Great Race Horses

[Pedigreeman]

hh) SECRETARIAT
To observe Secretariat standing or to watch him move, and especially to watch him race, was a memorable pleasure for anyone so fortunate. It can be reasonably said that there never was an animal that captured the hearts of so many people as did Secretariat. He made the cover or front page of virtually every magazine or newspaper in America, and many abroad. The late Charles Hatton wrote in the 1974 American Racing Manual: “Veteran turf-men, sophisticates of deep experience and broad, informed tastes, pronounced him ‘The Horse of the Century.’ Secretariat appealed to all levels of the sporting society, professional and public alike. His distinction is based on the awareness of the former rather than the idolatry of the latter.”
Hattor, haying lived through the yeai of such greats as Exterminator and Man o’ War, went on to wnte: “Impressions of long standing tend to become fixed and presume a
prescriptive nght not to be questioned. But Secretariat is the most capable horse we ever say and geriatrics defeat any thought of seeing his like again
The splendid chestnut was regal in every bone, muscle and fiber. Hejustified every superlative that was attributed to him. Standing 16 hands, one and one-half inches when retired at the age of 3, the copper chestnut was a mass of powerf muscle tipping the scales at 1,555 pounds at the beginning of that year, only to be reduced to 1,154 pounds at the end of a strenuous campaign. Two of his final three races were at a mile and a half with the other being a mile and five-eighths, all run within 30 days, which would account for his loss of weight. But his conformation was as faultless as nature would permit; he was the quintessential horse. Massive of hindquarters coupled to a short back, his length of hip and slope of shoulder stood him over a lot of ground. His forearm and gaskin were as powerful as any I have ever seen, with a masculine, handsome head set upon a powerful neck, and a large eye showing equal strength of charaóter. All of this combined to give him a stride with power and rhythm unlike any other animal on earth.
Voted Horse of the Year for each of the two years that he raced, and the first of only two horses ever to be so honored as a 2-year-old, he shattered either track or world records in more than half of his winning races, including all three of the Triple Crown events. Not only did he shorten the time of so many races, he also won by incredible margins with consummate ease. Due to his daunting speed, horsemen everywhere were skeptical of his stamina at the end of his juvenile year, and wondered if, as a 3-year-old, he would stay at longer distances than a mile. Stay he did. As one race-caller succinctly answered the question, he ‘stayed like your mother-in-law
Although retired at the end of his 3-year-old year, as a measure of his dominance over his peers in the Marlborough Cup at one and a quarter miles, he defeated four older champions carrying less weight than he, and set a new world-record time for the distance. But his racing record needs no embellishment here, it is one of the most remarkable in the annals of racing.
Bred by the Meadow Stud of Christopher T. Chenery in Virginia, Secretariat was raced for the account of Meadow Stable, principally owned by Chenery’s daughter, Penny. He was by leading sire and 1957 Horse of the Year, Bold Ruler. His dam, unp in her only start, was Princequillo’s daughter, Somethingroyal, who produced three other stakes winners:
Syrian Sea, First Family and Sir Gaylord, the latter the sire of England’s bnlliant Derby winner and progenitor, Sir Ivor.
In an agreement with Ogden Phipps, who owned Bold Ruler at the time, Somethingroyal was bred with a stipulation that she would be covered by this stallion until two foals were produced, one to be owned by Chenery and the other by Phipps. It was decided that by the toss of a coin, the winner should have right of refusal for the first foal. Phipps won the toss but, wishing for a filly, refused the first foal, a colt, which turned out to be Secretanat. When employed by the Phipps family from 1973 through 1978, 1 had the dubious pleasure of training the next foal from this mating, a filly named The Bride, which was arguably one of the most moderate horses they ever owned.
In another ironic twist of fate, Roger Laurin also was denied the honor of training Secretariat when he accepted the training duties for the Phipps family in 1971, relinquishing the same position with the Meadow Stable, and turning over the yearling Secretanat to his father, Lucian.
Despite these fortunes of racing, the image of Secretariat is indelibly imprinted into the hearts of millions who had the pleasure of being racing enthusiasts at that lime, and only the most fortunate will ever see in the next century another to equal or compare with his brilliance.

[bacowinner]

Nice story, good to hear real history for a changetu?

[Pedigreeman]

BOLD RULER by John Russell.

It often has been said that the foal crop of 1954 was the finest of the 20th century. Bold Ruler was foaled at Claiborne Farm that year and, although he offered brilliant speed before he ever ran, he would have no monopoly on important races when he came to the track. Although voted Horse of the Year in two polls, he was not a unanimous champion in the polls of any division except sprint, but having seen all the top contenders of that vintage crop race on many occasions, I would agree with horsemen who maintain that he was the most talented of all at almost any distance. The foals of that year included Gallant Man, Round Table, and Calumet Farm’s stablemates, Iron Liege and Gen. Duke, Clem, King Hairan, Greek Game, and many others. Riding work for Ben and Jimmy Jones of Calumet Farm at that time, I became well-acquainted with all of them, but I stood in awe of Bold Ruler. Almost 20 years after he retired from racing, I would have the pleasure of training 10 foals from his last two limited crops, and four of these were graded stakes winners, while three others were stakes-placed. Aside from that, he was the leading sire of the country on many occasions and, of course, was the sire of Secretariat among other champions.
With a coat as dark-brown as a seal and with only a trace of white on a right-hind pastern, Bold Ruler displayed a small white star on a head with the slightest suggestion of a Roman nose. He was not endowed by masses of muscle as many sprinters are, but he stood 16 hands, one and a half inches, with strength through the depth of his quarters and girth. Mrs. Henry Carnegie Phipps had acquired his dam, Miss Disco, a daughter of Discovery, from Alfred G. Vanderbilt for $25,500, and produced Bold Ruler by a cover to imported Nasrullah.
As a 2-year-old, Bold Ruler was precocious and won his first five starts, including the Youthful and Juvenile stakes, but before he had even broken his maiden, he had ripped off quarters in 22 seconds flat during morning training. It was undoubtedly due to his blazing speed that he was injured and missed racing and training for three months during that summer.
By the end of the year, he had won two more races, including the Belmont Futurity, beating Greek Game, the best from the West and the nations leading money-winning juvenile. But when stretched out to a mile-and-a-sixteenth in the rich Garden State Stakes, Bold Ruler was rank, and failed to sustain his speed, finishing unplaced to Calumet Farm’s Barbizon, the eventual Juvenile Champion. Ignoring this disappointment and the re emergence of a nagging soreness, Bold Ruler was returned to New York, where he was obviously off form and finished last in the Remsen Stakes, also at a mile and one-sixteenth.
Moving to Florida for winter racing, he benefited from a brief rest and continued to blister the track in morning workouts for trainer James Sunny Jim” Fitzsimmons, while his principal competitors trained by the patient and conservative team of Ben and Jimmy Jones, masters of Calumet, gathered their resources. Within the Calumet stable, to replace Garden State winner Barbizon who had become wind-broken after a protracted bout with a respiratory infection, were two sons of Bull Lea Gen. Duke and Iron Liege. Iron Liege had won three straight and had beaten his stablemate in a prep race when setting a track record at a mile-and-a-sixteenth.
When he made his first 3-year-old start, Bold Ruler beat Iron Liege and Gen. Duke, and
equaled the track record at seven furlongs in winning the Bahamas Stakes under 126 pounds.
This became the first race of a great rivalry. Gallant Man, a beautifully bred imported son of
Epsom Derby winner, Migoli, was unplaced in this race, the first of several encounters with
Bold Ruler
The Everglades Stakes developed into a torrid battle from the start between Iron Liege and Bold Ruler. Gen. Duke, not far back, stalked them patiently, and then was able to prevail over Bold Ruler by a head, with Iron Liege finishing a tired third. But the pace-killing tactics were unsuccessful in the Flamingo Stakes at a mile and one-eighth, and Bold Ruler hung on to beat a fast-closing Gen. Duke by a neck, setting another track record.
Bold Ruler skipped the Fountain of Youth Stakes, in which Gen. Duke and Iron Liege finished first and second, respectively. But the Wheatley-Calumet rivalry continued in the Florida Derby. In preparation, four days before the race, Bold Ruler worked six furlongs in an incredible one minute, nine and three-fifth seconds. Iron Liege again executed perfectly the role he was assigned in dictating the pace. Bold Ruler battled him until the final strides, where Gen. Duke caught them both, with Bold Ruler finishing second by a head. The time, one-fifth faster than Bold Ruler’s Flamingo, was a new world record.
The rivalry between Bold Ruler and Gen. Duke was unfortunately to end with this race; Gen. Duke was injured on the eve of the Kentucky Derby and never raced again. Bold Ruler, in the meantime, moved north to New York where he managed a head victory in the Wood Memorial, this time over Gallant Man, setting yet another track record.
Even in the absence of Gen. Duke, with Bold Ruler, Gallant Man and hon Liege apparently in top form, the stage was set for the Kentucky Derby to be another dramatic event. And dramatic it was, despite, as jockey Eddie Arcaro feared after the Wood Memorial, Bold Ruler suffering from hard races and comparably hard training. The Derby confirmed Arcaros opinion that Bold Ruler had a problem because he was rank and bore out badly on both turns, subsequently finishing fourth.
Gallant Man, in the meantime, sound and courageous, suffered the distraction of his jockey, Bill Shoemaker, who momentarily quit riding when he misjudged the finish line. Whether this hesitation affected the result, we’ll never know, but Shoemaker also was gallant in taking the blame, while Iron Liege under Bill Hartack took the Derby from him by the shortest of noses.
It is possible that Arcaros attempt at slowing Bold Ruler down had caused him to lug out in the Derby, but the problem was evidently resolved for the Preakness; he forced the pace, running freely, and won by two lengths from Iron Liege. The long rivalry between these two was to end here, as Iron Liege suffered an injury when beating Clem in the Jersey Stakes at Garden State in his next start, and never returned to top form.
However, the saga of Bold Ruler and Gallant Man was to continue in June, with the distance-loving Gallant Man winning the Belmont Stakes and breaking the American record for the distance, while Bold Ruler, again compromised by his speed, faded to third. Once again, suffering from an exhausting campaign, he was put on the shelf. To be continued.

