Tag: Secretariat

The Eclipse Award Winners, Rating the Best of the Best

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Eclipse Awards, the NTRA is holding a promotion in which fans will be asked to chose the top 10 horses and the top jockey and trainer during the five-decade era. Click here to play.

Here are this writer’s picks. It wasn’t easy.

Horses:

  1. Secretariat: Champion 2-Year-Old Male (1972); Champion 3-Year-Old Male (1973); Champion Male Turf Horse (1973); Horse of the Year (1972, 1973). Could be the best horse who ever lived. What more needs to be said?

 

  1. Seattle Slew: Champion 2-Year-Old Male (1976); Champion 3-Year-Old Male (1977); Champion Older Male Horse (1978); Horse of the Year (1977).

Yes, Secretariat is the greatest horse to have raced during the last 50 years, but you can make a strong argument that Seattle Slew was next. From Day One, he was brilliant, a horse who was the total package of speed, stamina and class. He dominated in the Triple Crown, becoming the first undefeated horse to sweep the series. After stubbing his toe and finishing second in the GIII Paterson H. at the Meadowlands, he became the only Triple Crown winner to beat a Triple Crown winner when defeating Affirmed in the 1978 Marlboro Cup H. Not that it matters when t it comes to compiling this particular list, but Seattle Slew went on to become one of the greatest sires of all time.

 

  1. Affirmed: Champion 2-Year-Old Male (1977); Champion 3-Year-Old Male (1978); Champion Older Male Horse (1978); Horse of the Year (1978, 1979).

It wasn’t just that he won the Triple Crown. To do so, he had to beat, in Alydar, the most formidable opponent any Triple Crown winner has ever faced.  Affirmed maintained his form over the course of three campaigns, winning a championship each time. He put an exclamation point on the end of his career when he beat Spectacular Bid in the 1979 GI Jockey Club Gold Cup. It was his 19th stakes win and 14th Grade I win. Should  be on everyone’s Top 10 list.

 

  1. Ruffian: Champion 2-Year-Old Filly (1974); Champion 3-Year-Old Filly (1975).

Will be the only horse to make my Top 10 who was never named Horse of the Year. With Ruffian, you have to make an exception as her career was cut short when she tragically died after breaking down in her 1975 match race with Foolish Pleasure. To that point, she had been so dominant that no horse had ever been in front of her at any call in any of her races. Was undoubtedly one of the most talented horses that ever lived and there’s no telling what she would have accomplished had she met a different fate. In a poll conducted by the Associated Press, she was named the top filly of the 20th century.

 

  1. Spectacular Bid: Champion 2-Year-Old Male (1978); Champion 3-Year-Old Male 1979); Champion Older Male (1980): Horse of the Year (1980).

Trainer Bud Delp called him “the greatest racehorse to ever look through a bridle.” Generally considered one of the best horses not to win the Triple Crown, his loss in the 1979 Belmont S. does not take away from his many accomplishments on the racetrack. After losing twice as a 2-year-old, he lost just twice more throughout his career, compiling a final record of 26 for 30. One of the losses came against Affirmed, in the 1979 Jockey Club Gold Cup. He was so dominant that no one was willing to face him in the 1980 Woodward, a race he won in a walkover in his last start.

Racing was spoiled during the seventies, the first decade of the Eclipse Award era. There was one great horse after another, including three Triple Crown winners and five horses who have made it into this Top 10. It was a golden age for horse racing.

 

  1. Forego: Champion Sprinter (1974); Champion Older Male Horse (1974, 1975, 1976, 1977); Horse of the Year (1974, 1975, 1976).

He did things that now seem inconceivable. He won the 1976 GI Marlboro Cup carrying 137 pounds, his furious late drive allowing him to catch Honest Pleasure. He was fast enough to have won twice won the GII Carter H. at seven furlongs, as well as the GII Vosburgh H. at the same distance, yet he also won the Jockey Club Gold Cup back when it was a two-mile race. He won the GI Woodward S. four times. He came a long way from the afterthought who was 28-1 and finished a distant fourth behind Secretariat in the 1973 GI Kentucky Derby.

Since the inception of the Eclipse Awards, is the only horse to be named Horse of the Year three times.

