Our Mims

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Our Mims
Sire Herbager
Dam Sweet Tooth
Damsire On-and-On
Sex Mare
Foaled 1974
Country USA Flag of the United States
Colour Bay
Breeder Calumet Farm
Owner Calumet Farm (while racing)
Trainer John M. Veitch
Record 18: 6-6-1
Earnings $368,034
Major Racing Wins, Awards and Honours
Major Racing Wins
Fantasy Stakes (1977)
Coaching Club American Oaks (1977)
Alabama Stakes (1977)
Delaware Handicap (1977)
Racing Awards
U.S. Champion 3-Yr-Old Filly (1977)
Honours
Our Mims Retirement Haven - Paris, Kentucky
Infobox last updated on: October 15, 2006.

Our Mims (1974-2003) was a champion thoroughbred racing mare and broodmare, and yet she came very close to dying abandoned in a field of cattle. Having been left there after the cattle had, Our Mims was surrounded by the carcasses of those she would soon follow if something or someone hadn't saved her.

Contents

[edit] But before that ignoble end

Our Mims was born on March 8, 1974, at Calumet Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. She was by Herbager out of Sweet Tooth (by On-and-On). This made her a half sister to the brilliant colt Alydar, whose rivalry with the 1978 Triple Crown winner, Affirmed, is the stuff of horse racing legend. Our Mims was named after Melinda Markey, the daughter of Rear Admiral Gene Markey, second husband of Calumet Farm owner, Lucille Markey.

Alydar and Our Mims were both owned by Calument and trained by John M. Veitch.

[edit] Running, not starving

Our Mims won not one of her seven starts as a two-year-old, but when she was three she came into her own. Never running in a maiden race (restricted to those who've never won a race), right from the start Veitch entered her in an allowance at Florida's Hialeah Park. She won it. Then it was on to the Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn Park, the Coaching Club American Oaks at Belmont Park (at which, Melinda Bena [nee Markey] was present to accept the winner's trophy on behalf of calumet Farm), the prestigious Alabama Stakes at the Saratoga Race Course, and the Delaware Handicap at Delaware Park. All this earned her the Eclipse Award for the champion three-year-old filly.

Our Mims was not the greatest racing mare the track had ever seen—in a few of her wins she barely made it—but she was one of the best.

At the end of her racing career of 18 starts, she'd had six wins, placed in six, and was third once. She earned $368,034.

[edit] Having babies

The foals of Our Mims did not do much, but their foals were something else again. Her first foal, Heavenly Blue by Raise a Native, produced Play On and On who was the dam of several stakes winners, including Continuously, sent to England and then on to California to win a major race there. Her third foal was Mimbet, the dam of the 1997 Breeders' Cup Sprint winner, Elmhurst.

[edit] No use to anyone

But then she turned 21 and became barren. People tried her for five more years and got nothing for their efforts. So someone stuck her in a cattle field to live or to die. She had to make due with cattle food, she was not protected from the weather, she had no vet.

[edit] A better end; A tribute for all

Our Mims was saved by a woman named Jeanne Mirabito who saw her in the cattle field and brought her food. Two years later, when the farm's two barns burned down, Mirabito convinced the owners to donate the ailing old mare to ReRun, a home that cares for, nurses back to health, and adopts out retired racehorses.

At twenty-five-years of age, Our Mims needed every kind of care she could get. Jeanne gave it to her. Our Mims still behaved like a queen, and she was treated like a queen. No amount of mistreatment had changed that.

One of the ways Rerun encourages donations to fund their rescues is by selling horse paintings. Our Mims painted their first "Moneighs." Funny Cide, who apparently likes to paint, has done five. Cigar actually painted with the brush between his teeth. Congaree, Free House, Gato del Sol, Chief Seattle, Ten Most Wanted, Awesome Again, Monarchos, Groovy, Candy Ride, Bienamado, In Excess, Kona Gold, Cryptoclearance, Devil His Due, Mr. Greeley, and Serena's Song have all contributed a painting. No doubt there are more, or there will be.

Our Mims lived in comfort until December 9, 2003. She was 29 years old. She is buried at Calumet's equine cemetery, the first horse buried in the cemetery who was not owned by the farm.

In tribute to her friend, Jeanne Mirabito created Our Mims Retirement Haven, a rescue farm specializing in the care of retired Thoroughbred broodmares, on her farm in Paris, KY. With the creed, "Specializing in restoring health and spirit in aged mares," OMRH's very first mare was Mims' half-sister, Sugar and Spice. With the help of Cheryl Bellucci acting as the Haven's Director of Fund Raising and Promotion, the Haven has achieved nonprofit status as of March 8, 2007.

[edit] References

Wild Ride, Anne Hagedorn Auerbach, New York, Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 1994