Crewman -- The 20-1 upsetter of the 1963 Travers Stakes

Nearly one hundred years after they ran the first Travers at Saratoga Springs, they ran another on August 17th 1963. Red Smith, one of America’s great sports writers, never let his readers forget the historical weight of a moment so he didn’t let the milestone century go unnoticed. In his syndicated column about the 1963 Travers, he quoted liberally from an 1863 article in the Spirit of the Times, one of the most popular racing publications of its day. In the span of Smith’s article, he manages to take a subtle jab at the attire of Saratoga patrons, find ‘comfortable assurance’ that the complaints of a 1963 railbird echoed a similar criticism one-hundred years prior, and, of course, provide a stellar account of that year’s Travers.

In an article under the headline “Saratoga Travers Stakes: Unexpected Again — 100 Years Later,” readers saw this history lesson and contemporary account from Red Smith in morning papers across the country on August 18, 1963:

The table of contents in Wilkes’ ‘Spirit of the Times‘ published Aug 15, 1863, listed the news of the day in order of its importance: “Impending War with France,” “The Epilogue of Treason,” and “Saratoga Races – Large and fashionable attendance – good running and unexpected incidents.” A minor disturbance later referred to as the War Between the States was in progress at the time but didn’t rate a mention.

The inaugural meeting conducted by honest John Morrissey, a saloon brawler and former heavyweight champion who later went on to Congress got all of Page One.

“The attendance was large,” the correspondent reported, “and the number of ladies, graced with every charm of beauty and elegant attire, was extremely gratifying. The truth is that the gentlemen of the turf like to run their horses in the presence of ladies, and we have a theory that the racers like it too:

“Gave me a glance of thine hazel eye,
If I falter in my race –
Give me a breath of thine honey mouth
Upon my heated face”

Saturday’s attendance in the creaking old kraal was large, too, and the elegance of the attire in the grandstand was enhanced by abundantly filled shorts and gorgeous magenta sports shirts with tails flapping in the breeze.

It was the 94th running of the Travers stakes, oldest horse race in the United States, and they were saying that never since Kentucky won the first Travers in 1864 had there been a field like this. They could be right, too, for the six starters included the first three finishers in the Kentucky Derby, the first three in the Preakness, and the first three in the Belmont Stakes.

The 1963 Travers brought together the four horses who filled out the top three slots in that year’s 3-year-old classics. Kentucky Derby and Belmont winner Chateaugay and Preakness victor Candy Spots would match-up against Never Bend (2nd in the Kentucky Derby and 3rd in the Preakness) and Choker (3rd in the Belmont). The other two entries who filled the six horse field were afterthoughts prior to the race,. As is the case sometimes with racing, the much heralded re-match flopped, none of the big four fired. The “other two” finished first and second. Crewman, called a “notorious quitter” by one newsman, won the 1963 Travers at odds of 20-1 and Hot Dust at 19-1 came in second.

Red Smith continues:

Though Candy Spots was the favorite in the morning line, there was solid support for the two-time conqueror, Chateaugay.

Mesh Tenny, a pious trainer who believes the devil finds work for idle horse, had Candy Spots out as usual for a morning stroll while 509 witnesses, the biggest breakfast crowd in many years, gummed eggs and blueberry muffins on the clubhouse terrace. ‘Don’t they ever give that colt a rest?” one kibitzer was heard to say. ‘You can count every rib.’

The remark gave comfortable assurance that the eternal verities [facts] are safe around the gambling hells. “Morrissey’s colt seemed to have shrunk up,” the Spirit of the Times man wrote 100 years ago, “and was suffering from a cold, in addition to which Mr. Clay afterwards informed us that he had been worked almost to death.” He meant John M. Clay, an owner, who seems to have been as gabby as Cassius.

Before post time for the first Travers — the stake was begun at Saratoga’s second meeting in 1864 — the horse Kentucky walked as though sore. To loosen him up for the ‘dash of a mile and three-quarters,’ his trainer sent him out for a four-mile gallop. He won.

Candy Spots wasn’t up to matching Kentucky’s performance, but neither were the other top ones. [George D.] Widener’s Crewman, which had been ducking the stars all year except for one race against Chateaugay in the Dwyer Stakes, finally got his chance to play against the big kids and he made it look easy, coming off Never Bend’s pace at the top and never looking back.

As if that weren’t surprise enough for the biggest crowd in Saratoga history, the lightly esteemed Hot Dust, at 19 to 1, closed hard to finish a length and a half behind the winner, with Chateaugay third and Candy Spots fourth, out of the tote payoff for the first time in his life.”

There is nothing better then the anticipation that comes before a big race day. In 1963, the Travers reunion of the 3-year-old spring classic stars was spoiled by a colt named Crewman. In 2011, it appears the big day might get washed out by a hurricane named Irene. I’ll be out of town and off the east coast this weekend, following the races (and the weather) on my phone and computer. For those who are heading to the Spa, I hope Mother Nature can work out a deal with the Racing Gods before Saturday. Otherwise, it looks like man and beast will be in for quite a day. Good luck!

