Thoroughbred Horse Racing at its best!!
I have been a fan of Thoroughbred horse racing since 1987 when I happened to turn on the television one day and witness Alysheba driving across the finish line of the Preakness Stakes. He became my first equine hero and I have been a part of racing ever since. My collection of videos (races and clips from a weekly recap show), magazines, books, newspaper clippings, and pictures grows every year. At right Alysheba is shown fending off his rival Bet Twice in the 1988 Grade one Iselin Handicap.
Alysheba became a symbol by which all other horses I saw would be measured. I never missed a race he ran in after the Preakness...except the Belmont when he ran 4th, because the family was on vacation in Oregon at the time. That same year, I witnessed the undefeated filly Personal Ensign remain so with a nose victory over Winning Colors in the Breeder's Cup Distaff(I). Although a great runner in her own right, I wasn't as fond of her as I was of Alysheba.
My next "big" horse was actually two. The west coast-based Sunday Silence, and the east based Easy Goer, in 1989 began one of the most memorable rivalries since 1978. Their racing epic in the 1989 Preakness Stakes(I) is one for the ages (pictured at left). They dueled for a quarter mile and at the end, Sunday Silence had bested Easy Goer once more, though only by a nose. The race itself I accidentally missed because I had thought at the time that it was three weeks after the Derby. (If anyone happened to tape this I would love to get a copy from you!) Starting with this year and ever since, I have failed to tape the Breeders' Cup (never) and Triple Crown races only once--that being the 1990 Belmont Stakes(I) when, again our family was on vacation. Unfortunately, racing was deprived of seeing these two giants battle on as four-year-olds when they retired early in 1990 with ankle problems. Easy Goer shockingly died in 1994, and Sunday Silence has since been sold to Japan--where he has been a leading sire since his first crop hit the track in 1994.
The next great runner that, unfortunately never got to reach the levels of greatness beyond age three, was the great filly Go For Wand. A semi-dark bay in color with a wide blaze, she epitomized elegance before a race, and tolerated no one during a race. She won some of racing's greatest prizes for fillies--including beating older mares three 
times in the fall of 1990. She met defeat only three times, the last being when she broke her ankle during the running of the 1990 Breeders' Cup Distaff(I). In that race, she battled the six-year-old mare Bayakoa throughout the entire 1 1/8m distance and was less than 100 yds to the finish--on the lead by a half length--when her right ankle suddenly snapped and she fell. Bayakoa went on to win by 6 and 3/4 lengths, leaving her fallen foe behind. That was the last time anyone would see the great filly alive again.
I watched this scene at home in horror on T.V. After cheering my lungs out for her to hold on just a few more strides, I was suddenly overcome with grief. "America's Darling" had given everything she had to win the race, and to be taken so suddenly just didn't seem fair. Her career ended on the track that dark day in October and to this day I remember her running on heart alone throughout her brief racing career. In all, she ran 13 races, won 10, second twice, and that one championship race that she never got a chance to finish. She earned over $1.3 million and was voted 1989 Champion Two-Year-Old Filly, and 1990 Champion Three-Year-Old Filly. She is pictured at right winning the 1990 Mother Goose Stakes(I). She was truly a great one--and one that came within two-fifths of a second of beating Secretariat's world record for a mile and an eighth. Her final tribute...voted a member of racing's Hall of Fame in 1997. She is pictured again below, relaxing back in her barn after a bath.
I have had the priveledge to see many good horses during my brief involvement with thoroughbred racing. I am more of a fan than an actual participant, but I follow horses through their breeding careers and often their deaths. I would have loved to have seen Secretariat, Forego, and Easy Goer in person, but I never got the chance before they died. Each a respected runner of their era, and each a crowd pleaser on the track. Although the latter remains a clearer image than the other two, it does not detract from their greatness. Anyone lucky enough to witness them in action is truly remarkable.
One of my favorite runners of the more recent memory was the big grey Holy Bull. As a two-year-old, he won all four of his races--including an upset over the "then" horse Dehere. Put away for the winter of 1993, he came back to score an impressive victory in January, 1994 in the Hutcheson Stakes. People started to take notice that this horse was something. In his next start in Florida, he had trouble breathing and suffered the first defeat of his career. After corrective surgery, he bounced back to win the Florida Derby(I)--a major prep for the Kentucky Derby(I). In his last start before the Derby, he won the Bluegrass Stakes(II) by a widening 3 1/2 lengths.
