Fred Hart

After a team effort, Old Friends in Georgetown, Kentucky, welcomed GSW Noble Indy (Take Charge Indy) on Thursday, Dec. 7, the retirement farm said in a release Friday. The 8-year old bay gelding, who ran in the 2018 GI Kentucky Derby, was repatriated from Puerto Rico thanks to the efforts of Fred Hart, who became a big fan of the horse due to his ownership of his dam, Noble Maz; Kelley Stobie, owner of Caribbean Thoroughbred Aftercare, which has assisted many Thoroughbreds in Puerto Rico; and Mike Repole, Noble Indy's...

The long-running battle to decide whether or not Justify (Scat Daddy) should have been disqualified from his win in the 2018 GI Santa Anita Derby seems to have come to a conclusion last week when the team representing Mick Ruis, the owner and trainer of runner-up Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro), obtained an order from Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff, directing the California Horse Racing Board Stewards to set aside their Dec. 9, 2020 decision and issue a new ruling disqualifying Justify from the 2018 Santa Anita...

Fred Hart didn't own, train or breed Noble Indy (Take Charge Indy), the winner of the 2018 GII Louisiana Derby and the seventh-place finisher in that year's GI Kentucky Derby. But he did have a connection. An owner and breeder of modest means, he owned Noble Indy's dam, Noble Maz (Storm Boot), buying her for $9,000 at the 2007 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic October Yearling Sale. He would later lose her in a $25,000 claimer, which turned out to be her last race. But even that minor role in the career of...