by Kimberly French, USTA Web Newsroom Senior Correspondent

Kimberly French

Louisville, KY — Like most successful racemares, Artistry In Rhythm simply doesn’t have much patience for anyone or anything else. She prefers to be left to her own devices.

“We bought her I think late last May or early June,” recalled Ken Holliday, whose wife Sherri conditions the mare, while he pilots her in most of her races. “She’s not a bad horse to be around, but she’ll stand back in the corner of her stall and pin her ears. She’s not mean, she’s just telling you she doesn’t want to be aggravated and to leave her alone. She lets you do whatever you need to and then wants to be put back in her stall.”

The 9-year-old daughter of Real Artist-Romantic Music is owned by Betty Tauber of East Brunswick, N.J. The chestnut has earned $328,742 from 206 starts and established a lifetime mark of 1:52 at age six. She has traveled from coast to coast and competed on various types of surfaces with an assortment of circumferences, but Artistry In Rhythm seems to nearly always be competitive even when she doesn’t get her picture taken.

Paul White photo

Artistry In Rhythm has banked $328,742 in eight years on the track.

“I use this analogy to guys around the track; if she’s two lengths back at the top of the stretch she’s going to beat you,” Holliday said. “She’s a big mare at almost 17 hands tall, but she’s a grinder. I was told when I bought her she couldn’t win off the front end, but she’s done it. She’s tough and at the top of the stretch she just knows it’s time to go. There’s no quit in her.”

The Hollidays purchased Artistry In Rhythm from Rene Allard after the mares they raced went lame and commenced their second career as broodmares. Since coming into their barn, the mare has competed primarily at Batavia Downs and Buffalo Raceway. She even took on the boys with a sixth place finish in the $40,000 Robert J. Kane Memorial Invitational at Batavia Downs on Oct. 16, 2010, and is her dam’s leading money-winning foal.

She doesn’t need much work to keep her fit, but Artistry In Rhythm does require some extra attention.

“Her only downfall is she is a tie-up horse,” Holliday explained. “If you don’t get her out every day she may tie up the next day or so. In the summertime, we pretty much try to turn her out every day to let Mr. Sunshine loosen her up, but unfortunately when there’s snow on the ground we don’t get her out too much. When she races, we usually give her the next day off and we’ll walk her just to make sure she keeps moving.”

The Hollidays would like to keep racing the mare at Buffalo and Batavia, where Sherri has won the training title the last two years, but are in the process of preparing the mare to perform at The Meadows.

“If they approve her at The Meadows that is probably where she is going,” Holliday said. “It’s tough drawing the seven or eight hole every week on a half-mile track and she does like a bigger track so maybe she will make some money down there. That’s the only downfall of the horse business. In the Jug if you win your elimination you get to draw the one or two hole in the final, in NASCAR you get the rail and in other sports if you play well you get a bye. Horse racing isn’t like that.

“She is much better on a bigger track,” he continued. “I think she went in (1):50 at the Meadowlands and she paced in 1:51 at Woodbine shortly before we bought her. She does get around a half but it’s not her forte.

“If she goes to The Meadows, she’s certainly not going to win every week, but the fact that she does like a big track is in her favor.”

Artistry In Rhythm may not be the most affectionate horse, but the Hollidays still appreciate her personality.

“She doesn’t like to be loved on all the time and wants you to do your work and then let her do her work,” Holliday said. “But she really has had a good year and set the track record (for older mares) at Batavia in (1):54 flat on a day it was sticky. It was a big mile and she is just a good mare.”