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" Kris Royal, a 5-year-old chestnut gelding, shared a living space with &amp;quot;American Horse of the Year&amp;quot; Wise Dan and his brother Succesful Dan. But he was more of a winner off the track than on. On Sunday, he was one of two horses euthanized after stumbling and breaking some bones in their feet in Saratoga Springs, and Trainer Charlie LoPresti is taking the blow hard, according to the Times Union newspaper: &amp;quot;It just makes you sad, number one, because he&amp;#039;s just a neat little horse if you knew him. If you look there and you see his empty stall ... what a nice little horse to be around ... a fun little guy ... he never bothered anybody ... he tried. It really makes you rethink what you do.&amp;quot; When LoPretti saw Kris Royal and the other horse, Sarava&amp;#039;s Dancer, go down, he knew it wouldn&amp;#039;t be good. &amp;quot;I ran all the way from the grandstand and you see two horses lying out there hurt. What&amp;#039;s the chances of that? I guess the ground is hard, and they hit a rough spot in it. I mean, look how fast they&amp;#039;re running.&amp;quot; Race and track officials assert that the track&amp;#039;s surface, though hardened by a summer with very little rainfall, is safe. Ultimately, none of this matters to the trainer, who, while not laying blame, is feeling devastated by the loss of his first horse in a 20 year career. While Kris Royal was never the fastest, with just two wins and a second place showing in seven starts, he was LoPresti&amp;#039;s favorite nonetheless. The bonds that a trainer, and jockey, form with their charges are deep. And, like in any aspect of life, sometimes fostering and staying true to those relationships trump getting ahead. &amp;quot;It just takes the wind out of your sails,&amp;quot; LoPresti said. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;ve got Successful Dan and Wise Dan, and I&amp;#039;d give it all up and not ever run them again if I could get that horse back. It&amp;#039;s not that he&amp;#039;s a great horse. He was a nice, little horse.&amp;quot; While LoPresti was back at work Monday, attending to business as usual in his barn, the emptiness in stall 16 haunted him. &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t want to talk too much about it because it just upsets me when I think about it,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;I kept waking up in the middle of the night thinking, &amp;#039;It didn&amp;#039;t really happen, did it?&amp;#039;&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/news/a24475/elegy-for-a-horse/>