ST. GEORGE — A St. George couple’s prized thoroughbred racehorse is entered in next weekend’s Breeders’ Cup in Southern California.
Restrainedvengence, a 6-year-old gelding often called simply “RV,” is scheduled to race against a field of 10 other horses on Nov. 6 in a Breeders’ Cup event known as the “Big Ass Fans Dirt Mile.” The race, which will be televised nationally on NBC, is scheduled to start at 2:19 p.m. MDT.
For Val and Kelly Brinkerhoff of St. George, reaching one of the sport’s richest and most prestigious events is a dream come true.
Kelly Brinkerhoff is Restrainedvengence’s co-owner, along with business partner Bob Grayson, Jr. Kelly’s husband Val Brinkerhoff is the horse’s trainer.
RV will be ridden by jockey Edwin Maldonado, who guided him to victory in his most recent race, the Classic at the Downs in Albuquerque on Sept. 18.
The Brinkerhoffs recently spoke to St. George News by telephone from Del Mar, California, where they’ve been preparing for the upcoming race.
RV is familiar with the Del Mar racetrack; the venue was the site of his very first race in 2017, in addition to his third win, at the Oceanside Stakes in July 2018.
In 34 career starts, Restrainedvengence has won 10 races, placed second four times and placed third in three races.
Restrainedvengence’s lifetime earnings are $917,682, including $291,960 in eight starts this year alone. The largest single purse so far this year was the $200,000 he won at Albuquerque; he also won the same race and amount the year before.
A finish of fourth-place or better at the Breeders’ Cup on Nov. 6 will push Restrainedvengeance’s lifetime earnings to more than $1 million, Val Brinkerhoff noted.
Val Brinkerhoff said he and his wife were taken with RV the moment they first saw the dark brown gelding at the Kentucky stables where they purchased him five years ago.
“Just watching him run around … he was a really athletic horse,” Val Brinkerhoff said. “I’ve never seen a horse as athletic as that horse in my life and I’ve seen a million of ‘em.”
Originally from Fillmore, Val Brinkerhoff, 65, is a longtime jockey-turned-trainer who hails from a multi-generational racetrack family.
Horse racing was a pretty big deal throughout Southern Utah back in the early decades of the 1900s, Kelly Brinkerhoff noted.
“Most of the little Mormon towns all had racetracks,” she said. “Everybody liked their horses, and they liked to race them.”
Restrainedvengence will be racing on dirt at the Breeder’s Cup; he has also won on both grass and artificial turf, Val Brinkerhoff said.
“I don’t know if you can find any other horse that can race like he can on all these surfaces,” he said. “He’s been on all three and won on all three.”
Kelly Brinkerhoff said watching their horse compete against some of the world’s top racehorses is almost indescribably exciting.
“It’s one of the best feelings in the world,” she said. “Once you experience it, you will never get over it.”
Kelly Brinkerhoff said that when Breeders’ Cup officials assigned the numbers to the horses this week, and Restrainedvengence received number 657. She took that to be a good omen, as RV’s co-owner Bobby Grayson was born in June of 1957.
As for the horse’s unique name, Grayson’s late father Bob Grayson, Sr., the horse’s original owner, named him Restrainedvengence by blending the ideas contained in the horse’s parents’ names, his sire being Hold Me Back and his dam being Cupid’s Revenge. The letter “a” in “vengeance” was dropped due to the Jockey Club’s 18-character limit for names, Kelly Brinkerhoff explained.
To read more about Restrainedvengence and his racing history, click here to see his page on the Breeders’ Cup website.
Photo Gallery
Number 657 was assigned to Restrainedvengence at the Breeders' Cup, Del Mar, Calif., Oct. 28, 2021 | Photo courtesy of Kelly Brinkerhoff, St. George News Restrainedvengence at the Albuquerque Downs, Albuquerque, N.M., September 2021 | Photo courtesy of Kelly Brinkerhoff, St. George News Restrainedvengence at the Albuquerque Downs, Albuquerque, N.M., September 2021 | Photo courtesy of Kelly Brinkerhoff, St. George News Restrainedvengence at the Albuquerque Downs, Albuquerque, N.M., September 2021 | Photo courtesy of Kelly Brinkerhoff, St. George News Trainer Val Brinkerhoff rides Restrainedvengence in Santa Anita, Calif., January 2020 | Photo taken by Jerry Espinoza, courtesy of Kelly Brinkerhoff, St. George News
Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2021, all rights reserved.