Little Cliff rescued from
slaughter
by
Ed DeRosa
Little Cliff, one of two horses owner
Robert LaPenta named after the late turf
writer and chartcaller Cliff Guilliams, was
rescued from slaughter on April 7.
Christy Sheidy, co-founder of Another
Chance 4 Horses rescue in Bernville,
Pennsylvania, discovered the five-year-old
Gulch gelding in a direct-to-kill pen in New
Holland, Pennsylvania. He had last raced in
a $10,000 claiming race on March 1 at
Philadelphia Park, finishing seventh of nine
and earning $170 for owner LA Buzz Stable.
Trainer Ramon Preciado had claimed the horse
from Jimmy Moran Jr. for $10,000 on January
13.
Sheidy ran the gelding’s tattoo and had
Diana Baker, formerly of the Thoroughbred
Retirement Foundation, pull a race record,
which is when the connection to LaPenta and
Racing Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito
appeared. Zito’s wife, Kim, is involved in
horse rescue efforts as well.
“Mr. LaPenta and [Zito] sent a very
generous check to Christy that more than
covered [Little Cliff’s] expenses,” Baker
said. “We couldn’t have asked for a better
or more generous response than what we
received.”
In a cruel twist of fate, Moran and
Guilliams both died within a week of Little
Cliff’s rescue but not before Nick Zito had
a chance to tell Guilliams that one of his
equine namesakes had been rescued.
“The Cliff’s Edge and Little Cliff were
both named after [Guilliams],” Kim Zito
said. “Nick had dinner with [Guilliams] just
recently and told him what had happened to
Little Cliff. [Guilliams] got very emotional
and very upset.”
LaPenta purchased Little Cliff for
$250,000 at the 2004 Keeneland September
yearling sale and bought him back on a bid
of $350,000 at the 2005 Fasig-Tipton Calder
sale of selected two-year-olds in training.
Little Cliff finished sixth behind
eventual Grade 1 winners and Central
Kentucky stallions Political Force and
Flashy Bull in his second career start
before winning his next two races by a
combined 6 1/4 lengths to close out his
two-year-old season. At three, he finished
third in both the Leonard Richards (G3) and
Sir Barton Stakes. He won three of 27 starts
and earned $202,762.
Although Little Cliff had changed owners
four times throughout his life before being
rescued, one thing that followed him from
Kentucky to New York to Florida to
Pennsylvania were his Jockey Club papers,
papers that Kim Zito had affixed with a
white sticker that says, “If this horse
needs a home when he retires, please call.”
“The tragic part of this story is that
Little Cliff had this sticker on his papers,
and that breaks my heart because it proves
that there are people in this industry who
don’t give a [darn],” Kim Zito said.
Ed DeRosa is news
editor of Thoroughbred Times
