We wanted to take a moment to send out a special thank you in recognition of a very special tribute to Meese Rocks.Barbara Livingston, a legendary and deservedly well-decorated horse racing photographer, has posted a beautiful piece on her blog at DRF.com, complete with pictures that are novel even to us.Her incredible pictures and kind words capture our girl precisely how we remember here – beautiful and regal, with a gritty determination to destroy her competition.In a show of class and a deep understanding for our industry, she also highlights the unique bond that jockey Jorge Chavez had with Meese Rocks.“George-y” was with us from the beginning and has been along for some of our greatest moments as a stable.He loved our mare just as we did and it’s touching to see that Barbara has captured this connection in such great detail.
Amazingly, her blog post went out completely unsolicited!You could imagine how surprised we were to see our girl’s name right up there on the front page of DRF.com.It continues to astound us that so many people have come out in recognition and support of both Meese Rocks and our little family stable.And though the pain of her loss is still fresh in our hearts and minds, such acts of kindness help us begin the process of moving forward.Once again, Barbara, thank you.To see the blog post in full, please visit the site below.It is truly unbelievable:
As a final note, we will be heading to the barn tomorrow to check out a few of our young guns, including a promising 2 year old colt that is just getting into a more intense training regimen.Please stay tuned – we will be taking picture of the newbies and properly introducing them to all of our followers within the next few weeks.
It has been a difficult week for our stable.The pain we felt last Wednesday from the loss of Meese Rocks is still fresh in our minds, even as we now try to collect ourselves and move forward.Emotionally and financially, our stable faces an uphill battle in the months to come.We will now rely on a few of our babies (2- and 3-years olds) to carry us through the next phase of this rollercoaster journey.In the coming weeks, we will highlight each of these horses individually so that you may all get more familiar with the rest of our equine family.For now though, we are still sitting with a feeling of loss.And yet, in this very difficult time, we have discovered one of the most gratifying aspects of thoroughbred ownership.
To our disbelief, in the days following the big girl’s passing, we received an outpouring of support from all corners of the thoroughbred industry.From Brooklyn to Kentucky, Georgia to California, words of condolences and encouragement flooded our inbox and were publicly posted throughout the internet.Perfect strangers went to great lengths to detail how much admired Meese Rocks’ grit and determination, and how they were sharing in our sorrow.
Needless to say, we have been delighted and shocked by the kind words and well wishes.Owing to simple probability, we never believed that we would be so lucky as to have a horse of Meese Rocks’ caliber.Even more surprising (and touching) was that our girl meant so much to so many people outside of our immediate circle.We are amazed and unbelievably thankful to those who supported her efforts from afar, and who were kind enough to reach out to us to share their stories and support.While we truly appreciate all of you for your well wishes, we wanted to highlight a select few that went above and beyond in their tribute to Meese Rocks:
Derby Trail (www.derbytrail.com) – A few days after last week’s post, we noticed a large amount of traffic coming to the blog from this site.Unfamiliar, we investigated, and found a community of the most knowledgeable and dedicated horse aficionado’s anywhere.One of their seasoned members felt compelled to give Meese Rocks here own thread, which you can find at http://www.derbytrail.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=2 (thread titled “Farewell, Meese Rocks”).It is incredible to read people just like us speak so highly of our mare.To the member who goes by “My Miss Storm Cat,” whoever you are, thank you.
New York Thoroughbred Breeders (www.nytbreeders.org) – The classy folks with NYT Breeders posted on their site a moving tribute to Meese Rocks.Going well beyond their normal coverage of New York-Bred Thoroughbreds, their article really captures how meaningful our girl was to the New York Thoroughbred community.It is an incredible tribute and gives us tremendous comfort to know that our horse meant so much to people outside our stable.A special thank you is in order to Jeff Cannizzo and Sarah Mace.Your kind words and efforts in getting the story up mean more to us than you could ever know.
Finally, we want to acknowledge the efforts of the physicians and staff at New Jersey Equine Clinic (www.njequine.com).Throughout the tenure of Meese Rocks’ stay, they treated her with all the TLC deserving of a beloved family member.Just as she refused to give in to her ailments, they refused to give up on her, working tirelessly in their efforts to nurse her back to health.A special thank you is in order to Dr. Scott Palmer and Dr. Jennifer Smith.Their near-daily updates were a constant reassurance that our girl was in very good hands.We thank you for your efforts.
