Tyler James Juhl, the namesake for Breeders’ Cup-bound Tyler’s Tribe, provided the connections with a triumph more meaningful than anything the gelding could accomplish on the track.
The 8-year-old Juhl, with an irrepressible grin, walked out of the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital on Monday and rang a bell, signifying his debilitating 26-month battle with leukemia was finally over. Doctors could not find any trace of the disease in Juhl’s latest bloodwork.
“It was something you hope never to have to be a part of, but it was the greatest thing to be a part of,” said Tom Lepic, the boy’s grandfather.
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Lepic purchased Tyler’s Tribe for $34,000 and named the son of Sharp Azteca after Tyler and those who followed him on social media and yearned for his recovery. The horse, trained by co-owner Tim Martin and coolly ridden by 20-year-old Kylee Jordan, became a sensation in Iowa in winning all five of his starts at Prairie Meadows by a combined 59 3/4 lengths.
About 75 people – family, friends and classmates – waited outside the hospital in anticipation of Tyler’s great news.
“It was awfully emotional,” Lepic said, adding, “I think he hugged every single person.”
Juhl had undergone an extremely rigorous treatment, receiving chemotherapy through a port in his chest while taking one chemotherapy pill daily. He was unable to attend the opening semester of first grade.
“He was awfully sick and up and down,” said Lepic, president of the Iowa Quarter Horse Racing Association. He was unable to avoid any major complications, which doctors feared might have been too much for him to bear. Several of the children who befriended Juhl in the hospital did not survive.
“We’re going to celebrate this until the Breeders’ Cup,” Lepic said, “and then hope Tyler’s Tribe can come through and give Tyler a victory.”
Tyler’s Tribe will be entered in the Juvenile Turf Sprint and the Juvenile. Martin is hoping for the former but has been alerted that the race will almost surely be oversubscribed by a large number.
Either race will represent a huge challenge. The gelding never has competed on turf. He took his first spin on the Keeneland grass on Oct. 15, covering three furlongs in 39.80 seconds. Plans call for another three-furlong turf drill Saturday. If Tyler’s Tribe winds up in the 1 1 1/16-mile Juvenile, where undefeated and untested Cave Rock looms as an overwhelming favorite, he will race beyond six furlongs for the first time.
Those concerns, though, were far from anyone’s mind when doctors delivered the news everyone longed for.
As for Juhl, he was unavailable for immediate comment. After more than two years of severely restricted activity, he celebrated over a meal with family members before making a beeline to a trampoline park.
