Wear the Mask, a rare horse whose color is officially listed as white by the Jockey Club, North America's principal governing body dedicated to the registry of the Thoroughbred Stud book, recorded his second career victory in Monday's fourth race at Mahoning Valley Race Course.
A four-year-old colt by Airdrie Apache, the recently deceased former world's leading sire of white and colored (paints) thoroughbreds, Wear the Mask led all the way under jockey Megan Fadlovich, winning the entry level allowance race by more than two lengths and returning $19.40 for a two dollar bet.
The final running time was 1:46.42 for the one mile & 70 yards on a track labeled sloppy. The fractions were 23.21, 46.79, & 1:12.84.
What makes a white horse different from a light gray or roan? According to the Jockey Club, "The entire coat, including mane, tail, and legs is predominately white."
A white coat is not considered albino, but rather a genetic mutation carried by a single dominant gene.
While white horses have long been revered and highly coveted throughout history, the list of successful white thoroughbred racehorses has been minimal. In fact, no registered white thoroughbred has ever won a stakes race in North America, although a Japanese bred named Yukichan won three stakes races in 2008-2010.
This stat is not that surprising considering significantly less than one percent of all registered thoroughbreds are listed as white. The victory, the second in 18 career starts and first in three starts this year for Wear the Mask was worth more than $8,800.
Trained by Ivan Vazquez, he is owned by Berva Megson of Megson Farms located in Calvert City (Ky), which currently boasts the largest stable of registered white thoroughbreds and broodmare band in North America with more than two dozen as well as standing the 11-year-old Storm Cat-Phone Chatter stallion El Romeo.