 

  1. Cigar: Champion Older Male (1995, 1996); Horse of the Year (1995, 1996).

Was the brightest star of the nineties, a period where there was a dearth of top horses. His 16-race winning streak captivated the sport. He was one of the last remnants of a bygone era, where horses weren’t restricted to four or five races a year and accepted all challenges and took on all challengers. Was sent all over the U.S. in pursuit of excellence. Won the first running of the GI Dubai World Cup. What would he have accomplished if his connections didn’t run him 11 times on the turf before finally making the switch to the dirt?

  1. Zenyatta: Champion Older Female (2008, 2009, 2010); Horse of the Year (2010).

When most top horses now race 15 times or so at most during their careers, it is hard to include any modern horses on a list that contains horses like Forego. But while Zenyatta’s 20-career starts does not exactly put her on a list of iron horses, she was given more than enough of a chance to prove her greatness. Her come-from-the-clouds running style made her one of the most exciting horses ever and she almost always found a way to get to the wire first. She started off her career with 19 straight wins, setting a record for a top horse, and beat males in the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Classic. She ran until age 6. With horses starting less and less all the time and being retired early, it may be a long time before we see one like her again.

 

  1. John Henry: Champion Turf Horse (1980, 1981, 1983, 1984); Champion Older Male (1981); Horse of the Year (1981, 1984).

He was a great story, the son of Ole Bob Bowers who broke his maiden at Jefferson Downs before ending up in claiming races at the Fair Grounds and in New York. But he was so much more than that. Once he got rolling, he became one of the toughest and most versatile horses in decades. He won Grade I’s on the grass and dirt and was still racing at a high level at the age of nine. Won 29 stakes and 15 Grade I events.

 

  1. American Pharoah: Champion 3-Year-Old Male (2015); Horse of the Year (2015).

He may not be among the 10 most talented horses to have raced since the seventies, but he deserves to make the cut based on his accomplishments. With so many horses having failed along the way, it started to look like winning the Triple Crown was an impossible task. It had gotten to the point where people were calling for changes in the format of the series to make it easier to win. It turns out that all that was needed was for the right horse to come around, one that was talented and durable enough to get through the Triple Crown without having an off day. That he also became the first horse to both win the Triple Crown and the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic is still another reason he deserves to be recognized as one of the best of his era.

 

Honorable Mention: Sunday Silence, Justify, Rachel Alexandra.

 

Trainer: Wayne Lukas. Since the best days of Lukas’s career, the sport has seen plenty of outstanding trainers come along, Bob Baffert, Todd Pletcher, Chad Brown. But the Lukas who dominated the sport in the eighties and nineties has no equal. The first top trainer to have divisions at a number of racetracks, he revolutionized the sport and developed champion after champion. His stable has produced 28 Eclipse Award winners and three Horses of the Year. Lukas, himself, won four Eclipse Awards as the sport’s outstanding trainer, which doesn’t seem like nearly enough.

 

Jockey: Jerry Bailey. This was a tough call between Angel Cordero Jr., the outstanding jockey of the eighties, and Bailey, the outstanding jockey of the nineties. Both were the best of their eras and, among the two, Cordero may have had the more raw talent. The tiebreaker is that Bailey won seven Eclipse Awards, the most ever among jockeys. Cordero won just two.

 

TDN STAFF BALLOTS:

We asked other staff members and contributors to submit their top 10s, in order.  Here’s what they said:

 

Kelsey Riley, International Editor: Secretariat, Affirmed, Seattle Slew, Spectacular Bid, Forego, John Henry, Ruffian, American Pharoah, Cigar, Curlin. Jockey: Jerry Bailey. Trainer: D. Wayne Lukas.

 

Chris McGrath, Columnist: Secretariat, Forego, Spectacular Bid, Seattle Slew, Affirmed, Cigar, John Henry, Ruffian, Ghostzapper, Zenyatta. Jockey: Jerry Bailey. Trainer: D. Wayne Lukas

 

Dan Ross, West Coast Correspondent: Secretariat, Spectacular Bid, Affirmed, Ruffian, Sunday Silence, American Pharoah, Zenyatta, Cigar, Goldikova, Curlin. Jockey: Angel Cordero Jr. Trainer: D. Wayne Lukas.

 

Sue Finley, Publisher: Secretariat, Affirmed, Seattle Slew, Forego, Ruffian, Cigar, John Henry, Spectacular Bid, Sunday Silence Personal Ensign. Jockey: Angel Cordero Jr. Trainer: D. Wayne Lukas.

 

Sid Fernando, Columnist: Forego, Secretariat, Seattle Slew, Affirmed, Ruffian, John Henry, Spectacular Bid, Zenyatta, American Pharoah, Justify. Jockey Angel Cordero Jr. Trainer: Bob Baffert.

