Herbie Felix clutched Antrim County's bridle and spoke softly to calm him. Jeramiah Lentz stood up to his ankles in hay, tightly wrapping the legs of the winner of the $50,000 Claiming Crown Iron Horse.
Working with horses such as Antrim County at the Boys' Haven in Lexington, Ky., Felix, 18, and Lentz, 19, have found something neither ever had: direction.
Both were in Shakopee at Canterbury Park on Saturday with their horse and trainer, Jay Wilkinson, for the 10th running of the Claiming Crown, the most elite and competitive of the claimers horse events. Antrim County's 3 1/2-length victory in 1 minute, 43.09 seconds was a Claiming Crown Iron Horse record.
Attendance for the event was 10,188 and earned $2,175,818 in total handle for the seven Claiming Crown races. Last time Canterbury was host, in 2006, the event earned $2,075,167 and had 11,644 in attendance.
Standing wide-eyed back in stall 31 an hour after Antrim County's victory, Felix and Lentz fought for ways to overstate the relevance of the event, of horses, of the chance to learn.
Felix doesn't flinch.
"This," he said, "changed my life."
Both spent their childhoods in foster care, Lentz since the age of 2, when he began his shuffle through 12 different homes. Both graduated high school and neither knew what was next.