THIRD FINGER FUND LLC by, @BMDPicksHorses

by Kellie Reilly

Last weekend, Santa Anita held two premier events for older fillies and mares, the Santa Maria H. (G1) and La Canada S. (G2), so we'll take the opportunity to recall a top-class mare who captured both of those prizes during her distinguished career. Like other magnificent racemares, Glorious Song routinely campaigned against males and held her own, most notably when forcing the sensational Spectacular Bid to dig deep to beat her, but she may be even better remembered for her stellar career as a broodmare.

Glorious Song was bred in Canada by the renowned E. P. Taylor, who had already earned lasting fame for breeding the all-conquering Northern Dancer. Glorious Song was sired by United Nations H. (G1) winner Halo from the *Herbager mare Ballade. This proved to be an explosive genetic mixture, as later meetings between Halo and Ballade would result in two significant full brothers to Glorious Song -- Devil's Bag, 1983 champion two-year-old colt, and Saint Ballado, winner of the 1992 Arlington Classic S. (G2) who became an outstanding sire, responsible for 2005 Horse of the Year Saint Liam as well as two-time champion Ashado.

Taylor's Windfields Farm consigned Glorious Song to the 1977 Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society yearling sale at Woodbine, where Frank Stronach bought her for $36,000. It was an inspired purchase, for she became Stronach's first exceptional horse.

Originally trained in her homeland by F.H. Loschke, the rangy bay filly first stepped into the limelight in the summer and autumn of her three-year-old year. After finishing a solid second to subsequent champion Kamar (Key to the Mint) in the Duchess S., Glorious Song garnered three in a row in a virtuoso display of versatility -- the Ontario Damsel S., Belle Mahone S. and Wonder Where S. -- at distances from 6 1/2 furlongs to 1 1/4 miles, on both dirt and turf. Her streak ended in the Nettie S., when she faded to fourth, but she rebounded to end her year on a winning note in the Maple Leaf S. against her elders.

Not content with racking up success in Canada, Glorious Song took her act to California as a four-year-old. In the care of new conditioner Gerald Belanger Jr., she lined up in the three-race La Canada series with Chris McCarron in the irons. Rating behind a wicked pace in the series-opening La Brea S., she closed to within a half-length of the brilliantly fast Terlingua (Secretariat), but Terlingua held her at bay while finishing the seven furlongs in a snappy 1:20 4/5. The second leg of the series, the 1 1/16-mile El Encino S. (G3), was a messy affair, with Glorious Song suffering interference and crossing the wire in fourth. She was promptly promoted to third, as the stewards disqualified Terlingua for the infraction.

Glorious Song would not endure another loss to her own sex that year. For starters, she left no doubt about her superiority in the La Canada. Again reserved off the torrid early tempo, the Stronach colorbearer unleashed a powerful charge to sweep into the lead and drove to an unambiguous 1 3/4-length victory. In stopping the clock in a sharp final time of 1:47 3/5, she comprehensively defeated El Encino winner It's in the Air (Mr. Prospector), who wound up third. At this point, prominent owner Nelson Bunker Hunt was impressed enough to buy a half-interest in Glorious Song.

After wrapping up her California campaign in dashing style with another swoop-to-conquest in the Santa Margarita H. (G1) against older mares, she was clearly the best in the West. Just as she had left Canada to hunt for glory in California, she now headed East to attain stardom on the New York stage. Lagging behind the early pace in Aqueduct's Top Flight H. (G1), Glorious Song surged to take command in the stretch en route to a 1 3/4-length score over Misty Gallore, another daughter of Halo who had until then been the divisional leader in New York.

Having defeated the top females on both coasts, the big bay ventured into male company for new challenges. In the grassy Laurance Armour H. at Arlington Park, she closed to grab second but could not overtake her compatriot Overskate, a two-time Canadian Horse of the Year. She then won three in a row, fighting valiantly to secure victory by a nose in the Michigan Mile and One-Eighth H. (G2) with Overskate more than five lengths adrift in fourth. Making a triumphant return to Canada, she claimed the Dominion Day H. (G3) as the 123-pound highweight, spotting males between five and 12 pounds, and the 1 1/4-mile Canadian Maturity S. on the lawn in 2:01 3/5, just one tick off the Woodbine course record.

In perhaps her best-ever performance, Glorious Song boldly confronted Spectacular Bid in the Amory L. Haskell H. (G1) at Monmouth, then an event for three-year-olds and up. Bid was lugging 132 pounds to her impost of 117, but the filly was actually the second highweight, giving up to seven pounds to the other males in the field. Bid and the filly brushed near the half-mile pole before she launched into contention four-wide on the turn, with Bid ranging up just to her outside. Glorious Song struck the front, but Bid was breathing down her neck. In the words of famed turf writer Joe Hirsch in the American Racing Manual, she "closed briskly and gave 'Bid' a real test" before the mighty gray prevailed. Bid edged away from her under two cracks of the whip, but the Daily Racing Form chart gives the filly her due, noting that she "responded willingly" to Bid's challenge and "held on stubbornly" to go down by 1 3/4 lengths. To put Glorious Song's achievement into perspective, only one other horse (Flying Paster) had come this close to Spectacular Bid during his magical 1980 season.

She ran once more that year in the Marlboro Cup H. (G1), becoming the only Canadian-bred ever invited to that prestigious event at Belmont Park. "Closing fastest of all," in Joe Hirsch's estimation, she came from far back to get second but was no threat to the 4 1/2-length winner, Winter's Tale. Toiling behind her in fifth was Temperence Hill, hero of that year's Belmont S. (G1), Travers S. (G1) and Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1).

In recognition of her tremendous season, with six wins, four seconds and a third from 11 starts in top company, Glorious Song was voted champion older female. Her homeland accorded her even greater honors, naming her Canadian Horse of the Year in addition to her divisional championship.

Brought back for a five-year-old campaign with trainer John Cairns, she did not enjoy the same degree of success, with three wins from 12 starts, but she did manage to turn in noteworthy performances that enabled her to repeat as Canada's champion older female. Glorious Song captured the Santa Maria H. (G2) toting 127 pounds, gearing down by two lengths. In scoring her second Dominion Day H. by 5 1/2 lengths under co-topweight of 125 pounds, she established a new Woodbine track record of 1:48 for 1 1/8 miles, and her winner's check made her the richest Canadian-bred up to her time.

Her last victory came in Keeneland's Spinster S. (G1). Although the classy three-year-old Truly Bound stole a march on her, opening up a two-length lead into the stretch, Glorious Song overhauled her younger foe to get up by a neck, with the rest of the field well behind. Among those in the top pair's wake were multiple Grade 2 victress Sweetest Chant (Mr. Leader) and champion Heavenly Cause (*Grey Dawn II).

In her swan song, the Silver Belles H. at Hollywood Park, she could manage only fourth. The $7,500 she pocketed for that effort, however, made her a millionaire, the first Canadian-bred to achieve that distinction. At her retirement, her career scorecard stood at 34-17-9-1, with 13 of those stakes victories, and a bankroll of  $1,004,534. Although Glorious Song has not made it into the Hall of Fame at Saratoga, she was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 1995.

As a broodmare, Glorious Song has excelled, and her offspring are likely to figure as major pedigree influences for generations to come. Her most accomplished son, Singspiel (Ire) (In the Wings [GB]), was named champion turf horse in 1996, making Glorious Song one of an elite group of champion females to have produced a champion. Singspiel scored Group/Grade 1 wins on three continents, including the Dubai World Cup (UAE-G1), Japan Cup (Jpn-G1), Coronation Cup (Eng-G1) and Canadian International S. (Can-G1). He has since become a successful sire.

Glorious Song's flashy chestnut colt by Blushing Groom (Fr), Rahy, won the 1989 Bel Air H. (G2) at Hollywood and, as a juvenile in Europe, had placed in the Middle Park S. (G1). Rahy has likewise gone onto a successful stud career, siring among others, 1995 champion three-year-old filly Serena's Song, who emulated Glorious Song by mixing it up successfully with males. He is also the broodmare sire of hot young stallion Giant's Causeway.

Another son of Glorious Song, Rakeen (Northern Dancer), was a South African Group 2 victor who has become a good sire in that country. Glorious Song's female line also holds promise. One of her daughters, Morn of Song (Blushing Groom), has produced 2003 Prix Vermeille (Fr-G1) heroine Mezzo Soprano (Darshaan).

After a couple of changes in ownership, Glorious Song was ultimately bought by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum. At his Dalham Hall Stud in England, she was put down in July of 2003 when surgery failed to ameliorate intestinal problems.

Although Glorious Song is no longer with us, her refrain will echo through the ages through her illustrious descendants. Indeed, it is likely that breeders will inbreed to her by crossing her sons Rahy and Singspiel, creating the potent Rasmussen Factor of inbreeding to a superior female. Similarly, crossing Glorious Song's descendants with those of her full brothers Saint Ballado or Devil's Bag figures to hold significant appeal.

Interestingly, several of Glorious Song's old racetrack rivals have also proven outstanding broodmares. Her Canadian conqueror, Kamar, was Broodmare of the Year in 1990, and she is the granddam of 2001 European and American champion Fantastic Light (by none other than Glorious Song's son Rahy). Among Glorious Song's California foes, Terlingua produced the exceedingly influential sire Storm Cat, and It's in the Air became the granddam of top turf horse Storming Home (GB) and French classic winner Musical Chimes. Jameela (Rambunctious), who finished in a dead-heat for second with Glorious Song in the 1981 Beldame S. (G1), produced champion and excellent sire Gulch. Glorious Song's beaten Spinster rival Sweetest Chant is the granddam of noted sire Distorted Humor, and from that same race, Heavenly Cause is the dam of Two Punch, who in turn sired champion sprinter Smoke Glacken.

