A racehorse from Kentucky has found Super Bowl fame in Florida. Meet Deputy Maverick.

The road to Frankfort curves around the east end of Versailles and soon passes Brookdale Farm, where Thoroughbreds are foaled and raised for racing careers. One among them was a dark bay colt, born April 23, 2014, when a bright spring day had reached a pleasant 61 degrees but dropped that night to a bracing 40.

The weather was perfect for racehorse training, for birthing foals, and for Keeneland racing. Any candidates for the Kentucky Derby who remained at Keeneland would soon depart for Churchill Downs, with the Derby to be raced 10 days later.

The new foal at Brookdale, taking his first steps in the straw, did not fulfill those Derby dreams that every racehorse owner harbors. But this foal, eventually named Track Shill, did win his only start.

Now, seven years following his birth and long after his racing career ended, he was headed to his own Kentucky Derby: Super Bowl LV.

New game, new name

Track Shill’s story is one of many attached to Thoroughbreds who find new jobs after leaving the racetrack. Track Shill had been renamed Deputy Maverick, had joined the mounted patrol for the Lee County (Fort Myers, Fla.) Sheriff’s Department, and was retrained as a police horse.

An invitation to assist in crowd control outside Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs go at it Sunday turned this former racehorse into an instant media star in Southwest Florida.

Sadly, a last-minute injury to a ligament in his left front leg pulled him out of the Super Bowl lineup. He’ll be home, resting in his stall for 10 to 15 days as his veterinarian ordered. But he’s still a star in Fort Myers and Naples, with television stations in both cities asking for interviews with his handlers even after he was scratched from working the game.

It’s not every day that a former racehorse is invited to the Super Bowl.

‘They can do anything’

Deputy Maverick’s story has brought a lot of attention to the Lee County Mounted Patrol. His story is also bringing attention to the great efforts some racehorse owners go through to place their retired animals in new careers.

“I think you would be surprised at how many good owners there are out there,” said William Sorren of Miami Beach, Deputy Maverick’s owner when he was Track Shill.

“With every injured or retired horse I possessed, I’ve found a good home for them,” Sorren said. “I’ve been able to place 25 or so horses over the 41 years I’ve been in racing.”

He recalled sending one to the police department in Ocala, Fla., another to a show stable to become a hunter-jumper, and another to a facility providing therapy with horses to children.

One way racehorse owners can connect with rehoming organizations is through an organization in Lexington called Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance. This group accredits, inspects, and awards grants to approved facilities that retrain and rehome racehorses. It receives funding from various groups in the horse industry. Its seed money came from Breeders’ Cup Ltd., The Jockey Club, and Keeneland Association, Inc.

Currently, 81 organizations with 170 facilities for horses have received accreditation from the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance.

“There are so many organizations out there,” said Suzie Oldham, inspections coordinator for the alliance. “We just have to remind people that given time, when these horses realize they’re not in training to race any more, they can do anything.”

An officer in need

When Deputy Maverick raced as Track Shill (his sire was Artie Schiller), he looked at first like he might have a useful racing career ahead of him. He was large for a Thoroughbred, nearly 6 feet tall and big-boned, a linebacker of a horse.

On March 1, 2017, trainer Angel Penna Jr. sent him out in a $25,000 maiden claiming race at Gulfstream Park in Florida at a mile on the dirt. Track Shill, racing third, turned on the speed approaching the far turn and had the lead by the homestretch. He won by 2 1/4 lengths.

All hopes for more great racing ended when he broke one of two small ankle bones, called sesamoids, in his right front leg during a training exercise. Track Shill was facing retirement. Sorren, his owner, wanted to find him a good home.

Sorren sent Track Shill back to Ocala, Fla., where two training facilities had prepared the horse for his racing career. These were The Acorn, where owners William and Lyn Rainbow introduced Track Shill to the saddle and how to carry a rider, and then to Nick and Jacqui De Meric, where he received advanced training before heading to the racetrack.

With Track Shill now returned to them, the Rainbows received a recommendation on a rehoming facility in Naples, Fla., called Track to Trail, Inc. Track Shill’s life took a big turn at this farm, founded by Cynthia Gilbert. He settled in and eventually relaxed from his high-intensity racing career, allowing young girls who worked at Track to Trail to groom and fuss over him.

Then he met his future: a sheriff’s deputy, Corporal Aaron Eubanks, who, like Track Shill, was going through a big transition.

Eubanks had lost a favorite patrol horse a few months earlier to colic. He was so distraught, he did not want to ride another horse for some time. But he had one horse remaining at home and that horse needed a pasture buddy. Eubanks saw Track Shill, fostered him for a month and adopted him. He gave him a new name: Maverick. He saw in him the potential for a police horse.

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office deputized Maverick upon completion of mounted patrol training. The horse received a police badge: a metal wreath surrounding a star with Maverick’s name across the top. The badge is the same as the badge detectives wear in Lee County.

Back on patrol

As Deputy Maverick, the horse has worked mostly at ceremonial events: funerals, parades and military memorials for deceased veterans.

In Tampa, outside Raymond James Stadium, he was to face a more intense experience of noisy crowds. Police in Tampa invited mounted patrols from several surrounding counties to assist throughout Super Bowl week, and that’s how Deputy Maverick and Eubanks received their invitation. With Maverick unable now to participate, Eubanks has taken his other mount, a Percheron named Argus, to ride patrol at the event.

“I’m a little disappointed Maverick won’t be doing it,” Eubanks said, on his way to Tampa.

He believes Maverick will recover and go back on patrol soon. Sometimes he watches the video of his horse’s winning race at Gulfstream and reminds himself, “How about that: I’ve got a winning racehorse.”

In Kentucky, where this story began, people like Oldham, at Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance, would say it is not so difficult to imagine a racehorse turning to police work.

“People are finding so many different uses for Thoroughbreds,” she said.

Super Bowl LV

Kansas City Chiefs vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

When: 6:30 p.m. Sunday

Where: Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla.

TV: CBS-27