Bethpage Black has four legs

By Vicky Moon
GPA Correspondent

A horse named Bethpage Black by Vicky Moon Margaret Littleton with an armful of silver following Bethpage Black's steeplechase victory. Photo by Vicky Moon In the winner's circle two young ladies with Rita and John Kent Cooke presenting trophies to owner Margaret Littleton, trainer Julie Gomena and Trowbridge Littleton with his lucky Bethpage Black cap. Photo by Vicky Moon

What's in a name for a racehorse? Take for example, Mine That Bird, this year's Kentucky Derby winner. His sire was the 2004 Belmont winner, Birdstone, and his dam was Mining My Own, resulting in a somewhat logical amalgamation of his pedigree.

But, with the U.S. Open unfolding this week on the legendary Long Island venue, what about a horse called Bethpage Black? His sire was Private Terms and his dam was Intimate Moments. Under the guidelines of The Jockey Club American Registry, a Thoroughbred's name can be no more than eighteen letters and spaces so, certainly there were numerous options? Private Moments perhaps or Intimate Terms?

But for Michael Brice, who purchased the brown colt in 2004 for $22,000 as a 2-year-old at an auction in Ocala, Fla., there was no debate when he sent in the proper paperwork.

"I grew up in Bethpage, I played golf there all the time, strictly on the Black course," says Brice, a former race horse trainer who also has a three handicap.

Growing up in Long Island, Brice watched his father Harry Brice train horses at Belmont, Aqueduct and Saratoga. In rare spare moments, the elder Brice would play golf. Then, in 1983, when Michael was 20 years old, he suddenly lost his father. "I took over his stables and started training," he recalls.

Not long after, Brice picked up his father's old clubs and headed out to Bethpage State Park's Black Course in Farmingdale, N.Y., to see what all the fuss was about.

"I became addicted to golf. I played three and sometimes five times a week," he says. He later joined the Nassau Players Club, a group of 100 golfers devoted to "the Black" course.

In between, Brice continued training horses. His duties included looking for young prospects.

"When I saw the colt, he caught my eye. I looked at him before the sale and then when he walked in the ring, I fell in love," he said. He bought the horse and later sold part interest to a friend.

Brice hired jockey Edgar Prado for the first few races. Think of Prado as Tiger Woods on a horse. He rode Barbaro to victory in the 2006 Kentucky Derby and was also up on Birdstone at the 2004 Belmont. He brought Bethpage Black in fourth place for his first race at Belmont in June 2005.

Brice vividly recalls Bethpage's second race at Belmont on June 24, 2005, when he romped home a winner with $25,000 in earnings, more than covering his purchase price - a rare feat in racing. By October 2008 after four years of racing on the flat, Bethpage Black had gathered $122,401 in earnings in 24 races.

But the story doesn't end there.

Bethpage Black now has a second career as a steeplechase horse. Trainer Julie Gomena of Middleburg, Va., bought him for owner Margaret Littleton for just under $10,000.

"I told him, I'd give him part of it now and more after the horse won a race over hurdles," Gomena said recently. The horse willingly took to jumping and recently took first place (after a horse who bumped him was disqualified). The purse for the Foxhunters Bowl Maiden Claiming Hurdle at the Middleburg Spring Races was $10,000. Once again Bethpage Black was paying his own way.

Gomena recalls she didn't quite understand the little brown horse's name when he arrived at her stables.

"I had to look up Bethpage Black on Google, I didn't know what it was," she says. "Some trainers don't like to use nicknames around the barn but, I do. So I thought, what the hell, we can't call him Blackie and we can't call him Beth."

And so, they nicknamed him Golf.