[deltasports]

RE:GALLANT MAN & SHOEMAKER IN THE 1957 KY DERBY

ON A DARK DAY AT SARATOGA, SOME YEARS AGO> SHOE & I WERE STANDING OUTSIDE OF THE "RENAISSANCE HOTEL" WAITING FOR GEORGE STEINBRENNER TO PICK "SHOE" UP AS THEY WERE GOING TO DRIVE SOME HARNESS HORSES AT SARATOGA RACEWAY IN A EXIBITION RACE..WHILE WAITING ,"SHOE TOLD ME THAT "GALLANT MAN" NEVER BROKE STRIDE & "IRON LEIGE" BEAT HIM FAIR & SQUARE..
I TOLD HIM THAT I SAW IT THAT WAY AS I WAS THERE & THATS A FACT.tu?

[FastG45]

the foal crop of 1954 was the finest of the 20th century.

Of course it's the best year, that's my year, It was a good year for people too, LOL

I love these old stories you post. I've read every word of every post you've made since I've been a Trackwinner's Member.

And Gene, being there, backing you up, living the history. What great comments.

Please keep these stories coming,

Thanks Pedigreeman!!

[Pedigreeman]

I came across this while doing research on Man O' War. a:
http://cs.bloodhorse.com/blogs/horse-racing-steve-haskin/archive/2008/08/04/The-Unbeatable-Horse.aspx

[Jerfi]

Iron Liege is my first real remembrance of racing. I didn't know much about horses, of course, other than having ridden a few times, but I sure liked the name, and watched the race with relish.

It has sure been fun, since!

[deltasports]

I FOUND ONE ERROR IN STEVE HASKINS STORY ( SECRETARIAT) WINNING THE "MAN OF WAR STAKES" BEATING TOP CLASS "TENTAM" & "BIG SPRICE">

YES HE DID WIN THE "MAN OF WAR" AT BELMONT PARK ON THE GRASS BUT IT
WAS "TETAM" AND "BIG SPRUCE" NOT "BIG SPRICE">>NO SUCH HORSE BIG SPRICE UNLESS I HAVE DEMENTIA...gah;

[leonardj]

Good story on Secretariat - I was at Woodbine on October 28,1973 the last race for Secretariat - I also have a two dollar win tcket for that race -mint condition could anyone tell me were to go to find out the possible worth of this ticket

[deltasports]

BEST PLACE TO PUT YOUR WIN TICKET TO SELL OR GET AN IDEA WHAT ITS WORTH..
PUT IT ON EBAYtu?

[Pedigreeman]

Ribot
“We shall not look upon his like again. . . .“ European Horse of the Century, he was unbeaten in sixteen races in England and on the Continent. To be retired after three years of the most productive and unblemished racing career ever recorded, he would be named leading sire in England three times and ranked among the leading sires in four countries. Among his meritorious conquests were the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and two victories in the Arc de Triomphe, first as a three-year-old, then at four. His important wins in Italy included the Gran Criterium and Criterium Nazionale during his initial campaign and the Gran Premio di Milano as a four-year-old.
As a progenitor his ability to stamp his get with his own high ability
has been one of the wonders of our age. The closest point of comparison
is that he sent out two winners of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Molvedo (1961) and Prince Royal II (1964), further cementing the impression created by his own double in that honored classic.
His breeder, the renowned Senatore Frederico Tesio, has received universal recognition for his skill in selecting precisely the right matings to produce some of the century’s best Thoroughbreds. The techniques employed by the learned Tesio were, in some respects, highly orthodox. In addition to his complex system of “impressions,” used to select the correct matings for his mares, he tended toward the use of stallions that had won the Epsom Derby. In booking mares to these sires, Tesio revealed his deep-seated belief that a great racehorse was the most likely stallion to beget his own equal. This last point is cited because Ribot has so em phatically underlined the principle and because it relates in a strange way to his origin.
It was one of Tesio’s usual policies not to enroll first foals in the Italian Derby, probably in the belief that subsequent produce would be superior to a mare’s firstborn. Apart from Nearco the two most famous Tesio horses, Cavaliere d’Arpino and Ribot, did not contest the Derby, but for different reasons. The former could not be trained for the event and Ribot simply because neither he nor his dam was thought to be worth the nomination. Although he was Romanella’s fifth foal, she had bred very little before him and Ribot himself was the least developed of Tesio’s 1952 foal crop. The moral of this odd trick of fate seems to be that even the incomparable Tesio occasionally overlooked great gifts wrapped in drab packages.
Ribot was as undistinguished in appearance as he was distinguished in performance. Very difficult to handle, he was restless and temperamental, but is forgiven these traits as one must forgive a genius his characteristic nature. Leased in the United States, Ribot held court at John W. Gal- breath’s Darby Dan Farm, Lexington, Kentucky. During his career at stud, Ribot led England’s sire list three times (1963, 1967-68), and ranked among the top five sires on lists in Italy, France and the United States. Among the best horses he sired were:
Arts and Letters, American Horse of the Year 1969.
Tom Rolfe, American Champion Three-Year-Old 1965.
Ragusa, winner of the 1963 Irish Sweeps Derby, English St. Leger, and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
Ribocco, winner of the 1967 Irish Sweeps Derby and English St. Leger.
Ribero, winner of the 1968 Irish Sweeps Derby and English St. Leger.
Long Look, winner of the 1965 English Oaks.
Prince Royal II, winner of the 1964 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Molvedo, winner of the 1961 Prixde l’Arc de Triomphe.
When Mr. Reeves was asked to do this painting, Mrs. Galbreath suggested that Ribot be portrayed with his favorite groom at Darby Dan Farm, a gentle but powerful man known to the artist only as Floyd. He was one of the very few men who could handle Ribot.
On the night of April 27, 1972, Ribot suffered a twisted intestine. The great horse died the next day.

