Against All Odds – A Champion is Born

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170 – August/September, 2016

By Erica Greathouse

Some call it fate; others call it divine intervention. Regardless, the truth is that some things cannot be explained by logic. Such is the case for Signature Absolute, a 2009 grey gelding by Absolute Investment and out of Signature Asset. His story is so unique that his breeders, trainers, and owner all agree that it must be attributed to something not easily explained…

Signature Absolute, more affectionately known as “Slate,” was never supposed to be conceived, according to Brad Pitts of P5 Equestrian. In 2008, Carol McWhirter sent Signature Asset, a maiden 3-year-old mare, to Pitts’ breeding farm in Kentucky to be bred to Absolute Investment. The process started off as a routine breeding. “I had Carol’s stallions, and she sent her mares from Nebraska to breed at my farm in Kentucky,” Pitts says. “When we first started the breeding process with Signature Asset, we teased her and she showed signs of heat, so we bred her shortly thereafter. When we went to check her after breeding, to see if she had ovulated, she had what seemed to be an infection.”

Upon finding the infection, the mare wasn’t bred again and instead was cultured and infused to cure the infection. She still hadn’t ovulated 48 hours after insemination and it was decided that this cycle was a wash. They would try breeding her again on her next cycle. When Signature Asset was brought back up from the pasture to re-breed, she failed to respond to teasing and showed no signs of being in heat. “When the vet palpated and ultrasounded her to see what was going on, she was baffled to announce that she was, indeed, pregnant,” Pitts says. The whole team was astounded and thought it virtually impossible that she could be in foal after everything that happened. “I don’t know how she got pregnant with one dose of semen, that far out from ovulation, and being infused that many times before ovulation. It was nothing short of a miracle,” he says. Even after it was confirmed that the mare was pregnant, Pitts still thought the mark on the ultrasound had to be a cyst or some other abnormality since the possibility of pregnancy seemed inconceivable. “I said, mark my words, this baby will grow up to be a World Champion someday. There was no way it couldn’t, since it wasn’t supposed to exist in the first place.”

Signature Asset returned to Kentucky in early 2009 to foal out under Pitts’ competent watch. Even though Pitts foaled out over 120 foals that year, he still tells the story like it happened yesterday. He recalls, “I remember it being really cold the night he was born. That mare didn’t know what to do since she was a maiden mare. However, she had the best disposition and would let us help her without a fight.” Unfortunately, the birthing process didn’t go according to plan. “It was chaotic in the middle of the night. The mare’s water had broken and she was standing up with the baby still inside her. I was worried that the baby was going to drown. I knew we had to get the baby out as soon as possible. I reached in and grabbed the legs. Then, with assistance from my farm manager, I pulled him out with the pulling straps. I knew I had to grab the baby before he hit the ground since the mare was standing up.” Much to Pitts’ dismay, when the colt finally came out, his tongue was hanging out of his mouth and he wasn’t breathing. Immediately, without time to get the pump, he started manual CPR while his farm manager did chest compressions as Signature Asset watched from the corner of the stall. “We couldn’t believe it when he miraculously came back to life. Even though he was weak, he seemed to be okay. He got up and everything was functioning,” Pitts says.

Click here to read the complete article
170 – August/September, 2016