FROM THE ARCHIVE: In a memorable interview, Steve Dennis speaks to Cody Dorman’s father Kelly after Cody’s Wish won the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile for the first time at Keeneland in 2022
• Originally published November 2022
Do you believe in miracles? That’s a line from another sport, from the most famous and dramatic game of ice hockey ever played, but racing can borrow it for a while. The answer, then and now, is a howl of joy. Yes!
Sure, it’s not normally a miracle for a high-class horse to win a big race, but when Cody’s Wish put his head in front to win the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile at Keeneland, it wasn’t just about the prestige, the dollars. As everyone must know by now, Cody’s Wish has his name for a reason, a reason that gave this particular victory such a heartsweet resonance that even the hardened cynics in the press box found they had something in their eye.
“Ohhh, the wish has come true! That one’s for you, Cody,” growled NBC Sports commentator Larry Collmus as the colt crossed the line. The usually garrulous NBC pundits fell silent, then just a few words came. “Oh my gosh … I think all three of us are choked up here.”
The remarkable story of the remarkable teenager Cody Dorman and his buddy Cody’s Wish transcends racing, transcends sport, enters the realm of magic. It’s the hell of a story, and Kelly Dorman – Cody’s father – is happy to tell it again.
Something to smile about
“I don’t get tired of talking about it,” he says, his easy Kentucky drawl laced with the wonder of it. “I know how much joy it’s brought to people. It’s given the world a bit of something to smile about, and I reckon the world could use that right now.
“It was a special day,” he goes on. “I wasn’t really nervous, my wife Leslie was, but Cody must have ice-water in his veins. He was so cool. The Friday, the Saturday, we were walking around the track and so many people were calling out ‘Hey Cody!’ and ‘Go Cody’s Wish!’, people with accents from all over, all into the story.
“Cody predicted that the horse would win. Either he’s really lucky or he knows his horses. And before the race Cody’s Wish saw Cody there and it was like he perked right up. Those two have a real bond, it’s like they share their own language that no-one else can hear or understand.”
At birth, Cody Dorman was diagnosed with Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, a rare genetic condition that affects many parts of the body. Cody can’t speak, he is confined to a wheelchair, he suffers frequent seizures, among other major lifelong difficulties. The doctors told the Dormans that their son might live for two years. He will soon be 17.
“He’s been through so much, so many surgeries,” says Dorman. “The doctors wrote him off, said we should just make him comfortable. That wasn’t good enough for us.
Learning every day
“We did a lot of research, tried a different hospital. We’ve all come a long way. We had to learn about this on the fly, and we’re still learning every day.”
The Dormans - Kelly, Leslie, Cody and his sister Kylie - live about half an hour’s drive from Keeneland racetrack, but weren’t ever what you’d call keen racegoers. Dorman, 52, who describes himself as “a welder, machinist, fabricator, Jack of all trades I suppose”, has a different perspective now.
“We’ve got the bug now,” he laughs. “The other day I found myself switching the channel from the football to the racing – that’s not something I’d ever have imagined doing.”
Not before 2018, that is, when Cody first met the horse who would become Cody’s Wish. The story of how Cody visited Godolphin’s Gainsborough Farm as part of Keeneland’s association with the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and a six-month-old foal walked up to Cody’s wheelchair and laid his head in the boy’s lap, is now part of racing legend and will surely soon be in some Hollywood executive’s in-tray. For Danny Mulvihill, manager of Gainsborough Farm, that day has stayed in the memory just as surely as it has for the Dormans.
“This year is the 11th year we’ve been part of the Make-A-Wish concept, and nothing like that has happened before or since,” he says. “It’s the biggest interaction between a human and a horse there’s ever been here.
Just meant to be
“And the story goes on and on. It’s phenomenal, you can’t explain it. It was just meant to be. I mean, Godolphin win big races every week, it’s commonplace, but everyone in the winner’s circle at Keeneland was aware of how special an occasion it was. It’s been an absolutely unrepeatable experience.”
The following year, Gainsborough’s office manager Mary Bourne called the Dormans to say that the foal had been named Cody’s Wish, in recognition of what had happened that day. However, that was about the time things began to change for the worse for Cody. His much-loved grandfather died, he had emergency surgery when a blood vessel in his stomach ruptured, and then Covid set in.
“It was a dark time for everyone,” says Dorman. “Cody always had a fire inside him, a great spirit, was always upbeat, but at that time he was slipping, there were setbacks, he was saying things that me and my wife didn’t want to hear, was having a lot of bad days.