[Pedigreeman]

Forego by John W. Russell

Including Forego in my best five was not difficult since I had seen him race on so many occasions. But Kelso, another great gelding, was excluded only because of less familiarity:
They were individually recognized as Horse of the Year no less than eight times between them, with Kelso taking a slight edge in longevity by being so honored on five occasions. With the exception of Kelso, Forego was voted Horse of the Year more than any other horse earning this most coveted honor for three successive years, 1974, 1975 and 1976. By the time he retired, he would receive eight Eclipse Awards. But more remarkable perhaps, was that in 1974, Forego was voted Best Sprinter, primarily due to his winning the Vosburgh Handicap at seven furlongs, and but then coming he came back three weeks later to win the Jockey Club Gold Cup at two miles. Any further comparisons with Kelso would be largely subjective.
Forego was huge, figuratively and literally. Standing an honest 17 hands, he also girthed an immense 77 and one-half inches upon retirement. He was dark bay or brown, and with the exception of the faintest star in a long but attractive head, he was devoid of any white markings. Somewhat angular as a 3-year-old, he eventually became massive by the time he retired five years later.
He was owned and bred by Mrs. Edward H. Gerry and raced in her black-and-yellow colors under the stable name of Lazy F Ranch. By the Argentinian-imported Forli, he was out of stakes- winning Lady Galconda, by Hasty Road. who was a successful stallion and useful sort on the track, leading all juveniles in earnings in 1953 and winning the Preakness at three, and the Widner at four.
Due to his size, Forego was gelded and unraced until 3. Overshadowed entirely that year by Secretariat, Forego managed to finish fourth to the Meadow Stable star in the Kentucky Derby. He had previously finished second to Royal And Regal in the Florida Derby as the favorite, and later finished the year by winning both the Roamer and Discovery handicaps at Aqueduct, which placed him second on the Daily Racing Form Free Handicap with 129 lbs. to Secretariat’s 136 lbs.
As a 4-year-old in1974, Forego swept three Eclipse Award Best Sprinter, Best Handicap Horse, and Horse of the Year. He started the year by winning the three major handicaps in Florida; : the Donn, Gulfstream Park and Widner. He continued in the north by taking the Carter Handicap, and after second-place finishes in the Metropolitan and Nassau County handicaps, came back to win the Brooklyn Handicap. After three more losses, he won three more races: the Woodward, Vosburgh and then the Jockey Club Gold Cup. It was an incredible year, arguably his best, but his best race was yet to come.
At 5, he continued to collect major victories on his way to his second Horse of the Year title as well as Best Handicap Horse, winning the Seminole and Widner Handicaps in Flonda and the Carter, Brooklyn and Suburban handicaps, and the Woodward Stakes, all in New York. Although carefully managed by trainer Sherrill Ward, the tough campaign was to take its toll; he finished the year with a pulled suspensory ligament in his left foreleg. At this point, suffering from a chronic osteoarthritic condition of the hip, Ward relinquished the following year’s training duties to Frank Whiteley. In October, Forego was shipped to John Ward’s farm in Lexington, and then sent to Whiteley in Camden, S.C., for winter training.
Due to the increasingly aggravated suspensory, he raced sparingly as a 6-year-old in 1976, but still managed to win six major races in only eight starts. His only two defeats were a second-place finish in the Suburban, beaten a nose and giving nine pounds to Kentucky Derby winner and 3-year-old champion, Foolish Pleasure. His only other loss was a third in the Amory L. Haskell, for which I must confess I was partially to blame. Intrepid Hero, a horse that I trained, also a son of Forli, had won the mile-and-a-half Hollywood Derby on the lead throughout. He had also finished second by a neck in the Monmouth Invitational to 1975 3-year-old champion, Wajima, also on or near the lead for a mile and an eighth.
Forego’s style of running was to come from well off the pace, conserving energy, his great sprinting ability usually taking him past anything in the last furlong. We felt that with a huge weight differential, Intrepid Hero carrying 117 pounds to Forego’s 136 pounds, he we would have a chance to steal the Haskell by opening up along, early lead. Forego’s jockey, Jacinto Vasquez, would either have to save his horse and take a chance that Intrepid Hero would stop, or use Forego’s speed early, the sooner the better for us if he were to be punished by the enormous weight he had to carry. Forego moved much earlier than he normally would have, joining Intrepid Hero on the far turn, the two engaging in a battle from there. In the final yards, both horses, while tiring and drifting to the middle of the track, were caught by Greentree Stable’s Hatchet Man, who had come from last place, carrying a mere 112 lbs. Forego, with his worst finish for the year, was nosed out by Intrepid Hero for second place. intrepid Hero legitimized his fine effort by also winning the Bernard Baruch and and the United Nations handicaps, and the Secretariat Stakes before retiring to stud at Spendthrift Farm.
But Forego’s victories that year would more than exonerate him for the loss in the Haskell; indeed, they were some of his finest. He won the Metropolitan Mile (130 lbs.), the Nassau County Handicap (132 lbs.) and the Brooklyn Handicap for the third consecutive time(134 lbs.), prior to the Haskell. Then, switching from Vasquez to Shoemaker, he won the Woodward (135 lbs.), and finally, the Marlborough Cup (137 lbs.), a race that many regarded as his best. He won his third Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year, and his third for Best Handicap Horse.
Joe Hirsch, in “The American Racing Manual,” wrote: “Forego belongs with the superstars in any assessment of outstanding American thoroughbreds, and his Marlborough Cup will be the race for which he will be remembered.”
Continuing to be plagued by ankle problems, Forego made only seven starts the following year, winning four, including both the Metropolitan Handicap and the Nassau County for the second time, and the Woodward for the fourth straight year. He was second in both the Suburban and Brooklyn handicaps. He also collected his fourth consecutive Eclipse Award for Best Older Colt or Gelding.
When asked recently if Forego was difficult to ride, Shoemaker replied, “Not really, but he was hard to pull up after a race. When he’d hit the far turn he’d switch to his left lead, but when he’d straighten into the stretch he wouldn’t switch back, he would stay in the left lead to take care of that old ankle. As soon as he crossed the finish line he would start stumbling and it was all I could do to keep him on his feet until I got him down to a jog.
“He could pretty much run on any kind of track,’ Shoemaker added, “but Belmont, being a mile and a half around, had bigger turns, which made it easier for him to take care of himself. He was a great old horse, one of the best I ever rode.”
The following year, 1978, was his last. Making only two starts and winning only an allowance race, he was retired. He was sent to Kentucky in 1981 and became a celebrity pensioner at the Kentucky Horse Park. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame the year after retirement. He died in 1997 and is buried at the park.

