Our Mims

The foals of Our Mims did not do much on the track, but they were superior producers. Our Mims' first foal, Heavenly Blue by Raise a Native, produced Play On and On, who was the dam of several stakes winners, including Continuously, sent to England and then on to California to win a major race there. Her third foal was Mimbet, the dam of the 1997 Breeders' Cup Sprint winner, Elmhurst.

Our Mims came up barren when she turned twenty-one. Attempts to breed her for the next five years brought fruitless results. The champion was left in a cattle field to fend for herself. She ate whatever she could find in the field with no protection from the weather and no vet care.

Our Mims was saved by a woman named Jeanne Mirabito, who found her and brought her food. Two years later, after continued personal care of the mare, Mirabito convinced the owners to donate the ailing old horse to ReRun, Kentucky's first-ever Thoroughbred adoption program. Following ReRun's intensive rehabilitation that included long-overdue vet care and a proper feeding regimen, Jeanne adopted Our Mims. Our Mims lived in comfort until her death on December 9, 2003, at the age of twenty-nine. She is buried at Calumet's equine cemetery, the first horse buried in the cemetery who was not owned by the farm.

In tribute to the horse, Jeanne Mirabito created Our Mims Retirement Haven,^[2] a rescue farm specializing in the care of retired Thoroughbred broodmares, on her farm in Paris, KY. With the creed, "Specializing in restoring health and spirit in aged mares," OMRH's first mare was Our Mims' half-sister, Sugar and Spice. With the help of Cheryl Bellucci acting as the Haven's Director of Fund Raising and Promotion, the Haven achieved nonprofit status on March 8, 2007.

• Wild Ride, Anne Hagedorn Auerbach, New York, Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 1994
• Our Mims Tribute Web Site
• The Exceller Fund
• Links from the Exceller Fund to more organizations
• ReRun, ex-racehorse adoption