HORSE RACING NOTEBOOK
'Still a handful' at 29
Maryjean Wall
HERALD-LEADER RACING WRITER

'Still a handful' at 29
The oldest winner of a thoroughbred Triple Crown race, Little Current, is alive 
and happily living in retirement at age 29.
His home is at the Maverick Farm owned by two veterinarians, Ann and Mark 
Hansen, near Monroe, Wash.
Little Current won the Preakness and Belmont Stakes in 1974 and the strong 
feeling that year was that he would have won the Triple Crown if he hadn't had 
serious problems in the Kentucky Derby. He couldn't get through traffic and 
finished fifth to Cannonade.
He never won a race after the Belmont Stakes, and later it was discovered he had 
a bone chip. He was retired. He ended that year as 3-year-old champion. And he 
had defeated the Derby winner the last two times they met.
Last year Little Current "celebrated" the 25th anniversary of his Preakness and 
Belmont wins. He wound up in Washington because Mark Hansen was a big fan of 
his.
He shows some signs that he's a senior citizen - but only some. He eats "senior 
food," a special mix of grain for older horses. He has a few gray hairs. His 
body build isn't what it used to be, and he wears glue-on shoes. Ann Hansen, 
Mark's wife, says the glueons are more comfortable on the old warrior's 
arthritic legs.
Beyond that, "He's snorting,
rearing, bucking and kicking," she said.
So how tough is that?
"I'm a horse veterinarian but I'm afraid to walk him from the barn to the 
paddock," she said.
"He's still a handful. He's got a lot of fire."
Little Current was raced by Darby Dan Farm before its original owner, John 
Galbreath, passed away. Then he began a series of moves, going first to Daisy 
Hill Farm in Versailles, when Doug Arnold bought out Darby Dan's shares in the 
syndicate. Then he went to a farm in Louisiana.
The Hansens bought him in Louisiana, and moved him to their farm in Washington. 
His last crop of foals are 3-year-olds this year, for he has been retired from 
breeding.
When talking about Little Current, Arnold and the Hansens emphasize the horse's 
great intelligence. If s one of his great qualities.
"Very few horses have a commanding presence," said Ann Hansen. "Little Current 
is one of these. And he's incredibly smart. Exceptionally smart. If he gets mad 
at you he looks you right in the eye, like a person. He'll glare at you.
Said Arnold, now the owner of Buck Pond Farm in Versailles: "I used to look at 
old paintings of horses, and they'd have that human eye on them. He had that 
eye."
Little Current would run from off the pace - one reason he got in traffic 
trouble in the Derby. But more horses seemed to come from off the pace some 
years ago, where the winners of major races today all seem to be running up 
front from the gate. That's a training style that D. Wayne Lukas and others have 
made an integral part of the game.
Arnold once asked Lou Rondinello, who trained the Darby Dan horses, if Little 
Current had any speed. "He said, 'Yes, but I trained every horse to come from 
off the pace,'" Arnold recalls.
"He told me that one day Angel Cordero told him he wanted to take a horse right 
to the front. Lou told Angel, 'If you ride like that you'll never ride for me 
again.'"
Things change. But Little
Current was and still is one hickory old horse.

Maryjean Wall covers horse racing for the Herald-Leader. This article contains 
her opinions and observations. She can be reached at 231-3231 or by e-mail at 
mwall@herald-leader.com.