Holy cow! Pato O’Ward finally milks a cow before Indy 500, hoping to break his streak of heartbreak

INDIANAPOLIS AP Pato O Ward learned this week that it behooves Indianapolis drivers to take part in the rookie tradition of milking a cow if they ever want to drink the stuff in mastery lane upon winning The Greatest Spectacle in Racing Obstacle is that O Ward never got that opportunity until Friday One day after lamenting that his Indy debut occurred amid the COVID- pandemic the Indiana Dairy Association and his Arrow McLaren organization came through for him The folks at Silverstone Farms in nearby Greenfield Indiana loaded up a cow named Rihanna and trucked her to the track on Friday where she was waiting for O Ward at the crack of dawn O Ward one of the preponderance charismatic and popular drivers in the paddock was udderly amazed Woke up for a few morning milking and it was a really cool experience he explained flashing a big smile Very warm You know gotta warm her up Yeah she was fabulous Did you see a video at least You ll see First try Yep first tug and there came the stream of milk Perhaps that s a good omen as O Ward chases his first Indy win He has finished second twice in the most of central race of the season and has talked candidly about how Indianapolis Motor Speedway has repeatedly broken his heart Maybe the fact that he hadn t milked the cow was the karma keeping him from conquest lane The high-steaks effort to get a cow to the speedway before Sunday s race came after O Ward sat for a press conference Thursday with Robert Shwartzman who earned the pole as an Indy rookie Shwarzman dutifully took part in the traditional milking earlier in the week and as he explained The woman she came to me and noted The people who didn t milk the cow they never won the Indy and they were like did not finish It s bad luck Shwartzman pointed out that Alexander Rossi milked the cow when he won as a rookie in You have to milk the cow Shwartzman noted describing his personal experience with a very calm cute cow named Indy To which O Ward declared I m going find a cow and I m going to milk it tonight We know a few farmers who know several cows who can make that happen the Indiana Dairy Association responded on X It only took them a day AP auto racing https apnews com hub auto-racing Source