SOURCES, NEWS, AND NOTES
Red Smith, “Saratoga’s Travers Stakes: Unexpected Again — 100 Years Later,” Boston Globe, 18 August 1963

“Crewman scores upset victory in Travers Stakes,” Miami News, 18 August 1963

“Crewman, $41.90, First in the Travers,” New York Times, 18 August 1963

Thanks for reading and good luck!

On Saturday August 16th 1930, visitors to Saratoga Race Track who plunked down ten cents at the program stand would have seen this:

Cover of the 1930 Travers Day program at Saratoga Race Course

The 5th race (on page 10) was the 61st Travers Stakes

The entries for the 1930 Travers Stakes

Many thanks to Ron Micetic for digitizing his copy of the program seen here. If you have historic racing programs that you are looking to sell, contact me (kmart1944@gmail.com) and I will put you in touch with Ron.

Another post coming later on the 1963 Travers Stakes…

My annual trip to Saratoga was a bit of a whirlwind this year. My buddy Chad and I could only make it for two days but we definitely made the most of it. In addition to two full days at the track we went to the Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Friday morning and the New York bred sales on Saturday night.

We upgraded our accommodations this year. The Super 8 in Glens Falls had its advantages over camping — although the list of these advantages is by no means extensive. Gene of Equispace and Buffalo News fame gave me the tip on the Super 8 after our first hotel choice was quite possibly the worst hotel in North America. The next time the person at the front desk offers a discount before I even see the room, I will know to run for the hills.

We packed a lot in a few days. Chad cashed a big ticket on Friday, and we both took advantage of the new Saratoga beer prices. I had my first run-in with a Shake Shack burger and have to say it tasted pretty darn good. As always, I saw some old friends and met some new ones. Our buddies Matt and Teresa of the original Gambling Tree Gang were a blast to hang out with in the Paddock Bar — the best place to be at the old Spa. While we heard many good stories over the weekend, Chad was thoroughly impressed by Mike MacAdam’s story about meeting Joe Strummer of the Clash — so thanks for that one, Mike.

As usual, a trip to the Lyrical Ballad bookstore left me a little lighter in the wallet. Lyrical Ballad is, hands down, the best bookstore for horse racing but I was a little disappointed when I saw how they were selling the collection (or at least part of the collection) of a prominent Thoroughbred photographer. The images were being sold individually at prices that ranged from $25 to $125 each. Sad that a collection such as this did not end up elsewhere instead of being broken up and sold as individual pieces. From my perspective as a researcher and historian, this collection is more valuable as a group and should be available in a public library or archive for all to enjoy. I certainly don’t blame Lyrical Ballad for making a buck, but I couldn’t help feeling a little sick as I thumbed through this important collection of images, knowing they would soon be scattered in many directions and hidden away in private spaces.

I’m taking the week off from the history research but will be back and better than ever next week. Here are a few pictures I took of my big Spa weekend:

My buddy Chad advises Bobby Flay before his keyonote address at the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies on Friday

Bobby Flay delivers the keynote address at the Humphrey S. Finney Sales Pavilion

The view from the Gambling Tree in the Paddock Bar

Patrice Merion, the daughter of English Channel, makes her way to the track under John Valesquez. She finished a respectable third against the boys in the first start of her career on Saturday.

The view from the winner's circle prior to the Sword Dancer.

Sword Dancer winner Winchester heads to the winner's circle.

The sales pavilion at the New York bred yearling sales on Saturday night

Thank for reading and good luck!

Steven Riess, The Sport of Kings and the Kings of Crime: Horse Racing, Politics, and Organized Crime in New York, 1865–1913 (Syracuse University Press: 2011)

The Sport of Kings and the Kings of Crime tackles a subject seemingly untouched by American historians. It tells the story of horse racing’s emergence as an urban sport and the rise of New York City as a central hub for racing in the United States.

By the turn of the last century, horse racing surpassed all other spectator sports in popularity. Fifty years prior to the New York Times declaring the “sport of the kings as the king of sports,” a newspaper in Brooklyn rated Thoroughbred racing ahead of baseball as the national pastime. However, its association with gambling made its very existence a fight even at the height of its popularity. That fight is at the core of Riess’s work.

Riess’s work demonstrates how a corrupt political machine and a thriving underground economy coupled with the “legitimate” interests of the elite to own, race, and bet on horses, made for a contentious atmosphere in the governing of the sport that ultimately led to its banishment in New York from 1911 to 1912. For the modern reader, it’s hard to imagine the depths of corruption that surrounded the sport during the era. As partisan and corrupt as our current politics might appear, nothing today can compare to the greed and lawlessness of the politicians during the period covered in this book. Many of the same politicians and city officials, who were brazen members of the corrupt political machine that ran New York, were intimately involved in racing and the gambling operations (both legal and illegal) that supported it.

