GREENFIELD, Ind. —  A surprise phone call quickly took a dairy farmer and her cow into the spotlight of an Indianapolis 500 driver looking for a stroke of luck before the race.

Marla Stone watched as driver Pato O’Ward pulled on the teat of her two year old Holstein near the surface of the track in what was his first attempt at milking a cow.

Stone said her cow, Rhianna, seemed a bit unsettled from the drastic change in her surroundings and being milked by a stranger but she didn’t break under the big city-like pressure. 

“When he was doing that, we were all kind of petting on her.  Kind of calming her down.  Overall, she acted fairly well,” she said.

Less than 24 hours earlier, Stone was asked to provide a cow for the driver, who made a last-minute decision to milk one for luck prior to the May 25 race. It’s an Indianapolis 500 tradition for rookie drivers to milk a cow during the annual rookie luncheon. 

However, when O’Ward was a rookie in 2020 Covid pushed the race back to August and there were no fans. He also did not get to milk a cow. With two second place finishes in the race, O’Ward thought milking a cow might break what seemed like a curse keeping him out of victory lane.

In response, Stone received a call from Allie Rieth, who’s in public affairs with the American Milk Association of Indiana (AMAI), which is in charge of providing the ceremonial milk for winning drivers to drink after crossing the finish line. 

They know each other from Stone and her family showing dairy cows at the Indiana State Fair where Rieth maintains a presence in her job capacity to promote milk.

Stone said Rieth is also familiar with her daughter, Amelia, a freshman at Purdue University and one of the ambassadors for the AMAI.

The next morning, Stone loaded the cow into a trailer and made the just over 30-minute drive with her high school sophomore daughter, Taylor, and Rieth, who guided her to the track.

Stone pulled inside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and walked a short distance with her cow before greeted by O’Ward, who was surrounded by members of his team, representatives from the race and members of the media. 

“He was answering questions while we were there with the cow in the background.  It was neat,” she said. 

The atmosphere included an occasional race car heading to and from the track for final test runs.

After wrapping up the news conference, Stone said O’Ward after a short milking lesson by her daughter went to work.

Two days later, O’Ward consistently near the top of the leaderboard during the race had to settle for a fourth place finish.

Stone, who watched the event on TV from home, said her experience at the track seemed to make the race this year more exciting. “It would have been even better had he won. We were really hoping,” she said.

Stone and her husband, Chad currently have about 30 mostly Holstein dairy cows at their over 100 acre SilverStone Farm, which they purchased in 2017 near Greenfield.

They milk about a half dozen of the cows and sell the milk raw to customers showing up to buy it.

The couple also raises about five acres of sweetcorn.

“We just recently opened up a wedding venue and are hosting events in it now,” she said.