[deltasports]

FOREGO tro(

HE WAS A GREAT HORSE..I CALLED HIM "BIG BLACK BEAUTY" HE HAD THE BIGEST ANKLES I HAD EVER SEEN..THEY WERE ALMOST LIKE GRAPEFRUITS.

ON OCT 2 1976 AT BELMONT PARK THE "MARLBORO HDC G1" AT A 1 1/4 WE (FATHER HOGAN) FINISHED 3RD BEATEN A LENGHT & A HEAD BY "FOREGO" & "HONEST PLEASURE" ..THOSE WERE ALSO THE GOOD OLD DAYS...tu?

[Pedigreeman]

Gallorette by M. A. Stoneridge

This makes me wise for the good old days. Its a long one.

THERE HAS always been something especially appea]ing to professional racing men, and to the racing public as well, about a game racing filly. Perhaps it is due to her peculiar combination of grace and strength, of femininity and combativeness. While fillies generally have the reputation of being moodier than colts—and it is a fact that they naturally tend to be less reliable from March to June, when they may be in season—most of the champion racing mares have possessed remarkably good racing manners and an almost desperate determination to win that is genuinely touching.
American Thoroughbred history records the careers of a number of fine race mares. The most successful in terms of victories and honors was certainly Busher, a War Admiral daughter foaled in 1942 out of Baby League, a daughter of La Troienne. Bred and raced as a two-year-old by Colonel E. I Bradley (who gave all of his Idle Hour Farm foals names beginning with the letter B, like his four Kentucky Derby winners, Broker’s Tip, Burgoo King, Bubbling Over, and Behave Yourself, and his splendid Belmont and Preakness winner, Bimelech), Busher was first trained by
Jimmy Smith and was the top filly of her generation in 1944. After being sold to movie magnate Louis B Mayer at the beginning of 1945, she was trained by George Odom and ridden by Johnny Longden to even finer exploits. At the end of a fabulous three-year-old season during which, often carrying the top weight, she broke time records and beat the best
of her masculine rivals, including the remarkable gelding Armed, Busher was awarded no less than five titles: Champion Money-Winning Filly to date, Best Three-Year-Old Filly, Best Three-Year-Old (including the colts), Best Handicap Mare, and Horse of the Year for 1945.
Only one other time in the history of the annual awards has the Horse of the Year title gone to a filly. It had happened the year just before Busher’s triumphant season, when in 1944 a big, strapping three-year-old bay daughter of Calumet Farm’s top stallion, Bull Lea, called Twilight Tear, who was trained by Ben Jones, ridden by Conn McCreary, and raced under the “devil’s red” colors of Warren Wright, took on all corners to score an amazing record for the season of fourteen wins out of seventeen starts, with one second, one third, and only one unp effort.
Before and since, there have been other great race mares: including the gallant Esposa before World War II; tough little Bed o’ Roses, champion
as a two-year-old in 1949 and again as a handicap mare; Bowl of Flowers, who was, according to her trainer, Elliott Burch (who also trained Arts and Letters and other top colts for Paul Mellon’s Rokeby Stable), prob
ably the best racer he ever handled; Bewitch, the Champion Handicap Mare of 1949, who won twenty out of fifty-five starts for earnings of $462,605; Cicada, a pretty bay filly by Bryan G., a Blenheim II son, out of Satsuma, daughter of the great brood mare Hildene, who was the first filly in history to be voted Champion as a two-year-old, again at three, and then again at four, and who led the list of all-time female money win ners for ten years, starting with her two-year-old season in 1961; Lamb Chop, a phenomenal Bold Ruler daughter owned by William Haggin Perry, trained by Jim Maloney, whose brilliant racing career was tragically ended when, shortly after being voted Champion Three-Year-Old Filly of 1963,
she snapped an ankle during a race at Santa Anita and had to be destroyed; Dark Mirage, the tiny Champion Three-Year-Old (filly or colt) of 1968, whose amazing stretch drives made her the winner of nine straight races out of ten, and the first filly in history to win the three Belmont races that comprise the Filly Triple Crown; The Acorn Stakes, The Mother Goose, and the Coaching Club American Oaks; Gallant Bloom, Champion Three- Year-Old Filly of 1969; Top Flight, famous for her precocious brilliance as a two-year-old when she won seven stakes races in seven tries for record two-year-old earnings, although she was unable to win against masculine competition in the three-year-old events; Shuvee, a magnificent big chest nut Nashua daughter out of Levee, who won the Filly Triple Crown in 1969 and then competed successfully against the colts as well, was the first filly ever to win the two-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup in 1970 and, after re peating the exploit in 1971, was retired from racing, having dethroned Ci cada as the richest mare in Thoroughbred history, ranking fifteenth in the money-winning list of both colts and fillies; and Ta Wee (which, in the language of the Sioux Indian, means “beautiful girl”) a half sister of the mile-record-holding colt, Dr. Fager, who was Champion Sprinter of 1969 and won the Interborough Handicap at Belmont under 14Z pounds, the highest weight ever carried by a winning filly on a New York track.
However, when the American Trainers’ Association met in 1956 to name the ten best racing fillies since the Civil War, it was Gallor’ette who led the list. And notwithstanding the impressive exploits of later contenders, every year since these experts have confirmed her as “The Greatest Race Mare of the Century.”
It is obvious that Gallorette must have been very special, as indeed she was. Bred, owned, and raced by William L. Brann of Glade Valley Farm near Frederick, Maryland, her very existence was the result of extraordi iiarily careful planning.
Brann had bred a splendid racer called Challedon out of a Sir Gallahad III mare by his top stallion, Challenger II, an imported son of Swynford and through the latter a descendant of the St. Simon line, with Flying Fox on the female side. Sir Gallahad also transmitted the blood of these two famous British racing families. Brann had been so pleased with the result of the cross that he was anxious to repeat the formula. Challenger II was still standing at stud, but it was not so easy to find another good Sir Gallahad III broodmare.
At last he discovered just what he was seeking in Gallette. She was a
daughter of Sir Gallahad III out of Flambette, who had been a successful
race mare before turning to breeding, whereupon she became a fine pro-
ducer and was the granddam of the Triple Crown Winner Omaha. Gallette
herself, however, had shown little talent or interest in racing. Her owner,
William du Pont, schooled her in jumping, hoping to convert her into a
steeplechaser, but her results in hurdle races were no better than her re
sults on the fiat. Finally he sold her as a lady’s hack. When she was seven
years old in 1936, Preston Burch, a Kentucky breeder, spotted a news
paper advertisement in which she was offered for sale. Impressed by her
splendid bloodlines, he bought her sight unseen and had her shipped to
his Kentucky farm. Returned to racing, Gallette ran in a few claimers.
Although she did not win, she made such a good impression that Burch,
afraid of losing her to a claim, again withdrew her from training.
It was at this point that William Brann appeared upon the scene.
Burch remained deaf to all his offers, refusing either to sell or lease his
mare. Eventually, they reached an agreement whereby Gallette would be
sent to Brann’s Maryland farm to be bred each year to Challenger II, with
Brann getting the first foal, Burch the next one, and so on.
Gallette was duly presented to Challenger II and eleven months later,
on February 7, 1942, she produced a big, gangly, bright chestnut filly
who was christened Gallorette and who automatically became the property
of William Brann. What luck for him that Gallette’s first foal was also the
best one!
Gallorette was rather a tomboy from the start, both in looks and tem
perament. Endowed with an unusually even disposition for a female, she
was neither sulky nor inconsistent, as are many racing fillies. Her boldness
