The Wildest Ride: Retraining an ex-racehorse turned into a quest for redemption

War Feather was born in Florida horse country. At 4 years old, he made his debut on a racetrack. It didn’t go well.

By Justine Griffin

The new horse floated across the pasture, shining like a copper penny in the sun. He was sleek and athletic, just off the racetrack after a four-year career.

The farm’s owner intended to sell him as a show horse or pet. But he had a warrior name — War Feather.He was wild-eyed and easily spooked, a thousand pounds of muscle ready to explode in any direction if you flinched the wrong way.

He couldn’t stay at this Bradenton lesson barn, where pony-loving girls learned to ride.The last thing I needed was another horse. I had trained my beloved Thoroughbred thoroughbred gelding Mikey, another retired racehorse, to compete in equestrian events. Dozens of ribbons Mikey had earned hung in my home office in St. Petersburg.

But Mikey’s career was clouded by a brutal ligament injury below his ankle. It gutted me. Mikey and I worked in a way that is almost impossible to describe. I’m a journalist, not a professional rider. Mikey made me feel like anything was possible.

There was a good chance I’d never again capture that feeling, and it sent me into a yearlong funk.Now in the barn on a crisp winter day, here was this enormous challenge, staring at me with suspicion. War Feather needed to be blindfolded before anyone would dare mount him.

When he reared back on his hind quarters, I sensed his power, and his vulnerability.

His hooves were in dire shape — dried goops of tan-colored glue licked all the way up them. And his brain needed a reset. Training this animal would test all my years of horsemanship. But I found myself drawn to him. So without telling my husband, I bought War Feather for $2,500.

The minute I got into my truck to drive away, I worried I was in way over my head.

Read the full story, which published on the front page on Sunday, Nov. 12, 2023, in the Tampa Bay Times.

Career Update: Health Editor at the Tampa Bay Times

Times reporter Justine Griffin measures her blood pressure while video-chatting with adult medicine doctor Saadia Malik inside the Walk-In Care kiosk provided by BayCare inside the Publix supermarket at Shoppes of Lithia in Valrico. Stored in cubbies along either side of the screen are six medical tools to help doctors make a diagnosis — a thermometer, a pulse oximeter, a “derm cam” to take photos of skin issues like rashes, a blood pressure measurement device, an otoscope and a stethoscope. [ALESSANDRA DA PRA | Times]

My editing roles were expanded in 2023 to oversee our health care reporters and entire health care coverage. This includes producing our annual Medicare enrollment guide, coverage of local hospitals, universities, research trends, health policy and more.

It’s great to expand on my knowledge as a former health care reporter and help shape our future coverage.

Career Update: Economy & Growth Editor at the Tampa Bay Times

I became a full-time editor at the Tampa Bay Times in 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic. After more than a year editing breaking news in the evening hours, I moved to the business section. In November, I was promoted to be the Economy & Growth Editor, overseeing our daily business section and managing a team of reporters.

I’m thrilled to get back to my business roots.

Photo credit: Boyzell Hosey, 2018.

Tampa Bay Times: My dad owns a restaurant. This is hard.

Photo by Chip Litherland

By Justine Griffin for the Tampa Bay Times

I grew up inside St. Angelo’s Pizza in New Port Richey. It’s the business my dad started when he was in his 20s and looking for a change from the bitter winters of Buffalo, N.Y.

Fast-forward 40 years, and the restaurant with the “Original Chicken Wings” sign out front on the corner of Madison Avenue and State Road 54 is still the first place I drive to when I want to see my dad.

His business has weathered many hurricanes — often feeding neighbors for days in the aftermath when nobody else had power or A.C. He survived the 2008 recession, and slow changes to the West Pasco neighborhood as growth shifted to the eastern end of the county, like Trinity and Wesley Chapel.

But as we read the headlines every day, announcing new limitations and shutdowns on businesses related to the coronavirus pandemic, I fear for him and his livelihood.

My dad, Brian Griffin, is old school. Everything about his business is still written down on takeout slips and scratched into notebooks. He got his first iPhone just last year, and he still doesn’t know how to send a text. Dad has mastered how to capture and upload a photo, though. He regularly updates the St. Angelo’s Pizza Facebook page with images of handwritten messages he’s scribbled on a whiteboard. I think his social media strategy is quite charming.

Small businesses across Tampa Bay are caught up in the unknown — of what tomorrow, or next week, or next month, or the next six months will bring. Service workers are being laid off in all counties, at a time when they’re being told to stay home instead of hitting the streets to find a new source of income.

It’s hard for me to watch my dad worry. He delayed his retirement to pay for my wedding. He’s the hardest-working man I know, and he instilled those values in me.

Dad would hand-deliver me homemade lunch when I was in elementary school. He’d never forget a side of black olives — my favorite snack. Once I got to high school, I wasn’t only his daughter but also his employee. I graduated from answering phones and jotting down delivery orders to being a waitress. I loathed it, and once begged my dad to let me quit so I could get a job next door at Publix.

He wouldn’t let me. His defense was: “You’re going to do this job now so you’ll go to college and won’t have to do it anymore.” Those waitressing skills kept cash in my pocket throughout my college years.

On Friday, the day Gov. Ron DeSantis ordered restaurants statewide to offer takeout and delivery only, I made the familiar drive from my home in St. Petersburg to see my dad. I found him standing next to the old pizza oven. He had flour in his long hair and his beard, and there were three pies about to go in for baking.

The dining room was dark. The chairs were stacked upside down on the tables. But the phones were buzzing. I took a pizza and delivered it nearby.

People lined up at the takeout counter to place orders. Many addressed my dad by a nickname reserved only for close friends: Griff. As he cashed out one man in his 20s, my dad told him to say hello to his parents for him. He joked with a mom who’d preferred to stand in the lobby near the hot kitchen than sit in her minivan with her husband and kids.

“They’ll be home for who knows how much longer. I could use a break,” she joked.

My dad thanked everyone who came in that day for their business, like he always does. But on that Friday, amid the growing chaos of the coronavirus pandemic, I know their support meant even more.

Tampa Bay Times: Moffitt Cancer Center China ties investigation

Top Moffitt Cancer Center doctors failed to disclose payments from China,  report says

TAMPA — For years, Dr. Alan List and Dr. Sheng Wei worked closely at Moffitt Cancer Center to find cures and build bridges. Their accomplishments included a new therapy to treat a class of cancers affecting the bone marrow and blood, and a 12-year partnership with a top cancer hospital in Wei’s native China.

“As a team, we just click,” List, the Moffitt CEO, told an in-house publication in 2018. “Dr. Wei and I complement each other in ways that are hard to put into words.”

Now, according to a report obtained Saturday by the Tampa Bay Times, their collaboration — and their strong links to China — are at the center of a flap that recently cost them their jobs, put Moffitt’s reputation at risk and ignited an investigation by the Florida Legislature.

Justine Griffin chronicled Moffitt Cancer Center’s China interference investigation for months for the Tampa Bay Times. Read more of her work here:

Moffitt Cancer Center shakeup: CEO and others resign over China ties

Florida House speaker calls for investigation into China-Moffitt ties

Moffitt turmoil began with national concern over China, stolen research

University of Florida also a target in foreign research scandal

Top Moffitt Cancer Center doctors failed to disclose payments from China, report says

Moffitt’s push for state money is clouded by China investigation

Moffitt returns $1 million to state. Money was linked to scientist with China ties.

UCF takes hot seat as House panel widens investigation into China ties

FBI official addresses China influence investigations at Moffitt Cancer Center, UF

As coronavirus spread, Moffitt Cancer Center’s China scandal faded