At the time Glorious Song and her rivals were slugging it out, would observers have expected all of these fillies to become stellar producers remembered more for their offspring than their exploits on the track? As fascinating as it is to explore the genetic ties that bind champions past and present, we know that thread reaches not only backward through time, but also forward into the future, and it's a challenging enterprise to forecast the twists and turns in that thread. Only time will tell whether our current crop of distaffers can conceivably approach this gold standard of broodmare excellence.

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by Kellie Reilly

To commemorate the 74th anniversary of the untimely death of *Phar Lap, we salute the mighty performer whose exploits gripped much of the English-speaking world. His exotic name, Thai for "lightning," aptly summed him up, for his sheer power suggested a force of nature. Hailed as the best horse to race in Australia for decades, perhaps for all time, Phar Lap successfully invaded North America and thrashed a solid group of rivals in the 1932 Agua Caliente H. The strapping chestnut never got the chance to build on this sensational debut or face the cream of America's crop, as he tragically died just two weeks later in circumstances that many regarded as suspicious. Given such a dramatic plot, it's no surprise that his extraordinary career has formed the subject of books as well as a marvelous film.

Foaled in New Zealand on October 4, 1926, Phar Lap was sired by the English-bred Night Raid, an unalloyed failure as a racehorse on two continents, and produced by Entreaty (Winkie), a mare who had little to recommend her. As a yearling, Phar Lap went through the sales ring at Trentham in New Zealand.

Divining inordinate promise in that pedigree on the catalog page, Australian-based trainer Harry Telford convinced a client, American-born David J. Davis, to buy the gangly chestnut. The winning bid, from Davis' agent, was a modest 160 guineas. In analyzing the pedigree, Telford likely looked beyond the nonentities up front and seized upon the potent influences deeper within. Among those key factors was Australia's own legendary Carbine, a superstar in 1890. It was widely thought that no horse could ever come close to Carbine's achievements, but in a few short years, the unheralded yearling, a descendant of Carbine, would shatter that consensus.

Phar Lap hardly started off on the right foot. His owner categorically rejected him when first laying eyes on his purchase, and the financially strapped trainer salvaged the situation by arranging terms to lease the horse from Davis. Because the colt was already rather big, Telford had him gelded. An unfurnished two-year-old, Phar Lap did not make his debut until the fall and finished off the board in his first four starts, finally breaking his maiden in an ordinary six-furlong handicap. He was then put away for the winter, and when returning early in his three-year-old season, he turned in three straight unplaced efforts.

Despite his charge's backward phase, Telford sensed something special in Phar Lap and believed that he could have uncommon ability. Telford's view found some measure of vindication in the Warwick S., in which Phar Lap got up for fourth in a deep and talented field, and even more so in the important nine-furlong Chelmsford S., in which Phar Lap charged late and just failed to catch the winner by a half-length. The correspondent for the 1929 British Bloodstock Review (BBR) noted that he was a "very long strider," a distinctive trait that would be mentioned time and again by admiring observers over the course of his career.

After flashing talent in the Warwick and the Chelmsford, Phar Lap finally put it all together with four straight scores in six weeks, all dominating victories in major contests. He captured the nine-furlong Rosehill Guineas by three emphatic lengths, equaling the race record time, "with consummate ease," in the BBR's phrase. Stepping up in trip to 12 furlongs in the AJC (Sydney) Derby, he "completely overshadowed his 10 opponents" and "strode home at his leisure" while setting a new race record. Phar Lap followed up four days later with a stunning success in the 10-furlong Craven Plate against older horses. Back at 12 furlongs in the VRC Victoria Derby, he "strode home the easiest of winners" while establishing another race-record time.

Three days after that last sensational performance, Phar Lap was sent off as the heavy favorite in the two-mile Melbourne Cup, Australia's signature prize, often dubbed "the race that stops a nation."  Piloted by Bobby Lewis when his regular rider Jim Pike couldn't make the weight, Phar Lap fought his new partner's restraint. Lewis, who was only following the trainer's instructions, realized that he had to give the big gelding his head. After compromising his chances with the early tussling, Phar Lap had nothing left when the classy older closer Nightmarch attacked, and the young three-year-old wound up third.

In a case of famous last words, the BBR suggested that, in light of his Cup defeat, "There is the possibility he is not a true stayer." This embarrassingly off-base conjecture should remind us that it's not wise to make pronouncements about a horse's ability or aptitude before he is fully developed and physically mature.

Phar Lap was then freshened over the summer. He had formed a profound personal attachment to his stable boy and constant companion, "Tommy" Woodcock, and there is no shortage of vignettes about their poignant relationship. One story has it that his charge wouldn't eat without Tommy. During this summer of rest and recreation in the country, Woodcock later said, Phar Lap strengthened up magnificently.

Returning to action in the fall, he narrowly dropped his first start off the layoff, but Phar Lap then reeled off nine prestigious stakes wins in a row in a span of about 10 weeks. Along the way, he broke three race records, smashed a track mark, and in arguably his most brilliant effort, he destroyed his Melbourne Cup conqueror Nightmarch by 10 lengths in the 2 1/4-mile AJC Plate. His final time of 3:49 1/2 shattered the Randwick track mark by 6 1/2 seconds and took a full second off the Australian/New Zealand record for the distance. It was an electrifying performance, as the unearthly chestnut had sprinted from the start, setting an impossible pace that ran his foes ragged, with even his split-times reportedly breaking records. Phar Lap amazingly kept motoring until his rider wrapped up on him, and he sauntered through the stretch.

The 1930 BBR termed him "a phenomenal racing machine," adding that, "This series of successes caused amazement, not because they were so numerous and so profitable, but because of the way Phar Lap dominated his opponents." Photographs bolster this verdict, showing Phar Lap jogging up to the line with ears pricked as his pursuers are straining their utmost. He was equally effective running over left-handed or right-handed courses, fast going or bog. No wonder he was dubbed the "Red Terror."

At four, he reached the peak of his powers, stringing together 14 consecutive stakes victories. Five of those incredibly came within a week, during the Melbourne spring carnival. Moreover, in winning the Melbourne Cup under 138 pounds, he did what even Carbine failed to do when he was a four-year-old. Phar Lap could not repeat the following year at five, lumbering an unheard-of 150 pounds, at least in part because he was physically not right and headed to the sidelines thereafter. Before that setback, he had won his other eight starts as a five-year-old and established another Australian/New Zealand record of 2:02 1/2 for 1 1/4 miles.

The American expatriate Davis, who had agreed to let the trainer buy a share of the horse after the lease expired, insisted on an American campaign for his star. His wishes prevailed over the trainer's uneasiness about a trans-Pacific assault, and his first target was the rich Agua Caliente H. in Tijuana.

The great gelding duly boarded ship and after a voyage of a little more than two weeks, arrived in San Francisco on January 15, 1932. Among his entourage was the indispensable Tommy, who remarked that his charge handled the trip "like an old sea dog." Acting as trainer with Telford remaining behind in Australia, Tommy prepared his charge for the March 20 contest, his first race since the Melbourne Cup the previous November and his dirt debut.

The American racing press was not altogether overcome with enthusiasm for the invader. Writing in The Thoroughbred Record, "Roamer" questioned Phar Lap and opined that the Agua Caliente publicity department was hyping the horse in advance of the track's marquee race. The Blood Horse was of a similar view, saying that it "sides with many horsemen in the belief that class in Australia is not class in America."

Shouldering top weight of 129 pounds, Phar Lap delivered a powerful rebuttal to these charges on race day under Australian rider Billy Elliott. Lobbing along toward the rear in the early going, Elliott steered his mount to the far outside to keep him in the clear. About halfway down the backstretch, he turned the huge chestnut loose, and Phar Lap rocketed from a distant sixth to first, opening up a three-length lead. Elliott then tapped the breaks to give him a breather on the far turn. Reveille Boy, carrying only 118, loomed up boldly entering the stretch and may have just poked his head in front, but as soon as Elliott asked for a second burst, Phar Lap responded, striding right away to post a 2-length victory in a track-record time of 2:02 4/5 for 1 1/4 miles.

Although the Agua Caliente did not feature such American heavyweights as the brilliant champion Equipoise or reigning Horse of the Year Twenty Grand, Phar Lap had well and truly dusted a couple of stalwarts in the handicap ranks. Reveille Boy already had very respectable form to his credit and would go on to capture the prestigious Merchants and Citizens H. at Saratoga later that year. Spanish Play, who finished eighth, was a multiple stakes winner whom esteemed turf authority John Hervey regarded as "high class."

The American media now raved about the Australian superstar.

The Thoroughbred Record recap was glowing. "Truly a super-horse is Phar Lap," it said, adding, "only a prejudiced judge...would fail to admit Phar Lap is a horse of the highest class."

The Blood Horse summary struck the same chord. Observing that the mighty gelding "toyed with his field," it stated, "It is now apparent that Phar Lap is a horse of such caliber that he will be at home among American horses of the highest class."

In his magisterial Racing in America, 1922-1936, Hervey wrote that the Agua Caliente performance "proclaimed him all if not more than he had been represented," and marveled that Phar Lap "progressed by a series of prodigious leaps."

Present that day were two future Hall of Famers, both awe-struck -- jockey Eddie Arcaro and astute horseman Charlie Whittingham.

Soon after, Phar Lap traveled back to Menlo Park, California, for a break. His career mark stood at 37 wins, three seconds and two thirds from 51 starts. He ranked as the all-time leading money winner in Australia/New Zealand, and he was closing in on the world title, with The Blood Horse listing his earnings as $332,250 at that time. Except for his eighth in the Melbourne Cup under staggering weight when not at his best, all of his other unplaced efforts were at two and early in his three-year-old year.

