On a day when owners began plotting the careers of million-dollar horses purchased at the start of the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, the connections of a $3,000, 12-year-old claiming horse celebrated an auspicious conclusion to his career in a lower-level race Sept. 12 at Arizona Downs.
In his 100th race, a milestone start his connections had targeted for the veteran campaigner to wrap up his racing career, Joe Wheeler and Curt Ferguson's Success Rate bowed out a winner, scoring by 1 3/4 lengths in a six-furlong race with a $9,525 purse. Soon, the Friends Lake gelding will depart Arizona Downs in Prescott Valley, Ariz., to reside, at least for the short term, at Curt and Debi Ferguson's ranch near Phoenix.
Though horses of such advanced age are not permitted to race at some other tracks and racing jurisdictions as a horse welfare consideration, Success Rate is not your usual 12-year-old horse, his connections say. Age has not caught up to him, they believe, and his long-term outlook has regularly been on their minds.
"You'd never know he was 12; he looks like a 5-year-old," Curt said. "Always shines, he's a very healthy horse."
Remarkably for a claiming runner, a class of horse that can often change ownership more often than allowance and stakes runners, Success Rate was trained by Curt for 46 starts, and Debi owned him in partnership with others for a portion of his racing career when circumstances allowed it.
Debi, a former trainer, said she could not own horses at various times while she served as a racing official and steward at tracks in the southwest.
Success Rate began running in 2012, the year Shanghai Bobby won the Grey Goose Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1).
A claiming horse for much of his career, Success Rate never placed in a stakes race. But he was sound and dependable. Every year from age 2-12, he raced at least three times during each calendar year. He ran 14 times in 2021, winning one race, and this year went 2-for-9.
"He's just been really good to us, and we've tried to be really good back," said Debi.
Debi and Curt aren't alone in their fondness for the veteran campaigner, who became a fan favorite in Curt's small stable—from those that worked there and those who visited. The couple's young grandchildren, Jionni and Julian Bourdieu, established a connection with the horse, learning to groom him. The kind-hearted gelding would even allow them to climb atop him for strolls around the barn while under adult supervision. Other family members also handle and interact with Success Rate.
Pictures of these moments, posted to Facebook, won over the gelding's owners. Earlier this year, he raced for Debi, Don Stephens, Vance Alfrey, and Stuart Eskew.
"Over a year ago, they said, 'When we retire that horse, we're going to give him to those grandkids. We see all that those kids do with him," Debi recalled.
Co-owner Joe Wheeler and the Fergusons reclaimed him March 1 for $3,000 after losing him in a claiming race for that same price Feb. 8, a start that resulted in a victory. That wasn't the first time his current barn wanted him back. Four years ago, they reacquired him via trainer Tim Holdaway when the latter claimed Success Rate at Canterbury Park for $4,000 after Curt Ferguson and owners Larry and Emily Cassady lost him in a $16,000 claimer six months earlier at Turf Paradise in Phoenix.
According to Equibase statistics, Success Rate is among 39 horses aged 12 with starts in North America this year. He is among a group of only six with two victories in 2022.
In total, he recorded 14 wins, 26 seconds, and 11 thirds over his 100 races with earnings of $279,158. He raced all over North America, from Gulfstream Park in Florida to Hastings Racecourse in Vancouver, British Columbia. He even outlasted one track at which he competed, defunct Calder Race Course.
"He's such a pleasure to ride. I get on him most of the time myself," Curt said. "I was a jockey for years and then became a trainer. So I still exercise a lot of my own horses.
"He's been quite a horse. Just a pleasure to be around."
Those sentiments are shared by more than Curt and Debi Ferguson.
Krystal Bourdieu, their daughter, took to Facebook with a post in the days after the victory.
"He is tough when he needs to be, but the sweetest, kindest old man too!" she wrote in a portion of the post. "My boys adore him ... who am I kidding, we all adore him. He is such a special horse and definitely belongs with us."
Her husband, Martin, a retired jockey who still gallops, won three races in a row on Success Rate in early 2020 at Turf Paradise.
It was there that Success Rate gained a degree of fame. Debi Ferguson said a silhouetted image of Martin galloping Success Rate appeared in the background of the poster for the 2021 movie "Jockey," which was filmed at the Phoenix oval. Martin had a small role in the movie.
Krystal added on Facebook that "lots of tears were shed" after he won his final race, with Curt sharing that sentiment.
"It was the best-laid plan, and it all came together. It was a sad day but also happy," Curt said. "He's just one of those horses that doesn't come along often."
After getting some early rest at the Fergusons' ranch, plans are still coming together for what Success Rate might do in a post-racing career. One option is for him to be trained as a hunter/jumper, Curt said, though the family would like to retain ownership of him. Alternatively, Success Rate could return to the barn to become the stable pony.
"That could be a pretty good deal for him, I think," Curt said of pony life. "He's level-headed enough to where I think he could be a pony horse."
Though Curt and Debi say Success Rate is sound, they say they intend to stick to their plans to retire him from being a racehorse. Asked if Success Rate could unretire and return to competition, as National Football League quarterback Tom Brady, now 45, chose to do this year, Curt laughed and said he would be in "a lot of trouble" with his family if he wanted to keep racing Success Rate.
"Honestly, he is capable. He could run another year, but we said after a hundred races, we'd retire him," Debi said. "He goes out a winner. What could be a better deal—going out a winner?"
