The Iceman Cometh

~The First Year~

At 6:00 (AM) on June 30, 2036, a mare went into labor at the Coolmore division in County Tipperary, Ireland. The mare, Well Traversed, was a 2-time Breeders' Cup Classic winning daughter of the English champion Ruler of the World. She was in foal to the Camelot-sired Came Home, the English Triple Crown winner and US stakes winner.

As I sat nearby, anxiously waiting for the foal and feeling helpless as Well Traversed snorted in pain, I had a feeling that this foal was going to be something special. At the time, I accredited that feeling to knowing who the sire was, but now...I think I knew deep down that the foal was going to change the face of racing.

At 6:26, two small hooves appeared. By 6:27, the official time of birth, the entire foal, a colt, had appeared. He was tiny, and I was a little disappointed. But he stood up almost right away, a good sign. He was up before his mom. He waited at his mom's side, waiting to start feeding once she got up, and eventually, she did.

Since I was here as a witness to the foal's birth and to record it, I wrote down "6:27 AM-dark bay, maybe black colt, white star on forehead. Very small but stood up in 12 minutes. Well Traversed-Came Home 2036."

I had recorded only one more birth by the end of the week. June was a rare time for a foal to be born.

The colt progressed at a normal pace, he didn't quickly grow up. He stayed small, and was easily pushed around by the other weanlings. His solution to this annoyance was to stay away from the others. His best friend became the other closest living thing: me. I was there all the time, as I was an assistant trainer for Juddmonte Farms, the owner of Well Traversed and this colt, who we called Icy due to his icy behavior toward other horses.

The end of Icy's first month came, and with it, tragedy. His sire, Came Home, was kidnapped, much like English champion Shergar. He was kidnapped by a terrorist organization, and then shot when he wouldn't calm down. A man came across the stallion, who was still alive, the next day, and recognized Came Home from his glory days. Came Home had only been at stud 2 years, and there was the danger that he would not return to stud. He was recuperating in a secluded, top-secret area at Coolmore. Only a few people knew where he was.

The value of the undersized, anti-social colt playing in the pasture skyrocketed to over $2 million, and he hadn't even done ANYTHING.

Life passed as normal for the next few months. The weanlings were weaned, the yearlings began to train, racehorses were sold, some foals were born.

Eventually, December came, and it was time to name the soon-to-be yearlings. Five names were submitted for Came Home's last foal: Home At Last, The World Over, Last To Start, Thetraveledpath, and Homeward Bound. All 5 were rejected. So, Juddmonte came to me and asked me to submit a name or two for Icy. The first name I submitted was World Traveler. The second I had trouble coming up with, so I have up for the moment and sat down to reread one of my favorite books, Seabiscuit. I was reading about the War Admiral-Seabiscuit match race. Seabiscuit's jockey in that race, George Woolf, was one of my all-time favorite jockeys, up there with Eddie Arcaro, Roger Moore, and Ron Turcotte. I remembered Woolf's nickname was "The Iceman". It fit Icy perfectly. That became the second name I submitted, and that was the name the Jockey Club approved. They sent a notice:
"The 2036 colt-foal (bay/black, white star) by Came Home out of Well Traversed has been officially named 'The Iceman'. Congratulations."

The Iceman. It sounded ominous, like a superhero's name might. Little did I know that a superhero was exactly what The Iceman would become.