On Derby day 1994, it was cold and dreary and the Bull was not up to the challenge that day and suffered the second defeat of his career as he struggled home 12th over a sloppy track. But that was the last time he would be defeated that year as he realed off wins in the Metropolitan Mile(I), Dwyer Stakes(II), Haskell Invitational(I) (pictured at right), Travers Stakes(I), and the best of them all, the Grade One Woodward Stakes(I)--where he defeated older horses for the second time by a widening five lengths. He was then put away for the winter and subsequently named Champion Three-Year-Old Colt and 1994 Horse of the Year--the highest honor ever given to a racehorse.
Unfortunately, he too ended his career all too soon. After winning his first start back as a four-year-old in 1995, he met up with the red hot Cigar in the Donn Handicap(I). Just into the backstretch, he tore a suspensory ligament in his right front leg. To the gasps of many as he was pulled up, he would be retired on the spot. While Cigar went on to win the race and would go on to greater fame, that day was a gloomy one as the "Most Popular Champion since Secretariat" did not go out in a blaze of glory as many would have hoped. In a way, many will claim that the Bull passed on the torch to Cigar and he carried the sport for one incredible ride of 16 consecutive victories--the most by any modern American Thoroughbred. On a bright note, Holy Bull's first crop of foals will be racing in 1998--of which he has already sired two stakes winners from three runners! He retired to stud with 13 wins in 16 starts and earned over $2 million...what an incredible horse to watch..and yes I do have all his races on tape as well!
In 1997, Silver Charm, Captain Bodgit, and Free House provided the racing world with yet another rivalry with high drama. Finishing one-two-three in The Kentucky Derby--the first two seperated by less than 1/2 a length--they provided one of the most thrilling finishes of a race that you will ever see in the 1997 Preakness Stakes. If you thought the finish of Sunday Silence and Easy Goer in 1989 was tight, this one was one for the history books! Pictured at left is the headon shot of three horses barreling towards the finish line, where Silver Charm prevailed by a short head. By doing so, he became the first horse since 1989 to have a chance to win the Triple Crown. He fell but a half length short in the Belmont Stakes, but his gusty running and sheer determination put many people jumping on his bandwagon. His first race back in 1998 after winning the March 28th Dubai World Cup(UAE-I) was the Stephen Foster H(II) in which he finished second. He has yet to be fully cranked up so he will be the one to watch in the fall.
In 1998, there was a new hope 
for a Triple Crown winner in the unlikely Real Quiet. Forgotten and neglected much in the way that Sunday Silence was, "The Fish" as he is so nicknamed, turned into a shark--as his white haired trainer Bob Baffert has put it. Always consistant and usually the bridesmaid (a term meaning that he is near the top but is just short of winning a race and usually ends up second or third), he has reeled off consecutive victories in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes. On June 6, the racing world was treated to one of the best races ever in the 1 1/2 mile Belmont Stakes--often referred to as the "test of champions." Real Quiet took the lead at the top of the stretch and looked home free until the late charging Victory Gallop gobbled up ground with every stride and nailed him at the nail in one of the most exciting finishes ever. Visibly laboring in the stretch, "The Fish" gave it all he had and came within inches of being the 12th Triple Crown Champion, and the first since Affirmed in 1978. It was a race that I'll never forget and it will probably go down in history as one of the greatest epics that could have been. The question that arose from this was the fact that Real Quiet came out in the stretch causing an inquiry that the stewards now say would have cost him his victory had he won.
A tribute to the last four great rivalries!! See if this doesn't make you want to go see the horses at a track near you!
Well I have left off Cigar,
Serena's Song,
John Henry ,
Ruffian,
Secretariat,
and a few others that I plan on adding in the future. Click on their names to see their pictures though! Stay tuned! It is easy to see that I love this sport and someday hope to be a part of it. But until that day comes, I will be content to see first hand on T.V. just what it would be like to be in that winner's circle...posing for pictures and bragging about a horse that I knew could run like it was bred to do.
(All photos are courtesy of Thoroughbred Memories)
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