As mentioned, we will soon begin introducing the rest of our stable.While we are sorry that it comes under such saddening circumstances, we are happy to have any new followers along for the ride.We hope that you will join us in honoring the memory of Meese Rocks by supporting us as we rebuild our stable and get back on the right track.We know we are in for a tough trip, but we will be empowered by having the additional support riding along with us.Thanks again!
We regret to inform you that earlier today our champion mare, Meese Rocks, had to be laid to rest.
Just days after our “Gamechanger” post from May 2nd, she was found to have swelling in one of her hocks.Much to our dismay, this swelling turned out to be an infection that was aggressively attacking her musculature and immune functioning.So damaging was her condition that, upon first arriving at the equine hospital, the physicians feared that they could not contain the infection.They told us that it would be humane to put her down and save her any discomfort.In fairness, they didn’t know Meese Rocks like we did.They had never seen her train. They had never seen her race.They had never seen her run her guts out, for us.We told them to do everything they could, because we knew she had it in her to beat the infection and get back to action.And to the surprise of the doctors (but not to us), she handled her treatment the same way she handled racing: like a complete professional and a true champion.Within 2 weeks, she had beaten the infection completely, with muscular and joint functionality 100% intact.Things were looking up.
Unfortunately, this condition caused her to favor the infected leg, placing increased (and unnatural) pressure on her other legs.As often happens in such cases, she developed a condition called Laminitis in the hoof of her other rear leg.This condition is extremely painful, irreversible, and often fatal in thoroughbreds.The only hope once this condition is detected is to impede the progress from the start and hope for the best.Again, the doctors advised us that the prognosis was not good.Again, we told them to do everything in their power.And, Meese Rocks did what she does.She dug in.She gritted her teeth and got herself better.The infection was gone.The laminitis had stopped progressing.After almost 6 weeks in the hospital, she was ready to return to Aqueduct to start her second career as a Broodmare.She was ready to come home to be with the family that loved her dearly.Preparations were made to transport her back to the barn today, Wednesday, June 01, 2011.
But, she would never make it onto the van.
A complication with her limonitic leg caused the condition to progress rapidly and painfully.She was suffering and would never be able to stand or walk again.She was in a race that she could not win.
There is truly not enough space on this page or words in the world to adequately capture what Meese Rocks meant to our barn and our family.She was more than just a race horse.She was a force that brought our stable to places we could have never imagined.With stakes wins at Aqueduct, Belmont, and Saratoga (and one at Monmouth to boot), she was a constant source of excitement.What’s more, through her talent and relentlessness, she galvanized the Terranova family, and built her own following amongst our family and friends.In an era where families too often congregate only for weddings and funerals, Meese Rocks was our reason to be together, excited, and hopeful for the future. The class with which she carried herself was at once touching and inspirational.Anyone who had ever met the big girl can attest to this.
We are saddened by the fact that, owing to bad timing, we were not able to share Meese Rocks with this blog to a greater extent.Little did we know that by the time we were up and running, her racing career would be over.For those of you that came to the track (even all the way up to Saratoga) to support our mare, we thank you.We could never describe how special it was for us to be surrounded by family and friends in the winners circle.We will look back fondly on the pictures for years to come.As we say goodbye to our special mare, please enjoy the pictures below, as well as the video from the 2011 Broadway Stakes, the last time she would ever touch the track.This is how we will always remember Meese Rocks – lightning fast and tough as nails, leaving the competition in her dust.
Meese Rocks was born May 14, 2005, by Robert W. Misa Jr., at Duchess View Farm in Pine Plains, NY.She is by Rock and Roll, out of the winning Grindstone Mare, Meeses Pieces.At two, Meese Rocks was broken and trained at Heather Larson’s Hudson Meadows Racing in Hudson, NY.She finishes with a career record of 9 wins, 6 seconds, and 2 thirds over 22 starts.She bankrolled $443,410 in purse money, winning at ages 4, 5, and 6.Career highlights include wins in the Personal Girl Stakes and Broadway Stakes at Aqueduct, the Union Ave Stakes at Saratoga, and the Iroquois Stakes on New York Showcase Day at Belmont in 2010.She has given us so much in the past 2+ years and she will be missed dearly.
First start, first win (Saratoga)
Barker and the big girl
Our 1st stakes win - the Personal Girl Stakes
Meese Rocks in Saratoga - locked and loaded before the Union Ave Stakes
Romp in the Slop
Beautiful
Simply amazing
The Terranova family celebrates the Union Ave win at Siros
Barker and the boys at Siro's - incredible night
The Champ, ready to roll in the Iroquois Stakes at Belmont
