White Thoroughbred wins allowance at Mahoning Valley

Wear the Mask (Airdrie Apache), a rare horse whose color is officially listed

as white by the Jockey Club, North America's principal governing body dedicated

to the registry of the Thoroughbred Stud book, recorded his second career

victory in Monday's 4TH race at Mahoning Valley Race Course.

A four-year-old colt by Airdrie Apache, the recently deceased former world's

leading sire of white and colored (paints) thoroughbreds, Wear the Mask led all

the way under jockey Megan Fadlovich winning the entry level allowance race by

two lengths.

The final running time was 1:46 2/5 for the one mile and 70 yards on a track

labeled sloppy. The fractions were :23 1/5, :46 3/5 and 1:12 4/5.

What makes a white horse different from a light gray or roan? According to

the Jockey Club, "The entire coat, including mane, tail, and legs is

predominately white." A white coat is not considered albino, but rather a

genetic mutation carried by a single dominant gene.

While white horses have long been revered and highly coveted throughout

history, the list of successful white Thoroughbred racehorses has been minimal.

In fact, no registered white Thoroughbred has ever won a stakes race in North

America, although a Japanese-bred named Yukichan won three stakes races in

2008-2010. This stat is not that surprising considering significantly less than

1 percent of all registered Thoroughbreds are listed as white.