The rise of Jalen Hurts from being benched at Alabama, doubted as a pro prospect and ultimately leading the Philadelphia Eagles to the brink of a championship is going to be among the biggest storylines next week at Super Bowl 57.
But 1,500 miles from Glendale, Arizona, you can find another Jalen Hurts whose athletic career did not follow the same glorious trajectory.
Out on a farm in Picayune, Mississippi, the other Jalen Hurts is a 7-year-old former racehorse who lives out his days munching on grass and hay and providing companionship to other Thoroughbreds who are recovering from injury. That’s about all Jalen Hurts the horse can do anymore, given that he was gelded early in life and wouldn’t have had any breeding prospects anyway.
You see, Jalen Hurts was pretty much a dud on the racetrack. In football terms, you could say he was a four-star recruit who started in the Power Five and ended up playing Div. 2.
“He was kind of a mediocre horse at best,” said J. Patrick Lee, who ended up buying Jalen Hurts out of a claiming race for $10,000 at Delta Downs in Vinton, Louisiana, then retired him after a handful of races and gave him away. After discovering that Jalen Hurts was living in sub-standard conditions, Lee bought him back.
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“We try to put them somewhere in a good home where someone wants to ride the horse or there’s somebody to take care of them for the remainder of their life,” Lee said. “He’s healthy as he can be, enjoying life and he’s really helpful.”
He just wasn’t much of a runner, unlike the football player he was supposed to flatter.
Naming horses after famous athletes has become somewhat in vogue lately, which makes sense. Finding unique names for horses isn’t easy, and using the name of a high-achieving athlete is aspirational.
Nyquist, named for the NHL player Gustav Nyquist, was the winning favorite in the 2016 Kentucky Derby. Gronkowski, an homage to the four-time Super Bowl winning tight end Rob Gronkowski, finished second in the 2018 Belmont Stakes. And Nadal might well have done justice to tennis great Rafael Nadal had he stayed healthy and been able to run in the Triple Crown. Alas, he was forced to retire after going 4-for-4 in the spring of 2020.
Jalen Hurts, unfortunately, did not live up to the stature of his namesake.
When Alabama businessman Gus King bought the horse at a 2-year-old auction for $145,000 — a price that suggests he showed a decent amount of talent — the real Jalen Hurts had just come off his freshman season, nearly leading the Crimson Tide to the national title.
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According to Horse Racing Nation, King’s daughter is married to a former Alabama football player, which made it easy to get Hurts’ consent as required by The Jockey Club when a horse is named for a human.
“The kid was delighted,” Patrick Biancone, the horse’s original trainer, told Horse Racing Nation. “We sent photos and videos of the horse to the real Jalen Hurts.”
But it became apparent pretty quickly that the equine version was not going to ever match the achievements of the human. In fact, Jalen Hurts was an outright disappointment and had to be dropped in class with pretty much each race.
After seven starts in Florida, where he only won once, the horse ended up on the Louisiana circuit, where the competition should have been easier. That didn’t get the job done, either, and he descended into claiming ranks, where anyone can buy the horse if they pay the listed race-day price. That’s where Lee comes in.
You might think Lee had sentimental reasons to claim Jalen Hurts, who had won just two of 23 races at that point. Not the case. Lee, a Mississippi State fan, saw an opportunity after watching him finish second in a September 2019 race at Louisiana Downs. So the next time he popped up in a race, Lee and his partners pounced.
“The way they have the claiming game set up, if you get a horse in the right spot, they don’t have to have all the talent in the world to be competitive,” Lee said. “We just thought we could run him back and win a few races with him at the level he was running.”
And, in fact, Jalen Hurts did his job. In seven races for Lee in 2020, he won two at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans with one second and third-place finish. But unfortunately, the horse developed some physical problems, so they retired him just a few months after the real Jalen Hurts was drafted by the Eagles.
He finished with career earnings of $67,278. That’s roughly what the real Jalen Hurts made per game this season — and he was vastly underpaid on a rookie-scale contract. Having an underachieving horse named for him clearly didn’t shake Hurts’ confidence.
“He’s done great and I’m glad to see it,” Lee said. “He seems like a stand-up guy.”
He was talking about the human, of course. The horse is going to have to settle for a less glamorous life, though Lee said he will get an Eagles scarf to wrap around his neck on Super Bowl Sunday. That might be as close to the big-time as Jalen Hurts ever gets.
“We have horses on occasion that need a month or two off to relax and get over a bump or bruise, so I’ll kick them out there, and he’s a good pasture mate,” Lee said. “He’s still useful.”
Story Credit: usatoday.com