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By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
Zippy Chippy, the cantankerous yet lovable former racehorse who gained fame for what he couldn’t do rather than what he could, has died.
His death was announced Saturday by Old Friends at Cabin Creek, the thoroughbred retirement stable in Greenfield Center near Saratoga Springs.
Zippy Chippy was 31 by horse racing standards (all horses turn a year older on Jan. 1), though his actual 31st birthday would have been Wednesday).
“What a life he lived + what wonderful friends he made,” Old Friends wrote on Twitter. “He was a shining star for aftercare. He ran his own show + bossed us around with no regrets, + we listened. Run free Zipster, til we meet again.”
Zippy Chippy never won a race, going 0-for-100 before he was retired from racing in 2004 by the late Felix Monserrate, his owner and trainer for the final 80 of those starts.
Monserrate had obtained the gelding in 1995. He traded a 1988 Ford pickup for the son of Compliance, whose career was off to an 0-for-20 start.
As it turned out, Zippy was just getting started. Or not. As the losses mounted, Zippy Chippy gained national fame, first because he couldn’t win, then because of his manners. He was banned in 1988 by the stewards at his long-time home, Finger Lakes Gaming & Racetrack, because he refused to break from the starting gate.
Monserrate found other tracks at which to race, but he still never won. His final official thoroughbred race came on Sept. 10, 2004, at the Northampton Tri-County Fair in Massachusetts. He lost and left the track with a 0-for-100 record, though he did finish second eight times and was third 12 times.
Zippy Chippy wasn’t done competing. He twice raced harness horses and on three occasions sprinted across the outfield grass at Frontier Field against players from the Rochester Red Wings.
He even was victorious once, outsprinting Darnell McDonald in 2001. “Zippy had an extra gear tonight,” McDonald said after the race.
In 2000, he was named to People magazine’s 100 “Most Interesting Personalities” list.
Zippy Chippy lived in the Monserrate stable for five years after his retirement, then was sent to live out his life in the vast pastures of Old Friends at Cabin Creek. It was there that he made a friend for life, fellow retired thoroughbred Red Down South. They were inseparable, even traveling together to Kentucky in 2012 for a goodwill exchange with Old Friends main facility in Georgetown, Ky.
While Old Friends at Cabin Creek was home to superstar thoroughbreds such as Commentator and Naughty New Yorker, Zippy was arguably the most popular resident.
While purists at Finger Lakes scoffed that Zippy Chippy was even racing due to his gate issues, few, if any, horses sparked more interest in the sport. Zippy wasn’t just on the sports pages, he was the subject of television and radio news stories, magazine articles and even a book.
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