Leaning heavily on newspapers during the era, Riess methodically details the rise and fall of New York racing from after the Civil War to the legislation that shut down racing in 1911. The book is split into twelve chapters. The early chapters looks at the rebirth of racing in New York with the opening of Jerome Park and the Brooklyn tracks. The middle chapters focus on the rise of pool rooms (illegal off-track betting facilities) and the actions by New York state to legislate gambling. Reiss dedicates a full chapter on racing in New Jersey and shows its influence on the New York racing scene prior to its outright ban by Jersey “reformers” in 1894. The final chapters begin with the passing of legislation that legalized wagering at New York tracks and led to what the author calls “The Glorious Decade of Racing” from 1897 to 1907. The last chapter provides a blow-by-blow description of the passing of the Agnew-Hart Acts that led to the complete shut down of New York racing in 1911 and 1912.

All of the book’s chapters could stand alone as individual articles and overlap a great deal. This organization can create some confusion while trying to construct a timeline of events but the organization is understandable. Considering the multitudes of story-lines, a strict chronological account would have been nearly impossible.

There are no other sources about racing during this critical period that come anywhere near the scope of The Sport of Kings and the Kings of Crime. The research is impeccable and it contains countless insights and details previously unknown to historians of racing. Riess’s work is complex and can be hard to follow considering the intricate webs of alliances that supported racing’s gambling economy on and off the track. But this complexity is not the fault of the author. The corrupt politicians, track owners, bookmakers, poolroom proprietors, and city officials made the world of racing and gambling a complex environment in which to operate and an even tougher one to explain over a century later.

The Sport of Kings and the Kings of Crime tells an important story about the foundation of the modern sport of kings. It is bold in its ambition and brilliant in execution. My copy is already showing the same wear of my frequently referenced racing books. It is a work that I will be returning to frequently in the coming years and one I highly recommend for any racing historian.

Sources, Notes, and Observations

I will be in Saratoga this weekend and, as always, I am really looking forward to the annual trek to one of my favorite places in the world. It will be a first time attendee at the Hall of Fame inductions at the Racing Museum on Friday.  Needless to say, I can’t wait.  Hope to see you there!

Thanks for reading and good luck!

One of the greatest traditions in horse racing is the naming of stakes races to honor the sport’s major contributors. In an era where the owners of major sports stadiums sell the naming rights to the highest bidder, the long-standing tradition of naming stakes is a refreshing tradition in one of the few sports remaining that retains respect for its history.

This Saturday, the Whitney Stakes will be run at Saratoga Race Course. The race is named in honor of  William Payne Whitney, whose father, William Collins Whitney, revived the Spa from one of the lowest points in its history.

Members of the Whitney family have been long-standing members of racing’s elite. While the family’s contributions are many, their most significant achievement came in 1900 when W.C. Whitney, with a group of other influential racing men, purchased the Saratoga Association and saved it from one of its darkest periods.

From 1892 until 1900, Saratoga was under the ownership and control of notorious bookmaker Gottfried Walbaum. Walbaum had been one of the owners of a well-known outlaw track, Guttenburg in New Jersey, until it closed in 1893. With his ownership, he brought the same corruption to Saratoga that shut down not only Guttenburg but all racing in the state of New Jersey. During this period, he owned the track and ran the bookmaking operation.  He also owned a number of illegal pool rooms (off-track betting facilities) in New York and New Jersey. Walbaum’s all-consuming self-interest nearly drove the track to ruin.

In 1900, when a group led by William Collins Whitney acquired Saratoga from Walbaum and his partners, hope for a renewal to the glory days of racing returned. Whitney and his cohorts agreed to only keep 5% of the profits and return all other money back into the operations of the track. The days of running Saratoga under a strict proprietary model where the owner used it to line his pockets and those of his cronies ended.

By 1902, Whitney had figuratively washed the dirt of corruption from the track and brought respect back to the race course at Saratoga Springs.  That same year, an article in Munsey’s Magazine described what Whitney meant to Saratoga:

Small wonder that the [1902] twenty-two day meeting of the Saratoga Association for the Improvement of the Breed of Horses eclipsed any race meet ever held in this country. William Collins Whitney, the foremost American patron of the thoroughbred, and his confrere, all representative of the highest type of American sportsmen and gentlemen, had expended a sum estimated at a quarter of a million dollars in making the race course at the famous Spa a spot worthy to be called the “American Newmarket,” or, as Mr. Whitney himself preferred to style it, the “American Epsom.”

Standing at the head of the patrons of racing in this country, William C. Whitney had done more for the American thoroughbred than any other man. It was in December, 1900, that a syndicate with Mr. Whitney at the head purchased the race track property at Saratoga Springs…

…The meeting of 1901 came too soon for the new syndicate to carry out half of the plans which its energetic and far seeing president had in mind. Notwithstanding this paucity of time, many improvements were made, and the meeting was the most brilliant ever seen at the spa. With eleven months before them, the syndicate went to work with a will to prepare for the meeting of 1902. More land was purchased. The course was almost laid out anew. New stables, paddocks, and stands were erected regardless of expense. No pains were spared to beautify the course. Everywhere the master hand of Mr Whitney and his open purse were visible.