and courage were exemplary, and so was her stamina. That is why her
greatest success was to be in the Handicap division, where she raced
against the colts and horses, often beating them at their own game and
quite often carrying the top weight. The husky foal eventually grew to be
a big i6.z hands, with a sound and rugged constitution. She inherited the
large joints and strong frame that were characteristic of many of Chal
lenger Ii offspring. In fact, she was rather masculine in appearance,
except for her beautiful long tail that almost touched the ground, and
her refined head. Viewed more closely, however, her expressions were ioo
per cent feminine.
Gallorette was broken and trained at Glade Valley Farm by Brann’s
trainer Edward A. Christmas, who was immediately subjugated by her
charm and impressed with her racing potential. His devotion to the filly
became so great that he hardly ever left her side. Much of his fame as a
trainer is due to his success with Gallorette, and he was widely admired
for his astute and careful handling of her. Ben Jones, the venerated trainer at Calumet Farm, once said that Christmas’ management of Gal lorette was the perfect example of being given a fine horse and doing everything right.
He started her racing comparatively late, in the f all of her two-year-old year. In her first race at Laurel Park, she finished third to Director and War Trophy. But one week later, ridden by Doug Dodson, she took a long early lead in a 5%-furlong sprint and won it in a canter. She repeated the decisive victory the following week, again cantering home, this time six lengths in the lead.
The Maryland Futurity of 1944 was practically a family affair for her. All but two of the starters were by Challenger II. The race was won by one of them, Petee Dee, with Gallorette, who had held the lead at one point, just failing to last the ¼-mile distance and coming in second to her half brother. In a longer race, the Selima Stakes at Laurel for two-year-old fillies over a 1%n-mile course, she finished third behind Busher, ridden by Eddie Arcaro, and Ace Card.
Gallorette’s two-year-old record of eight starts, three wins, three seconds, and two thirds was a very good one, if not sensational. Never had she finished out of the money. Moreover, she had shown continual improve ment, which was even more marked after a winter’s rest at Aiken, South Carolina, before embarking on her three-year-old campaign in 1945.
As a starter, she was ridden by Eddie Arcaro in a six-furlong Allowance race, which she won with ease, running like the wind, and incidentally beating Hoop, Jr., who was to be the victor of the Kentucky Derby later in the spring.
There were so many three-year-old entries in the Wood Memorial that year that the i%-rnile event had to be run in two divisions. One of them was won by Hoop, Jr., ridden by Arnold Kirkland, with Gallorette a gallant runner-up barely two lengths behind him.
She was obviously a match for any of the contemporary colts, and there were some very good ones running in her age division that year. There were some good fillies too, but none of those she met was a match for Gallorette. Ridden by Arcaro, she won the Acorn Stakes at Belmont by 1 1/2 lengths in front of the Whitney double entry of Monsoon and Recce; then the Pimlico Oaks, with George Woolf in the saddle and Recce the runner-up; next, reunited with Arcaro, she confirmed her superiority over the other eastern fillies by winning the Delaware Oaks in front of Elpis and Monsoon by three lengths, which could have been far more had she been asked for it.
Gallorette challenged the boys again in the Dwyer Handicap at Aqueduct. Since Arcaro had been engaged to ride Pavot in the event, she was piloted by Arnold Kirkland, who took her into the lead almost at once. There she remained until, at almost the last minute, Wildlife, ridden by Ted Atkinson, came forging along on the outside to beat her by a nose, with William Ziegler, Jr.’s, Esteem third, and the rest of the field far behind.
Atkinson rode her again in the Empire City Stakes at Jamaica the following week, and again she faced Pavot and Arcaro. This time it was Pavot who took the early lead and held onto it until the homestretch, when Gallorette surged forward. After a stubborn duel between the gifted colt and the detennined tomboy, she passed him to win by % of a length— and it would surely have been more had the distance been longer.
There was now no doubt that Gallorette was the best filly racing in the East. But at the same time, War Admiral’s bold, fast daughter Busher was making a brilliant three-year-old record on the West Coast under the colors of Louis B. Mayer. Negotiations were begun to arrange a match race between the two fillies, but it was impossible to find a date that fitted into their respective racing programs. Perhaps it was just as well for Gallorette, since she was not in her best form during August and Septem ber. It may have been due to the exhausting experience of running in the Jersey Handicap over a very muddy track at Garden State Park against a top field including such keen competitors as Armed and Stymie, who were both at their peak. Edward Christmas sent her home immediately afterward for a six-week rest.
Gallorette returned to the track for six more races before the end of the season. She ran well and fast, but her results were not as brilliant as they had been in the spring. She finished fifth in a i overnight handicap at Pimlico on October 27, carrying 124 pounds and entering the home stretch within striking distance of the leaders, but not quite able to summon a strong enough rally at the finish. In the Westchester Handicap on November 3, she was again running well when Stymie blazed ahead in one of his stunning stretch runs to win, leaving Gallorette four lengths behind in fourth place. She was again fourth in the Pimlico Special. Again, it was an honorable position behind the winner Armed, followed by First Fiddle and Stymie, and ahead of such excellent colts as Polynesian, War Date, and Pot o’ Luck.
This was the last race of her three-year-old season, which had con sisted of thirteen starts for five wins, two seconds, one third, and five times unplaced—generally barely out of the money, behind the best colts of the day. But hef season had really been divided into two acts, and the first act had been spectacular: five wins and two close seconds out of seven starts. The second act, after a six-week intermission, had not reached
the same high level of performance. Nevertheless, her earnings for the year were $94,300, and she was still constantly improving both in racing acumen and in physical strength and stamina. Her temperament and manners were always perfect
Gallorette returned to Aiken again for the winter, where she continued to gain weight and strength and attained her full height of i6.z. Inci dentally, the greatest growth in horses usually takes place between their two- and three-year-old seasons, although some of them continue to grow even at the age of four.
During that winter, she also underwent a demoralizing experience. At least it would probably have demoralized most other females. Somehow or other, probably from too tight a tail bandage, she developed a serious infection in her tail that resisted every remedy. The only solution was to resort to surgery. Poor Gallorette! Part of the long tail that was her principal pride and glory had to be cropped. Fortunately, she was an extremely well-balanced filly who had never fancied herself a beauty queen in any case, preferring to scrap it out with the boys. But it still must have been a bitter pill to swallow.
During her two previous seasons of racing, she had enjoyed the ad vantage, except in Handicap events, of the standard weight reduction accorded to fillies competing against colts: 3 pounds less as two-year-olds, and during their three-year-old year, 5 pounds less until September first, and 3 pounds less thereafter. From now on, at the age of four, graduating into the Handicap division, she would have to meet all corners on equal terms, or rather, under weights decided upon by the handicappers and based on her past record. With a record as good as Gallorette’s, it meant that she would often carry as much or more than her masculine rivals, and undoubtedly be top-weighted among the females. Many successful racing fillies have accomplished the most and earned the most during their two- and three-year-old seasons, when they were able through astute management to make the most of their weight advantage. One of the most estimable features of Gallorette’s career is the fact that she performed her finest feats under the most difficult conditions, as a handicapper.
