Zipse: Red Knight emphatically declines to retire at 9

It’s time to welcome in the newest member of the Grade 1 winner club. Red Knight is far from new, but with an impressive win in Saturday’s $600,000 Man O’ War Stakes, he finally earned his first victory at the highest level at the ripe old age of 9.

The equine version of the Golden Girls, it would appear Red Knight is becoming the poster boy for passing on the early-retirement trend.

If you are a true fan of Thoroughbred horse racing, it's hard not to root for a horse like Red Knight. At a time when superstars such as Flightline and Justify are retiring after only six career starts, this veteran son of Pure Prize likely can’t even remember his sixth lifetime start.

It came eons ago. Or to be exact, it was five years ago when he scored a game allowance win on the Belmont Park turf.

Coming around full circle, Red Knight was back on the Belmont turf Saturday for the 11th time in his career, and he never looked better.

Trained by Mike Maker for Tom Egan’s Trinity Farm, the chestnut gelding dropped back early, as he likes to do, and waited for the word to go from rider Irad Ortiz Jr.

Commencing his rally widest of all, the second choice in the field of eight powered down the stretch to best Soldier Rising by 1 1/2 decisive lengths. It was vintage Red Knight.

Now in his seventh season of racing, the New York-bred raised his record to 12 wins in 34 career starts with more than $1.7 million in career earnings.

Unraced at 2, the homebred earned his first career victory six years ago in his second career start. That win also came at Belmont Park, and back then he was trained by Bill Mott.

He ran in his first career stakes race the following fall against fellow New York-breds and finished fifth in the Ashley T. Cole Stakes.

Red Knight earned his first stakes victory at the very end of 2018, and he worked hard to do it, winning by a head in the two-mile H. Allen Jerkens Stakes over the Gulfstream Park turf course.

Flash forward 4 1/2 more years and he is more than going strong. With four stakes wins in his last seven starts, including his biggest win yet Saturday, it’s quite apparent that Red Knight is a better horse today than he has ever been.

I find it interesting that his broodmare sire is the great Skip Away. Perhaps having that iron horse in his direct bloodline has passed down to Red Knight. That Hall of Famer was long since retired by the time he was 9, but he did run 38 times in his brilliant career.

It’s highly unlikely that Red Knight will ever sniff the Hall of Fame like his broodmare sire, but who knows? After Saturday’s performance, you certainly cannot count him out from winning an Eclipse Award at the end of the year.

If he becomes a male turf champion at the age of 9, Red Knight would join the late, great John Henry as the oldest American champion in modern racing.

Showing no signs of slowing down – quite the opposite, actually – Red Knight is another shining example of what can happen when a good horse is well taken off and able to run as a mature horse. Or in his case, very mature.

Champion or not, it doesn’t really matter. Red Knight is good for racing.