NEWS
Bowlings continuing on after recent death of daughter
Posted: Wednesday, March 17, 2010 5:41 PM
by John P. Sparkman
After suffering that awful, unimaginable thing all parents dread more than anything else, veteran pinhooker Tony Bowling and his wife, Dawn, are soldiering on following the recent death of their daughter in an automobile accident.
The Bowlings' 21-year-old daughter, Christie, was killed in an early morning crash in Fellowship, Florida, in February, three days before the 2010 Fasig-Tipton Calder sale of selected two-year-olds in training.
The Bowlings made it through the Calder sale and then the funeral two days later as best they could. And then, two weeks later, it was back to selling horses once again at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co. March sale of selected two-year-olds in training.
“Life goes on,” Tony Bowling said before the sale. “You have to go on whether you feel like it or not. Your children are not supposed to die before you.”
Bowling's consignment for the March sale included a big, lanky splash-faced chestnut colt by leading sire Giant's Causeway, and to say that everyone in the always-competitive community of Ocala pinhookers was pulling for the horse to sell well would be an understatement. He did--bringing $425,000, which was the highest price for a colt and second highest overall for the sale.
“That's tremendous,” Bowling said after the sale. “It gives me hope. I thought I'd have to go into plumbing or carpentry.
“There's a ceiling on this sale. I didn't think there'd be a breakaway sale like one or two of the horses in Miami. But there's a ton of horses bringing plenty of money. There are plenty of consignors going home happy.”
And if Bowling himself could not yet manage anything approaching true happiness, gratitude for the outpouring of support from the horse community remained very close to the surface.
“I want to thank everybody again for all their prayers and support,” Bowling said. "People are still coming up to me 100 times a day and telling me they're praying for me, praying for my family. I tell them to keep it up. We need it.”
John P. Sparkman is bloodstock editor of Thoroughbred Times