Already in her very first race of 1946 she was top-weighted, except for Fighting Step, in the 1 1/16-mile Excelsior Handicap at Jamaica on April 27, in which she finished fourth. She was fourth again in the Grey Lag Handi cap on May 4, after setting a fast pace as the early leader and forcing Stymie, who was the winner at the finish, to break the track record.
At least these t fourth places reduced her weight handicap to only
110 in the Metropolitan Stakes at Aqueduct. She started at odds of 10 to 1,
ridden by Job Dean Jessup, who was to be her jockey in many of her best races thereafter. The railbirds cried, “Come on, Mom!” (which was the pet name given to Gallorette by her handlers), as she started slowly. Soon, however, she found her stride and surged ahead in the stretch to win by a nose.
The overnight one-mile Nimba Handicap was an easy victory, where upon she was assigned the top weight of izS pounds in the Top Flight Handicap on May 29. It was probably too much of a disadvantage over the i%-mile distance, for she finished fifth, while the leaders carried some 15 pounds less.
The hard-working mare now went on to Delaware Park to outrun the excellent colt War Trophy in a u/ a preparation race for the Sussex Handicap, in which she carried six pounds more than he did. In the Handicap itself, she was beaten by two lengths by her old rival Pavot, although she had the satisfaction of outdistancing another familiar rival, Stymie, by one length at the finish. It should be added that Stymie, one year her senior, this time carried by far the heaviest burden: iz6 pounds to Pavot’s 115 and Callorette’s 113.
Returning to New York, the apparently indefatigable tomboy ran what was probably her most memorable race in the Brooklyn Handicap. The weight assignments for the important i event had been brilliantly calculated, with the principal contenders, Gallorette and Stymie, assigned respectively ui8 and iz8 pounds. The race turned into a thrilling duel between the two of them. First Gallorette was in the lead, then Stymie, then Gallorette again. At the beginning of the homestretch, the tenacious chestnut colt unleashed one of his fabulous finishing drives. But the big game filly refused to be daunted. Mustering all of her strength and cour age, she managed to get even with him, and then edged past to win by a neck. Her time of 2:05 for the i%-mile distance had left all of the other starters five lengths or more behind. Gallorette was given an ovation. Very few racers were capable of withstanding Stymie’s relentless stretch drives, and for a mare to accomplish the feat was really an achievement.
Despite the prodigious efforts asked of her, despite her travels from track to track, and despite the fact that she was ridden by many different jockeys, Gallorette remained as vell behaved and well balanced as ever. She was unusually intelligent. She seemed to understand the racing routine, to know what to expect and what was expected of her, and to take it all in her big stride. At the same time, she had lots of personality. Her mobile ears and expressive face showed her reactions to all that went on around her. She often amused, but never caused trouble for her handlers, who adored her.
After that sensational victory over Stymie in the Brooklyn Handicap, Gallorette ran two races which were admirable feats although she won neither of them. First, top-weighted in the Massachussetts Handicap on the Fourth of July, she finished third behind Pavot and Dinner Party. Then she was beaten by a head by Lucky Draw in the Butler Handicap, in which she carried ii6 pounds to the winning colt’s 105 and forced him to set a new Jamaica track record for miles in 1:551/3. Stymie, who could generally be found somewhere in the vicinity whenever Gallorette raced in a handicap event, was this time close behind her in third place. The Wilson Handicap on August 5 was another touch-and-go duel between Gallorette and Pavot, who finally nosed her out of the victory although she was gaining constantly at the finish and left behind her a very good field.
Obviously, Gallorette was not given easy tasks, but, rather, was asked to face the toughest competition in the most important stakes events with comparatively heavy burdens. In an Allowance race on August 5, the handicappers saw no reason to favor her as a member of the weaker sex. She was assigned two pounds more than King Dorsett and Stymie. The track was very sloppy and Gallorette, like many mares, disliked the mud. She finished last, with King Dorsett the winner.
If the latter acquired any feeling of superiority over his tomboy rival, it was short-lived. Gallorette came surging from behind in the Bay Shore Handicap at Aqueduct on September 9, burdened with four pounds more than all the other starters, to beat King Dorsett by a neck, with Polynesian in third place.
Her arch rival was Stymie. Racegoers (and track managers too) could be certain that an event in which the big game mare would match her stamina and speed against that of the brave, audacious chestnut colt was bound to be a thriller. They were very closely matched, both of them bold and both of them fast. It took very little to switch the balance one way or the other. In the Edgemere Handicap, it took no more than two pounds, which was the weight advantage given to Stymie, who carried in pounds to Gallorette’s 123. Stymie won by two lengths, with Gallorette tenaciously trying to keep up with him, and King Dorsett finishing third. It was this victory, incidentally, with its winner’s purse of $19,750, that carried Stymie past the long-time title holder Sun Beau as the world’s
leading money-winning Thoroughbred.
Next on Gallorette’s hard program was the Beldame Handicap on Sep
tember zi, for fillies and mares, over a distance of 1 miles. As one of the
most important distaff events, then run at Aqueduct and now at Belmont
Park, it attracted such a crowd of ambitious females that it had to be run
in two divisions. Gallorette was the winner of her division, in the fastest
time of i: Top-weighted at izø pounds, she gained her victory with a dazzling backstretch run that Stymie himself would have admired.
Most Thoroughbreds tend to do their best either in the spring or in the fall, which is not a peculiarity restricted to fiat racers. Moreover, mares are apt to show an even more pronounced preference for the beginning or the end of the season than do colts and horses. This was certainly true of Gallor whose fall races were never on a par with her earlier form. Her last fairly good race of 1946 was the Sysonby Special at Belmont on October iz, in which she finished second to Lucky Draw— but a good twelve lengths behind him. It might be added, just for the
record, that she finished eighth of twelve starters in the Trenton Handicap
on October z6, and last of six (with Assault the winner) in the Westches ter Handicap on November 9—because none of these fall races were typical
of her best efforts.
Fully aware that Gallorette had had enough racing for the year, her
owner withdrew her from the Pimlico Handicap, and retired her for the winter. She had worked hard as a four-year-old, harder than any racing mare since Esposa. Out of eighteen starts, mostly in keenly contested
open Handicap events, she had scored six wins, five seconds, two thirds, and was five times unplaced. Her earnings were an impressive $159,160, making a total of $261,410 during three years of competition.
Her hard-won fortune was topped by the record-setting $334,035 that
Busher had been amassing in the meantime in the rich West Coast handi caps. But Gallorette was still as tough and sound as ever. She still seemed
