Roger Browning didn't want to get out of bed. He compared his emotions to losing a child, the this-can't-be-real feeling
Horse or human, the grief process is not too dissimilar.
Browning is a co-owner of Nobody Listens, the 5-year-old gelding who, a day after winning the Turf Monster Stakes (G3T) Sept. 23, died in a freak accident.
"We've got our pictures of him; I've got a wall full and I picked some hair. I got some hair from him and I got them in a plastic bag and I'm going to put it in one of his trophies and so he'll be with me all the time," Browning said.
The son of Conveyance was in his trailer near Columbus, Ohio, heading home from Parx Racing when noise from a nearby braking semi-truck scared him, according to trainer Tim Eggleston. There was a loud bang as if the truck may have hit something. That sound spooked Nobody Listens, who slipped in his stall.
The trailer was driving through a construction area making it impossible to get off the road.
"He got kind of got upside down in the trailer and got he got stuck around and then he severed an artery and bled out," Eggleston said.
Matt Kwiatkowski, who co-owned the horse with Browning and Jason Kaylor, broke the news Sunday on Facebook of Nobody Listens' death.
"The ride Nobody Listens took us on was the greatest one we have ever been on," Kwiatkowski wrote. "Our hearts are broken as we share this tragic news. Thank you to all who supported and helped make him who he was."
Just a day earlier, the Indiana-bred Nobody Listens won his first graded stakes by three lengths. It was his fourth straight with a career record of 14-7-1 in 26 starts. After the race, Browning said that the plan was to point Nobody Listens to the Nov. 4 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint (G1T) at Santa Anita Park.
"We planned it out to avoid all the big boys for right now. And now we're here, and we're hoping to go to the Breeders' Cup," he said Saturday.
Nobody Listens, 5-1-1 from eight starts was just starting to hit his peak this year, making his death even more tragic.
"The horse was really healthy and fairly solid. That was his big thing," Eggleston said. "I usually get a 5-year-old, they've got some aches and pains but not this horse. It's like the older he got, the younger he felt and he just trained so well and he loved to train. ... If you didn't train him, he wasn't happy. He was a horse that didn't want to just go jog, he wanted to gallop."
Browning recalled the decision to buy the gray or roan runner at the 2020 Ocala Breeders' Sale Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training. He received a call from Brandon Stauble of Stauble Thoroughbreds.
"He called back and said, 'Hey, there's two Indiana-breds down here. I think you'll love the one but I'll let you look at both of them and you guys decide.' .... We sat there and looked at (the videos) and I said, 'Matt, you know, this gray, he's not doing everything right but he looks right," Browning said.
The ownership group purchased Nobody Listens for $40,000 from his breeders, Southern Chase Farm and Karen and Greg Dodd.
Eggleston said Nobody Listens never had a bad day. Around the barn, the gelding was gentle and a pleasure to be around.
"Human, almost," the trainer said.
Using the word 'connections' to describe the people associated with Nobody Listens, or any horse for that matter, is fitting. Instead of the implied association, the sense of loss and sadness reflects more on the bond between all parties.
"How often you get an Indiana-bred that is good as him since, I mean, he's as good as Bucchero was. I mean, he was great. ... He loved his carrots. He meant everything to us," Browning said.
He added, "He took us on a ride that we were never expecting."
