The career of Richard's Kid was the stuff of Hollywood dreams -- the local boy goes to California and becomes a star. Campaigned over seven years, he launched his career on the East Coast for breeder Robert Meyerhoff's Fitzhugh LLC before heading west and ranking as one of the nation's top handicap horses. A three-time Grade 1 winner of $2,482,259, the bay son of Lemon Drop Kid won stakes from 4 to 8, set track records, and was deemed worthy of trips to Dubai.

Richard's Kid owed his being to Meyerhoff's longtime trainer Richard "Dickie" Small. It was Small who selected a yearling filly by Private Account at the 1988 sales with eyes on a racing career and eventual date with Meyerhoff superstar Broad Brush. Meyerhoff wasn't as keen on the filly as Small, and named her Richard's Choice. She never won. Things looked up when her first mating with Broad Brush produced six-time stakes winner Tough Broad. But there was little else of significance by the time Tough Broad delivered Richard's Kid in 2005. The female family which Small had expected to do well was not measuring up to Meyerhoff's standards.

Tough Broad's fourth living foal, Richard's Kid was named for his trainer and seemed to be following in the family's footsteps. It took him five starts from 2 to 3, before he got his first win at Laurel in September 2008. But fortunes were beginning to change.>

A winner of three straight allowances over six weeks from 3 to 4, he made his stakes debut that February in the John B. Campbell and rallied to win by a length. Indications that he was a distance-loving specialist drew outside interest. When an offer came in during the spring of 2009 -- after three off-the-board stakes finishes -- Meyerhoff sold him privately to Arnold Zetcher, who turned him over to Bob Baffert.

Richard's Kid thrived over Del Mar's synthetic surface, winning back-to-back runnings of the $1 million Grade 1 Pacific Classic at a mile and a quarter. In eight starts over Del Mar's main track he recorded four wins, including two runnings of the mile and a half Grade 3 Cougar II Handicap, one in track record time of 2:29.22, and finished in the top three in three others, including a nose defeat when second in the 2009 Cougar II. Making his fourth start in the Pacific Classic, in what would be his final career start, he finished fourth in a three-horse photo for second.

Baffert guided him through the middle of his career, in part for Zabeel Racing (the nom de course of Sheikh Rashid bin Mohammed al Maktoum) which purchased him after the 2009 Breeders' Cup Classic-G1 (in which he was sixth behind Zenyatta). In his first start for Zabeel Racing, he won Santa Anita's 2010 San Antonio Handicap-G1, a prep for his first trip to the Dubai World Cup-G1. He finished seventh in the 14-horse World Cup field, beaten a total of two and a half lengths.

In five starts over Hollywood Park's synthetic track, he recorded two wins, a second, a third and a fourth. He nailed his second consecutive Grade 1 victory of 2010 when taking the mile and an eighth Goodwood at the Oak Tree meet at Hollywood Park, five weeks after his Pacific Classic score. Those would be his last starts of the season, as he made an early exit to Dubai.

Spending more than a year with trainer Satish Seemar in the U.A.E. yielded nothing of note in five starts, but he was back to his winning ways in his first U.S. start in 20 months, setting a new track record at Hollywood Park in June 2012. His seven and a quarter-length win in the Prove It Stakes was completed in 2:16.43 for the mile and three-eighths. Two starts later came his track record at Del Mar.

Dave Kenney, Triple B Farms (Boghossian), Westside Rentals.com, et al, purchased him midway through the 2012 season, and he was turned over to trainer Doug O'Neill. Racing solely in graded stakes in his 11 remaining starts, O'Neill sent him out to victory in the 2013 Cougar II Handicap-G3. He placed in four others, including the Grade 1 Awesome Again and, when shipped back east, Keeneland's Ben Ali and Pimlico's historic Pimlico Special.

Richard's Kid retired having won eight stakes, six graded, and placed in 10 others (five Grade 1) and earned titles of Maryland-bred Horse of the Year and champion older male in 2009 and 2010. He became the third member of the Hall of Fame bred by Meyerhoff, joining Broad Brush and Concern.

He has stood in California since entering stud in 2014.