On October 11, 2018, Cody Dorman, a 12-year-old boy with significant medical challenges, met a 5-month-old Thoroughbred at Gainsborough Farm in Versailles, Ky. as part of Make-A-Wish Day at Keeneland, a nearby racetrack. There was an instant connection between the two, so evident that when it came time to name the horse, his owner – world-renowned Godolphin – chose Cody’s Wish.
In the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cody, who underwent almost 50 surgeries and had a feeding tube since he was six months old, told his parents he was ready to give up his fight, prompting them to take him to see his namesake. Even though it had been two years since their first and only meeting, the pair hit it off like the best friends they were destined to become and Cody’s mental outlook took a 180-degree turn.
CODY – A Boy, a Horse and a Wish for Life tells the story of the inexplicable, yet undeniable bond between Cody and Cody’s Wish and the drama that played out at racetracks from Saratoga to Santa Anita as the horse became a champion.
Each time they met, the strapping horse, who was aggressive and unruly in the starting gate, would lay his head on Cody’s lap, acting more like a poodle than a Thoroughbred. Cody followed his horse all the way to California for his last race, in the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, in the fall of 2023. There was a fairytale ending to the racing portion of the story when Cody’s Wish won the race by a nose and had to withstand a stewards’ inquiry that could have disqualified him. Cody’s Wish retired a winner, and Cody looked forward to visiting him at Jonabell Farm, where Godolphin’s stallions live.
The day after that race, while flying home to Kentucky, Cody laid his head on his mother’s shoulder, fell asleep and never woke up, sending shockwaves through the horse racing world and beyond. His parents, Leslie and Kelly, and little sister, Kylie, have resolved themselves to the fact that just as Cody’s Wish’s work on the track was done, Cody’s work was also finished.
In Cody's Wish: A Boy, a Racehorse, and a Fight for Life, the only book authorized by the Dormans, readers are given an up-close look at the mountain of challenges Cody faced and the incalculable resiliency with which he met them. It is a compelling story of the bond between a boy who was saddened by not having any friends and the one he found on a horse farm in Kentucky, which changed his life in a way neither he nor his parents could have ever dreamed.
