Afleet Alex - Alex's Lemonade Stand

Just saw the story about this - they have raised a lot of money in honor of this little girl who died of cancer and had her lemonade stand trying to raise money for cancer research. I hope he (Afleet Alex) runs well so they can get more publicity for this.



http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/cent...21.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

I seen it earlier while riding my stationary bike in the garage. Very nice story.

<HR align=left SIZE=1> Afleet Alex has the speed, feel-good story on his side
[font=geneva,arial]- Larry Stumes, Special to The Chronicle
[/font][font=geneva,arial][size=-2]Saturday, May 7, 2005
[/size][/font]





Historical trends tell us that each of the 20 horses in today's Kentucky Derby carries a flaw along with the 126-pound combination of jockey and lead weight.

Arkansas Derby winner Afleet Alex stands the best chance of overcoming his in a field that is the strongest in years. Bandini, Bellamy Road, High Fly and Greeley's Galaxy also come off of sharp victories in their final prep races, and Noble Causeway and High Limit offer some upside after second-place finishes.

Afleet Alex's flaw, besides being the Sporting Green's pick, is a second- place finish in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. Since the Breeders' Cup began in 1984, no horse that ran first or second in the Juvenile won the Derby. The only third-place Juvenile finishers to win the Derby were Alysheba in 1986-87 and Spend a Buck in 1984-85.

Still, Afleet Alex has six wins and two seconds in nine starts, and a lung infection excuses his last-place finish in the Rebel Stakes. He bounced back from that with an 8-length victory in the Arkansas Derby in which he made the kind of explosive move on the second turn that produces victory in the Kentucky Derby.

He also has a feel-good story that matches those of the past two Derby winners, Smarty Jones and Funny Cide.

Afleet Alex's breeder, John Silverstand, credits the colt with helping keep him alive after he was diagnosed with colon cancer. Afleet Alex's owners are donating part of his winnings to the coincidentally named Alex's Lemonade Stand for Pediatric Cancer Research. The charity is named for Alexandra Scott, who died of cancer Aug. 1 at the age of 8.

The other horses' flaws vary in degree.

Blue Grass blues

Bandini dominated a good field by 6 lengths in the Blue Grass Stakes, but the winner of that race has won the Derby only once since 1979 (Strike the Gold in 1991).

Short on experience

Bellamy Road recorded a Beyer Speed Figure of 120 in his 17 1/2-length victory in the Wood Memorial, the highest ever for a Triple Crown event or one of its preps. In his only other start this year, the George Steinbrenner-owned colt won an allowance race by 15 3/4 lengths. Bellamy Road may well be a freak and validate his favoritism, but he would be only the second horse since 1947 to win the Derby after just two prior starts as a 3-year-old. Sunny's Halo accomplished the feat in 1983, but he had the foundation of 11 starts as a 2- year-old; Bellamy Road had just three.

Greeley's Galaxy romped in the Illinois Derby in his fourth career start, and High Limit has three wins and a second in the Blue Grass in four starts, but no horse since Exterminator in 1918 has won the Derby without at least five races beforehand. Additionally, Greeley's Galaxy didn't race as a 2-year- old, and no horse has won the Derby like that since Apollo in 1882.

Idle time

The Florida Derby, formerly run in early March, was held April 2 this year, and High Fly and Noble Causeway ran 1-2. That was five weeks ago, and no Kentucky Derby winner since Needles in 1956 had more than a four-week gap.

Recent failure

Trainer Nick Zito has Bellamy Road, High Fly and Noble Causeway among his five entrants, but Sun King once was considered his best hope. Then he ran a distant fourth in the Blue Grass, and only two Derby winners since 1957 (Thunder Gulch in 1995 and Sea Hero in 1993) ran that poorly in their previous start.

Going Wild was beaten by 41 lengths in the Wood Memorial and by 16 1/4 lengths in the Lexington Stakes, and no Derby winner ever lost the previous two starts by double-digit lengths.

Too slow The remaining 11 horses in today's field never have reached a Beyer Speed Figure of 100, and they don't appear capable of suddenly jumping up to the 110 that has been the average winning Derby Beyer. Only Sea Hero in 1993 won the Derby without previously recording a triple-digit Beyer, and he faced horses much slower than today's major contenders.


San Francisco Chronicle

just saw the tv spot. :sad3: Sure puts things in perspective...

Damn horse

Now you tell me.