The jubilant Davis entered into negotiations for a movie deal, and racetracks were clamoring to host specials pitting the Australian wonder against the best America had to offer. Famed Churchill Downs impresario Col. Matt Winn was planning to lure top-flight Europeans as well and make it a global spectacle.

Such future hopes, brimming with promise, were cruelly dashed when Phar Lap was stricken on April 5. His first signs of intestinal distress were followed by a rapid downward spiral, and veterinary treatment brought the great one no relief from his suffering. Within hours, he was dead.

The tragedy elicited poignant responses.

"He was to have been, we thought, to racing in America what Babe Ruth is to baseball, what Bobby Jones was to golf, what Bill Tilden is to tennis, and what Knute Rockne was to football," Roy Carruthers was quoted as saying in The Blood Horse.

"Kildare" penned a poem for the The Thoroughbred Record -- "Two weeks ago in Mexico / We saw him canter in, / And now to think that he is dead, / It almost seems a sin."

In The Blood Horse, turf writer J. A. Estes was moved to verse as well. In part, his poem reads, "I never saw one like him; never one / That looked like Phar Lap; that could run / And break their hearts, and run again, / And come home fresh as summer rain."

As the news broke, speculation was rife in Australia that the gelding had been deliberately poisoned. Conspiracy theories seemed all the more plausible because unknown assailants had shot at Phar Lap two years before, on the morning of his Melbourne S. victory in 1930, and it was widely thought that nefarious bookmakers were behind it. While the 1931 BBR dismissed the incident as a journalists' prank that was never a serious criminal enterprise, it was unnerving for the gelding's connections, who surrounded him with armed guards, and the public.

Another long-held hypothesis was that Phar Lap had accidentally ingested a toxic substance when grazing in an area that had just been sprayed.

In their lavishly illustrated and meticulously detailed Phar Lap (Allen & Unwin, 2000), Geoff Armstrong and Peter Thompson persuasively settle the vexed question of his demise. The great gelding's symptoms are consistent with a disease that had not even been identified until the 1980s, Duodenitis-Proximal jejunitis, or severe intestinal inflammation. The authors note that travel stress is often a trigger for the disease, another factor that fits Phar Lap's case.

As the 1932 BBR phrased it, his death was regarded "almost as a national calamity" in Australia. While it is often noted that his phenomenal career coincided with the bleakest days of the Great Depression, giving the proverbial man on the street an underdog to cheer, it should also be remembered that Australia was still a relatively new nation at that time. Coming along a decade or so after the heroic service of Australian/New Zealand troops in the First World War, Phar Lap also boosted national pride and reinforced a shared sense of identity.

Like a precious saint's relic, Phar Lap's corpse was too much of a treasure to reside in only one place. His hide, skillfully preserved by a New York taxidermist and looking quite life-like, is on display at Museum Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. His skeleton was handed over to New Zealand, so that nation may have its due as his native land. And his massive heart, reportedly weighing considerably more than an ordinary Thoroughbred's with a left ventricle twice as thick, is preserved in Canberra. Appropriately, the heart of the Australian hero lies in repose in Australia's capital.

Although Phar Lap will always belong in a special way to Australia, and New Zealand, he has joined racing's pantheon, and so he belongs to us all.

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by Kellie Reilly

With the renewal of the Aqueduct H. (G3) on Saturday, we will praise the memory of the mighty gelding Roamer, a grand old campaigner who captured the 1917 edition of this race. Small in stature but gigantic in ability, he won 27 stakes races (including a special race against the clock) from seven furlongs to 1 3/4 miles, placed in 28 more, successfully carried up to 133 pounds, and was reputed to have set more track records than any other American racer up to that time.

So renowned was he that turf writer Neil Newman took "Roamer" as his pen name. There was also a stakes named for him, the Roamer H., initially contested at New York's old Jamaica Race Course then shifted to Aqueduct from 1959 onward. Appropriately, another legendary gelding, Forego, would earn the Roamer H. laurels in 1973. The stakes race disappeared in 1987, but Roamer's exploits persist regardless of the vagaries of stakes schedules.

Roamer did not owe his existence to profound breeding theories or the keen intuition of a horseman's eye. Beyond that, however, accounts differ. The more colorful tale holds that either his sire, the teaser Knight Errant, or dam, *Rose Tree II (Bona Vista), jumped the fence to consummate their attraction without human intervention, which led to the offspring being named Roamer. Another more pedestrian explanation is that because of Rose Tree's blindness, Col. E.F. Clay did not want her to have to travel to be bred, so he chose to have her covered at home instead. Whichever is true, the mating had nothing to do with pedigrees and is another of the myriad examples proving that a good horse can indeed come from anywhere.

After racing several times for the Clay brothers as a juvenile in 1913, Roamer was purchased by prominent New Yorker Andrew Miller, secretary/treasurer of Saratoga, and turned over to trainer A.J. "Jack" Goldsborough. Then in a harbinger of glory days to come, he captured the Saratoga Special S. after dueling for the early lead and drawing off.

As a three-year-old, Roamer perfected his trademark style of running his rivals ragged from the start. His chief weapon was his ability to carry his early speed. When his pursuers had exhausted themselves in the chase, Roamer then famously coasted home. Like a boilerplate novel, the same plot recurs throughout his past performances: his leading margin increases at every pole, and the one-line summary says, "In a canter," or "Won under restraint," or "As the rider pleased," or "Won easing up."

Among his coups in 1914 were a smashing victory in the Carter H. against older horses, setting a track record for seven furlongs at Aqueduct in 1:24 4/5; an eight-length rout in the Brooklyn Derby; a 10-length tour de force in the Travers S. while establishing a new Saratoga mark of 2:04 for 1 1/4 miles; a bloodless walkover success in the 1 1/2-mile Autumn Weight-for-Age at Belmont; and his seal to a brilliant season, a 1 1/2-length score in the Washington H. at Laurel Park, giving 22 pounds to the runner-up and posting a final time of 1:49 3/5, breaking the American nine-furlong record.

At the age of four in 1915, he added more clips to his highlight reel, including the 1 1/8-mile Brookdale H. by five lengths, equaling the Aqueduct track record of 1:50 3/5 under a 128-pound impost; Saratoga's venerable Merchants and Citizens H. courageously toting 129 pounds over 1 3/16 miles; the 1 3/4-mile Saratoga Cup by eight lengths; and the 1 1/8-mile National H. at Laurel lugging 132 pounds. For those sterling efforts, Roamer was officially named Horse of the Year in both 1914 and 1915.

Although unable to tower over his opposition during the remainder of his career from 1916 through 1919, Roamer was still an elite performer, more than capable of finding the fountain of youth on occasion and reminding racegoers of his front-running mastery. The 1917 Aqueduct H. is a case in point. Carrying 127 pounds, Roamer dictated the pace en route to a three-length win in the 1 1/8-mile stakes, spotting the second-place finisher 19 pounds and the third 26.

Remarkably, Roamer turned in two of his best performances at the age of seven in 1918. In notching his third victory in the Saratoga H., he shattered his own track record set in the Travers by nearly two seconds, completing the 1 1/4 miles in 2:02 1/5 under 129 pounds.

Also at Saratoga 20 days later, Roamer eclipsed the mile mark of one of the giants of 19th century racing, Salvator, in a race against time with no effective opposition, carded as the Special. His sole companion in the affair was the juvenile Lightning, whose presence was called for just to trick Roamer into thinking that this was real competition and not a workout.

From a running start, the veteran quickly opened up on the outclassed youth. Toting a feathery 110-pound impost, the same weight Salvator carried when establishing the mile record of 1:35 1/2 (different splits in those days), Roamer skipped through fractions of :23 3/5, :46 and 1:10 1/5 and stopped the watch in 1:34 4/5. In a great display of sportsmanship, Salvator's trainer Byrne was there to congratulate the new record-holder. It was the last hurrah for the quaint practice of racing against time, with all future records being established in the context of competitive racing.

After starting only six times in 1919 with one victory at Aqueduct, Roamer was sent to the farm to convalesce. At the end of the year, reportedly within hours of his owner's death, Roamer lost his footing on an icy patch in his paddock and injured himself irreparably. He was humanely put down on January 1, 1920.

His career mark stands at 39 wins, 26 seconds and nine thirds from 98 starts, amassing $98,828 during seven seasons of racing at the highest level of competition. Roamer was inducted into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame in 1981.

In one of those fascinating quirks of equine genetics, the female line of Rose Tree has experienced a renaissance in recent years, chiefly through her descendant La Eva (Barbizon), who figures in the maternal line of multiple Grade 1 king Formal Gold, multiple Grade 2 winner Even the Score (Unbridled's Song) and promising three-year-old Noonmark (Unbridled's Song), a 10-length Belmont maiden winner for Steve Asmussen.

Trainer Goldsborough and jockey Andy Schuttinger, his regular rider for the last three years of his career, get the last word on the great gelding. (The following quotations were originally published in the Daily Racing Form and reprinted in the British Bloodstock Breeders' Review, Vol. VII, No. 4, December 1918, p. 367.)

"He can't be handled like an ordinary horse," Goldsborough said, explaining how Roamer thrived on a heavy workload. "You must set him down -- flatten him out -- or he isn't worth a quarter...That amount of work would have cooked any ordinary horse, but it only put Roamer on edge, and he got it hot and heavy up to two days before he lowered the mile record."

Goldsborough also commented on his star's finicky eating habits.

