Ramseys dealing with health before horses. Family struggling after a 'bad year'
courtesy of The Courier-Journal
By Jennie Rees

If his life were only his horses, all would be well with Ken Ramsey. The Nicholasville, Ky., entrepreneur will have his homebred Cannonball -- by his Ramsey Farm stallion Catienus -- in Saturday's $500,000 Lane's End Stakes in a bid to reach the Kentucky Derby. He'll have two horses in other stakes that day: U.S. Cavalry in the Hansel and Just for Keeps in the Queen, both he claimed for $50,000.

Ramsey will be honored during the card for the eighth straight year with the Kentucky Thoroughbred Media's 2007 Owner of the Year Award for winning the most races in the state. He easily leads the current Turfway owner standings and has his eye on extending the Churchill Downs records he already possesses to a seventh spring owner's crown and 13th title overall. But Ramsey's overriding concern is his wife and equine partner, Sarah. "Bad year," Ramsey said by phone. "Everything has gone well with the horses, but personal problems overshadow all of that. … It's been quite a struggle."

A year ago while in Florida, Sarah Ramsey suffered a debilitating stroke. Last week Ken admitted her to the University of Kentucky Chandler Hospital because of recurring seizures. After trying everything from acupuncture to hyperbaric oxygen treatments to stem-cell therapy, Ken Ramsey hopes soon to take his wife to the Mayo Clinic for an experimental treatment in an attempt to restore lost brain function. "If not, we'll make the best of what we've got," he said.

It's heartbreaking for the close-knit family, for whom Sarah is the heartbeat and glue -- even if her colorful husband gets the most public attention. "She keeps everybody straight," said Ramsey, who in September will have been married 50 years. "I'm the controversial one; she's the peace maker."

Ken Ramsey said Sarah can walk a bit with a cane and can say a few words but can't express herself. Sometimes the right word will come out; other times the Duke graduate and former teacher might say "tooth brush" when she means "ball," he said. "She can't even write it out because she can't grasp the word out of her brain," Ken Ramsey said. " ... But by the same token, her memory is fantastic. I was looking the other day for some tie stays to put in my shirt collar. I said, 'I wonder where those are?' In her wheelchair, she went wheeling down the hallway, pointed to the chest and reached in the back of the drawer. These tie stays had probably been there three or four years. It's amazing that her intelligence has not been affected. … It's so frustrating.  She just got through trying to tell us something, and finally tears rolled down her cheeks. It's devastating."

Ramsey hopes to be at Turfway with his grandchildren Saturday. "The horses are secondary, but it is a release for me," he said. " … (Cannonball) is probably not a Derby prospect. But it's the best hope I've got. So I'm going to ride this horse until he proves he can't make it."

With grass horses often faring well over Polytrack, Cannonball should be one of the favorites for the 11/8-mile Lane's End. "When you breed and own all these race horses like he does, I want to make it to where you can enjoy a big race with one of your best horses and make just one quick drive, especially with everything else going on for him," trainer Wesley Ward said. Cannonball -- who only five days earlier won a $75,000 turf stakes in New York -- was the last horse to make the field for the inaugural Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Monmouth Park. He finished third.

"I think had we not run back in five days that he would have won the race," said Ward, the Eclipse Award-winning apprentice jockey in 1984. "But he's such a good-feeling horse, if ever there was a horse who could wheel back in five days, it's this one." The gelding has been third in two starts since the Breeders' Cup, to the Todd Pletcher-trained duo of Cowboy Cal and Why Tonto in the Tropical Park Derby and Gulfstream's Hallandale Beach Stakes. "But we're not trying to peak in the Hallandale Beach -- we're trying to peak in the Kentucky Derby," Ramsey said. " … But if I didn't think I couldn't be 1-2-3-4 in the Derby, I wouldn't clutter it up and knock somebody else out." With regular jockey Elvis Trujillo injured, Alex Solis will come in from California to ride Cannonball. The gelding signaled his fitness by working five furlongs in 583/5 seconds at Palm Beach Downs.

Other probables are Chitoz, Turf War, Racecar Rhapsody, Adriano, Halo Najib, Macho Again and Medjool.