 

T.D. Thornton, Writer/Reporter: Secretariat, Cigar, Holy Bull, American Pharoah, Ruffian, John Henry, Personal Ensign, Seattle Slew, Zenyatta, Rachel Alexandra. Jockey: Laffit Pincay. Trainer: D. Wayne Lukas

 

Heather Anderson, Associate International Editor: Seattle Slew,  Spectacular Bid, Cigar, Holy Bull, Curlin, Serena’s Song, Rachel Alexandra, Beholder, Ruffian, Personal Ensign. Jockey: Laffit Pincay. Trainer: Todd Pletcher.

 

Christina Bossinakis, Associate Editor: Secretariat, Seattle Slew, Ghostzapper, American Pharoah, Ruffian, Personal Ensign, Cigar, Lady’s Secret, Alysheba, Zenyatta. Trainer: D. Wayne Lukas. Jockey: Angel Cordero Jr.

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Ask Ray: Where Did The Comments Sections Go?

As publisher Ray Paulick said in the introduction to this latest installment of “Ask Ray,” it's been a while. But the Paulick Report is in the process of deciding whether or not to permanently remove the comments section from the website, and Ray wanted to explain the reasons for the possible change after receiving a number of inquiries. Comments have been disabled … for now at least.

And since he got out of his pajamas, shaved and made himself somewhat presentable, he decided to dip into the “Ask Ray” mailbag and answer a few other questions from readers.

Ray tries to respond to all the emails and “Ask Ray” inquiries he receives. so if you don't hear from him immediately, you can probably assume he's forgotten, or your query is pushed too far down into his inbox. Don't be afraid to remind him again. And  again if necessary.

 

 

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From Maine to California, These Tracks Are Gone, But Not Forgotten

Do you remember Bowie? The Marshfield Fair? Or, how about Liberty Bell? I do. I’ve been to them all.

Someone sent me a link the other day to a list of all the defunct racetracks in the country and it got me thinking how sad it was that I had been to so many that have disappeared into the ether. That and whether or not I hold some sort of unofficial record of having attended more former racetracks than anyone else. I have been to 28 North American tracks that no longer operate Thoroughbred racing.

I started compiling the list when I was just a small child and my father would take me to the local tracks near Philadelphia and along on a lot of his business trips so that we could visit a new track in a new town. It grew when I attended college and picked up the Massachusetts fairs, Suffolk Downs and Rockingham, all of them now gone. My early years as a racing writer took me to places like Hialeah and Hollywood Park. One is a casino, the other a football stadium. There are so many that were unable to make it in an era where outside competition for the gambling dollar, real estate values and racing’s struggles to expand its fan base have made staying in business hard to do.

In a few days, I will be able to look back on the 48th anniversary of the first time I saw Secretariat run in person. It was Nov. 18, 1972 and I lived in the Center City section of Philadelphia and, of course, our family was not going to miss the opportunity to see Secretariat run in person in the Garden State Stakes. He was on the verge of superstardom and his appearance at the Cherry Hill, New Jersey, track drew a crowd of 25,175. The great horse did not disappoint, winning by 3 ½ lengths in his final start as a 2-year-old, cementing his first of two Horse of the Year titles.

The track burned to the ground in 1977, but was resurrected in 1985 by Bob Brennan. The new Garden State was supposed to be “the track of the 21st century” but come the early 2000s, its days were numbered. Unable to compete with the Atlantic City casinos and with too many racetracks in the Mid-Atlantic region for horseplayers to choose from, it limped to the finish line and never ran again after a short meet that ended in May of 2001.

Today, over the hallowed ground over which Secretariat, Bold Ruler, Kelso, Dr. Fager, Citation galloped down the stretch you can find a Cheesecake Factory. Very depressing.

Through the seventies and eighties I made many a trip, as well, to Atlantic City Race Course. My brother worked for Philly’s afternoon paper, the Philadelphia Bulletin, and, after his workday was done, we’d make the short trip down the Atlantic City Expressway to catch the last half of the card. Like Suffolk, Atlantic City limped along for years with short meets that allowed them to maintain their license, but ceased racing after 2014. The track still sits there, its owners trying to figure out what to do with the property.

The tracks I really miss are the ones in New England that were such a huge part of my life while I majored in Suffolk Downs and minored in economics while a student at Tufts University. There was a time when there were tracks in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island and Maine. They are all gone, leaving an entire region of the country that once embraced racing without a single track.

