'It's very rarefied stratosphere' - thoroughbred still living high life aged 39

An owner of one particular horse had a little more reason to celebrate the yearly passage of time on New Year's Day, the universal birthdate for northern hemisphere thoroughbreds.

Dead Solid Perfect, known as 'Rush', didn't turn 15, 20 or even 25 years of age. He was 39 and is still enjoying life, according to his owner.

Even if one tallies his age by the date he was foaled - May 4, 1983 - he was 38 years and 242 days old on Saturday, making him one of the most senior thoroughbreds in North America, if not the oldest.

Although the Jockey Club, the industry's breed registry, keeps track of many statistics, oldest thoroughbred isn't one, said Shannon Luce, TJC's director of communications. Tracking such data accurately would be problematic, with TJC needing death notices from every owner.

So age records are kept via word of mouth, news stories, the internet, and that old standby - the Guinness World Records. The Guinness World Records claims the oldest thoroughbred, Tango Duke (foaled 1935), owned by Carmen J. Koper of Barongarook, Victoria, Australia, made it to the age of 42 before dying on January 25, 1978.

The approximate life expectancy of a thoroughbred is 25-28 years old, according to various internet resources.

More recently, Prospect Point became the subject of news stories a little over five years ago due to his advanced age, with speculation that he held the record as the oldest thoroughbred in North America. He finally succumbed at 38 years and 203 days of age on September 23, 2016. But, now, even he has been surpassed by Rush.

Only other breeds, some of which can live longer than thoroughbreds, can seemingly match Rush for longevity. "It's very rarefied stratosphere at this point," said his owner, Bridget Eukers.

To put his age into context, Rush was born during the first administration of US President Ronald Reagan, was foaled the same year as 1986 Kentucky Derby winner Ferdinand, and was already seven when Equibase, the official recordkeeper in horseracing, was formed.

No race charts are available under Dead Solid Perfect's retroactively produced Equibase profile, although Equibase does list his 1-for-16 record and earnings of $5,940.

He further outlasted the track where he made his final career start for owner/trainer Louis Gallina in 1988: Rockingham Park, which closed in 2016.

The Jockey Club allowed another horse to be named Dead Solid Perfect in 2003, which happens from time to time, as names can be reused if an older horse of the same name is more than five years removed from racing or breeding. Still, as Eukers will tell you, there is only one Rush. Even at his advanced age, he still appreciates farm life at Windsor Hunt Stables in Connecticut.

His health is good, she said, only at times dealing with seasonal allergies and sensitivity to mold.

"He enjoyed the little bit of snowfall we got last week; we loved that he was rolling in it," Eukers said in an interview before Christmas. "Somebody left the gate open, and I unfortunately didn't notice, and he noticed before I did and had himself a nice little time gallivanting down the hill where he's not supposed to go. He's been causing plenty of trouble and having plenty of fun."

Eukers and Rush enjoy a close bond; he is her only horse. Her parents purchased the off-track thoroughbred, then trained by another owner in dressage, when she was a kid, and she began riding Rush when he was nine.

Competing in the equitation and hunter divisions, the duo qualified for numerous events, including the 1995 National Children's Medal Finals and the 1996 Connecticut Junior Medal Finals. He retired from competition after a tendon injury the following year, Eukers said, although they continued to work in dressage and later, trail riding until 2018 when he was 35.

Dead Solid Perfect enjoying another equestrian discipline in his younger daysCredit: Bridget Eukers

"Yeah, I think back, and it's like, he was there for high school, for college, you know, for all of my other life adventures," Eukers said. "He's been this great constant through everything."

No longer ridden, now he gets his exercise - when he doesn't go out unbeknownst to his owner - with Eukers guiding him up and down a hill at the farm.

"Maintaining that strength and maintaining that flexibility, I think has been a huge component of his ability to continue to live life the way that he wants," she said. "He can still get down and roll. He can still get up and down.

"But those were things that were very important for me, that he could keep on doing those kinds of things. And frankly, most of my life is really built around taking care of him. You know, he eats four times a day."

For the past eight or nine years, Eukers has fed him a diet of organic alfalfa pellets, organic barley and organic oats.

"I have so many people, when I start to talk to them about how he eats, they're like, 'You know, I wish I ate that good' or 'I need to eat that good,'" she said. "I know my vet has kind of come in in the mornings and said, 'You know this is a pretty good breakfast he has.' I think I could open up a small kitchen and have it do pretty well."

Admittedly, Rush isn't as youthful-looking as he once was. Classified as a dark bay or brown horse, he maintained a dark coat except for his feet before beginning to grey around age 30. His face is mostly white now, and his neck is getting there.

Eukers theorises that Rush, bred by Preston Madden in Kentucky, might have a predisposition to going grey with one of the distant sires in his pedigree being the great Native Dancer, nicknamed the Grey Ghost. Rush's sire Raise A Cup was classified as a bay, his dam Kame Yen a dark bay or brown mare.

Rush was a $60,000 yearling purchase by John Fort from Madden's consignment at the 1984 Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

Many years removed from those days at auction, his personality still shines, according to his owner. He shares a paddock with another owner's Quarter Horse, known as 'Cowboy,' whom Eukers refers to as "the youth" at age 25. She calls the two "frenemies."

"Sometimes they get along very well, and sometimes they don't get along very well at all - the latter mostly because Cowboy likes to try to steal Rush's food, and Rush doesn't like that," she said. "They get into a few little fisticuffs over that kind of thing."

Rush understandably doesn't mind easing his tired feet from time to time. He will sit his rear end on things, sometimes with comedic effect.

She recalled: "The real highlight incident was someone had left a garbage can that was supposed to be for the barn. And it was behind him, and I hadn't really thought anything of it. I was in cleaning his stall, he was on the cross ties, and I heard him moving around a little bit.

"Then all of a sudden I heard this absolutely tremendous crunching, and I went rushing out, he was peering behind him, like, 'Oh, oops. I made an oops.' And behind him is this aluminium trashcan that looks basically like a beer can that somebody had squashed on their forehead, except it's the whole aluminium can, and that was because he had tried to sit on it, and it was a sort of disaster."

Who could blame the old man?

"I would say that having a horse of this age is really tough, but it's also rewarding," Eukers said.

"It just is a lot of fun to watch him still continuing to enjoy life, and that really has been my goal right from the get-go. I want to make sure that he's enjoying life and that he's happy doing it, and when he isn't, I will let him go."

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