"He has never weighed over 1,000 pounds and, as a younger horse, I had the greatest difficulty getting him to eat six or seven quarts of oats a day. He was given this at night, and you never saw a poorer hay eater. He wouldn't eat a mash until recently, and I don't know where he got his vitality."

"The old fellow is unlike any other horse I ever rode," Schuttinger said. "When he was younger, he wanted to dive into his bit and stand his opponents on their heads the first half-mile. Now, as he grows older, I have to ride him nearly all the way. He likes a fast, hard track, and on that kind of footing you would think you were in a rocking chair.

"He is as smart as they come, but is as honest as the day is long," his rider continued. "He will give up to the last ounce of speed he has on tap."

"His action is what makes him great," his trainer observed. "I never expect to see another like him."

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by Kellie Reilly

With the renewal of the prestigious Santa Anita H. (G1) last weekend, we salute Round Table, a legend of our sport who landed that prize in heroic fashion. Like the mythical Arthurian knights to which his name alludes, Round Table traversed the country in search of adventure and glorious deeds. Champion grass horse for three straight years, he was also world-class on the dirt, matching or breaking one world record, three American records and 12 track records on both surfaces while often shouldering massive weights. Yet he was not universally hailed as an all-time great in his own era, partly because of his need for fast tracks and partly because of the caliber of those he defeated. His career thus serves as a salutary reminder that controversy often attends these kinds of judgments, and what may seem a foregone conclusion to posterity was not so clear-cut to observers at the time.

Round Table was the product of a mating of diametric opposites in more ways than one. His sire, *Princequillo, was a late bloomer. After running for a tag early on, he eventually became a stayer of the highest order, landing the Jockey Club Gold Cup and Saratoga Cup in 1943. His dam was *Knight's Daughter, bred by British monarch King George VI. The aptly named daughter of the classy English sprinter Sir Cosmo was precocious enough to land three of four starts at two. Culled from the Royal Stud, Knight's Daughter was acquired by Claiborne Farm, where she met Princequillo. Rarely in the annals of Thoroughbred breeding does such a match of late-maturing stayer and speedy sprinter result in a high-caliber middle-distance type, but Round Table was fortunate to inherit the best of both.

Foaled at Claiborne on April 6, 1954, Round Table was born at the same farm on the same day as another legendary champion, Bold Ruler. This odd quirk of fate presaged their crossing swords on the racetrack, and even more momentous, the commingling of their blood that yielded a Triple Crown winner, Seattle Slew, who is still leaving his mark on the breed.

Racing for Claiborne as a juvenile in the care of trainer Moody Jolley, the small bay won five of 10 starts. Both of his stakes successes came at Keeneland, the four-furlong Lafayette S. in April and the seven-furlong Breeders' Futurity in October. Negotiations to sell Round Table were reportedly under way in the course of the season, with the asking price first in the vicinity of $40,000, then climbing higher as the colt added more bullet points to his resume.

Oilman Travis Kerr wound up purchasing a majority interest in Round Table in rather colorful circumstances. Kerr's agent was in the paddock at Hialeah on February 9, 1957, just before Round Table was to make his second start at three in an allowance. As the story goes, Claiborne's famed Bull Hancock gave him until post time to agree to terms, and the deal was concluded. Contemporary sources give conflicting accounts of the final price, some as high as $175,000, but noted authority Abram S. Hewitt reported the figure of $145,000. Hancock retained an interest in the colt's breeding rights.

Kerr transferred Round Table to California horseman Bill Molter, who had trained the 1954 Kentucky Derby hero, Determine. In his first two West Coast starts, the Santa Anita Derby and the San Bernardino H., his recruit caught slow and heavy tracks, respectively, and wound up third in the former and fifth in the latter.

Off tracks proved to be his nemesis, and his failure to produce his best on these occasions led some observers to doubt his greatness. In this respect, he vaguely resembled Lancelot of the Arthurian legends -- the best of the knights as a battler, but blemished by a failing that rendered him unable to enjoy a pure vision of the Holy Grail. Unlike Lancelot, however, Round Table's flaw was certainly not moral, as he was as genuine as they come, and it may be explained by his action. Hancock was quoted as saying that he ran "right off his hocks," propelling him mightily on fast or hard tracks, but impeding his fluency of motion on deep tracks or off going, most noticeably on the dirt.

Back on a fast track, he wired the field in the Bay Meadows Derby, and in a tour de force, pillar-to-post performance in Keeneland's Blue Grass S., powered home by six lengths in track-record time. His Blue Grass mark of 1:47 2/5 stood for nearly 40 years, until Skip Away shaved one tick off the clock in 1996.

Round Table next lined up in the 1957 Kentucky Derby, infamous for jockey Willie Shoemaker's misjudging the wire aboard *Gallant Man and costing his mount the victory.  The Kerr colorbearer got up for third behind the lucky winner Iron Liege, defeating Bold Ruler in fourth. Rider Ralph Neves said that Round Table "bobbled every three or four steps (as) the track kept cupping out on him," but that he "made a strong move" once finding room in the stretch.

Skipping the Preakness and Belmont, Molter took his charge back home to California, where Shoemaker eventually became his regular rider. After a sharp second against older horses in the Californian, Round Table went on a tear, stringing together an 11-race win streak that was described as the longest since Citation. His first three stakes in the series came at the expense of his own age group, but the next was a smashing 3 1/4-length score in the Hollywood Gold Cup H. Not only did he become the first three-year-old to take that prize, but he equaled the 1 1/4-mile track record of 1:58 3/5, set by the immortal Swaps, and for a time stood as the fastest 10 furlongs ever recorded by a sophomore.

Esteemed turf writer Charles Hatton, although recognizing the colt's very good qualities, was not exactly bowled over. In the American Racing Manual, he issued a searing indictment of the California form. As he summed it up, "One is constrained to doubt whether Round Table ever met a serious test on the West Coast."

Later that summer, he shifted tack to Chicago and had his first feel for the turf. Round Table quickly approved of the surface switch, trouncing Kentucky Derby winner Iron Liege (who was jarred by the very firm course) in the grassy American Derby and then, recovering from a stumble at the break, got the nod in the United Nations H. versus his elders. Those efforts were enough to earn him the honors as that year's champion grass horse. Returning to the main track in the Hawthorne Gold Cup, he easily put older horses to the sword while setting a new 1 1/4-mile mark of 2:00 1/5 under a hand ride.

As Round Table was carrying all before him in the West and Midwest, Gallant Man had established himself by a more traditional path in the East, taking the Belmont S., Travers S. and Jockey Club Gold Cup. There was talk of a match race between them, but none was arranged. Instead, their climactic face-off took place in the Trenton H. at Garden State, which also featured Bold Ruler, who after his Derby fourth had notably gone on to win the Preakness S., Jerome H. and Vosburgh H. Shoemaker, who also rode Gallant Man, chose to stick with that colt, citing his gratitude to Gallant Man's connections for not sacking him after his Derby goof. In another unfortunate turn of events for Round Table, the track was variously labeled good or slow, but definitely off. While the Kerr colt was spinning his wheels as a distant third of three, Bold Ruler sealed the Horse of the Year title with a sharp victory.

The Trenton seemed to vindicate Round Table's questioners. In the American Racing Manual, Hatton was merciless in his judgment, dismissing Round Table's enthusiasts as "emotional claquers" and pronouncing that the "result of this race was a true bill" regarding their relative merits, believing him "utterly squandered...with no valid excuses." Hewitt, however, takes issue with this verdict in his essential Sire Lines. In what was likely a pointed reference to Hatton, Hewitt explicitly says that "nobody took that result as a true bill, owing to the condition of the track."

Over the next two seasons, Round Table outstripped his Trenton conquerors, racking up ever more accomplishments to go along with an increasingly extravagant bankroll. By the end of his racing career, the criticism was more muted. Hatton eventually declared, "If he could not outrun Bold Ruler or outstay Gallant Man, as his detractors so often charge, we may at least say that he outlasted them. He emerged with the most honors and money in the endless test of 'the survival of the fittest.'"

Early in his four-year-old campaign of 1958, Round Table set or equaled five records in a row. He matched the 1 1/8-mile world record when capturing the San Antonio H in 1:46 4/5 while toting 130 pounds. Again shouldering 130 in the Santa Anita H., he pounded the classy Terrang into submission, giving him 11 pounds, in a new track record of 1:59 4/5. Hunting for glory in a new clime, the Kerr colt invaded Florida. In his 1 1/16-mile tune-up at Gulfstream, he established a new mark of 1:41 3/5, then followed up in the Gulfstream Park H. by tying Coaltown's 1 1/4-mile record of 1:59 4/5, treating his 130-pound impost like a feather. Round Table's next quest was to pass the $1 million milestone in earnings, which he did in his next outing in the Caliente H.. At the historic Tijuana oval, he celebrated his millionaire status in style, romping by 9 1/4 lengths and setting another track record of 1:41 1/5 for the 1 1/16-mile event. He became only the third horse to join the $1 million club, following Citation and Nashua.

Trainer Molter cast aside his understated reputation in praising his star: "He's the greatest horse I've ever seen. Round Table is game, he's tough, he can 'take it,' he's easy to manage, he's sound and a good 'doer.'"

Around this time, Bob Horwood wrote a piece in the Thoroughbred Record with the revealing title, "The Only Rival He Has Left Is the Clock, And Even That Can't Beat Him." He compared Round Table to the great Standardbred champions of the past who toured the country staging exhibitions against the clock. Describing the colt, who stood just 15.3 hands in his prime, as "a superb racing machine, beautifully balanced, solidly constructed, perfectly mannered, and amenable to his rider's every suggestion," Horwood went so far as to say that "no Thoroughbred now in training can possibly hope to beat him when he carries 130 pounds."

