Cathleen Allison/Nevada AppealMayor Marv Teixeira reacts while watching a horse race at Bodines on Wednesday afternoon. Bodines owner Mike Pegram named his racehorse "Mayor Marv" and a group of friends and family of the original Mayor Marv gathered to watch the horse run in his first race in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Marv Teixeira groaned as a 2-year-old colt named in his honor crossed the finish line third on Wednesday at the Saratoga Race Track.
"What went wrong, Mike?" he asked, turning away from a television at Bodines Casino to Mike Pegram, owner of the thoroughbred horse, Mayor Marv.
But Pegram reminded the 73-year-old mayor of Carson City that this race in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., was the horse's first and that he had a strong finish and bright future.
Teixeira had lost $100 on the horse, though. He had also had to put up with jokes that day about how friends had been able to convince him for a time that Mayor Marv was castrated.
Friends, city staff and business owners such as Ralph Swagler of Locals Barbecue also came to watch the race.
Swagler said it was great that a horse was named after the mayor and even bet $10 on it.
"He is undefeated in races here in Carson City, and he might as well do it there, too," he said before the race.
Though Mayor Marv did come in third out of seven, he did do well enough to make money for some who didn't pick him as the winner.
The horse also comes from good parents, with Miss Wineshine being also the mother of Kentucky Derby winner Funny Cide. Mayor Marv's sire, Distorted Humor, is a top-rated stud.
The horse's trainer, Bob Baffert, has managed horses such as Kentucky Derby winner Real Quiet, and the horse's jockey, Edgar Prado, rode Barbaro to a 2006 Kentucky Derby win.
Mayor Marv lost to Charlott Humor and Majestic Blue in the race Wednesday. He beat Cabaret Cowboy, Daimon's Glory, Madison Heights and The Big Dunkin.
Pegram said Mayor Marv finished well and he's satisfied.
"He learned a lot of lessons in that race," Pegram said.
Teixeira, who will retire at the end of the year as Carson City's longest-serving mayor, said he is just happy to have the horse named after him.
"Sure you'd like to win, but that sucker, he's a comer," Teixeira said. "He's a stud, he'll be there."
- Contact reporter Dave Frank at dfrank@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.