Owner-trainer Pat Swan remembers it like it was yesterday when one of his young foals was attacked by a bobcat at his ranch in Jones, Okla. The colt suffered severe cuts and lost a massive amount of hide and tissue off his neck and withers.
That was three years ago, and Swan believed Bobcat Bite’s heart to survive would eventually come out on the racetrack. On Friday night, his hopes came to fruition as the now 3-year Kwontro gelding made all the pace and won a $7,500 maiden claiming race for Oklahoma-breds at Remington Park, breaking through in his 10th career start.
“It was his mother’s first baby and he was 30 days early,” Swan said of Bobcat Bite, who bred by Julie Lynn Green from the Ice Box mare Facets of Ice. “It’s amazing he didn’t die. That bobcat tore him up around his neck and withers. He just walked away from his mother. She wouldn’t have anything to do with him. But, you know something, I had another mare out on the ranch, Oh My Goodness (by Lucky Lionel), and when I came out to find the colt torn up, she was protecting him from any more attacks and had run off the bobcat.”…