During the rest of the season, Round Table could not quite live up to that prediction, looking more mortal and less invincible, but he was still voted Horse of the Year, champion handicap horse and champion grass horse. He famously suffered three losses at the hands of Clem, one of them in the Woodward S. in the slop. In his first career defeat on the turf in the United Nations H., Round Table failed to give Clem 17 pounds, but he did compel Clem to set a new course record to hold him off by a half-length. Round Table ended his campaign by taking his second straight Hawthorne Gold Cup, breaking his own track record in 1:59 4/5. In the process, he surpassed Nashua as the world's leading money winner.

At five, he repeated as champion grass horse, and in one poll only, as champion handicap horse. Under 132 pounds, he destroyed the San Marcos H. field by five lengths in 1:58 2/5, an American record for 1 1/4 miles on the lawn. He also set new American marks for 1 1/8 miles on turf (1:47 1/5 at Washington Park) and 1 3/16 miles on turf (1:53 2/5 at Arlington Park), both while shouldering 132 pounds, and lumbered 136 pounds to victory in the United Nations H. His last victory came on the main track, in the 1 5/8-mile Manhattan H. at Aqueduct. Giving future champion Bald Eagle 10 pounds, Round Table handed him a one-length defeat in a new track record time of 2:42 3/5.

After finding the three-year-old Sword Dancer too much to handle when finishing a distant runner-up in the two-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup, Round Table was retired. His career record stood at an amazing 43 victories, eight seconds and five thirds in 66 lifetime starts, and he ranked as the all-time earnings leader with a gaudy $1,749,869. He was enshrined in the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame in 1972.

As a stallion standing at Claiborne Farm, Round Table enjoyed tremendous success, rating the leading sire in 1972. His colossal influence, both in North America and abroad, has continued unabated since his death in 1987. Chiefly through his staying son Poker, the broodmare sire of Seattle Slew (who hails from the male line of his old rival Bold Ruler), Round Table remains a force in American classic pedigrees. Interestingly, Seattle Slew's grandson Pulpit (A.P. Indy) is inbred to Round Table and his full sister Monarchy, a duplication which may shed light on his capacity for siring excellent turf horses. Round Table is also buried deep within the pedigree of Point Given, who is emerging as a potential classic sire with his first crop of promising sophomores.

Not only a source of stamina, Round Table has also transmitted his fantastic speed. Through his English and Irish champion juvenile son Apalachee, he appears in the pedigree of champion sprinter Artax, and by way of another son, Illustrious, he figures in the ancestry of the supremely fast champion Dayjur.

Round Table's reach has been literally global. In Europe, he appears as the broodmare sire of French Derby (Fr-G1) hero and influential stallion Caerleon. In addition, Round Table's multiple Group 1-winning son Artaius is the sire of the top mare Flame of Tara (Ire), dam of three-time classic heroine Salsabil (Ire) (Sadler's Wells) and successful sire Marju. In South Africa, Round Table is the paternal grandsire of Wolf Power (SAf), one of that country's greatest champions and in the limelight now as the broodmare sire of Kentucky Derby (G1) hopeful Steppenwolfer (Aptitude). In Australia and New Zealand, Round Table figures as the broodmare sire of the renowned stallion *Sir Tristram, himself the sire of the phenomenally successful sire Zabeel.

In the twilight of his life in 1984, Round Table came full circle, so to speak, when Queen Elizabeth II reportedly adjusted her schedule to pay her respects to the grand old knight. Her father, George VI, had bred his dam. Would it be presumptuous to imagine that Her Majesty may have pondered a "What if," perhaps regretting that Knight's Daughter left the royal paddocks? Would the Queen have fulfilled her dream of breeding and racing an Epsom Derby winner had the mare been kept? It's one of those unanswerable questions, but this much is clear: Had Knight's Daughter stayed in England, there would have been no visit to Princequillo's court, and no Round Table. The Thoroughbred world would have missed one of its most dynamic swashbucklers.

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by Kellie Reilly

Saturday, we commemorate the first all-time great campaigned by Calumet Farm and one of our sport's most captivating personalities. The flaming chestnut was a real crowd-pleaser, thrilling spectators with explosive last-to-first bursts that became his trademark. The sight of the smallish colt with the unusually lengthy tail, streaming like a pennant in his wake when he was in high gear, gave rise to his popular nickname, "Mr. Longtail." Whirlaway's talent, however, came with a price: a maddening host of quirks that could have seriously compromised his racing career had he been in the hands of a horseman less gifted than Ben Jones. His story is a case study of the pivotal role of the trainer in the successful development of physically brilliant but mentally erratic horses.

Whirlaway had the genetic deck stacked against him when he drew his temperament card, as both his sire and his dam had reputations for being excitable. His sire, *Blenheim II, was a dashing winner of the Derby at England's famed Epsom racecourse, but his behavior in that race was a curious foreshadowing of Whirlaway's antics. He broke to his right, spotting the field several lengths, then showed a distinct preference for racing on the far outside before delivering an amazing burst of acceleration in deep stretch to score. Mr. Longtail's dam, Dustwhirl, was characterized as a nervous individual who never raced. She was nevertheless a daughter of the highly influential sire Sweep, who was also the broodmare sire of 1937 Triple Crown winner War Admiral.

Hence Whirlaway inherited plenty of raw ability with a complimentary set of psychoses to match, and this heady cocktail was served up early in his two-year-old season. Frightened by many things in his environment, he was difficult to saddle, prone to rear and jump, was known to miss the break, and had a penchant for going extremely wide in his races. So intractable a pupil was he that Jones called him the "dumbest horse I ever trained."

Despite his misadventures, he managed to win seven of 16 races as a juvenile, including the Hopeful S., Saratoga Special and Breeders' Futurity. He ruined his chances in the Pimlico Futurity, however, after careening wide on both turns, and was beaten five lengths into third. His record was still good enough to earn him a share in the honors as co-champion two-year-old with Our Boots, who had defeated Whirlaway in three of their four meetings, including the Futurity S. at Belmont.

In the spring of Whirlaway's three-year-old season in 1941, Calumet maestro Warren Wright was pushing for him to run in the prestigious Flamingo S., but Jones strongly felt that he needed a sprint instead. Jones was not about to follow the expected path if his colt required something different, and in the mark of an outstanding horseman, he made the program to suit the horse, not forcing the horse to fit a cookie-cutter program. So Whirlaway contested four allowance sprints in Florida, winning two, and captured an ordinary six-furlong handicap at Keeneland.

The head case, though, had still not absorbed his lessons, and he continued to bear out, which contributed to his six-length loss to his nemesis Our Boots in the Blue Grass S. He pulled a similar self-defeating stunt in the Derby Trial, when he nullified his blistering move on the far turn by drifting to the far outside and wound up second by three-quarters of a length.

These accounts of Whirlaway's behavior make Fusaichi Pegasus look like a model of deportment. But instead of dismissing him as a hopeless mess, Jones called upon his renowned patience and acute powers of observation to keep diagnosing Whirlaway's ills and devising appropriate remedies. In short, Jones treated him as a continual work in progress, and the trainer wrote another curriculum tailor-made for his problem student.

Warren Wright summed up Jones' approach best.

"One doesn't employ a system in raising an unusual child," Wright was quoted as saying in the Thoroughbred Record. "One studies the child, watches nervous reactions, follows awakening interests, or in other words, carefully bends the twig."

Jones devoted lavish amounts of time to his colt, accompanying him, schooling him, working him, relaxing him. It's a truism that great trainers are known for their attention to detail, and Jones' painstaking efforts led him to make an inspired equipment change to Whirlaway's blinkers for the Kentucky Derby, cutting away the cup on his left and leaving the right eye covered, reasoning that this would curtail his drifting. The other part of the solution was to get future Hall of Famer Eddie Arcaro in the irons.

In a daring experiment to familiarize Arcaro with Whirlaway in a workout, Jones, astride his pony, took up a position a few paces off the inside rail on the far turn, right where the colt would tend to go wide, and he told the jockey to steer Whirlaway between the rail and the pony. Just as Jones boldly surmised, the colt cornered beautifully.

The stage was set for an historic Kentucky Derby. Undeterred by his idiosyncrasies, the betting public sent Whirlaway off as the nearly 3-1 favorite. Away slowly and boxed in traffic, he dropped back as expected in the early going. Arcaro shrewdly threaded him between horses as he vaulted into contention on the far turn. With his customized headgear and his new partner at the helm, there was no question of frittering away his advantage this time. Whirlaway's breathtaking acceleration swept him to the front, firmly putting Our Boots in his place. Echoing his sire, who kept increasing speed as he approached the line at Epsom, Whirlaway poured it on in the final furlong and crossed the wire eight lengths in front while breaking Twenty Grand's track record. Whirlaway's mark of 2:01 2/5 would stand for 21 years.

The Triple Crown lay at his mercy. Sauntering out of the gate again in the Preakness and galloping at least six lengths behind the next-to-last runner on the backstretch, Mr. Longtail turned on the afterburners and circled the entire field by the quarter pole, gearing down to win by 5 1/2 lengths in the end. He again drubbed Our Boots, proving the point that two-year-old form is often turned upside down at three.

The Belmont was a cakewalk. His three overmatched foes conspired to slow the pace, vainly attempting to take the starch out of his kick. Arcaro was too canny to fall for the tactic, reportedly saying, "The hell with this, fellas, I'm leaving." Whirlaway seized the race by the throat before they'd gone halfway and strolled home by 2 1/2 lengths unextended.