to enjoy a close duel down the backstretch—especially at the beginning of the season. While most race mares seldom last more than two or three years, Gallorette was an exceptional female in this as in so many other respects. Her owner and trainer were already making plans for her fourth and final campaign as a five-year-old in 1947. Perhaps that extra year would even give her a chance to better Busher’s earnings mark and to become the richest dowager in Thoroughbred history.
After another winter at Aiken and two warm-up races in April, Gal lorette, still looking and behaving more like a strapping tomboy than like a dignified matron, started a series of fourteen races in which she was never out of the money. For a five-year-old mare, inevitably beyond the peak of her competitive powers, this record is an eloquent tribute to the masterful management of Edward Christmas as well as to her own in domitable fighting spirit.
In 1947 she was again entered in the most important Handicap events. Again she had to fight it out with such top horses as Assault, Stymie, Lucky Draw, and Pavot. It was undoubtedly this five-year-old season, although not the equal of the previous one in terms of results and earnings, that eternally endeared her to the racing fraternity. To every one of her races—and there were no less than eighteen of them—she consecrated all of her heart and strength. Even when she did not win, she offered such a strong challe to her male rivals that they, too, were forced to produce their best efforts. No mare since Esposa in the thirties has ever accomplished such a tough two-year-campaign in the Handicap division. In the O/i6-mile Queens County Handicap at Aqueduct on June 2, the
first big event after two insignificant April efforts, she won a close duel with
Stymie by a nose. Then she finished third, top-weighted at 123 pounds, in
the Carter Handicap, beaten in the seven-furlong sprint by two fast
runners, Rippey and Inroc, who carried 11 and 5 pounds less. After these
hard battles, the Capra Handicap, restricted to fillies and mares, was an
easy win, in spite of her top weight of iz8 pounds. Next she was asked to
fight it out with the boys again in the Butler Handicap, which she had lost
by a nose to Lucky Draw the year before. This time her two principal
male rivals, Stymie and Assault, were the masculine stars of a fine field,
and her third place, two lengths behind Stymie, who was a head behind
the winner Assault, was an achievement if not a victory.
On to the Saratoga August meeting, where she scored a superb win in
the Wilson Stakes over Hornbeam and King Dorsett who, despite his royal
title, had by now become resigned to conceding precedence to the big
bold bright chestnut mare. Gallorette’s time of 1:35% during the mile race
set a new track record, and her winner’s purse pushed her lifetime
earnings over $310,000, which was very close indeed to Busher’s mark.
The difference of some $25,000 Ot so was made up the hard way, by a series of second and third place purses in a number of hard-fought races. She collected only $ for example, when she finished second by a head to Rico Monte in the Whitney Stakes, after a duel so close that until the final strides the victory could have gone to either one of them. She then added another relatively modest purse for a second place, again beaten by a head, to Rico Monte in the Saratoga Handicap.
Back at Aqueduct on September first for the Aqueduct Stakes over 1%6 miles, she carried izz pounds to Stymie’s 132. After another of their sus penseful combats that thrilled the crowd and inspired admiration for both of these gallant, apparently indestructible campaigners, Stymie was the winner by half a length, after a neck to neck run down the backstretch.
Fourth (and last) in the Edgemere Handicap, Gallorette at least added
$1250 to her bankroll and moved a little bit closer to Busher’s record.
The Beldame Stakes for fillies and mares, in which Gallorette had won her division the year before, again attracted so many entries that it had to be run in two divisions. Like the last time, Gallorette was assigned the top weight of 126 pounds. But this year she finished second in the top division to the lightly burdened (io6 pounds) three-year-old Snow Goose, ridden by Ted Atkinson. Nevertheless, “Mom’s” supporters celebrated the event. Gallorette’s $10,000 second-place money increased her total earnings to $337,685, surpassing Busher’s record and making the game, hard-work ing mare the richest female in Thoroughbred racing history.
By the end of the season, she had added more second- and third-place money to the sum (but no more victories), achieving a total for the year (in which she started eighteen times for three wins, six seconds, five thirds, and four unplaced efforts) of $90,275—and a lifetime total of $351,685 for fifty-seven starts, seventeen wins, sixteen seconds, ten thirds, and fourteen times unplaced.
The most amazing thing of all was that the gallant tomboy was unscathed by her four seasons of hard racing. She did not even show the slightest sign of becoming bored with the sport. In fact, she seemed to enjoy campaign ing as much as ever, and to relish a thrilling neck to neck stretch duel such as those in which she had so often been engaged with Stymie.
There was therefore no question of retiring Gallorette. Edward Christ mas’ astute management of the mare during her fifth season at the tracks in 1948 at the age of six was certainly a major reason for Ben Jones’s tribute to him. For the fourth season, she would race in Handicap events for three-year-olds and over, which meant that she would now have to face not only the few remaining members of her generation who were as indestructible as she, but also the cream of the three succeeding crops of
talented fillies and colts that had graduated into the Handicap ranks.
Under the circumstances, Gallorette’s 1948 season was fantastic: fifteen
starts with four wins (including the 7 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct
and the Whitney Stakes at Saratoga); four second places (including a
brilliant effort in the Brooklyn Handicap in which she beat Stymie, who
was still going strong at seven but was terribly handicapped at 130 pounds
and finished runner-up to Conniver, a remarkable four-year-old Discovery
daughter who had originally been trained as a polo pony and was to be
the Champion Handicap Mare of 1948); three thirds (including the
Beldame Stakes, in which she was assigned 124 pounds and beaten by
Conniver again, carrying izi, and Harmonica, with 114). Unp only
four times out of these fifteen starts, Gallorette raised her lifetime earnings
to the stunning sum of $445,535.
Since then, as purses have increased, particularly in the two-year-old
races, Gallorette’s record has been surpassed by other race mares. The
current leader is Shuvee, whose fortune of $890,445 ranks first among the
race mares of all time and fifteenth among all Thoroughbreds, male or fe
male. However, not since Gallorette has a race mare accomplished such
achievements principally in the Handicap division, which accounted for
more than half of her earnings, where the competition is ruthless and
where there is no advantage in being a member of the fair sex. Moreover,
Gallorette delivered quantity as well as quality. Her total number of
seventy-two starts represents a lot of racing for a horse, and even more so
for a mare.
During the middle of 1948, Gallorette was purchased by Mrs. Marie A.
Moore, who agreed to the condition that Edward Christmas would con-
tinue to train and manage her until the end of the racing season, when she would be retired to start a new career as a broodmare.
Although Gallorette did her best to be as good a “Mom” in the nursery
as she had been at the race track, she produced no sensational foals.
After changing owners several times, she was most recently sold, in 1965 at
the Keeneland sales, for $157,000, a whopping price for a twenty-three
year old matron!
In her time, Gallorette was most often described as a tomboy. But today
she might well qualify as a model Thoroughbred adherent of “Women’s
Lib”—a female who was perfectly willing to fight it out with the members of the opposite sex on equal terms, and who frequently managed to prove her superiority without losing in the process any of her thoroughly fem- inine charm.:)