The Saratoga track was always a beautiful spot. Under the magic touch of its new owners it became a paradise.

And a paradise it remains, over one-hundred years later. It’s fitting that one of the biggest races on Saratoga’s schedule should be named for the family that has remained a positive force at the Spa for all these years.

Sources, News, and Notes

Joseph Freeman Marsten, “The Sport of Kings in America,” Munsey’s Magazine, November 1902

Details about Walbaum and his ownership of Saratoga from Steven Riess’s The Sport of Kings and the Kings of Crime.  I also used his concept of a “proprietary track” in explaining Walbaum’s ownership.  I will be reviewing Riess’s book in next week’s post.

Be sure to check out a recent article about the Guttenburg Race Track in the Hudson Reporter from author Damian De Virgilio.

In case you missed it, I also posted an update to last week’s post about Jim Dandy.

I will be in Saratoga for Hall of Fame weekend…can’t wait to get up there!

Thanks for reading and good luck!

Last week, I put together a post about Jim Dandy, upset winner of the 1930 Travers Stakes. I left a bit of a void at the end of the story after finding nothing about what became of Jim Dandy after his racing career.

On Monday afternoon, I was surprised to find a letter in my mailbox (the analog one) from Carol Holden of Sporting Life Stable and Trackside on Radio. She sent me a photocopied article written by Debra Ginsburg from the now defunct Backstretch Magazine. In an article from 2000 titled “Jim Dandy: 100-1 Colt Pulled off Greatest Upset in Racing History,” Ginsburg wrote a detailed and well told account of the major players in the 1930 Travers Stakes. What is most intriguing about the article is what she found out about the famous upsetter’s post-race life.

It turns out that Jim Dandy’s trainer on Travers day, John McKee, stuck with him for most of his racing career. When his owner, Chafee Earl, lost interest in racing, he gave the Travers winner to McKee. McKee died just prior to the horse’s retirement but, before he did, he arranged for his old friend to be taken care of. Jim Dandy retired to the riding academy of L. G. Otto of Glendale, California, where he had a successful career as a jumper and dressage horse. Ms. Ginsburg found no record of where Jim Dandy died but she did provide a quote from a women whose parents cared for him late in his life.

Rosemary Taggert of Garden Grove, Califonia, is quoted in the article saying this of Jim Dandy:

I can’t remember why he came to us, but he was an old horse by then…My mother had a special gift for keeping old horses going, so that’s probably how we got him. He was very kind. I was just a teenager then, but my mother let me ride him on trails around our barn. Finally, she wouldn’t let anyone ride him because of his age.

Many thanks to Carol Holden for sending me the article. And, of course, thanks to the late Debra Ginsburg for her stellar research in finishing the unbelievable story of the immortal Jim Dandy.

Update to the update, 8/3

Reader T.J. Connick left this in a comment last night:

Dredged up a piece that appeared in the September 17, 1941 edition of the Utica Daily Press. Jim Kelly, sport editor, described the familiar tale of the Travers in his Time Outcolumn, and followed with news of Jim Dandy at age 14:

Jim Dandy never did much after that. But he’s still an active piece of horseflesh. We have had many of those “What ever became of Jim Dandy?” queries in the last few years but it was only yesterday that we found ourselves in a position to answer.
A clipping from the Los Angeles Examiner reports that Jim Dandy, although 14 years of age, is making good in a big way as a show horse and jumper, which is the equivalent of a 49-year-old track man making a comeback in fast company.
Trainer John B. McKee, who bought the horse from (sic) Chaffey (sic) Earl in 1929, had turned Jim Dandy out to eat grass and grow fast (sic) after he had retired Jim from racing in 1939 in the face of the horse’s inability to win any kind of a race.
But he detected a restless spirit in the veteran and finally was persuaded to turn him over to Maj. L.G. Otto, who operated a riding academy near Los Angeles.
Nine months in training and Jim Dandy is an accomplished jumper. He has ridden to the hounds, jumps flawlessly and appears in horse shows and appears to be enjoying life as much as he did in his racing days.

McKee had bought Jim Dandy for $25,000 in 1929 from W.S. Dudley on behalf of Chaffee Earl. Earl was new to the game, and reputedly only owned two horses in his time: Jim Dandy and Naishapur — a pretty good batting average.

Jim Dandy’s relations had good batting averages, too. His dam’s sire, Star Shoot, enjoyed outstanding success as a sire of broodmares. Star Shoot’s daughterThunderbird (72 starts) may not have produced others as famous as her son Jim Dandy, but she passed along her endurance to others.

1925: Ormonbird, colt, (by Ormont), does not appear in the Pedigree Online Thoroughbred Database, but was mentioned as a success in the 1929 report of Jim Dandy’s purchase, ran 17 times in 1929, had run 9 races by May 31, 1930, and appeared to be going strong.

1926: Vimont, a full brother to Ormonbird shows in the database as an earner of $16,318 from a lifetime record of 147-16-12-16.

