Lawyer Ron made a successful case for himself as 2007’s champion older male. Racing for the estate of his breeder and original owner, the late Ownesboro, Ky., businessman James T. Hines Jr., Lawyer Ron, for the second consecutive season, earned better than $1 million, and won a pair of grade I contests in impressive fashion.
A 4-year-old in 2007, Lawyer Ron (Langfuhr -Donation, by Lord Avie) began 2007 with an allowance victory, and followed that with a daylight win in the Oaklawn Handicap (gr. II). Trained in 2007 by Todd Pletcher, Lawyer Ron shipped to Saratoga last summer, and the results were, well, award-winning. In July, he took the Whitney Handicap (gr. I) while setting a new track record of 1:46.64 for nine furlongs. In his next start, the Woodward Stakes (gr. I), also at the Spa, Lawyer Ron beat his field by more than eight lengths.
He next stretched out to a mile and a quarter in the Jockey Club Gold Cup (gr. I) at Belmont Park, where he duled with eventual Horse of the Year Curlin before falling short by a neck. Lawyer Ron, not exactly relishing the muddy conditions at Monmout Park for the Breeders’ Cup Classic - Powered by Dodge (gr. I), ran unplaced in his final career outing.
“The Eclipse is great for the horse, and for the owners,” said attorney Ron Bamberger, the executor of the Hines estate, and the man for whom Lawyer Ron was named. “It’s a real feather in his cap.”