Jay Hovdey’s unmissable series continues with the Dubai World Cup record breaker whose 14-length tour de force at Nad Al Sheba was as poignant as it was breathtaking
The following is a condensation of chapters from Jay Hovdey’s book Well Armed: A Thoroughbred of Destiny, which more than qualifies the remarkable gelding for inclusion in the author’s Thoroughbred Racing Commentary series of his favorite horses.
Bill and Susan Casner, the owners of WinStar Farm with Kenny Troutt, were at the 2001 Keeneland November sale with the farm’s Doug Cauthen, shopping for suitable mares to breed to WinStar stallions, especially their latest acquisition, the two-time Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Tiznow.
The first mare that caught Bill Casner’s eye wore hip number 622, from the Eaton Sales consignment. Her name was Well Dressed.
“I can remember them leading out this big, strong Notebook mare, a young bay mare with a lot of chrome on her,” Casner said. “I couldn’t pick on her much, so I went and got Doug. ‘Come here and look at this mare,’ I said. He said, ‘Yep, she’s the kind you should be putting in your broodmare band.’”
As announced that day by the Keeneland auctioneer, Well Dressed was carrying her first foal, by Awesome Again. In short order, the bidding stopped at $150,000, and the Casners had themselves a new mare. The following March, Well Dressed delivered the Awesome Again filly she’d carried into the sales ring, then kept her date with Tiznow.
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Seven months later and half a world away, on the Indonesian island of Bali, back-to-back explosions destroyed two of the most popular spots in the tourist-packed town of Kuta. The first explosion of was set off by a suicide bomber in Paddy’s Pub. The second bomb was triggered remotely from components packed in a dozen plastic filing cabinets and loaded in a white Mitsubishi van parked in front of the nearby Sari Club, where Karri Casner (right), the 23-year-old daughter of Bill and Susan Casner, had gone to meet newfound friends.
A total of 202 individuals from 21 nations were killed in the attacks. Karri Casner was one of seven Americans.
Karri’s earlier adventure with the Semester at Sea program as part of her undergraduate studies at the University of Colorado Boulder whetted her appetite for more world travel. After graduating with a degree in business, she happily joined her sister, Kayce, and Kayce’s future husband, Clark Anderson, on their trip to Thailand in October 2002.
“Karri went on to Bali because she wanted to go someplace she had never gone, meet people she had never known, and do things she had never done,” Anderson wrote in his recollections of their journey. “Bali was the place to do that. She was having the time of her life. She had quickly befriended a small army of international travelers, which was Karri’s way.”
In the wake of the bombings, Bill and Susan Casner traveled to Bali accompanied by a family friend, Col. John Geider, whose official contacts proved a vital resource.
“I didn’t know what we’d find there,” Bill Casner said. “Bali was a crime scene. Terrorists had attacked, and we had no idea what the aftermath would hold.”
Five days after arriving, they were able to identify Karri’s body in the morgue unit of the overwhelmed local hospital. The clue to finding her was Karri’s distinctive turquoise ring. It was cold comfort, but comfort nonetheless, that Bill Casner (right) could say, “We were able to bring her home.”
Responsibility for the bombings landed quickly on an Al-Qaeda-inspired Indonesian extremist cell called Jemaah Islamiyah. Three members of the group were captured, convicted by Indonesian authorities, and executed by firing squad.
“I don’t blame the Muslim religion for Karri’s death,” Bill Casner said. “Karri was in the wrong place at the wrong time, which anybody in this life can be. But to condemn a whole faith because of a very, very small group of evil individuals is totally unfair.”
Life for the Casners never would return to normal, but the horses went on. Just shy of six months after the Bali bombings, back at WinStar Farm, Well Dressed gave birth to a good-sized Tiznow colt with the makings of a long, rambling blaze that would mark him with distinction throughout his life.
The date was Friday, April 4, 2003. That same day, Karri Casner would have turned 24 years old. The foal was well-built, well-bred, and seemed well-equipped for the destiny at hand.
So they named him Well Armed.
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“He was a handsome boy from the day he was born,” Casner said.
True enough. But the colt also ‘toed in’ up front, a conformation flaw that could lead to chronic unsoundness if not handled with care. Every time Casner looked at Well Armed’s front legs he thought of Karri. And he smiled.
