Rare white colt a true long shot

Local Cream Ridge celebrity is one in 200 million

BY JANE MEGGITT Correspondent

 The rare white colt runs with his dam, Coochie Mama, at Fair Winds Farm in Cream Ridge.  VICKI WRIGHT The rare white colt runs with his dam, Coochie Mama, at Fair Winds Farm in Cream Ridge. VICKI WRIGHT UPPER FREEHOLD — The biggest celebrity in town only entered the world on May 6, but he’s been a media sensation since the minute he left the womb.

Thewhite colt, born to a bay standardbred mare named Coochie Mama at Fair Winds Farmin the Cream Ridge section of the township, is more than one in a million.

The colt is actually one in 200 million, according to Ellen Harvey of the United States Trotting Association (USTA), the governing body of harness racing.

OnMay 22, the little white dude with the blue eyes and red “Medicine Hat” markings greeted the press like the veteran he has now become.

The Medicine Hat is a specific marking, usually found on paints, in which a horse with an otherwise white head has coloration on the ears and top of the head. Native American cultures ascribe magical qualities to the Medicine Hat horse.

He also has reddish hairs on his back and in his tail.

According to Harvey, the last time bay or dark-colored parents had a white standardbred in North America was back in 1998, when the filly Historicallyunique was born in Ontario, Canada.

While she competed, she did not win a race, and has since given birth to three white foals. The youngest is now a 2-year-old, and none of thewhite foals has won a race to date.

The colt’s sire is the bay stallion Art Major.

The colt’s owner, Pete Congilose, Toms River, who has an exclusive financial planning practice, bought his first standardbred 25 years ago, a claimer named Tolliver Lobell. He claimed the horse in June for $20,000, and by August the horse had paid his way, Congilose recalled.

He currently has five broodmares, all descendants of his mare Secretariat — Congilose likes to name his harness horses after champion thoroughbreds — and owns 12 horses altogether.

When asked where the name Coochie Mama came from, Congilose laughed and said his wife, Mary Beth, named her. He had submitted several choices to the USTA for names, and thought his first choice would be accepted.

Like thoroughbreds, standardbreds must have unique names that cannot be used by horses currently racing or breeding. Needless to say, Coochie Mama was not the first choice.

She went on to race 10 times, with earnings of $134,643.

Coochie Mama will be bred to Western Terror this year for a 2013 foal, Congilose said.

By this fall, the white colt will be weaned and will go to live with other colts in a small herd. Congilose said he does not yet know whether he will sell the horse at a standardbred auction in the fall of 2013 or keep him and put him into training.

Congilose, who spent two years training his own horses, now uses Mark Harder as his trainer.

Congilose has not yet decided on a name for his colt of a different color. While he has some ideas, he is open to suggestions.

To that end, an email account at the USTAhas been set up for possible names, at whitecolt@ustrotting.com.

If a suggested name is chosen by Congilose, the winner will receive an assortment of harness racing logo items.