If you’re familiar with Sword Dancer through the stakes named in his honor at Saratoga, then you may not know the real story behind the horse. The Sword Dancer Stakes, run in late August, is a Grade 1 event that’s an altogether fitting tribute to the great champion of the 1950s.
Tag: Legends
Round Table: Champion on the Turf
When Wise Dan swept three categories - Horse of the Year, older male, and turf male - at the Eclipse Awards in 2012 and 2013, it brought back sunny memories of Round Table, who collected Horse of the Year honors, a champion male turf horse award, and male handicap honors in 1958.
Remembering Royal Delta, a Tenacious Champion
Racing is filled with the disappointing tales of horses who are bought for a seven-figure price tag but never come close to repaying their owner for signing that huge check. Then there are horses like Royal Delta, who left her owner with no regrets about paying a king’s ransom for her, even if she did not cover a humungous price tag. The story of Royal Delta actually has two chapters.
Housebuster: Electrifying Speed
Speed is the name of the game in horse racing, but fame and glory usually gravitate toward those horses with the stamina to negotiate longer distances of ground in two-turn classics. Sprinters, the horses who can generate electrifying fractions, are usually in the background, except for a handful of champions who possessed speed so dazzling it left a lasting impression on anyone who ever watched them rocket to the winner’s circle. Housebuster was one of those brilliant sprinters.