1927: Jim Dandy

1930: Transbird, colt, (by Transmute), earned $15,455 from a record of 221-21-31-21.

1933: Baby Vivian, filly, (by Sun Flag), unraced, but one of her two offspring, Martha Joan (1937 – by In Memoriam, started 48 times), had a daughter (Joan Mint – 1951 – by Mintson, started 34 times, no offspring), and a son, Joey Bomber (by Bomber). The grandson of Man O’War started a remarkable 176 times, winning 36, and banking $67,820.

[Aside from Ormonbird, all quotations drawn from Pedigree Online Thoroughbred Database. Thunderbird had a 1929 foal and a 1928 yearling, but they are also absent from the database. The 1929 purchase of Jim Dandy was reported in the Daily Racing Form, and from the same report was drawn word of the 1928 and 1929 progeny of Thunderbird.]

A final fun fact about Jim Dandy, winner at 30-1 over a muddy Saratoga track of the 1929 Grand Union Hotel Stakes: his sire Jim Gaffney was runner-up (at 30-1) in the 1907 running of the same race. The winner that day was the 1-5 favorite, Colin.

Many thanks to Mr. Connick for his contribution! One of these days, i’m going to talk him into doing a guest post for this site. He is an outstanding racing historian.

Source
Debra Ginsburg, “Jim Dandy: 100-1 Colt Pulled Off Greatest Upset in Racing History,” The Backstretch, July/August 2000

Thanks for Reading and Good Luck!

This Saturday brings the forty-eighth running of the Jim Dandy Stakes to Saratoga Race Course. Since its first edition in 1964, it has served as an important prep race for the Travers, one of the racing calendar’s marquee events for 3-year-olds.

The race is named for the winner of the 1930 Travers, Jim Dandy, who upset one of racing’s all-time greats, the Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox. Few races sport the name of a horse best known for winning a single race and no races are named for a horse who won at odds of 100 to 1.

From the front page of The Saratogian, 19 August 1930

As I was thinking about a post for this week, I asked myself, whatever happened to Jim Dandy? As I did some preliminary research, I found that his name comes up frequently in the newspapers from the 1930s in relation to his Travers win, but references to his racing career during the same period are few and far between.

He had a race record of seven wins from one-hundred and forty-one career starts and lifetime earnings of $49,570. However, digging up additional details about his career proved difficult to find, but I was able to piece together a skeletal history of the now immortal Jim Dandy.

In 1931, Jim Dandy’s name appeared among the also-rans in the Hawthorne Gold Cup in Chicago. He ran seventeen times that year and earned $3350. By 1933, it appears he had taken a step down from the top tier racing circuit. According to Allan Carter at the National Museum of Racing, Jim Dandy’s final win came on May 30, 1933. He won the Memorial Day Handicap at Riverside Park in Kansas City and collected $700 of a $1000 purse. Three years out from his miraculous Travers win, Jim Dandy paid $39.20 to win in Kansas City.

In 1934, he started twenty-two times and recorded two second place finishes in the Pontchartrain Handicap and Fair Grounds Inaugural Handicap in Louisiana. He earned a measly $625 for his efforts that year. The following year, in 1935, he would start only seven times and earn $25, the last time he recorded any earnings on the track.

In 1936, Jim Dandy appeared in the results from Santa Anita. He ran in at least two $1000 handicaps where he finished among the also-rans. After finishing out of the money in five starts in 1936, Jim Dandy did not race in 1937. It’s possible that the “egg-shell” hooves that allowed him “to cruise beautifully through the Saratoga goo” in the 1930 Travers had finally had enough.

But Jim Dandy returned in 1938 and 1939 for the final two years of his career. Jim Dandy made his way south to race at Agua Caliente in Mexico. In the Los Angeles Times, the race writer Jim Lowry took notice of the famous upsetter and noted this in his preview of the 1938 race meet at Agua Caliente in Tijuana:

An interesting old-timer who will attempt to make a comeback at Caliente is Jim Dandy, an 11-year-old who gained immortal turf distinction by beating Gallant Fox in the mud of the Travers in 1930s.

A few weeks later, Jim Lowry wrote of Jim Dandy’s performance in a six furlong stakes race called the San Joaquin:

Poor old Jim Dandy, which won the Travers in 1930 as a 100-to-1 shot in the mud was never in it. His victory over Gallant Fox is only a memory. Now 11 years old and with no more desire to run than the man in the moon. Jim Dandy finished dead last in the field of 10 horses. The bookies magnanimously opened him at 20 to 1 but when no money showed for the veteran they upped it up to 50 to 1. At one time in the run down the backstretch old Jim was eighth. But that was as close as he could get to the leaders.

The last reference to the career of Jim Dandy I found was in a workout report from the Daily Racing Form. In May 1939, he worked a half-mile at Agua Caliente. We know he raced three times that year, and considering the silence from the racing press, it’s likely he did little of note in the final races of his career.