“When she was a baby, Karri was really pigeon-toed, just like Well Armed,” he said. “She was in a brace every night as a baby that would push her toes out. She did that for maybe a couple of years, and it straightened her legs just fine.”
Well Armed’s early conditioning as a yearling was spent in the farm’s therapeutic equine swimming facility, and he thrived. Still, when it came time to decide on a racing path for Well Armed, his conformation had to be considered.
“We came up with the idea of sending him overseas so he could train and race on kinder surfaces,” Casner said. “We’d been to Newmarket the year before, so when it came time to choose a trainer for Well Armed, Doug recommended Clive Brittain.”
The irrepressible Brittain was best-known for winning half-a-dozen British Classics and an international collection of major prizes with the likes of Jupiter Island, Pebbles, and Luso.
After seven losing runs for Brittain – including one narrow loss the trainer blamed on a gust of wind blowing his horse off-course – Well Armed made his eighth and final start as a two-year-old at Lingfield Park in November. Competing for the first time on a synthetic surface, the big colt pulled Richard Hughes out of the saddle to win by a length and a quarter.
“After that, Clive wanted to take him to Dubai to run in the UAE Derby,” Casner said. “If Clive had that kind of faith in the horse, I said, ‘Let’s go!’”
Coming out as a three-year-old, Well Armed was impressive in his Dubai debut, winning an allowance race. He came right back in the UAE 2,000 Guineas as one of the favorites, but he was banged around at the start and finished ninth. After another poor effort in the UAE Derby, it was clear something was amiss.
The bone chip found in Well Armed’s left knee was of no particular consequence. Its position allowed for removal with an excellent prognosis for complete recovery. Dr. William Baker performed the procedure at his Woodford Equine Clinic in Versailles, Kentucky.
“Everything went very well,” Casner said. “Then three days later I got the call from Dr. Natanya Neiman, the farm vet. He had fractured his right hip. I was devastated. How he did it will forever be a mystery.”
Casner rushed to the barn and beheld Well Armed standing on three legs in obvious discomfort.
“Dr. Neiman saved Well Armed,” Casner said. “She used all of her skills to mitigate the pain where he could put occasional weight on the injured side, allowing the opposite rear leg to rest periodically and prevent laminitis. After that, it was several months before we could bring him home to the Texas ranch. By then, there had been so much atrophy that the whole hip had dropped. We began his rehab and started swimming him as soon as we could.”
Well Armed’s program also included time spent on a surface of deep sand in an automatic walker, designed to let him move at a steady pace as he tested the recovery of the hip. Come the spring of 2007, Casner proclaimed the horse sound and fit enough to head back to WinStar for more formal training. Soon after than, trainer Eoin Harty entered the picture, with a message from Casner:
“I told him the horse was fit, he’s got talent, and after what he’s been through, he’s got nothing to lose.”
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Harty and Casner met in Dubai in 1999 and had hit it off. Back in the States, they kept in touch, but Well Armed was the farthest horse from Harty’s mind. He was busy training Godolphin’s two-year-olds, among them Tempera and Imperial Gesture, the one-two finishers in the 2001 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.
“After a while, I’d get a call now and then from Bill telling me the horse was doing well and he would be sending him to me at the track,” Harty said. “That was nice to hear, but you never really worry about it until the horse shows up.”
Then the horse showed up.
“Of course, I was a little skeptical,” Harty said. “But by that time I knew Bill well enough to know that if he had faith in the ability of the horse to make it back, I’d be a fool to doubt him.”
As the 2007 Santa Anita autumn meet approached, Aaron Gryder joined the Well Armed team for a solid workout over the freshly installed Cushion Track surface at the Arcadia track. Gryder, 37 at the time, was coming off a top 10 season at Del Mar, and he already had a direct connection to the story of Well Armed.
It was the summer of 2000. Gryder was in the midst of his best season ever, in terms of the purses won by his mounts. On a Saturday trip to Delaware Park, Gryder’s mounts included a filly in the Delaware Oaks for trainer Tracy Nunley. She was a dark bay daughter of Notebook, sporting some attractive white trim, and she finished fourth, missing third place by only a neck. The program identified her as Well Dressed.