“We contacted the farm and took Cody up there again,” he explains. “That gave him something to be positive about, and the second time he met the horse they really clicked. Cody’s Wish locked his eyes on Cody and walked straight to him. They sorta rubbed noses, and then we all heard Cody laughing, a big belly laugh.
“That was such a rare thing to hear, and from that moment he began to dig his way out of the dark times. His sense of purpose returned, the flame inside him was burning again.”
Cody’s Wish didn’t race at two, began his career in June the following year and finished third on his first three starts. “Cody told us that the horse wouldn’t win until he went to see him,” says Dorman. “So we all went to Churchill Downs and Cody’s Wish won for the first time, with Cody watching him. We’ve seen him race five times and he’s never once disappointed us.”
Happiness coming through
He’s never disappointed anyone. Cody’s Wish – trained by Bill Mott and ridden by Junior Alvarado – has won six of his seven races since breaking his maiden, moving up from victory in the G3 Westchester at Belmont Park to success in the G1 Forego at Saratoga, and then magnificently, memorably, emotionally taking the G1 Dirt Mile at the Breeders’ Cup.
“With Cody, you don’t always see a lot of instant reaction,” says Dorman. “But when things settled down after the race, I could see the happiness coming through.
“He’s been pretty tired this week, the occasion took a lot out of him, but Cody’s Wish gives him a focus. He can be a bit of a joker, my son, and a couple of weeks ago he didn’t want to do his therapy, said he wouldn’t do it until Leslie gave him some money.
“She asked him how much, and he said $100. Obviously that was never going to happen, but Leslie asked him anyway what he planned to do with the money. Cody said he’d give some to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, some to our church, and keep some to put down on the horses.
“He’s a funny, amusing boy, doesn’t have a woe-is-me outlook. Since he was given a tablet to communicate with he’s taken off. He’s so smart, I’m amazed at how he looks at life, given that he’s been through more adversity than anyone can imagine.
“His tutor was talking to him about the environment the other day, got on to non-renewable resources. ‘Cody, give me an example of a non-renewable resource,’ she says. Cody uses his tablet to type something. I look at the screen. He’d written ‘life’. We take every moment like that we can, and it helps us move on.”
The bond will sustain
And as Cody and his family move on, Cody’s Wish goes by their side. The news that he will stay in training next year at five was greeted with great pleasure by the Dormans, and when the time comes for a stud career the bond will sustain.
“When Cody’s Wish’s career on the racetrack is over he’ll stand at Jonabell Farm, which is 20 minutes from here,” says Mulvihill. “We’ve got to know the Dorman family pretty well and they will always be welcome guests to come and see Cody’s Wish, any time they want.
“Look, we work with horses, and we form some kind of bond with this horse or that horse all the time, but what Cody and Cody’s Wish have is undeniable.
“On the Wednesday before the Breeders’ Cup, we took Cody’s Wish out on to the lawn to meet Cody and his family. He had a handler either side holding him, because he’s a racehorse ready for a race, but he just dropped his head, eyeballed Cody, marched forward and stopped right in front of him so they could be together.
Shivers down the spine
“Everybody just gasped; it sent shivers down the spine. You can’t explain what those two have between them.”
Kelly Dorman is already thinking about it. “It’ll be perfect. Cody will have his best friend really close by. And we have all loved every single minute of this journey,” he says.
“Even if Cody’s Wish had never made it to the track, or never won a race, he would still be a very special animal to us. He has done more for Cody and for us than we could ever have imagined.
“There are so many people I’d like to thank that I could never thank them all properly. We are so grateful to everyone, and hopefully other kids who might be in a similar situation to Cody will have followed the story and be helped by it.”
There is a short pause, as thoughts are collected, silently recollected. Then the moment passes and we’re back at Keeneland on a day full of happy tears.
“We were in the winner’s circle, it was packed out with people, and just before the cameras went on a woman asked me whether all these people were my family,” says Dorman.
“I laughed. I said no, it’s just me, Leslie, Cody and Kylie. And then I looked around the winner’s circle, looked up at the grandstands, and I suddenly thought yeah, they are all our family, everyone here is our family. That’s how all this has made us feel.”
• Visit the Make-A-Wish America website and the Godolphin website
Why Tyler’s Tribe is about so much more than the Breeders’ Cup
Great racetracks we have lost: Hollywood Park and the dawning of the Breeders’ Cup era
View the latest TRC Global Rankings for horses / jockeys / trainers / sires