Colins Ghost

I am not the self-congratulatory type (most of the time) but March 30th marked the one year anniversary of Colin’s Ghost. One year ago, on the Sunday after the Florida Derby, I did a story about Dr. Fager’s world record mile. I had been compiling story ideas for awhile but the whole thing started with minimal planning or foresight (the beauty of the internet, right). Forty-eight articles, 13,563 visitors and 23,102 pageviews later – he we are. Considering that my content is about a marginal aspect of a marginalized sport, I figure those stats aren’t too bad. Based on my initial expectations, Colin’s Ghost has been a real success (my expectations were low).

I have truly appreciated the support and compliments that I have received from people I respect a great deal. Thanks to Steve Crist for mentioning me on his blog and in his column in August (a high point of my blogging career). A big thanks to Seth Merrow for the links over at Equidaily. I visit Seth’s outstanding site every day and I still get a thrill when I see a link to Colin’s Ghost there. Thanks also to the Paulick Report, Jessica at Raceday360, and my colleagues in the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance.

The biggest thank you goes to those who visit the site. I especially enjoy everyone’s comments, contributions, and corrections (Gen. George? Not sure what happened there.). The site is a labor of love – the fact that people actually read it is a bonus.

Looking forward to another excellent year. As always, thanks for reading and good luck.

(OK, enough with the back slappin’ — story on Bold Ruler’s big win in the Wood by the end of the week. In the meantime, the story on Gen. Duke is now corrected – check it out if you missed it.)

The three-year-old class of 1957 is the gold standard by which all classes before and after should be compared.

Whitney Tower wrote prior to the ‘57 Derby: “To talk so soon of greatness in connection with the current crop of 3-year-olds Thoroughbreds would normally be singularly audacious…One sensational race should never qualify its winner as great. There has not been one sensational race in 1957. There have been at least a half dozen.”

Image: Gen. Duke in the Gulfstream Park winner’s circle after matching the world record for a mile and an eighth in the 1957 Florida Derby (Turf and Sport Digest)

Prior to the Derby, the elites of the ‘57 class matched or broke track records at Hialeah, Fair Grounds, Gulfstream, Jamaica, and Keeneland.

Bold Ruler, Round Table, Federal Hill, and Gallant Man all ran superlative races leading up to Derby day but the greatest of these performances was turned in by Calumet Farms’ Gen. Duke, a colt sired by Bull Lea and trained by Ben Jones, conditioner to the Calumet A-List.

Gen. Duke’s run in beating the Wheatley Stable’s Bold Ruler in the Florida Derby transcended all others.

In a preview of the Florida Derby on May 30th 1957, Shirley Povich wrote:

“Bold Ruler and Gen. Duke, the top three year olds of Florida racing, renew their tight dueling Saturday at Gulfstream Park this time with strong Kentucky Derby implications…

“…Out of the race is certain to emerge next month’s Kentucky Derby favorite…

“…The main bout is between Bold Ruler and Gen. Duke, the pair that raced to a neck decision at even weights four weeks ago in the Flamingo Stakes won by Bold Ruler. It was the son of Nasrullah reversing a decision he lost to Gen. Duke previously in the Everglades Stakes when he gave away 12 pounds.”

The much anticipated match-up did not disappoint. Gen. Duke not only beat his rival but he did so in world record time. Again, Shirley Povich reporting for the Washington Post:

“Gen. Duke and Willie Hartack, with Bold Ruler and Eddie Arcaro to catch, answered their backers at Gulfstream Park today with a stretch stampede that took them to victory in the $123,600 Florida Derby.

“They caught the 3 to 5 favorite between the final eighth and sixteenth poles and poured in the fastest mile and an eighth in 3-year-old history to win by a decisive length and a half. The race was carried in Washington D.C. on WTOP-TV…

“…It was Bold Ruler yielding to Gen. Duke in an immense horse race that saw four steeds swinging into the homestretch virtually abreast with only the longshot, Shan Pac, out of it, and Federal Hill threatening to hold his early lead before fading to fifth.

“Then came the battle of bloodlines with the son of Bull Lea licking the son of Nasrullah with the same kind of medicine Bold Ruler had applied in beating Gen. Duke in the Flamingo Stakes four weeks before. In that one, Bold Ruler turned in the fastest mile and an eighth ever raced by a three year old. Today, Gen. Duke bettered it.

“The clocking in 1:46 4/5 not only shaved Bold Ruler’s record for 3-year-olds by a fifth-second, but tied the world record for the distance, a mark shared by no less than the illustrious Swaps.

“The crowd of 25,000 sent Bold Ruler off at 3 to 5 and the Gen. Duke-Iron Leige entry at 9 to 5…

“…Gen. Duke’s triumph, his second in four brushes with Bold Ruler, altered completely the Kentucky Derby picture which was running strongly in favor of the Ruler until today’s result. Now the Calumet ace is a certain favorite to win the roses at Chuchill Downs in May at an eighth of a mile farther.”

Gen. Duke finished second in an allowance to Iron Liege a few weeks later and took another second in the Derby Trial to the speedy Federal Hill. He was coupled with stablemate Iron Liege and posted as the 5-2 morning line favorite for the Kentucky Derby. Reporters for Sports Illustrated unanimously picked him as the winner. Some of their comments about Gen. Duke:

Joe Hirsch: “Could be a great colt.”

Joe Tanenbaum (Miami Daily News): “A cinch for the Triple Crown.”

Earl Ruby (Louisville Courier-Journal): “And maybe a new record.”

Bob Hebert (Los Angeles Mirror-News): “Best Calumet 3YO Since Citation

But Gen. Duke never had the chance to live up to those high expectations. During his final prep race, he suffered what was thought to be a foot bruise. Ben Jones tested his colt in a workout on the morning of the Derby and decided to scratch him 15 minutes prior to the open of the betting windows.

