Eastern States Exposition (ESE) has a long and storied history of hosting world class show horses in the Coliseum. ESE is honored that Ricky Harris, Cheryl Innis and Rodney Hicks, owners of the 2021 World’s Grand Champion, My Casey, chose The Big E for their award-winning saddle horse’s retirement. Among the attendees present were ESE Director of Agriculture Elena Hovagimian; trainer Kevin Armstrong; owners Innis, Harris and Hicks; and Bob Funkhouser, executive editor for the Saddle Horse Report magazine that brought My Casey to national attention.
In the American Saddlebred, Hackney and Roadster competitions, their biggest show of the season is the World’s Championship Horse Show held at the Kentucky State Fair in August. My Casey is the only horse in the 120-year history of the land.
My Casey is a 16-year-old Standardbred gelding who was bred and raised in Kentucky by Cordy and Kevin Armstrong. He didn’t start out in the lavish lifestyle of a show horse, but he was admired by all those around him for his big personality. This appreciation carried him through every chapter of his life, all the way to the World’s Grand Championship.
The Armstrong family of Kentucky bought a two-year-old Standardbred mare named Super Struck Sandy at an auction. It was their return to the horse business. They worked her for a while but ended up breeding her, and in 2009 she produced a bay colt they named My Casey.
Cordy Armstrong became sick soon after My Casey’s birth, so the horse was sent to a young Amish man. When Cordy passed away, My Casey was sold in Indiana to settle the Armstrong estate. My Casey was sold again in Pennsylvania soon after and purchased by Bert Beachy, who had a young man named Robert Miller in him employ. Miller took interest in the gelding—he was convinced My Casey was something special, so he scraped together every dollar he could and purchased the horse.
My Casey was put through the famed Mid-Ohio Memorial Sale and selected by Kentucky trainer Mike Felty for a customer, Jacob Bowman. His first year in the showring, 2015, My Casey won a Reserve World’s Championship with Felty in the USTA Roadster Classic and he was then purchased by Susan Swope. The next year, she drove him to a World’s Championship in the Ladies Amateur division under the direction of Felty.
Retired New England trainer Ricky Harris and Cheryl Innis of Somers, Conn., and their friend and trainer, Rodney Hicks, were looking for a road horse. With the help of James Nichols and some good luck, My Casey was purchased by Harris and Hicks and made his final career move to Rodney Hicks Stables in Pittsfield, Mass.
From 2018-2025, My Casey won 51 classes and finished second eight times in 62 starts. Included in these wins is the 2021 World’s Grand Championship with Ricky Harris and the 2019 Youth Roadster to Bike World’s Championship with Rodney and Janet Hicks’s son, Danny Hicks.
Innis and My Casey won the Canadian National Championship and qualifier a record five times at the prestigious Royal Winter Fair in Toronto, Canada. My Casey has shown on the biggest stages in front of the largest crowds.
Innis, Harris and Hicks have opted to retire My Casey while he is still on top. He will return home to Kentucky his showmanship story began with Kevin Armstrong’s family. He has long been the people’s horse, and it is time the people paid him back for all the success he has brought.
“Eastern States Exposition has always been Casey’s favorite,” said Innis. “We’re all at home here. It’s never been a question that his last show would be here. When we told Kevin we’d like Casey to return to Kentucky, he tearfully said, ‘You’re bringing him home to me.’ We knew we made the right decision.”
As he ruled the show ring at Freedom Hall and other venues before thousands of adoring Amish fans, My Casey will now rule the pastures of Kentucky. Eastern States Exposition thanks Innis, Harris and Hicks for allowing My Casey to take his final turn in the Coliseum.