[deltasports]

what a coincidence....i wrote an article about 2 months ago for the TDN REGARDING "GALLORETTE" & "SICKCLES IMAGE"..WHEN I GET back from saratoga i will re-post it if i can find it..i know that FAST G 45 ASKED ME FOR IT SOME MONTHS AGO..FAST if u see this,did u ask me..

[FastG45]

i wrote an article about 2 months ago for the TDN - FAST if u see this,did u ask me..

Yes I asked you, but I'm not a member of TDN, I think you have to be a member to read it.

I read this article, good stuff

[Pedigreeman]

Count Fleet

Breeding Thoroughbred horses is a treacherous business. The odds for success are so stacked against the breeder, the wonder is that so many of them keep chasing the ever elusive prize at the end of the rainbow— another Man o’ War or the next Triple Crown champion. Patience, perseverance, and unlimited ready cash are indispensable prerequisites. It is equally true that a rich lode of luck must also accompany the fat wallet. The history of Thoroughbred racing in America is replete with stories of champion heroes emerging from the pack of thousands of foals bred each year, largely because of a twist of fate. The saga of Count Fleet is one such chapter.
John D. Hertz was a self-made millionaire. He emigrated to America from Czechoslovakia as a youngster, settled in Chicago, and amassed his fortune when he founded the Yellow Cab Company and then proceeded to put Americans in the driver’s seat with his car-rental operations. His interest in Thoroughbred racing and breeding began in the early ‘20s. He rose rapidly to prominence in the sport, eventually heading up the Arlington Race Track. It was he who in 1939 tried to woo the special race between War Admiral and Seabiscuit to Chicago, by offering to match the $100,000 Belmont Park was putting up as a purse.
In 1927, six years after he and his wife had joined the owner-breeder ranks, he saw a young colt catch up to the leader of a race, reach over, and bite him. The Hertzes were so taken with this remarkable display of fired determination that they made up their minds then and there to buy him. The following year, they wound up with their first Kentucky Derby trophy. The colt’s name was Reigh Count, who went on to victory in other major stakes races in the United States and England. When he eventually was retired to stud he was among the top twenty leading sires for five consecutive years. But none of his get won a Futurity or Kentucky Derby, which convinced Hertz that he could not expect too much more success from him. However, he was not about to sell him, so he decided to breed him to no more than four mares a year for as long as he lived or remained active in stud. Considering that it is usual for a top stallion to receive between thirty and forty mares in a breeding season, the decision was hardly a vote of confidence in Reigh Count, more likely a sentimental gesture to the stallion. On the other hand, Hertz still had it in the back of his mind that he might yet bring off the long-tried breeding theory of mating a distance-running sire, like Reigh Count, with a flashy, speedy mare, to produce a son with the best qualities of both.
Such a mare did come along, but it took better than ten years, and it called for even more of the gambler’s gambit to take a chance with her. She was Quickly, a shifty mare by Haste, out of a daughter by Stefan the Great. Hertz, in buying her for only $2,500, was bucking the wisdom of breeders, who distrust any mare that has run too much. The reasoning is that they have worn themselves out to be any good as a broodmare. On the surface, Quickly fit that theorem. She was seven years old, footsore, in poor physical condition, having raced eighty-five times in six seasons, winning thirty-two times and earning only $21,530. Most of her victories were at six furlongs distance obviously was not her forte. Quickly’s first mating was poor. The next year she was barren. Hertz still refused to concede, with the result that his luck, gambling instinct, and sheer stubbprnness bore fruit on March 24, 1940, To the cover of Reigh Count at Hertz’s Stoner Creek Farm in Kentucky, she produced an ugly duckling of a foal, “a gangling little brown chow-hound that was promptly named Count Fleet.”
He was a disappointment as a yearling, showing signs of difficulty in handling. The combination of negatives nudged Hertz to offer the youngster for sale. Count Fleet, therefore, was shown to prospedtive yearling buyers, but the trainers shied away because of his dam. On the other hand, they snapped up two other yearlings by Reigh ount. About the only one who believed in the young Thoroughbred at the time was the stable boy, Sam Ramsen. He envisioned a great horse in the brown, gawky colt. He worked diligently with him and, when about to be inducted into the Army, he begged the manager of Stoner Creek Farm to tell Hertz not to sell Count Fleet, because “someday he is going to be one fine racer.”
Hertz had little choice, when 1942 rolled around and still no buyer in sight He simply shipped the fractious problem off to the races, placing him in the hands of his trainer, the big, quiet, florid-faced Scot, C. D. “Don” Cameron. It took until June 1 before Cameron was willing to chance his educational indoctrination of the horse in an outing at Belmont Park. “The Count” swerved at the start, banged into Vacuum Cleaner, and lost. He did the same two weeks later. A few days afterward, the colt’s jockey, Johnny Longdon, chanced to visit Cameron’s barn at Belmont and noticed a trainer examining Count Fleet. He jumped on his bicycle, pedaled furiously to a nearby telephone booth, and called Hertz. “That was the first time I knew that Mr. Hertz had put him up for sale," recalled Longdon.
The price, they told me was $4,500. I felt it was a bad mistake to let him
go. Just his love of running, if it could ever be properly controlled, had
convinced me that he would be a good one." When he explained this to the owner he was told: “The colt’s dangerous. Someday, I’m afraid he’ll do you serious injury.” “I’m not afraid,” countered Longdon. This, coming from a thirty-four-year-old jockey, one of the top riders of the American turf, convinced Hertz. “All right,” he sighed, “if you’re game enough to ride him, I’ll keep him.”
The tide took a dramatic turn almost immediately. He broke his maiden in a five-and-a-half-furlong sprint in 1:06, just 3/5 second shy of the track record, and repeated on July 4 at the same distance, at 1/5 second faster, in both as if the opposition had suddenly stopped running. He lost the next time out, in the East View Stakes on July 15, only to rebound in the Wakefield Stakes on July 22, when three horses came out with him and he “strung them out like the proverbial ‘string of suckers,’” as one reporter called it. These performances convinced the railbirds that he was probably the best two-year-old in the East. The only one who could stack up to him was Occupation, a Westerner whose followers were touting him for juvenile champion honors and as unbeatable, coming off victories in the Arlington Park Futurity and other races. The showdown between the two was inevitable, slated for the Washington Park Futurity in Chicago, on August 15.
Eleven horses went to the post, with Occupation the favorite at 3-5. “The Count” trailed at the top of the stretch, following a.troublesome start, and then Longdon sent him after the leader. As they approached the wire, “Count Fleet seemed . . . literally to be eating him up,” recalled “Salvator.” He failed by a neck. It was back to the drawing board once more, and two quick wins followed, as the colt was prepared for the upcoming Futurity Stakes at Belmont Park on October 3. Just before the big race, though, big news was made at a morning workout. Johnny Longdon was observed having his hands full trying to hold in the horse, as he rocketed through six furlongs, or three- quarters of a mile, in an unprecedented 1:08 1/5. There were too many onlookers with stop watches for Cameron and Longdon, who said he thought it was more like 1:12, to discount the time. Although Count Fleet had always been considered a horse of competitive temperament and a stretch runner of ability, none had seriously thought of him as a speedster. The workout changed many minds, including that of the trainer, who, for the first time, was ready to concede that the colt had tremendous potential. To Be continued.

[Pedigreeman]

http://www.horseracingnation.com/blogs/zatt/Remembering_Sham_123

[omalley]

http://www.horseracingnation.com/blogs/zatt/Remembering_Sham_123

Where have you been. What do you think of Brownie Points new fold?

[Pedigreeman]

http://www.drf.com/blogs/man-o-wars-funeral-remarkable-final-tribute-majestic-champion