“I remembered the name of Well Dressed, a horse I once rode, but I couldn’t recall the circumstances,” Gryder said. “I guess you could say it was meant to be.”
Harty (right) chose a Santa Anita allowance event at 6½ furlongs for Well Armed’s comeback. At the start, the big horse jumped like a startled jackrabbit and ended up at the back of the pack. Gryder allowed Well Armed to find a steady rhythm, and from the eighth pole to the finish, Well Armed gained an encouraging amount of ground to finish fourth, only about 3½ lengths behind the winner.
“I thought he’d win because he was training so well,” Harty said. “Maybe if I’d worked him from the gate, he wouldn’t have hopped like that. But as highly strung as he was, I was afraid a work from the gate might send him over the edge.”
In his next start, Well Armed broke smartly to win a nine-furlong allowance race at Hollywood Park, then he commenced the 2008 season with a second-place finish in the San Pasqual Handicap at Santa Anita. The San Antonio Handicap was next, on February 9, and Well Armed was primed for the day. He defeated Heatseeker, subsequent winner of the Santa Anita Handicap, by a head.
On the strength of the San Antonio, neither Harty nor the Casners could think of a reason Well Armed should not go to back to Dubai – this time for the $6m World Cup.
The attention in Dubai that year was centered on Curlin, America’s reigning Horse of the Year. Well Armed was on his game, but in the end he was no match for Curlin, who reached the line 7¾ lengths in front, the largest winning margin of the 13 World Cups. Asiatic Boy, winner of the UAE Derby the year before, edged Well Armed by a neck for second.
“We were just happy to run third,” Harty said. “And knowing Curlin wouldn’t be there the following year gave us hope. We could plan accordingly and try to make it back to Dubai.”
Well Armed rounded out his 2008 campaign with a victory in the San Diego Handicap, a narrow loss in the Pacific Classic, and a resounding win in the Goodwood Handicap, followed by a disappointing run in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. He began his six-year-old season with a fourth-place finish in the San Pasqual and a second-place finish four weeks later in the San Antonio. As far Harty was concerned, Well Armed was right on target for another crack at the World Cup, scheduled for March 28.
On the Monday before the 2009 World Cup, Harty was trackside at Nad Al Sheba in the midst of a sandstorm with Jim Barnes, Bob Baffert’s top assistant.
“We could barely see a thing,” Harty said. “Jimmy took the binoculars, and I worked the radio for the rider and the stopwatch. That’s the only shot we had. Jimmy said, ‘Get ready, he’s coming to the pole.’ Then he went on and worked the half in :47 like it was nothing at all.”
On the Thursday night before the race, at the traditional World Cup party held that year at a convention center in town, the Well Armed group was joined at a large table by three younger women.
“The girls told us they were new in Dubai, they were selling real estate, and so forth,” Harty said. “At one point, they asked Bill, ‘Who are you?’ He tells them he’s running a horse here, and they are duly impressed. Then they ask, ‘Are you any relation to Karri Casner?’”
It turned out that the girls had been with Karri in Kuta Beach earlier on the evening of October 12, 2002, but they had gone their own way, before the detonation of the deadly bomb at the nightclub. Somehow, in the days and weeks following the tragedy, they had connected with the Casners through email, and for a while after that, they maintained correspondence. They eventually lost contact, but sitting there in Dubai, more than six years removed from the loss of Karri, Bill and Susan remembered their names.
As far-fetched as it seemed, the coincidence had to mean something, if only that Karri’s spirit was forever hovering nearby, just waiting for those occasions of bittersweet reminder.
The day of the race arrived, marking the final World Cup program at Nad Al Sheba before moving to the massive new complex at Meydan. Harty and Gryder had a brief conference at their hotel before heading to the track.
“He didn’t need a pep talk,” Harty said. “I just reminded him that the horse would be super fresh, and to just let him run away from there at the start. Once he made the lead –and he would definitely make the lead – he could do whatever he needed to do from there.”
The international horses were stabled so far from the grandstand that vans were used for their transport to the saddling paddock. Harty, in contact with assistant Oliver Costello, wanted Well Armed to appear at the last possible moment.