Somewhere among the countless undiscovered pages of historical documents is more information about the final years of Jim Dandy. We’ll have to wait for a more ambitious historian than me or additional sources to be digitized before that information comes to light. It’s possible that we’ll never know the ultimate fate of the famous winner of the 1930 Travers. Without historical evidence, we can only imagine him racing during the last years of his long career.

By the end of the 1930s, Jim Dandy’s name had become synonymous with the possibility of the impossible in racing. I like to think that someone in every grandstand in which he raced in the later years recognized him for what he did on that rainy Travers day in August. You can’t help but imagine him inspiring a sense of reverence to a race fan or two even when he was running in places not worthy of his status as a living legend, a breathing representation of racing lore.

SOURCES, NEWS, AND NOTES

“Hawthorne Gold Cup…Won by Sun Beau for second straight year,” New York Times, 121 October 1930

“Santa Anita Derby Draws Field of 12,” New York Times, 15 February 1936

“Whopper is first as 58,000 look on,” New York Times, 1 March 1936

“Agua Caliente Opens Thursday,” Los Angles Times, 20 November 1938

“Two Girls Share $1000 in Agua Caliente Handicapping,” Los Angeles Times, 5 December 1938

“Workouts,” Daily Racing Form, 6 May 1939

“HORSE RACING; The Day Jim Dandy Danced in the Rain,” New York Times, 2001 August 6

Special thanks to Allan Carter from the National Racing Museum and Hall of Fame who provided me with information for this article.

Equibase has an incomplete record of Jim Dandy’s career

For more on the 1930 Travers, see Colin’s Ghost post: Gallant Fox Loses Travers, Sunny Jim Speaks, 1930

Thanks for reading and good luck!

Delaware Park paddock

In many ways this year’s Delaware Handicap Day at Delaware Park looked like most others. The sun was blazing on a hot and humid day, the crowds were a bit larger then usual, and the most beautiful paddock in the country looked as beautiful as ever. But this year was not just another day Del Cap Day at Delaware Park. In fact, this year’s edition could go down as one of the most significant in the old track’s history.

It’s ultimate place in history will depend on how it’s star participants finish out the season, but we can be certain it will rank among the most exciting finishes to the Del Cap we will ever see. I was among the crowd and had a perfect spot to watch the two big fillies fight to the wire. A race like Saturday’s is one that race fans live for — a deservedly hyped race that lived up to all the hype.

Blind Luck and Havre de Grace continued their rivalry on Saturday where it all started, and the result looked almost identical to the finish in their first meeting in last year’s Delaware Oaks. An estimated 15,000 were in the house to see Blind Luck and Havre de Grace put on a display that those in attendance will long remember.

Blind Luck became the first filly since Parlo in 1955 to complete the Delaware Oaks/Delaware Handicap double. Her career so far has placed her on the fast track for a place in the Racing Hall of Fame alongside her newly inducted trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. Of course, she will need a few more quality wins to earn that honor. Adding a win against males this season would put a huge step towards etching her name in the history books. It would also put her in the mix for this year’s Horse of the Year award.

Her connections have aggressively campaigned her, but have yet to jump in the deep water against the boys. How exciting would it be to see her at Belmont Park in the Jockey Club Gold Cup or the Breeders Cup Classic at Churchill Downs? Considering the older male division, she would have a shot at winning either (or both). Wherever she might race for the remainder of her year, you can be certain that the racing world will be watching. She is as fun to watch as any thoroughbred we have seen so far in the young century.

The entire Colin’s Ghost crew was in the house for the big race on Saturday and (as usual) we had a blast. I am a bit bias, but Delaware Park is a perfect place to spend the day and one of the best thoroughbred tracks in the country.

Here are a couple of pictures we took on Saturday:

Blind Luck heads to the track for the Del Cap

Blind Luck

Havre de Grace and Ramon Dominguez before the Del Cap

The Del Cap field passes the stands for the first time

All eyes on Blind Luck in the Delaware Park winners circle

Jockey Garret Gomez points down to his winning mount after winning the 2011 Del Cap

Saratoga opens this weekend..back next week with more racing history. Thanks for reading and good luck!

This weekend’s Delaware Handicap is shaping up to be the one of the biggest in the race’s long history. Blind Luck, last year’s Delaware Oaks winner and filly champion, will face off against her rival Havre de Grace, the current leader of the older mare division, in this year’s Del Cap. It will be the sixth match-up between the two and a rematch of last year’s exciting Delaware Oaks when Blind Luck caught the then unknown Havre de Grace at the wire.

To add even more intrigue to Saturday’s race, last year’s Delaware Handicap winner, Life at Ten, will return and attempt to become the sixth dual-winner of the Del Cap. It seems the glory days of filly and mare racing have returned to Delaware Park. It’s a fitting return to the track that brought the spotlight and big money purses to the female division back in the 1950s.

Delaware Handicap Day, 1955 (Delaware Historical Society)

Blind Luck will be attempting to become only the fourth filly to win the Delaware Oaks and return the following year to win the Delaware Handicap. Plucky Maude did it first in 1944 and 1945. Kiss Me Kate (1951 and 1952) and Parlo (1954 and 1955) were the last to complete the double. The latter two, like Blind Luck, won division honors as champion three-year-olds at year’s end. Havre de Grace will try to become just the second filly to finish second in the Oaks and return to win the Del Cap (Busanda in 1950 and 1951).