:sad3:

The hats are just part of the Afleet Alex merchandise also being sold to raise money for Alex's Lemonade Stand for Pediatric Cancer Research. Each hat has a small lemon image on the side, and Afleet Alex's saddlecloth also will have a lemon image.

Alexandra Scott, the daughter of Jay and Liz Scott of Wynnewood, Pa., was diagnosed with cancer two days before her first birthday, in 1997. She opened the lemonade stand when she was 4, hoping to raise $1 million for her hospital.

The touching story quickly gained national interest, and donations started pouring in. Alexandra was 8 when she died Aug. 1. Chuck Zacney, managing partner of Cash Is King Stable, owners of Afleet Alex, was so moved by the story that he pledged $30,000 to the charity. Then he e-mailed the Scotts, asking if they'd like to be part of the team, with a portion of Afleet Alex's earnings going to the cancer charity.

On Tuesday morning at Churchill Downs, a breeding season to Afleet Alex's sire, Northern Afleet, was auctioned for $37,000 - all of it going to Alex's Lemonade Stand. The winning bidder was B. Wayne Hughes, who owns two horses trying to beat Afleet Alex in the Derby, Greeley's Galaxy and Don't Get Mad.

The charity so far has raised more than $1.6 million.

The lemonade stand opened Tuesday on the backstretch, and Liz Scott was in awe of what's been happening.

"It's incredible. It's taken it to a different level for me," she said. "This will be the first year that she's not here, so this was a really important year for me.

"She loved horses, but she never actually met one. She had pictures of them and she read books. She would think this was really very cool and I'm sure if she was here on Derby day, she'd be all decked out with her hat and her outfit. She was really into that kind of stuff."

Zacney and his four co-owners arrived at Afleet Alex's barn Tuesday, full of stories about how lucky they've been with the first horse they bought together. And they talked about how they named Afleet Alex - three of the owners' children are named or nicknamed Alex.

Alexandra 'Alex' Scott battled neuroblastoma, an aggressive childhood cancer, for sev and a half years. Through the years she continued to amaze and inspire all who knew her with her positive outlook and incredible strength.

When she was just four years old, Alex asked if she could have a lemonade sale to raise money for "her hospital". Her mother told her that it might be difficult to raise money fifty cents at a time; Alex's response was "I don't care, I will do it anyway”. In July of 2000, she made good on that promise and raised over $2,000 for Connecticut Children's Medical Center.

In March of 2001, Alex and her family moved to the Philadelphia area to pursue experimental treatment options. Once again, Alex was determined to have a lemonade stand, this time for her "new hospital". In fall of 2001 she held a stand and raised $600 for Neuroblastoma research at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).

On June 22, 2002, Alex held another lemonade stand and dedicated it to her friend Toireasa, who had recently lost her battle with neuroblastoma. She raised $18,000 and donated all the proceeds in Toireasa’s name to neuroblastoma research at CHOP.

In June 2003, Alex held her most successful lemonade stand up until then. Despite pouring rain people flocked to Alex's Lemonade Stand to support her efforts to raise money for cancer research. On June 12, 2004, Alex's original stand raised nearly $40,000 in 3 hours. People across the country joined in and held stands on June 12th, raising an amazing $220,000 in one day.

In 2004, Alex's Lemonade Stand, with the help of generous people around the country setting up lemonade stands, sending donations and holding other fundraisers, more than $1.5 million was raised.

Alex and her lemonade story has been featured on The Today Show, The CBS Early Show, CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, Time Magazine, People, USA Today, Philadelphia Inquirer, The John Walsh Show, Fox News, and hundreds of local and regional newspapers, television stations and magazines around the world.

Alex’s fundraising efforts have gone way beyond raising thousands of dollars for her favorite charities. Her story has inspired people to improve our world by helping themselves and helping others. Many other children have held their own fundraisers, in Alex’s name, to fight childhood cancer. These range from holding lemonade stands to forgoing birthday presents and having donations go to Alex's Fund to creating an Awesome Alex Teddy Bear to loose change collections along with many other fundraisers.

On August 1, 2004, Alex died peacefully at the age of 8 after battling cancer for 7 ½ years. Alex’s spirited determination to raise awareness and money for all childhood cancer while she bravely fought her own deadly battle with cancer has inspired thousands of people, from all walks of life to raise money and give to her cause. Alex’s family and supporters are committed to continuing her inspiring legacy through the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation.

http://www.alexslemonade.com/