I made it to the old Rockingham once, early on in my freshman year, before it, too, burned down, in 1980. It was rebuilt and reopened four years later, but the new Rockingham was one of those places where there was no there there. It ran its last Thoroughbred race in 2002.

My favorite track, maybe of all time, was Suffolk Downs. I had an affinity for a hardscrabble, blue-collar, unpretentious track nestled between oil tanks where much of the racing was conducted during the harsh New England winter. For those who prefer Saratoga, Del Mar, Santa Anita, I don’t expect you to understand.

Suffolk Downs held on as long as it could, holding five or six-day meets to keep its license while ownership hoped to be granted a casino license. When Suffolk lost its bid, it was over. The track last raced June 30, 2019, and I was there to say goodbye. The property will soon be developed and include housing, stores, offices, you know, the usual stuff.

The Massachusetts fairs didn’t make it nearly as far. Back in the day, there was nothing like them. With a Ferris wheel, carnival games and 4-H club exhibits as a backdrop, Marshfield, Northampton and Great Barrington were New England institutions. With the legalization of pari-mutuel wagering in Massachusetts in the thirties, a thriving fair circuit got going, a refuge for horses and jockeys that couldn’t win any place else. Everybody who went to the fairs had a story about the fairs, like seeing 17-year-old Golden Arrow win at Great Barrington in 1978 or the time Zippy Chippy finished second at Northampton in his 98th attempt to break his maiden. And who can forget all the races that were fixed? There were hundreds of them over the years.

The fairs were so popular that a crowd of 27,048 once showed up at Great Barrington, which called itself “the Belmont of the Berkshires.” But they were a product of a very different time in racing. Northampton was the last survivor, running its last race in 2005. The fairs at Marshfield and Northampton continue to this day. Great Barrington has completely closed but there was talk before COVID-19 that it would be revived and run some of the dates normally reserved for Suffolk Downs.

I caught Ak-Sar-Ben near the very end. The same racetrack that once regularly drew 25,000 people Saturdays was crippled by competition from casinos in bordering states. It last raced in 1995

and the property has been converted to something called Aksarben Village, a development that includes part of the campus of University Nebraska-Omaha and a Godfather’s Pizza shop. I imagine Ak-Sar-Ben was a great track in its prime.

Bay Meadows is gone. So is Beulah Park, the Woodlands, Bowie, Liberty Bell, Sportsman’s Park, Manor Downs. I have been to them all. Green Mountain, which hadn’t run Thoroughbreds since 1976, burned to the ground in a suspicious fire just this last September. I remember taking the short trip over from Saratoga to catch a card at what was one of the sport’s most remote racetracks.
There was no saving most of these tracks. The exception is Hialeah. When it comes to sheer beauty and class, there was a time when it had no equal. To this day, the track’s website refers to it as “the world’s most beautiful race course.” Losing out on a war for the prime Florida dates, it became less relevant with each passing year until it ran its last Thoroughbred race in 2001. But still it sits there, kept somewhat alive by slot machines and fake quarter horse races. That the sport has never come together and found a way to bring Hialeah back to life is a failure that should have been corrected long ago.

There will be a new member to this list in just a few weeks. Calder/Gulfstream Park West is set to close for good after the Nov. 28 card. That will make my number 29. I’d be fine if it stopped right there.

Editor’s note: Think you can beat Bill’s Finley’s visits for live racing to 28 (soon to be 29) defunct tracks? Email us at suefinley@thetdn.com.

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2021 Calendar Celebrates Secretariat’s Last Living Sons and Daughters

Continuing a series celebrating Secretariat’s legacy through his remaining offspring, a 2021 calendar featuring the last living sons and daughters of the legendary 1973 Triple Crown winner is now available. It’s the fourth annual fund-raising calendar in what has become a tradition of generating revenue for equine charities, a group that now includes Bright Futures Farm, Old Friends, and Victory Alliance Ranch.

“It is humbling to see how the racing industry, and Secretariat fans in particular, have embraced this calendar series,” said writer/photographer Patricia McQueen, whose creative project is part of her research work on Secretariat as a sire. “The first three calendars have raised more than $14,000 for the designated charities, funds sorely needed to provide homes and special care for horses in need.”

The calendars are available for $25 each at www.SecretariatsLegacy.com. Free shipping within the U.S. is included.

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