There is so much behind the name of Arthur’s Ride, who looms as a contender when the $7 million Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic is run Nov. 2 at Del Mar.

Karl Glassman and his wife, Cathi, named the nearly-white Whitney Stakes victor in honor of Karl’s father. Arthur died in June 2022 at age 91, having lived as fully as a man could live.

Arthur, a child of The Great Depression, embodied the rags-to-riches American dream.

“He was so poor when he was little,” Karl recalled. “Heck, he spent the first 2 ½ years of his life being raised in a chicken coop in Nebraska. That’s how tough the Depression was.”

Like his namesake, the 4-year-old Tapit colt has overcome much to advance to the Breeders’ Cup World Championships. Cathi sees a striking similarity in the two in their spirit and determination.

Arthur overcame his humble beginnings and went to work immediately after high school to make a good living in the bedding industry. He coped with the loss of his wife, Shirley, to breast cancer in 1984 by working still harder to provide for their five children. He remarried and is survived by Nancy.

“He was a great man, a very quiet, very humble, very kind man,” said Cathi, Karl’s wife for 40 years.

Karl Glassman gets a celebratory hug after the Whitney. (Eclipse Sportswire)

Arthur’s Ride has won half of his eight starts with a couple of second-place finishes for earnings of $804,955. The Florida-bred is a testament to perseverance. A $250,000 purchase at Keeneland’s September Yearling Sale, he showed early promise for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott and earned his first win in February 2023 at Gulfstream Park.

The Glassmans were as excited as they could be – and then they were not. 

Mott called with the very bad news that their potential star had injured a tendon. The 3-year-old was sent to Dr. Barry Eisaman at Eisaman Equine near Ocala, Fla., where he faced an uncertain future.

“It’s tough to come back from a tendon,” Karl said. “There were times when we just didn’t know.”

After more than a year and an abundance of loving care, Arthur’s Ride returned to the races. He attached an exclamation point to his comeback when he dominated a one-mile allowance optional claiming race by 7 ½ lengths March 16 at Gulfstream.

Sired by Tapit out of the Point Given mare Points of Grace, Arthur’s Ride is seemingly built for the Classic distance of a mile and a quarter. Jockey Junior Alvarado eased up on the accelerator when Arthur’s Ride ran off with an allowance race at that distance at Saratoga by 12 ¾ lengths in June.

That set the stage for his memorable performance in his first graded-stakes race, the famed Whitney. Arthur’s Ride and Alvarado led every step of the mile and an eighth on a muddy, sealed track to prevail by 2 ¼ lengths.

The outcome filled in one of the few missing pieces in the 71-year-old Mott’s résumé. Karl and Cathi were elated as never before as they celebrated their first Grade 1 triumph.

“I’m not a particularly emotional person. But I will tell you that when he runs, it takes my breath away,” Karl said. “When he comes down the stretch, I always look to the sky.”

The Glassmans have been part of racing partnerships since 1995. They formed Glassman Racing nine years ago and now have 28 horses in training, half of them with partners. They also own five broodmares.

Jockey Junior Alvarado and Arthur’s Ride. (Eclipse Sportswire)

They hesitated before naming Arthur’s Ride. “The ultimate risk is naming a horse for somebody you care about because it doesn’t work out very often,” Karl noted.

Bloodstock adviser Donato Lanni had been especially high on the yearling. So was Dr. Eisaman when the horse was broken. And Karl had been struck by how often his declining father, sensing that his clock was ticking ever louder, repeatedly commented on the fullness of his life.

“He had all his faculties until the day he died, but he was kind of wearing out a bit,” Karl said. “He kept saying to me, ‘I’ve had a great ride.’ He would always talk in terms of that great ride.”

When Arthur’s Ride was named and Karl told his father of the tribute, it provided a moment he will always treasure. “He looked at me and he was almost dumbfounded,” Karl said.

“You didn’t need to do that,” the dying man told him. 

“Dad, I really did,” the son responded.

The Glassmans both grew up in Southern California. Karl was drawn to Del Mar; Cathi frequented Santa Anita Park.

They fervently hope for a Hollywood ending in the Classic. Arthur’s Ride seeks to rebound from a fifth-place finish in the Sept. 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes, a race that followed the Whitney in four short weeks. They had locked up an automatic, fees-paid berth in the Classic by capturing the Whitney, part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series.

“We’ve never had a horse like this. So it would mean the world to us to have Arthur win the Breeders’ Cup, especially because it’s Arthur,” said Cathi, appreciating how sweet a moment that would be.