A marvel of soundness and physical hardiness, Mr. Longtail raced a total of 20 times at three, winning 13 and placing in the remaining seven. He earned a staggering $272,386 during the 1941 season, reportedly more than any other entire stable of runners. In addition to the Triple Crown, he captured such significant prizes as the Dwyer S., then contested at Aqueduct; the American Derby; the Travers S., toting 130 pounds, in classic, swashbuckling Whirlaway style, rocketing from 11 lengths back; and the 1 5/8-mile Lawrence Realization S., in which he actually set the pace en route to a ludicrously easy eight-length victory. His most valiant loss came in his seasonal finale, the two-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup. Mr. Longtail waged a no-holds-barred battle with Market Wise throughout the stretch and just missed by a nose, but Market Wise had to set a new American record of 3:20 4/5 to beat him.

Perhaps the most revealing image of Whirlaway's three-year-old campaign is the photo-finish of his dramatic win in the Saranac H. at Saratoga, a picture worth the proverbial thousand words. Resorting to his old tricks, he drifted to the far outside, while the game speedster War Relic scraped the paint on the inside. Whirlaway overcame his wide trip as well as his 130-pound impost, 13 more than War Relic, to get up by a whisker in the last jump. The photo-finish image shows the vast gap between War Relic hugging the rail and Whirlaway streaking impossibly wide, a fine summation of both his travails and his ultimate triumphs.

Whirlaway was acclaimed Horse of the Year, a title that he would successfully defend during his four-year-old season. Over the winter, he took up residence in California with an eye toward kicking off his 1942 campaign there, but America's entry into World War II scuttled those plans. In the wake of Pearl Harbor, the authorities were gravely worried about the possibility of other attacks on populated areas on the West Coast. Security concerns led to the cancellation of the winter meeting at Santa Anita, and at one stage, the track was used in the infamous internment of Japanese Americans. Whirlaway had to ship back East, but with military transportation needs obviously taking precedence, his travel arrangements were delayed.

Despite the later than projected start to his season, Mr. Longtail ran 22 times, winning 12 and placing in the other 10, an especially remarkable scorecard considering that he was regularly giving away weight to his rivals. Many of his triumphs were accomplished in his patented come-from-the-clouds manner, including the Massachusetts H., in which he set a new track record of 1:48 1/5 for the 1 1/8 miles and surpassed Seabiscuit's earnings total to become the world's leading money winner. Although the supremely talented three-year-old Alsab defeated him in two of their three meetings, most famously by a diminishing nose in their celebrated match race, Whirlaway still took Horse of the Year honors as the first equine to earn more than $500,000. As the Blood Horse described him, "Whirlaway at four was still small in stature, long in tail and big in heart."

An effort was made to race him at five, but he was injured in his second start, visibly in pain on the gallop-out. The time had come to call it a career, with a final tally of 32 wins, 15 seconds and nine thirds from 60 starts, and $561,161 in earnings. He was out of the money only four times, thrice as a juvenile and in his injury-marred last outing.

Originally retired to stud at Calumet Farm, Whirlaway was later recruited by the great French breeder Marcel Boussac. At Boussac's farm in the French countryside, he died at the relatively young age of 15 in 1953. Mr. Longtail was enshrined into the Hall of Fame in 1959.

Whirlaway was not a scintillating sire, but he left a few good fillies to carry on his blood. Through his daughters, he appears in the pedigrees of three-time Horse of the Year Forego; 1978 champion older female Late Bloomer (Stage Door Johnny), who was also a good broodmare; 1987 Belmont S. (G1) winner Bet Twice; and current Grade 1 performer Alphabet Kisses (Alphabet Soup).

The daughter who's done the most to ensure the survival of Whirlaway's blood is Rock Drill, dam of 1966 champion three-year-old filly Lady Pitt (Sword Dancer). Lady Pitt is a significant ancestress of many contemporary stakes winners, including a bevy of Phipps homebreds ranging from the 1989 Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) hero, Dancing Spree, to the 1994 champion three-year-old filly, Heavenly Prize (Seeking the Gold). Another branch of descent from Lady Pitt culminates in one of this year's talented three-year-olds, Sorcerer's Stone (Gulch), who had Kentucky Derby (G1) aspirations before being sidelined by injury this week

Ever popular because of his startling come-from-behind style and his distinctive flying tail, Whirlaway will be remembered as a charismatic champion who maintained an impeccable standard of performance over time. Ben Jones will equally be remembered as the thoughtful and persevering horseman who invested countless hours to transform Whirlaway from a flawed prototype into a racing machine.

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by Kellie Reilly

In honor of this Saturday's Kentucky Derby (G1), we'll commemorate the top class colt Ben Brush, who captured the famed classic on May 6, 1896, 110 years ago to the day of this year's running. His tale is noteworthy for several reasons. Ben Brush was the first to win the race at its modern distance of 1 1/4 miles as well as the first reportedly draped in a garland of roses. He underscores the prominence of African-Americans in 19th century racing. He also reminds us that some aspects of our sport -- knocking the favorite or criticizing what we regard as ill-judged rides -- are nothing new, but rather time-honored customs.

Of more immediate relevance to our 132nd Derby, Ben Brush was a great success at stud, becoming one of the fundamental building blocks of the American Thoroughbred. Although his direct male line is no longer extant, his influence continues to seep through other segments of the pedigree chart. Every single horse in this year's field traces to him multiple times, and Ben Brush appears in the pedigrees of 48 of the last 50 Derby winners, including every Derby winner from 1972 onward. In other words, modern bloodlines are literally inconceivable without the 1896 Derby hero.

Ben Brush was sired by Bramble, the champion handicap horse of 1879 who excelled at marathon distances of up to 2 1/4 miles. In the words of legendary turf authority Walter Vosburgh, his was "a breed as tough as pine knots." His dam was Roseville (Reform), a full sister to 1892 Kentucky Derby and Travers victor Azra. Horseman Eugene Leigh was responsible for the match, but he sold Roseville while she was in foal. As a result, Ben Brush was technically bred by Clay and Woodford.

When the small bay colt was offered at Clay and Woodford's yearling sale at Runnymede Farm near Paris, Kentucky, Leigh was interested in acquiring him. Renowned African-American trainer Ed Brown, conditioner of the 1877 Derby winner Baden-Baden and an eventual Hall of Famer, also wanted the son of Bramble, so they decided to act as a team instead of bidding against each other. Accordingly, they snapped him up for $1,200. After the sale, another party reportedly made an offer of $5,000, which Leigh was eager to accept, but the astute Brown recommended that they develop the youngster themselves and not sell prematurely. Leigh was convinced, and Brown's foresight was to reward them both.

Joe Palmer, writing in his valuable Names in Pedigrees, described the colt as "not a particularly impressive-looking animal." He was a "rather small horse, a bit longer for his height than Bramble, almost equally coarse about the head."

It was Brown who named him Ben Brush in honor of the superintendent of the old Gravesend racetrack in Brooklyn. Ben Brush had given Brown stalls when space was very hard to come by, and the trainer wished to express his gratitude. Superintendent Brush was flattered, and one oft-told anecdote reveals just how flattered. Notorious for opposing the presence of dogs on the track grounds, and known to scold those who violated this rule, he routinely let Leigh's dogs roam freely without a quibble. When challenged about his double standard, Brush retorted, "Not a damn one of you fellows ever named a horse Ben Brush!"

The equine Ben Brush displayed speed and precocity as a juvenile, not to mention hardiness to thrive on his 16-race campaign that earned him championship honors. After hacking up an easy winner in his first five starts (four of them stakes) between May 7 and July 23 in Kentucky and Ohio, he shifted tack to New York for the remainder of the season. In his debut at Sheepshead Bay, Ben was handed a rude defeat as the 2-5 favorite in a two-year-olds and up allowance race, winding up a poor third after never being in the hunt. He came back to win a handicap at the same course but dropped his next two stakes attempts, collared by the high class juvenile Requital in the Flatbush S. and checking in a dismal eighth in the Great Eastern H.

Now the Eastern elites mocked him as an "overrated little goat" and skewered the "Western" form that he represented. The critics had crowed too soon, for Ben would not taste defeat again that season, reeling off seven triumphs in a row right under his naysayers' noses in New York.

Just one race into that streak, Brown and Leigh sold Ben Brush to Mike Dwyer, a famous gambler of the day whose wagering strategy was summed up by his colorful nickname, "King of the Chalk Eaters." The reported price was $18,000, a tidy return on their initial investment. The small colt then moved to the barn of Hardy Campbell, his conditioner for the rest of his career.

Ben crowned his juvenile campaign with three notable efforts. He carried 127 pounds to victory in the Nursery H., shouldered 128 when landing the Albany S., and scored by a clever half-length in the prestigious Champagne S., then contested at old Morris Park.

Vosburgh was deeply impressed. "As a two-year-old in October," he wrote in Racing in America, 1866-1921, "it is likely he could have conceded his year and a beating to any three-year-old of that season."

After compiling a record of 13 wins, one second and a third from 16 starts, Ben was given the extended holiday he deserved. For his sophomore debut, trainer Campbell targeted the May 6 Kentucky Derby, an event that did not enjoy the lofty status that it would attain in later years.

The race had just been shortened to 1 1/4 miles by the new management of Churchill Downs. Since its inception in 1875, the Derby had been staged over 1 1/2 miles, the length of the original Derby at Epsom in England. Churchill officials changed the distance for 1896, believing that a 12-furlong test was too taxing for three-year-olds that early in the year.

A correspondent for the contemporary publication Spirit of the Times respected Ben Brush, but displaying a universal trait of handicappers, felt compelled to find fault with the favorite. The headline in the May 2 edition said it all: "Ben Brush Not Considered a Certainty by Any Means at Louisville." In the reporter's view, "considering the disadvantages of his long journey, chance of non-acclimation, change of water, etc., it does seem that there is at least a fair possibility of the Ben Brush enthusiasts coming to grief." Although conceding he is "undoubtedly a good colt," the pundit concluded by saying if Ben Brush won the Derby, "it will stamp him, indeed, a phenomenal race-horse."

