Tracing a thoroughbred's past: Harvey

My experience tracking Harv's past
Setting aside Harv's life of intrigue and adventure (with his sidekick Skippy/Manuel), I wanted to learn of his days as a professional athlete. Here's what I found, and how I found it.

Harv came with JC papers and a tattoo. His racing name was Sotally Tober. Ugh. Anyway, his papers said he raced 7 times at Remington Park in Oklahoma, and he won one race. I contacted the Remington Park racetrack in the hopes of getting the winner's circle photo and video footage of his winning race. He was too old (records didn't go back that far), but their databases of photos and videos includes more than five years of races.

Harv's dad was "kind of a big deal" in the early sixties and I found pictures of him on BloodHorse.com's photo store. Here is Harv's dad High Tribute. What a handsome fellow! Harv is a chip off the old block -- their heads and body type are quite similar...

clipped from gallery.pictopia.com

Harv's previous owners...
Most recent owner: I started with Harv's most recent owner, the 19 year old college student who sold him to me. She had been given video footage of Harv's claiming race but could not find when I asked if I could see it. She gave me the name of the woman who sold Harv to her--Diane Evans from Chapel Hill NC. The name was on his papers too but I couldn't find her in the phone book. It was a dead end until...

Owner #2: I remembered that someone at Harv's barn mentioned that he had won a combined training year end award years ago. I borrowed a friend's copies of the NCDCTA newsletter and was delighted to find

• Harv on the FRONT COVER of one of the issues and
• Diane Evans' email in another issue.

Diane was pleased to hear about Harv and she told me he had come to her as a four year old, from Virginia. "He steered like a Mack truck when we got him," she said. "But he came along nicely." She bought him from someone in Virginia, a dealer, but couldn't recall his name to verify what was on the JC papers.

Owner #3: I googled the only other owner listed on Harv's papers, but he appeared to be incarcerated per a newspaper article I found. Didn't call him.

Breeder: Harv's breeder was "Jim D. Day" of Arkansas, Rainbow Enterprises. Again, no luck there.

Conclusion
Anyway, that's Harv's story. I think the search process will be unique to each horse, depending on paperwork and circumstances. The best leads are almost always from actual human beings, so glean everything you can from each person. I'm no racing expert so I may be missing obvious research sources in the world of racing. Feel free to jump in with additional suggestions!