The Delaware Oaks and Handicap have been a part of over thirty-five championship campaigns in their respective divisions since 1938. It’s possible we will see yet another champion grace the winner’s circle on Saturday afternoon at Delaware Park.

Parlo and jockey Eric Guerin after winning the 1955 Delaware Handicap (Delaware Historical Society

Parlo was the last to take the Delaware Oaks and Del Cap double in 1954 and 1955. She was owned by Foxcatcher Farms, the breeding and racing operation of William du Pont Jr. He was the prime mover in the building of Delaware Park in the 1930s and an influential racing figure up until his death in 1965. Parlo won the Delaware Oaks, the Alabama, and Beldame during her championship three-year-old season in 1955.

After winning the 1954 Delaware Oaks at odds of 22 to 1, she finished seventh in the Delaware Handicap as 3-year-old. By the time she returned to Delaware for the 1955 Delaware Handicap her career resume brought the high weight assignment of 128 pounds. The New York Times reported that she carried her “impost as though carrying a light package of mail,” while winning by three lengths and cashing a check of $99,900 for Foxcatcher Farms.

Parlo would win just once more from fourteen starts after the 1955 Del Cap. In spite of her inability to regain her winning form, she received high praise from the legendary Charlie Hatton in the pages of the Daily Racing Form about six months after she retired. Hatton, in recalling a discussion with Delaware Park vice president Bryan Field, was asked “politely” if he had a candidate for the top ten race mares of all-time. He responded:

We most certainly do — Willie du Pont Jr.’s Parlo. We covered races run by Gallorette, Twilight Tear, Top Flight, Busher, Princess Doreen, and Bewitch. And without naming names, we can think of a couple who did not go around carrying 128 pounds, contemptuously making big weight concessions, and winning at a mile and a quarter and a half. Parlo’s feet left something to be desired, which is why she was supposed to be partial to soft tracks, but if anybody thinks he can name a better mare of the past decade or so, we respectfully refer him to the chart of the Delaware Handicap of 1955. It is a cachet of a great ability that flickered like a thread of gold woven into a burlap bag throughout her career, elusive as it was shining, but there for all who looked to see.

It is hard to conceive of a mare who only won eight of thirty-four lifetime starts as one of the all-time greats but who are we to argue with Charlie Hatton.

Parlo passed on her royal European bloodline to a daughter named All Beautiful. All Beautiful did little to be remembered on the track but, she was named the 1969 broodmare of the year. That award was the result of a colt she foaled by Ribot who would become the great Arts and Letters. Arts and Letters won the 1969 Horse of the Year. Wins on his career resume included the Belmont, Travers, Woodward, Met Mile, and Jockey Club Gold Cup. He entered the Racing Hall of Fame in 1994.

The long term impact of the fillies and mares entered in this Saturday’s Delaware Handicap remains to be seen. Whatever the outcome, this year’s Del Cap is further proof that the filly and mare division has, so far in the young century, been the most compelling division in the sport.

NEWS, NOTES, AND OBSERVATIONS

“…Parlo Deserves Rank among Del’s Big Ten,” Daily Racing Form, 1957 June 25

For information about Parlo see Edward Bowen’s “Legacies of the Turf: A Century of Great Thoroughbred Breeders: Volume 2.”

Photographs are from the collection of the Delaware Historical Society

See all Colin’s Ghost posts about the Delaware Handicap

A colleague with a research interest in shipwrecks has a fascinating blog called Ships on the Shore. He recently featured a post about Moiffa, a shipwrecked New Zealand horse who went on to win the Grand National. Check it out!

I will be in the house for the Delaware Handicap on Saturday. Hope to see you there!

Thanks for reading and good luck!

Updated: July 8, 2010

The North American racing calendar this past weekend had twenty-five races with purses that exceeded $100,000. Next weekend, there are seventeen races on schedule with $100,000 purses. Today’s racing observer doesn’t think twice about six figure races.

In 1935 when Santa Anita established the Big ‘Cap with the first guaranteed $100,000 purse, it was a momentous occasion. The race instantly became the one that owners, trainers, and jockeys coveted above all others. For many years the race simply became known as the ‘Hundred-Grander’.

[Update 7/8/2001: One of our fine readers sent me a correction via email to the idea that the Big 'Cap was the first guaranteed 100k purse.  He wrote: "The 1926 American Derby at Washington Park was a well-advertised $100,000-added affair, with a large ad in the Daily Racing Form of June 28 taken by the Illinois Jockey Club. Won by the Bill Hurley trainee, Boot to Boot, the chart describes it as $100,000 added, run under allowance conditions." Many thanks to T.J. for this correction.]

