You’ve heard of Cody’s Wish, and the remarkable inspiration behind his racing career. Meet Carson’s Run, whose name is inspired by a similar story of a West Point Partner, his son and their perseverance through immensely difficult circumstances.

The 2-year-old Cupid colt is set to become WPT’s first juvenile starter on the East Coast Saturday at Saratoga, and partner Wade Jost will be watching intently at his home in Washington as the latches spring around 12:40 p.m. ET at the Spa in the 1 1/16-mile turf race. Wade’s son Carson will be alongside him, as he almost always is.

Carson Jost was born with the same extremely rare genetic disorder, Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, as Cody Dorman, the namesake of superstar Cody’s Wish. Resulting from a partial deletion on the short arm of chromosome 4, the syndrome causes severe mental and physical disabilities. He is confined to a wheelchair and is largely unable to communicate.

“He lives in his own little world,” Wade says.

Wade Jost served in the Gulf War, and Carson, now 30, was conceived and born shortly after Wade returned home. It was later determined that members of Wade’s unit in the Army had a high rate of abnormal births with their kids born after they returned from the war. The fathers and children were put into a study group to try to determine the cause. Ultimately the results were inconclusive, but the Gulf War has been a proven link to many multi-symptomatic disorders in hundreds of thousands of U.S. veterans who served.

Carson is Wade’s oldest child and has three younger siblings, none of whom suffer from disability. They’re all prolific athletes, competing in sports ranging from football to volleyball to track and field. It’s a very tight-knit family.

Wade is a former West Point classmate of Terry Finley, and he owns a defense and security company with a few friends. He previously had been involved with WPT on the stakes-placed Cali Dude after winning a charity contest in 2019. Earlier this spring, he decided he wanted to be part of another partnership, this time in hopes of honoring his beloved Carson, who Terry agreed to name one of WPT’s new 2-year-olds after.

“This is my way of associating Carson with an athlete, like his siblings,” Wade said, getting choked up as he spoke.

Carson’s Run hasn’t missed a beat since being purchased at OBS April, quickly graduating from Eddie Woods’ preparatory program and appearing on the worktab soon after arriving in Christophe Clement’s shed row. He has four published breezes and will be unveiled from post three in a field of seven on Saturday.

Traveling with Carson hasn’t been an option during the pandemic, but Wade says at some point in the near future, he’ll take his son to meet his namesake.

“We’ll make that happen, either in Saratoga or Florida,” he vowed.

It remains to be seen how good of a racehorse Carson’s Run will be. What’s undeniable is that, in addition to the fervent support that is typical of all WPT partnerships, the chestnut colt will have the pride of a doting father, the dreams of a strong family and the eyes of a brave young man on him at every turn.

Carson with his three siblings.