Noor may be the best horse no one remembers!
Racing for Seabiscuit’s owner, Charles Howard, Noor defeated Triple Crown winner Citation four times in 1950, setting a batch of world records in the process. He was named handicap champion that year, and likely should have been Horse of the Year as well. Noor died after a modest career at stud, and he was buried in an unmarked grave in the infield of a training track at a northern California farm. The horse was forgotten for decades until an ardent racing fan named Charlotte Farmer took it upon herself to locate Noor’s grave and move the horse’s remains to a suitable resting place.
Charlotte assembled a team of volunteer experts who managed to locate the grave. Thanks to Charlotte’s efforts, Noor’s remains were trucked across country to Old Friends near Georgetown, Kentucky for reburial in 2011.
Noor: A Champion Thoroughbred’s Unlikely Journey from California to Kentucky, my book about Noor and Charlotte, has been selected for the “Literary Corner” at the EQUUS Film Festival in New York. I’ll be in New York for the Festival on November 17-18 to sign books and discuss Noor and Taking Shergar: Horse racing’s most famous cold case, a longform article that appeared at www.bloodhorse.com in February. If you’re in the area, drop by for a chat.