“Well Armed would be getting on a van, fireworks in the distance, and by the time we went to saddle him, he was really on his toes,” Harty said. “It was a bit of a chore, but we got it done.”
The history of the World Cup at Nad Al Sheba had been relatively brief, but few racetracks had packed so many memorable moments into such a fleeting window of time. It was unlikely that the 14th running of the Dubai World Cup would be able to supply the same level of operatic drama that had been supplied by Cigar, Silver Charm, Street Cry, or Dubai Millennium. Unlikely, but not impossible.
Then the flag dropped … and they were off.
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Bill and Susan Casner were watching from a spot high in the Nad Al Sheba grandstand.
“One of the men there notices us and says, ‘Do you have a horse in the race? Come sit with us!’” Casner recalled. “We looked around, and Susan was the only woman in that entire section.”
At the same time, Eoin Harty took up a place in the jockeys’ weighing room, on the ground level of the grandstand.
“John Gosden was there as well,” Harty recalled. “He said to me, ‘You don’t want to be on the lead in this race, mate. You can’t win.’ I said, ‘If I’m not on the lead in this race, he won’t win.’”
When the gates for the World Cup opened, Well Armed pushed hard on that healed right hip and shot to the lead as the field raced down the first straightaway to the gentle turn at the top of the course.
“He’d only run an eighth of a mile, his ears were going back and forth, and Aaron had a long cross on him, just cruising,” Casner said. “With all that, I knew we had a heck of a shot to win. And the farther he went, the more that feeling grew.”
At the 500-meter mark, Gryder (right) snuck a peek past his right shoulder. “It’s a strange feeling,” he said, “to be in a position like that and still have so much horse under you.”
Passing the red- and white-striped pole marking 400 meters to the finish, Gryder took another look and gave Well Armed three quick cracks of the whip. Up in the announcer’s roost, Terry Spargo was taken by surprise.
“Well Armed has slipped the field!” Spargo cried.
“When Aaron asked the horse that last quarter of a mile, he just ran off and left them,” Casner said. “He rode that horse magnificently.”
As the finish approached, Gryder began to pat Well Armed on 
the neck in a gesture of unbridled affection. The winning margin of 14 lengths was nearly twice the record set by Curlin the previous year. After Well Armed reached the finish, it took three full seconds for Gloria De Campeao to complete his race in second place.
Gryder, a man not given to public displays of emotion, was in his own way overcome.
“I am so blessed,” the jockey said. “I love this horse.”
After the Casners hoisted the World Cup trophy alongside their host, Sheikh Mohammed, Bill Casner embraced the moment for all it was worth.
“So many things are going through your head,” he said. “The birth of your children, the love of your life. It was an unbelievable moment that Susan and I were so fortunate to experience, the kind of thing you could go through a whole lifetime and never have. It’s such a joy for the horse to overcome what happened to him, that he was able to achieve what he did.
“This horse, what he’s meant to us in so many ways, it’s impossible to describe. Karri was there in that moment in time. She rode Well Armed that night with Aaron. It was magical.”
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After Dubai, Well Armed received a well-earned rest, raced once more, and was then retired to the Casners’ Texas ranch, where he continues to enjoy life surrounded by his pasture pals and his doting human family.
Karri Casner’s legacy lives on as well. The Casner family established the Karri Casner Scholarship at Vail Valley College in Edwards, Colorado. The Karri Casner Environmental Sciences Fellowship was offered by the Tracy Farmer Institute for Sustainability and the Environment at the University of Kentucky. There was also the Karri Casner Memorial Scholarship Fund, established through the Kentucky-based Race for Education.
Several years after her death, as the horse named Well Armed carried the family on the wings of Karri’s memory, her father shared what he lived with every day.
“None of us are here for more than a blink of an eye,” Casner said. “We’re all on a road to eternity. We were absolutely, incredibly blessed to have had her for 23 years. There’s never a day that I don’t think about her. She is with us all the time.”
Well Armed: A Thoroughbred of Destiny by Jay Hovdey (170pp with photos), is published by Johnsen Holdings Publishing and can be purchased here for $19.95 + shipping fees
• Read all Jay Hovdey's features in his Favorite Racehorses series
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