Brass Hat to be honored during farewell ceremony at Churchill

Brass Hat to be honored during farewell ceremony at
Churchill

Brass Hat has been retired after seven seasons of racing (Keeneland/Coady Photography) Fred Bradley’s homebred Brass Hat — one of the greatest rags-to-riches stars in the history of Kentucky racing — will get a fond farewell from fans and the people closest to him during a Saturday ceremony at Churchill Downs. Churchill’s farewell to Brass Hat is scheduled after Saturday’s 5TH race, which has a post time of 2:55 p.m. (EDT). Brass Hat will make the trip to the Churchill Downs paddock with the horses that will run in the 5TH, and the veteran star will remain in the paddock while the race is run. The ceremony honoring Brass Hat and his connections will be conducted in the winner’s circle following the race. Trainer Buff Bradley, the owner/breeder’s son, announced this week that the 10-year-old gelded son of Prized would head into retirement. The younger Bradley described Brass Hat on Friday as a “blue collar horse” who had become a hero and favorite to many racing fans. Bradley said Brass Hat had been training well for a campaign at age 10, but he decided it was time to for the veteran to head back to the family’s farm near Frankfort, Kentucky.

“He still really has the want-to,” Bradley said. “If he was ready to
run in the (Grade 3) Louisville tomorrow, he’d be in the starting gate.
But he’s not ready and I thought it would just take too much time to get
him ready to compete this year.”

The Bradleys could never be accused of being overly ambitious with Brass Hat,
who started his career as a three-year-old in a race for $15,000 claiming horses
on January 29, 2004, at Turfway Park. He finished second that day at odds of
32-1, but two starts later scored his first career victory in a 38-1 upset in
Turfway’s Rushaway. By the end of his first racing season Brass Hat had also
collected victories in the Grade 2 Ohio Derby and Grade 2 Indiana Derby.

He rebounded successfully from two major injuries during his career to
compile a record of 10-8-5 in 40 races with earnings of $2,173,561. Other
highlights included victories at five in the Grade 1 Donn at Gulfstream Park and
Grade 2 New Orleans at Fair Grounds. The bay also won the $500,000 Massachusetts
Handicap in 2007 and the 2005 Prairie Bayou at Turfway Park.

Brass Hat shifted almost exclusively to the grass late in his career and
scored emotional victories for the Bradleys in Churchill Downs’ Louisville in 2009 and a major win as a nine-year-old in last year’s
Grade 3 Sycamore
at Keeneland. His numbers would be even more glittering had Brass Hat not been
disqualified from a runner-up finish in the 2007 running of the Group 1 Dubai World Cup
at Nad Al Sheba.

Brass Hat compiled 10 stakes placings, including third-place finishes in the
2009 Grade 1 United Nations and Grade 1 Sword Dancer Invitational, and set two new
track records at Gulfstream and Churchill during his career.

“It will be an emotional day, but no more emotional than watching him any
other day,” Bradley said of his veteran star’s Saturday farewell. “It has been
so special to watch and be around this horse, especially in later years when he
won the Louisville H. here and won the Sycamore at Keeneland last year at nine.
All my barn crew is going to walk over to the paddock with him, so I’ll get to
share the moment with them.”