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Stateside: A Current campaign for Hall of Fame

Published: 15/11/2000 (Features) Dan Farley
RECEIVING a phone call from Frederick Grace regarding Little Current, a dual
Classic winner in 1974, must be akin to having a boa constrictor wrapped
around your body. You are not going to get away from either of them easily.
Grace, an employee of the Maryland Jockey Club (Pimlico and Laurel
racecourses), wants the 100 or so voters involved to pick Little Current as
the newest member of the Racing Hall of Fame at Saratoga.
He has got a good argument, and Little Current certainly has the
constitution of a Hall of Famer, as he is still bucking and kicking at the
age of 29 at Maverick Farm in Monroe, Washington.
Little Current might have been a Triple Crown winner had his year's Kentucky
Derby, the 100th, not been cluttered with 23 starters.
Lacking room for much of the way, Little Current weaved through to finish
fifth behind Cannonade. He went on to gain easy wins in the Preakness and
Belmont Stakes.
Having started stud duty at his owner John W Galbreath's Darby Dan Farm, he
moved to Daisy Hill Farm in Versailles, Kentucky, where stud owner Doug
Arnold bought out Darby Dan's shares in the stallion following Galbreath's
death.
Little Current went on to Good Guys Farm in Louisiana, before being bought
by Ann and Mark Hansen, both vets and also the owners of Maverick Farm, in
1995.
Ann Hansen says: "He has a foaling-size stall and we turn him out in a small
paddock every day. He complains to the management if his feed doesn't get
there on time."
Hansen says that Little Current, a son of Sea-Bird, still has some of his
old fire. "He's a playful horse," she says, "but not in the manner of
wanting to hurt you. But I won't take him out alone because he has the
potential to bolt and get away."
As for how the Hansens got the horse, Ann adds: "We got some Little Current
babies and visited him at the farm. We were very impressed. We see lots of
horses day in and day out, and only a few stand out with their presence.
Little Current is one of those.
"He's my husband's dream horse. He just wanted to have him around."