Interestingly, the Spirit of the Times writer did not seize upon the factors that we would harp on in our time. He did not express concern about the fact that Ben did not have the benefit of a single prep race, nor did he mention that the colt had never run farther than seven furlongs.

Eventual Hall of Fame jockey Willie Simms, who became Ben's regular rider once he sported the Dwyer silks, was to reunite with the colt at Churchill Downs. The gifted African-American was hailed as one of the greatest jockeys of the time, winning with an enviable 24.8 percent of his career mounts. He also rode in England, where he was the first to introduce the short-stirrup style that was later associated with Tod Sloan. After his stint in Europe, he was retained by Dwyer as his stable rider, but such was Simms' stature that he had the flexibility to accept mounts from other stables as well. The nation's leading rider of 1893-94, he remains the only African-American jockey to have won the Derby, Preakness and Belmont.

Facing seven rivals in the Derby, Ben was sent off as the odds-on favorite, with the bookmakers offering a stingy 1-2. The weather was described as ideal, the track condition variously rated as "very dusty" or "lightning fast." There was no starting gate, so the three-year-olds took a full 20 minutes at the post before they broke and the race was officially under way.

Ben immediately gave his supporters a fright by stumbling at the start and nearly tossing Simms, but the skilled rider stayed in the saddle. First Mate grabbed the early lead, but Ben had recovered quickly enough to track him in second before they had traveled a half-mile. At the quarter pole, Ben disposed of the pacesetter and set sail for home. By the eighth pole, however, he looked to be in trouble. Arkansas Derby winner Ben Eder, the 2-1 second choice, produced a "fine burst of speed," as the Spirit of the Times correspondent put it, ranged alongside and swept to a half-length lead, seemingly on his way to victory. For all that, Simms and Ben Brush were not done yet, and the Spirit of the Times captured the drama.

"But Simms made one last and desperate rally with Ben Brush, displaying as vigorous a piece of riding as was ever seen, and gradually but surely gaining on the other Ben, he finally beat him out by a nose in a terrific and hair-raising finish, which elicited a wild and spontaneous shout from the grandstand."

It was eight lengths back to the third-place finisher, and another eight back to fourth. The final time looks quaint to us, 2:07 3/4, but was not bad by 1896 standards.

According to the Thoroughbred Record, Ben Brush's sides were spattered with blood from the energetic application of spurs. The colt deserves all the greater credit for his unflinching courage in the face of pain and quite probably exhaustion. He was rewarded with a garland of white and pink roses, the first reported description of a Derby winner so honored.

The race was barely over before the recriminations began, with many observers blaming Ben Eder's rider for the narrow loss. As the Spirit of the Times phrased it, everyone believed that the "better riding carried the day." If only J. Tabor had waited longer to deliver his run, the theory went, he would have nailed Ben Brush on the line. Or, if Tabor had only ridden more strongly, he would have won.

Col. Clark, the guiding force behind the development of Churchill and then serving as the track's presiding judge, credited Simms with the victory.

"It was a great race -- one of the greatest I ever saw," Clark said. "There was no doubt in the world about the finish. Sim(m)s simply lifted Brush a foot or so in front at the last jump."

Ben Brush wheeled back only 10 days later in the one-mile Schulte S. at a muddy Churchill. He dead-heated for the win with Tennessee Oaks victress Lady Inez, with the third-place finisher 10 lengths behind. According to the custom of the time, the top pair then lined up again in a run-off on the same day, and Ben strode to a comfortable wire-to-wire victory in a time more than a second faster than the initial heat. He won twice from six remaining starts that season, including the 1 1/2-mile Latonia Derby with 1 1/2 lengths to spare over old rival Ben Eder (now a fellow Dwyer colorbearer and entrymate) and placed in the National Derby at St. Louis, Missouri, and Oakley Derby near Cincinnati, Ohio. Ben crossed the wire in front in his seasonal finale in a Sheepshead Bay Handicap but was disqualified, his finish officially recorded as an off-the-board effort.

Ben was even better as a four-year-old, winning eight of 16 races and placing in six, all of them on the New York circuit. Vosburgh ranked him as the champion handicap horse of the year. In Palmer's view, it was Ben Brush's 1897 campaign that "perhaps put the stamp of greatness on him more unmistakably than did his performances at two and three."

His highlights included a sharp one-length score in the Suburban H. at Sheepshead Bay, at the time a rich prize more eagerly coveted than it is today; a brave triumph in the Citizens H. at Saratoga; a battling success in the Omnium H. at Sheepshead; and a pair of special stakes events at Gravesend.

To gauge what these bare results mean, it's instructive to consider the kinds of horses he was either pounding into submission or skating past. Among his victims that year were the 1895 Preakness and Belmont winner Belmar; 1896 Belmont hero Hastings, later to gain immortality as the grandsire of Man o' War; 1897 champion three-year-old Ornament, the winner of 20 of 33 lifetime starts himself; and the elder statesman of the handicap set, the high class Clifford, who twice managed to defeat the great Henry of Navarre and Domino in 1894-95. In sum, Ben Brush put to the sword the stars of four crops.

Ben's conquests of Hastings are fascinating in light of the fact that their blood would be profitably crossed in the future. When Hasting's grandson Man o' War was bred to Ben Brush's granddaughter Brushup (Sweep), the result was 1937 Triple Crown hero War Admiral.

Ironically, Ben Brush lost his final career start by a head to another Ed Brown protégé, the two-year-old Plaudit, just failing to give the youngster 36 pounds in a 1 1/16-mile allowance. Plaudit would go on to win the 1898 Kentucky Derby, piloted by none other than Willie Simms.

Ben Brush's lifetime mark stood at 25 wins, five seconds and five thirds in 40 starts. Sources disagree about his total earnings, with figures ranging from $65,208 to $66,902.

Entering stud at James R. Keene's Castleton near Lexington, Kentucky, Ben proved to be a star stallion. Not only did he rank as the leading sire in America in 1909, but his Travers-winning son Broomstick headed the sires' list in 1913, 1914 and 1915, the latter when his filly Regret made Derby history of her own by becoming the first female to wear the roses. Ben's Belmont-winning son Sweep took the top sire honors in 1918 and 1925. Ben's most influential daughter was Belgravia, who produced the renowned sire Black Toney.

After Keene's death in 1913, Ben Brush was sold for $10,000 and moved to Sen. Johnson Camden's Hartland Stud (later known as Pin Oak Stud) near Versailles, Kentucky, where he was chloroformed on June 8, 1918, at the age of 25. He was elevated to racing's pantheon, the Hall of Fame, in 1955.

Chiefly through Broomstick, Sweep and Belgravia (through her son Black Toney), Ben Brush's blood has been widely disseminated. For example, Native Dancer receives doses of Ben Brush from all three of those sources. The preeminent Northern Dancer is out of a mare who gets Ben Brush not only through her sire Native Dancer but from her dam as well. Native Dancer's son Raise a Native and grandson Mr. Prospector likewise inherit more Ben Brush from their respective dams. The terrific sire Bold Ruler receives his one strain courtesy of his female line. Other seminal factors with multiple crosses of Ben Brush include Buckpasser, Halo, Dr. Fager, Damascus, In Reality and Seattle Slew.

Why did the small son of Bramble with the coarse head have such a colossal impact that has endured for a century? Kent Hollingsworth supplies an answer. Ben Brush contributed "durability and a native ruggedness to horses who could go six furlongs and two miles," he noted in The Great Ones.

Leigh, his breeder in spirit if not in the record book, deserves the final word about the tribe of Ben Brush.

"Horses of this family always trained like good soldiers, done their work well, put their noses in the feed box, and kept them there as long as there was an oat left. There was no 'yellow dog' in their blood."

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by Kellie Reilly

With the 131st running of the Preakness S. (G1) on the horizon, it is an opportune time to remember Alsab, the 1942 Preakness hero who earned immortality by upending Whirlaway, the previous year's Triple Crown winner, in their gripping match race. An inexpensive yearling purchase from uninspiring parentage, Alsab triumphed over not only his pedigree, but also the stresses and strains of an unrelenting 22-race juvenile campaign followed by a merciless 23-race sophomore season, twice garnering championship honors in a career often regarded as unprecedented in racing history. His story was not one of smooth sailing or uninterrupted progress, as he had his share of problems at three, but this great-hearted gladiator never quit. When finally retired to stud, Alsab made an enduring contribution to the breed by rescuing the male line of Domino, which had been teetering precariously on the brink, and established a line of succession that remains viable today.

Foaled in Kentucky on April 28, 1939, Alsab was from the first crop of Good Goods, who stood at Brookdale Farm, operated by Alsab's breeder, Thomas Piatt. Although Good Goods was a decent multiple stakes winner who placed in a few prestigious events, most notably third in the 1934 Belmont S., he did not rank high among the male line descendants of the brilliant Domino, and indeed he had little success at stud besides Alsab. Even more problematic for his prospects as a stallion, the Domino sire line had fallen out of fashion, as European imports were all the rage. Alsab's dam, Winds Chant (Wildair), was even less appealing. Once sold for a mere $90, she had toiled in the maiden claiming ranks and failed to win in eight tries, hitting the board only once.

As a yearling, the bay colt with a star on his forehead was offered at Saratoga. Trainer August Swenke, known as "Sarge" because of his distinguished service in World War I, picked him out for Albert Sabath, an attorney in Chicago, Illinois, and head of Hawthorne Racecourse. The winning bid was just $700, well below the auction's average of $1,763, not surprising considering his down at heel parents. Sabath named the colt for himself, shortening his first and last name into the compound "Alsab." Naturally, there were no grandiose plans for the modest youngster, so he was not nominated to such valuable two-year-old prizes as the Futurity S. That omission would have fascinating consequences.

