America’s Best Racing
The Jockey Club Website
www.followhorseracing.com
October 2014
The Arlington Million is one of our most fabled and rousing turf races. This year the usual pack of top-flight Euros and North American horses jetted in.
But for Team Hardest Core, it was the overland route. They drove all night from Coatesville, Pa. to Chicago-- 13 hours total-- to get Hardest Core to the million dollar race. They are all longtime Chester County horse people-- trainer Eddie Graham, barn manager/groom Brianne Slater, exercise rider/champion jump jockey Jody Petty and Keith Cooper, the van driver.
The travel itinerary didn't faze Hardest Core. Piloted by a Parx jockey, Erilus Vaz, the handsome dark bay gelding roared down the stretch to defeat five Group/Grade 1 winners, including the reigning Breeders' Cup Turf champion to capture the 31st edition at the Arlington International Racecourse last August. With the victory Hardest Core earned an automatic berth with a travel allowance to the $3 million Breeders' Cup Turf at Santa Anita Park on Nov. 1.
And, that's just a slice of this hard to believe tale. Roll cameras.