Mention the name of Perfect Drift in mixed racing company and the reactions will vary, depending on when they jumped on the bandwagon.
Wasn't he the horse who showed up in five runnings of the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1)? Yes. Didn't he make, like, 50 starts at a dozen different tracks and win more than four million dollars? It was $4.7 million, to be more precise. And wasn't he the homebred gelding who finished first, second, or third in no less than 21 graded stakes between March of 2002 and September of 2006? Guilty on all counts.
Perfect Drift ran his final race on Sept. 1, 2008. Since then he has been on display at the Kentucky Derby Museum, spent time as a stable pony for his trainer, Murray Johnson, and enjoyed many lazy Missouri days at his birthplace just outside Kansas City in the company of two pasture pals. He is a local hero with a national reputation who embodied the mantra "just keep showing up," which he fulfilled on many of the sport's biggest days.
Perfect Drift knocked off his share of trophies in races like the Stephen Foster Handicap (G1), the Lane's End Spiral Stakes (G2), the Hawthorne Gold Cup (G2), and two versions of the Washington Park Handicap (G2). But feast the eyes on some of the major events in which he did everything but win:
2002 Kentucky Derby (G1) - third to War Emblem
2004 Whitney Handicap (G1) - second to Roses in May
2004 Pacific Classic (G1) - second to Pleasantly Perfect
2005 Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) - third to Saint Liam
"We still get folks who want to come see him," said Bryan Reed from his family's Stonecrest Farm. "I'll get calls and emails asking about him, even though it's been a dozen years since he raced. Clearly, to many he's still a very special horse."
Reed is one of three sons of Dr. William A. Reed, the noted heart surgeon who fashioned Stonecrest Farm just south of Kansas City with his wife, Mary. Before Perfect Drift came along—from a breeding of Dynaformer to their Naskra mare Nice Gal—the Reeds were having a ball with their homebred Proven Cure, a listed stakes winner who made 89 starts. Mary Reed died in 2017, followed by Dr. Reed in October of 2019.
In retirement, Perfect Drift was given the run of a large Stonecrest pasture alongside barn-mates Proven Cure and the durable claimer Nice n' Salty, both foals of 1994. It was a natural move, since at the end of every racing season he wintered there under Dr. Reed's supervision. Since he turned 22 this year (his real birthday is April 29), the time seemed ripe for a call to see how the old boy was doing.
"Much better," Bryan Reed replied, which was concerning. To be much better at some point he had to have been much worse.
"It was last July 6," Reed said. "My wife, Diane, and I like to check the horses every night ourselves. On that night it was clear something was wrong with Perfect Drift the minute we walked into the barn. He was sweating, very uncomfortable. It was his right hock, and he was way down in his right hind fetlock. It turned out that he'd somehow torn the retinaculum that holds the superficial digital flexor tendon in place. Essentially, he tore his Achilles tendon.
"At his age, we did not have a lot of options," Reed continued. "There was a period of a week to 10 days where I didn't know if we were going to have to put him down. We got a group together here to try and deal with everything, but best of all he was an amazing patient. I thought he'd be upset with not getting his turnout for a long period of time, but he understood what was going on enough to handle it."
Perfect Drift has emerged from the critical period of healing to be a pasture sound horse seemingly at peace with his compromised leg and restricted activity.
"He'll never be able to gallop again," Reed said. "But he gets his daily turnouts when the weather is okay, although not with his pasture-mates. He wants to be near them, though, so we make sure they can see each other while they're out."
Reed flirted with a career as an equine veterinarian before he turned to a small animal practice. Thoroughbred racing was always a family passion.
"I almost missed an interview at Occidental College in Los Angeles because I had to go see John Henry run in the Hollywood Gold Cup, the one against Eleven Stitches," Reed said. "Years later, Tammy Siters at the Kentucky Horse Park gave us a lock from John Henry's tail for Perfect Drift to carry under his saddle pad."
Reed ended up at Kansas State and graduated with a veterinary degree.
"During my senior year I spent time with Foster Northrop and Bo Landry at Churchill Downs, to see if that's the kind of veterinarian I wanted to be," Reed said. "I decided that wasn't what I wanted to do, and it had nothing to do with my love for horses. I had a pregnant wife who gave birth to our daughter two days after I graduated. I said to myself, I can get bit and scratched and go back to work the next day, but if I get kicked by a horse I could be out of work for a while, and I've got a family to feed."
Now, as executor of his father's estate, he finds himself pointing Stonecrest in a different direction.
"My mom and dad loved to raise them here at the farm," Reed said. "We've moved away from that, but I still want to race. I love the sport and the competition, so I hope to be buying some young horses. And when they come back for a break, I hope Perfect Drift is here to greet them for a long time to come."
