Today is Mikey's birthday. He's 24."
Christi Biddle wasn't talking about a husband, a brother, or a son . . . but she was talking about a member of her family. Military Mike came into her life in 2005 and is still thriving 21 years later.
Foaled in Kentucky March 31, 2002, he was bred by Nellie Cox and Rose Retreat Farm. Out of the Roanoke mare Yes Virginia, he was from the first crop of multiple graded stakes winner and millionaire More Than Ready. As a 2-year-old in 1999, More Than Ready racked up five consecutive wins including Belmont Park's Tremont Stakes-G3 and the Sanford-G2 at Saratoga. At 3, he won the Hutcheson-G2 at Gulfstream, the King's Bishop-G1 at Saratoga and finished fourth (of 19) in the Kentucky Derby-G1 won by Fusaichi Pegasus.
As accomplished as he was on the racetrack, More Than Ready made a significant impact on the breed as a stallion. He began his stud career at Vinery in 2001, and moved to WinStar Farm in 2012. His influence as a sire was worldwide, producing 242 stakes winners and 15 champions in the Northern and Southern hemispheres. He sired an Eclipse Award winner each year from 2017-20. More Than Ready passed away in 2022 at age 25.
At the 2002 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic December mixed sale, Gale Patti purchased Military Mike as a weanling for $5,000. On April 10, 2005, he made his only start with Patti as owner and trainer in a 41⁄2-furlong maiden claiming race for a $16,000 tag at Charles Town. He finished third and earned $1,200.
Biddle met the gelding shortly thereafter, at Tina Graham's Barley Mill Stables in Yorklyn, Del., after he was injured.
"Gail and Mike Patti had him at Delaware Park," Biddle said. "Tina picked him up and started to rehab him with stall rest for a bowed tendon. After he was healed, I was the first one to get on him and we started him back to work slowly."
The stall rest was lengthy -- three months -- but Military Mike's intelligence and willingness made a mark on Biddle, then an instructor at Barley Mill.
"I don't think anyone wanted to be the first one to ride him, so I jumped on him, started him back and started him jumping," she said. "He was really easy, very compliant. He wasn't the most athletic with his jumping -- he was a very flat jumper but very willing always and his work ethic was impeccable. He was just always ready to give more, keep his brain busy but also behave."
Raised in nearby Middletown, Biddle was active in 4-H and Pony Club as a child. Her first two horses were Arabians, the third an off-track Thoroughbred. That mare, called Dana, was enough to sell her on the breed.
In 2006, Graham decided to close Barley Mill. Biddle purchased Military Mike and several lesson horses and moved her operation to Elkton, Md. She continued bringing Military Mike along, while also building her own lesson business. She and Avonlea Hulton -- then a student and now a business colleague -- evented the horse, competing up to the novice level. The increasing demands of dressage became problematic when he developed some arthritic changes in his left hock.
With Military Mike now more involved in her lesson program, Biddle shifted his focus to the hunter ring. "Then he started cleaning up in the show ring with his little auto lead changes."
His racing career might have been a blip, but Military Mike's second career was -- and still is -- stellar.
"We did the Triangle Show Series and went to the Colonial Classic two or three times. The Colonial Classic includes 20 different show series, and they take the top riders from each division. They battle it out, and there will be 40 to 50 people in a class."
The 2022 Colonial Classic, at the Devon Horse Show grounds in Pennsylvania, was special. Aboard Military Mike for that competition was Biddle's daughter Bella, then 13.
"Bella always liked him growing up and played in water buckets as a kid while I was eventing him," Biddle said. "She started riding and showing him when her pony went lame."
After several years at leased properties, Biddle and business partner Leah DeRocili purchased 33 acres in Cecil County, Md., a few miles southwest of Fair Hill, in 2019. Known as Epona Stables, the farm has indoor and outdoor arenas and access to wooded trails.
"We have 60 students -- we stay busy. We have 33 horses and a donkey. About 20 here are off the track. I like their work ethic and really enjoy retraining them. They're just fun."
Military Mike's page on the Epona website describes him as "the handsome, talented class clown" who "now teaches riders the fundamentals and love of riding."
In September 2022, Military Mike re-introduced Lisa Davison to her lifelong love of riding when they competed in the Real Rider Cup. Davison, a veterinary technician who formerly worked for trainer Graham Motion, was the longtime exercise rider for Breeders' Cup winner Better Talk Now.
"The vet techs from Equine Veterinary Care [based at Fair Hill Training Center] were trying to get a team together for the Real Rider Cup," Biddle said. "Dr. Bernie Smith mentioned it and asked if we had any horses, and I said Mikey could do it. Lisa came over a couple times to ride him and was very tickled with him."
Davison, who hadn't sat on a horse for more than two years, dusted off her boots and had a blast competing with her coworkers on the team they called, "The Fixer Fillies."
I am running a few minutes late; my previous meeting is running over Biddle has since dialed back Military Mike's schedule, but he's still active in the lesson program. These days, however, jumps are limited to a height of 18 inches and he only jumps a few times each week.
"But he'll still come across the diagonal and give you a nice big lead change," Biddle said. "And he might get a little spicy and give you a little head shake."
Twenty years with a horse means a lot of love and memories; a bond that produces the strongest of partnerships. Bella, 17, has never known life without Military Mike. His habits and personality traits make him even more cherished by the Biddle family.
And he's not the only senior citizen in the barn. Dana, that first retired racehorse, is still there at 32 -- official identity unknown thanks to an unreadable lip tattoo. Colorado-bred gelding Stacey's Precision, barn name "Scooby" and a three-start loser on the racetrack in 2001, is 29, as is a Carson City gelding who goes by "Campadre."
Military Mike fits right in.
"As he's gotten older -- he's got a parrot mouth -- so when you put the bit in, his smile gets bigger and bigger every year," Biddle said. "It's so cute; it literally looks like he's just smiling the whole time. That's one of my favorite things about him. He licks a lot. He knows he gets carrot stretches before his ride, so he'll start stretching himself to get his treats. He still likes to swim in the water trough. He's quite the character. He's just goofy."
