The story of Arhat

When the Monmouth Park meet began in May, I waxed poetic about some of the stories to look for during the meet. One entrant that day, Arhat, was making his third start as an eight-year-old after making his career debut just 14 months earlier.

Arhat broke down that opening day and a few in the comments section wanted his story told. So did the owner, and I present that to you now.

Laura Buenaventura will never know whether it was genuine optimism or just wishful thinking that led her to think Arhat had simply gotten loose when jockey Francisco Maysonett fell from his mount in an allowance race at Monmouth.

Buenaventura rushed to the track hoping she would meet the outrider with her charge but saw something much more grim.

“I just saw him veer out and Maysonett come off; my reaction was that Arhat was loose,” Buenaventura said six weeks after the incident. “I didn’t realized he had broken down and my heart sank—I was falling apart.

“When I saw him, his leg was turned the other direction and open, and I just lost it. I’m thankful they were able to put him down and minimize his suffering.”

The image still haunts her.
 

“Every night I see it before I sleep,” Buenaventura said. “I can’t not see it.”

Buenaventura and Michael T. D’Angelo operate a very small stable of mostly homebreds. D’Angelo bred Arhat’s dam, the winning Shoot the Works (GB) mare Nomzamo. Arhat was their only horse in training at the time of the accident, however.

“He was our life,” Buenaventura said. “From the time he came to us as a two-year-old after being broken in Ocala, I have been with him every day of his life. No one had ever gotten on him besides me until we gave a leg up to [jockey] Rosemary [Homeister Jr.] in his career debut at Tampa Bay Downs [on March 12, 2009].”

Because of various physical ailments, Arhat did not debut until he was seven years old, meaning Buenaventura had galloped and worked with the Elnadim gelding for five years before he raced.

The 14 months he raced provided Buenaventura with lasting memories—all of them good until his fatal accident. Arhat won a maiden special weight race by three lengths in his second career start after encountering trouble in his debut. He raced at Monmouth Park on Haskell Stakes day last year and competed at Gulfstream and Tampa this year before his fateful Monmouth race.

Between Arhat’s starts in Florida and New Jersey, Buenaventura stabled her gelding at Cranberry Creek in New Jersey and shipped him to a nearby polo field in Colts Neck where daily training included gallops on the lawn and long walks on the complex’s many trails.

“It was the greatest two weeks of my life just getting to work with him and walk on the trails,” Buenaventura said. “I just loved riding him. I remember saying, ‘I’m going to have this horse forever.’ I thought he’d grow old with me.”

For the past six weeks, Buenaventura, 52, has faced the reality of growing old without Arhat. It has been a tough reality to accept. She has worked with horses all her life including racehorses since she was 16 and galloping at Belmont Park. She has taken trips to Upstate New York and to Texas to visit family.

Going on without Arhat is a given, but can she go on without horses?

 Arhat with Buenaventura's nephew Judah in the saddle alongside co-owner and co-breeder D'Angelo