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So as I turned out of the winners’ circle to head towards the backstretch, the valet said “hey, hey you, hey kid” and I turned around and he tossed me the saddle cloth and when he tossed me the saddle cloth, it flew into the air and I caught it. I rolled it up and I was like, just kind of like so excited it was like a scary feeling. I was so proud, I was kind of scared of what it stood for at the time and I walked back to the backstretch, by that time the horses for the second race had started walking across to get ready. I was walking and I’m walking back to the backstretch so I could an meet with my brother and when I got to the backstretch I saw my brother and said, “Kenny, Kenny the valet threw the saddle cloth of the first horse and I caught it and I need the keys to the truck so I can go put it in the truck so he gave me the keys to the truck and I ran out there and I put it inside the truck and I ran all the way back. Then I told my brother Kenny that here were the keys back to his truck, that I put the saddle cloth in the truck and how proud I was that I had it. That it was the first race of the Breeders’ Cup and that one day it may be valuable.

So I held onto it and as years went by I used to bring it out, every now and again, pull it out and look at it hanging over a couch or anything, just open it up so I could see the full look of the saddle cloth and I could see the boot marks on there where it had rubbed onto the saddle cloth. In 1984 it was the first race of the Breeders’ Cup won by Chief’s Crown and Don MacBeth.

On March 1st 1987, Don MacBeth died of cancer. So what happened was they co-founded a fund called the Don MacBeth memorial jockey fund to assist injured and disabled riders. Years later, at least seven years, I got in contact with the Don MacBeth memorial fund to tell them I had the saddle cloth from the first Breeders’ Cup…..

Ismael Mylo Reyes

© Copyright 1984-2007 Ismael Mylo Reyes

There will be an auction later this year for the winning saddle cloth.
Please email us with enquires.

 

Click here to view the video of the 1984 historical race.

The video is hosted by and copyrighted by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (http://www.ntra.com/).