It would be another eleven years after the inaugural Santa Anita Handicap before the guaranteed purse for the Kentucky Derby reached $100,000. The Preakness and Belmont Stakes soon followed. But it was 1953 when the ‘Hundred-Grander’ became less a novelty and more of a benchmark for any big-time race.

Soon after the New Castle Handicap [soon to be the Delaware Handicap] became the first race in the world for fillies and mares with a $100,000 purse, the Associated Press published this under the headline, “Racing Boom Brings Big Pots,” on January 28, 1953:

The thoroughbred racing boom which hit a record peak in attendance last year, is reflected today in a big swing to the spectacular and lucrative $100,000 races.

“Action at Delaware Park in doubling the value of the New Castle handicap to $100,000, making it the richest race in the world for fillies and mares, brings to 18 the number of hundred grand races in this country.

In the last six months no less than eight races have joined the $100,000 class, as track management seeks to attract the top horses running in this country and abroad…

“…This spring for the first time, there will be four big hundred-grand races for the 3-year-old stars before the derby is run at Louisville May 2. They are the Santa Anita derby February 21, the Flamingo at Hialeah February 28, the Florida derby at Gulfstream Park March 21, and the Wood Memorial at Jamaica April 25. The last three were upped to $100,000 each this year for the first time…”

About a month later, another race was added to the list when Garden State Park in New Jersey announced the Garden State Stakes for two-year-olds. So not only did 1953 bring the first ‘hundred-grander’ for fillies, it also had the first for two-year-olds. In February, another milestone in the history of big money prizes saw two $100,000 stakes run on the same day. Here is how the Associated Press reported that event:

For the first time in American racing, and any place in the world for that matter, two $100,000-added races will be held Saturday with the Widener handicap at Hialeah park and the Santa Anita Derby at Santa Anita park.

“About a dozen older stars are expected to start in the 16th running of the mile and one-quarter Widener, now shaping up as one of the classiest fields for handicap horses in some years. It will be the first $100,00 race ever held in Florida…

…One week from Saturday, February 28, will see another pair of $100,000 races — the Santa Anita handicap and the Flamingo at Hialeah — making four hundred-grand classics in eight days…

“…One of this year’s scheduled-added races already has been held, the Santa Anita Maturity [now run as the Strub Stakes], won by Calumet’s Mark-Ye-Well. The 1951 Maturity, won by Great Circle, rates as the world’s richest race to date, with a gross value of $205,700. The winner netted $144,325.

The novelty of the “hundred-grander” wore off during 1950s. By 1963 forty-six races had $100,000 purses and the new novelty became the title of the “world’s richest race.”

In 1956, the previously mentioned Garden State Stakes for two-year-olds exceeded the prize for the Santa Anita Maturity with a purse of over $300,000. The Garden State Stakes lost the title of “world’s richest” to another race for two-year-olds in 1962 when the Arlington-Washington Futurity in Chicago offered a purse of over $350,000.

The Chicago race remained the richest in the world until 1965 when it was passed by the All-American Futurity for two-year-old quarter horses at Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico. That’s right, a race for quarter horses remained the richest in the world for nearly two decades. In 1972, the All-American became the first horse race in the world with a purse of one-million dollars.

The title of the richest thoroughbred race changed hands a few times in the 1970s with a brief appearance overseas at the Arc de Triomphe in France in the early part of the decade. For a few years in the late 70s, the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park held the title. It wasn’t until the inaugural Arlington Million in 1981 that brought the beginning of the million dollar purse to thoroughbred racing.

The introduction of the Breeders Cup Classic in 1984 and the Dubai World Cup in 1996 brought the once unthinkable multi-million dollar purse and the title of world’s richest race back to the thoroughbreds. Those two events have held the title for the last quarter century and counting.

SOURCES, NEWS, AND NOTES

“Eighteen Events Have Reached One-Hundred Grand Class,” The Spokesman-Review, 28 January 1953

“Two $100,000 Races Slated for Saturday,” The Spokesman-Review, 20 Febuary 1953

“World’s Richest Race Set for Golden State,” St. Petersburg Times, 27 October 1957

“World’s Richest Horse Race Has a Field 13,” St. Petersburg Times, 8 September 1962

“Horse Earns $10,00 a Second in Capturing $419,460 Futurity,” New York Times, 7 September 1965

“French Horse Stops Nijinsky,” The Leader-Post, 5 October 1970

“10 Quarter Horses Eye Richest Purse,” The Victoria Advocate, 2 September 1973

I recently obtained a copy of Stephen Reiss’s just released
The Sport of Kings and the Kings of Crime: Horse Racing, Politics, and Organized Crime in New York, 1865-1913. I have really been looking forward to reading this one and am thrilled to finally have a copy in hand. I will be publishing a review here in the next couple of weeks.

This weekend is the Delaware Oaks and St. John’s River, who finished second in the Kentucky Oaks in her last start, will be among the favorites.  The following weekend brings a possible re-match between Havre de Grace and Blind Luck in the Delaware Handicap. If it happens, it will be one of the most anticipated editions of the Del Cap in many years.

Thanks for reading and good luck