Breakfast at the Gallops

This will be an opportunity to observe juvenile and older campaigners before they leave Aiken for various racetracks throughout the country. In addition, local trainers will be on hand to talk to participants about the various training methods used to train Aiken’s equine athletes.

This year’s guest speaker is Robbie Davis. He is a retired jockey with 3,382 career wins and $115,751,495 in career earnings. Davis began his involvement with horse racing as a stable boy, cleaning horse stalls at a racetrack in his native Idaho and by age 17 was riding in quarter horse races at county fairs. In 1981 he switched to Thoroughbred flat racing and in 1982 moved to compete at New York area tracks. He earned his first Grade I victory in the 1985 Meadowlands Cup on board Bounding Basque. During his twenty-six-year career, Davis won a number of premier races including the 1986 Washington, D.C. International Stakes, the 1994 Pimlico Special and Canadian International Stakes, as well as the 1998 Wood Memorial Stakes. His best result in two Kentucky Derby starts was a fifth with Mecke in 1995 with whom he also finished fifth in the Preakness Stakes. Of his five mounts in the Belmont Stakes, Davis’s best finish came aboard Kingpost, finishing second in the 1988 running won by Risen Star. Retired in 2002, Davis is now a trainer whose horses have raced 363 times with 16 wins, 17 seconds, 21 thirds and $1,187,188 in earnings.

Davis has an Aiken connection with Vallelujah, owned by East Ave Racing Stables and Sisu Racing Stables, who trained at the Aiken Training Track. The brown mare, foaled on February 14, 2019 was sired by Teuflesberg and is out of the mare, Ave Ravina (by Southern Image) has 21 starts with 3 wins, 2 seconds, 1 third and $221,568 in earnings.

Davis and his wife, Marguerite, have six children. Three of them – Dylan, Katie and Jackie — are currently riding. Another son, Edmund, is a trainer.

Tickets for Breakfast at the Gallops are on sale now and are $20 each in advance or $30 each at the gate. Space is limited and tickets can be purchased at the H. Odell Weeks Center (1700 Whiskey Road), Folly (116 Laurens Street NW), Meybohm Real Estate (142 Laurens Street NW), Aiken Training Track Office (538 Two Notch Road SE), the Aiken Visitors Center & Train Museum (406 Park Avenue SE) or the Aiken County Visitors Center (133 Laurens St NW). There are no refunds.

Attendees should enter at the 724 Two Notch Road entrance, closest to Audubon Drive; vehicles must stop for all horses. A light breakfast will be served at 8:00 a.m.

Online registration may be done at https://e.sparxo.com/Breakfast-at-the-Gallops.

Breakfast at the Gallops is sponsored by Folly, Mosaic Racing Stable, Suzy Haslup – Meybohm Real Estate, Aiken County Farm Supply, Aiken Saddlery, The Aiken Horse and the Aiken Training Track.

A portion of the proceeds from the event will support the Aiken Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame and Museum.

For more information, call 803-642-7631, 803-643-2121, e-mail halloffame@cityofaikensc.gov or visit the Hall of Fame website at www.aikenracinghalloffame.com.