While Jones thought he was still good enough to beat many in the field, he decided to scratch, stating that “…he would not have run a championship race. It would not have been fair to the public to run him.” The colt with so much promise was – in the beautifully somber words of racing writer Walter Haight – “out of the Kentucky Derby for all time.”

Even without Gen. Duke, Calumet still won the ‘58 Derby with Iron Liege after Bill Shoemaker infamously misjudged the finish line on Gallant Man.

Ben Jones shipped his Derby winner and Gen. Duke to Pimlico with the hopes of running them both in the Preakness. But Gen. Duke would never race again.

High hopes for his return became less optimistic throughout the Triple Crown series. The injury that kept him from the Derby turned out to be a broken bone in his foot. He never fully recovered to race.

A little over a year after being scratched from the Derby, in a one last tragic twist of fate, Gen. Duke contracted “wobbles” a neurological disorder that effects a horses ability to maintain its balance. At the time, the disease was considered fatal. On July 28, 1958, the New York Times reported that Gen. Duke was destroyed at Calumet Farm.

Over 50 years later, Gen. Duke’s 1:46 4/5 still stands as the Florida Derby stakes record.

SOURCES, NOTES, AND OBSERVATIONS

Shirley Povich, “Bold Ruler, Gen. Duke Renew Rivalry in Florida Derby Today,” Washington Post, March 30, 1957
Shirley Povich, “Hartack’s Mount Sets Record for 3-Year-Olds,” Washington Post, March 31, 1957
Walter Haight, “Horses and People,” Washington Post, May 5, 1957
“Six Turf Writers Agree” Sports Illustrated, May 6, 1957
Whitney Tower, “A Year of Greatness,” Sports Illustrated, May 6, 1957
Walter Haight, “Horse and People,” Washington Post, May 6, 1957

More to come on the 1957 Triple Crown season…

Into crunch time this weekend for the Derby preps — looking forward to a long day of racing on Saturday starting in Dubai and ending in Florida. I will be backing Theregoesjojo in the Florida Derby. His move on the turn in the Fountain of Youth was very impressive. As good as Dunkirk and Quality Road might be, I’ll take jojo at what I am hoping is a square price.

Reporting from College Park, Maryland this week. On a mini-road trip for my real job. If all goes according to plan, I’ll be making a pit stop at Laurel Park tomorrow afternoon. The last time I saw live racing was Jockey Club Gold Cup Day…too long.

THANKS FOR READING AND GOOD LUCK!

Revised: March 23, 2009

The collapse of Magna and the looming depression have inspired talk about what it will mean for racing. Many lament the inevitable “death” of racing but here at Colin’s Ghost we like to take the long view.

If we look back and consider how much the sport has grown in the last 100 years, the rumors of its pending death are false. Even if the future brings a significant retraction in the number of tracks, racing will still be better off then it was 100 years ago when the sport was nearly legislated out of existence.

Image: Ad for Sportsman’s Park (Cicero, Illinois), one of over 100 thoroughbred racing venues established in the last century (American Racing Manual)

Consider this: In 1909, gambling on racing was illegal in most states. Tracks in New York – the very place that modernized and popularized the sport – were less than a year away from shutting their doors. If racing was going to die, it would have happened then.

When New York tracks re-opened in 1913, after being closed by anti-gambling legislation in 1910, the long term success of racing remained a question. In 1941, The Bloodhorse wrote the following about the state of American thoroughbred racing in 1916:

“In the United States there were exactly 15 major race tracks, and nearly all of them were centered in Kentucky, Maryland, and New York. In Louisville were Churchill Downs and Douglas Park. Across the Ohio from Cincinnati was Latonia. In Lexington was the ancient Kentucky Association course. Maryland offered racing at Pimlico, Havre de Grace, Bowie, and Laurel. In New York there were Saratoga, Belmont, Aqueduct, Jamaica, and Empire City.

“The Fair Grounds kept the sport alive during the winter season in New Orleans. Hawthorne was operating in Chicago, having been revived that very year by the Illinois Jockey Club for the first time since racing was suspended in 1904.

“Except for a few small scattered courses, these were all the tracks there were.”

Since 1909, according to an unscientific calculation (see below), at least 115 new tracks have been built or reestablished. Approximately 70 still host live thoroughbred racing.  Nine tracks still in operation were established before 1909. (The number of the early tracks still standing is amazing considering baseball’s propensity for building “old-time” reconstructions and tearing down places like Yankee Stadium and Comiskey Park.)  

We have built, on average, at least one thoroughbred track per year in the last one-hundred years. Compared to the fifteen or so racing venues a century ago, we are better off then we were in 1909 even if the current downturn results in the closure of over half the current tracks.

People raced horses since their domestication thousands of years ago. Colonists were racing here generations before the American Revolution. As gloomy as the outlook for racing might be in 2009 – we are not the generation that will witness its end. While it might be beneficial in some circles to preface arguments with the tired lament that “racing is a dying sport” – in taking the long view – I am happy to report that racing will survive long after we are gone.

Chronology of Thoroughbred Racing Venues 1909 to 2009

The spreadsheet below includes a list of tracks built for thoroughbred racing from 1909 to the present and the ten built before 1909 still in operation. The tracks are listed in chronological order based on the inaugural meet date. It was compiled using American Racing Manuals from 1947, 1957, 1968, 1981, and 2008. This list is not comprehensive and probably has a fair share of errors. I will gladly update it as needed so please send me an email or leave a comment if you have corrections, omissions, or contributions.  (See below spreadsheet for more on the methodology)