharach, Merv Griffin, Jenny Craig, Dick Van Patten and numerous jockeys including Corey Nakatani, Eddie Delahoussay and Corey Black, the fund assists in ways such as paying the rent while a rider recovers from injuries and purchasing medical equipment needed by permanently disabled riders. More than 1,825 injured riders from every racetrack in North America have received assistance. That number does not include riders assisted multiple times with different injuries.
A cocktail party will be offered beginning at 5pm and the penning will begin at 6:45pm. Gates open at 5pm. Tim Conway will be the host and emcee for the evening. Some of your favorite jockeys and their teammates will do their best penning and you can try your luck with a Calcutta.
We hope you will join us in this fun event on April 10 here at the park, which will raise money for a very worthwhile cause!
Sincerely,
John Nicholson
Executive Director
(Reprinted with permission from HORSeNEWS from the Kentucky Horse Park, March 15, 2007.)
|