Prairie Meadows to host Paddy O'Prado Day

Altoona, IA - July 19,2011 - Paddy O'Prado's racing days are over, but he will be back on the track one final time on Aug. 5 at Prairie Meadows.

Prairie Meadows is holding "Paddy O'Prado Day" in honor of the most accomplished thoroughbred racehorse ever owned by Iowans.

Paddy O'Prado, whose group of 11 owners included 10 from Iowa, was third in the 2010 Kentucky Derby and one of three finalists for the year's champion 3-year-old colt.

He was retired after fracturing his right front ankle while winning the May 21 Dixie Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in his first 2011 start.  He is currently at Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Ky., where he will begin a breeding career in 2012. However, the owners made a provision when he was retired that Paddy O'Prado could come to Prairie Meadows for the day named in his honor.

He will be paraded in the paddock and on the track. Prairie Meadows will give away 11x17-inch posters of Paddy O'Prado.

"I know as a group, we're ecstatic," said Jason Loutsch of Ankeny, who is one of Paddy's owners. "Most of the owners are from central Iowa and we run our horses at Prairie Meadows, so we're thrilled that he will be here.

"We've always thought of him as Iowa's horse because of all the support he got from Iowans. We think it's a great move by Prairie Meadows and we're very appreciative."

In 14 starts, Paddy O'Prado won five times, all graded stakes races, including the Grade II Virginia Derby and Colonial Turf Cup and the Grade I Secretariat Stakes. He is the only racehorse ever owned by Iowans to win a Grade I or II stakes or a race.

Winless in three starts at 2 in 2009, Paddy O'Prado zoomed up the ladder of the nation's top 3-year-olds in 2010.  He scored his first victory in the Grade III Palm Beach Stakes, then was second in the Grade I Blue Grass Stakes. That earned him a berth in the Kentucky Derby, where he chased Super Saver to the wire before finishing third, joining Blumin Affair as the only Iowa-owned horses to place third in the Derby.