COLONEL JOHN: TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL?
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008WinStar Farm’s Colonel John may have had an advantage over his 11 rival 3-year-olds in last Saturday’s $1-million Travers Stakes when it was learned that jockey Garrett Gomez was carrying an angel on his shoulders.
Gomez, who miraculously put Colonel John’s nose on the wire millimeters in front of Mambo in Seattle (who was in front a jump before and a jump after the finish), was wearing WinStar’s green and white silks that were bearing the initials “KC,” in memory of Karri Casner — the daughter of WinStar co-owners Bill and Susan Casner — who was among the 202 people killed in the Oct. 12, 2002, terrorist bombings on the Indonesian island of Bali.
The WinStar silks designed in memory of Karri Casner are not technically permitted at New York Racing Association tracks, the only ones in the United States that follow the strict guidelines established by the Jockey Club for racing colors. No lettering or asymmetrical designs are permitted on silks at NYRA tracks, according to the guidelines. Somehow, the “wrong” silks ended up on Gomez before the Travers, a race that resulted in the closest finish of a New York stakes since 1991, according to NYRA’s photo finish camera operator.
Karri, the younger of two daughters of Bill and Susan Casner, was just 23 years old when she was killed during a visit to Bali. A day doesn’t go by when her parents and her older sister, Kayce, don’t think of her. The Casners designed the silks with the “KC” on the left shoulder as a memorial to Karri. The idea came from Kenny Troutt, who with wife Lisa are partners in WinStar with the Casners.
Colonel John was named after Army Reserve Lt. Col John Geider, a longtime family friend of the Casners and Troutts. Geider assisted the Casners in the aftermath of the bombing when they flew to Bali in search of their missing daughter.
Kathy Harty, wife of Colonel John’s trainer Eoin Harty, produced a short video documentary of Travers day that can be viewed at Youtube.com. The video, set to the sound of Green Day’s “Time of Your Life,” concludes with two photographs of Karri Casner.
"I feel like she’s with us all the time," Susan Casner told a reporter for Daily Racing form earlier this year as Colonel John was preparing for the Kentucky Derby. "Karri loved horses, and she loved horse racing."
And she would love to have been at Saratoga last Saturday to witness Colonel John’s tenacious victory in the Travers.
Perhaps she was.
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