Racing early and often in the spring of his juvenile year, Alsab ran creditably in Florida and Kentucky, but only after setting up headquarters in Illinois did he begin to show that he was something out of the ordinary. In his 10th outing, the May 31 Joliet S. at Lincoln Fields, Alsab was embroiled in traffic trouble in the five-furlong sprint, but he broke free and stormed to a five-length score. Shifting to Arlington Park, he worked five-eighths in a bullet :57 2/5, one full second faster than the track record and just one tick off the American record, and then proceeded to dust the field in the Primer S. by seven lengths. Alsab continued his sightseeing tour of the country at Suffolk Downs, landing the Mayflower S. in fine fashion, the first in a 10-race winning streak that would round out his hectic two-year-old season. Even in that era of iron horses, questions were already being raised about the rigors of his schedule.

While Alsab was compiling an impressive record, he was not the only juvenile on a tear. The New York-based Requested had racked up seven stakes himself, including the Cowdin S. and Tremont S. Neither of these exciting juveniles were eligible for the Futurity, so Belmont Park President Alfred G. Vanderbilt stepped into the breach by orchestrating a match race between Alsab and Requested at 6 1/2 furlongs, each carrying 122 pounds, with a winner-take-all purse of $10,000.

Staged on September 23, a Tuesday, the match race drew a sizeable crowd of 22,381. Spectators traveled from all over to attend what renowned turf writer John Hervey dubbed "the great sporting event of the turf year" (emphasis in the original, American Race Horses of 1941).

Starter George Cassidy, famous for presiding over the break in the Seabiscuit-War Admiral match, did the honors for this duel as well. Requested blazed to the early lead. With Bobby Vedder aboard, his regular rider at that time, Alsab was traveling well just a length behind. When Vedder asked his mount the question, Alsab ranged up to his rival and after hesitating momentarily, seized the lead while getting six furlongs in a withering 1:09 4/5. According to Hervey, that was the fastest six furlongs ever dashed around Belmont's oval (as opposed to the straight course) up to that time. Alsab kept rolling to a 3 1/2-length score in a final time of 1:16, smashing the track record, set in 1920 by a four-year-old shouldering less weight, by more than a full second and just one tick off the world mark. The crowd was boisterous in its admiration, with many bursting out of the infield onto the track to come nearer to their conquering hero.

Perhaps the best critique of this performance came from rival horsemen. Of the top four finishers in the Futurity, not a single one dared to oppose Alsab in the Champagne S. Despite a zigzag trip, navigating back and forth between the outside and the rail because of a traffic jam, Alsab exploded to a seven-length success, in Hervey's view displaying a "power and speed that appeared unlimited." What was even more eye-popping was the bay colt's time -- 1:35 2/5, a new world record for a juvenile, as well as the swiftest mile posted during the entire 1941 season by any Thoroughbred.

Apparently Sabath didn't consider the Champagne enough of a high note to end the year on, so his dutiful colorbearer was sent into battle twice more in Maryland stakes, capturing both. Alsab was crowned champion two-year-old and assigned 130 pounds on the Experimental Free Handicap, four above the usual 126 for the top of the class.

So completely had Alsab captured the imagination that he was actually invited to the Pimlico Special, where he would have met top older horses. That offer was wisely rejected, but Sabath made a grand show of nominating his alter ego for the Kentucky Derby at the ridiculously early date of October 14, earlier than anyone had ever nominated a classic hopeful.

Sabath was bursting with pride at his star's unusual intelligence. In a letter reprinted in part by Hervey, Sabath described how Alsab was an active participant in his morning ritual. Before going to the track, he would pick up each of his four feet in succession so that they could be cleaned, then bow his head so that his customary blinkers could be applied. After his exercise, he himself decided how many times he needed to circle the shedrow before he was completely cooled out and when it was appropriate to re-enter his stall.

Hervey raved about the juvenile's physical qualities, finding his body type reminiscent of a greyhound and his legs "deer-like." He marveled at Alsab's "controllability as a racing tool," his ability to be positioned anywhere in a race. Hervey also captured Alsab's way of going, succinctly translating kinetics into words.

"In action, Alsab is not of the drum-roll stroke so common among precocious juveniles," he observed, explaining that the colt took time to gather himself. "Then," Hervey continued, "as he gradually increases his speed until it becomes prodigious, there is no apparent quickening of his stride. When at the very top of his flight, he never struggles or gives an effect of extreme exertion, rather everything he does appears easy and within his powers.

"The future of this colt will be more eagerly looked forward to than that of almost any other since Man o' War," Hervey summed up, invoking the ultimate comparison.

With fate thus tempted, the wheels promptly came off. Shipped to Kentucky in mid-November for a well deserved break, Alsab looked exhausted. Instead of spending his vacation in the peaceful and quiet surroundings of a farm, he took up residence at Keeneland, where he was besieged by visitors. His breeder, Piatt, was worried about his condition, describing him as "dead on his feet." Even worse, Alsab enjoyed precious little time to unwind because the game plan was suddenly changed. He was now to cut short his holiday and resume training in Florida, with the Widener H. against older horses his first major objective. Alsab had his nose pushed back to the grindstone.

Back in action in early February, the bay colt turned in three straight subpar efforts within three weeks at Hialeah, but an undeterred Sabath threw him into the 1 1/4-mile Widener on March 7. A press release from the Alsab camp implausibly claimed that Sabath would not run his star if it were solely up to him, but that he now belonged to the people, and the people expected to watch their hero. It was an impossible task in the circumstances, yet Alsab soldiered on for fifth, beaten a total of 1 1/2 lengths. 

Contemporary observers rightly decried this mismanagement. Less understandable were those who lashed out at the horse himself, rejecting Alsab as washed up, an overrated has-been, a flash-in-the-pan juvenile. Some fickle racegoers booed the worn-out colt, who had nothing else to give but his all.

That hasty, not to say cruel, verdict sold Alsab short, as he would soon prove. Somehow, he gradually came back to himself in the course of the spring, placing in his three starts prior to the Kentucky Derby and showing flashes of his former brilliance in the Run for the Roses itself. Uncorking a furious rally to advance from 10th to fourth at roughly the halfway stage, he got up for second on the wire, but he could not get close enough to threaten Shut Out, a clear winner by 2 1/4 lengths at Churchill Downs.

"He had actually raced himself into condition after a regimen that should have hung his hide on the fence," Hervey wrote, "instead of which he was looking better than at any time since the season opened."

Coming right back one week later in the Preakness, Alsab put on a dazzling display to turn the tables on Shut Out. Settled near the rear of the 10-horse field through the first six furlongs, the Swenke charge kicked into overdrive and motored around the field, blowing past his old foe Requested while Shut Out labored home in fifth. His time of 1:57 shattered the existing stakes record and was just two-fifths off the Pimlico mark established by Seabiscuit. After outclassing the field in the Withers S., Alsab lined up against Shut Out in the rubber-match Belmont S. He had dead aim on the Derby winner, but could not overhaul Shut Out in the stretch, settling for runner-up while two lengths adrift. Alsab exited the race with a splint injury that necessitated firing. That treatment should have resulted in an extended vacation. Not so for the Sabath colorbearer, who returned to the wars only two months later in Chicago.

Alsab's schedule was every bit as heavy as it was before the splint problem, yet he quickly recovered his form and stood up to his punishing workload, most notably capturing the American Derby. Again, observers feared that he was being overraced. Just five days after his taxing effort in the Washington Park H., in which he finished a close second while giving weight to older horses, he was to take on the four-year-old star Whirlaway, hero of the 1941 Triple Crown, in the Narragansett Special H. in Rhode Island. Those few days in between hardly counted as rest, considering the stress of shipping from Illinois. Sabath likely realized, or was made to realize, that he had overreached. On the morning of the eagerly anticipated race, as 30,000 people poured into the track, Sabath abruptly scratched his horse, and Whirlaway won the anticlimactic affair by two lengths.

The showdown between Alsab and Whirlaway instead took place exactly one week later. After back and forth negotiations, Sabath agreed to a match race at Narragansett on September 19, at the Special's distance of 1 3/16 miles, for a purse of $25,000, winner take all. The track's proceeds for the occasion were dedicated to war relief. Comparative measurements were published, resembling those for a bout in boxing, as E.L. Cushing described it in the Thoroughbred Record. These two fighters both stood 15.3 hands and weighed 1,000 pounds, although Alsab was one inch longer and Whirlaway's girth was two inches larger. Because he was a year older, the Triple Crown winner carried 126 pounds to Alsab's 119. Acclaimed jockey George "The Iceman" Woolf, who had partnered Alsab twice at Washington Park that summer, opted to ride Whirlaway, believing that the sophomore could not beat the Calumet Farm champion. Carroll Bierman picked up the mount on Alsab, whom he had ridden once before, in that glorious Champagne.

With public excitement at the boiling point, 35,000 assembled to witness a race that exceeded their wildest expectations. Two deep closers were doing battle, and it was not obvious beforehand which one would adopt front-running tactics. Bierman decided to take the initiative, nursing Alsab through leisurely fractions of :25 2/5 and :50 2/5. Woolf kept Whirlaway well positioned, a watchful stalker closely tracking the leader. Bierman then stole a march on his rival and gave Alsab his cue to quicken approaching the far turn, getting six furlongs in 1:14 1/5. Once Alsab suddenly extended his lead, Whirlaway picked up the pace and closed the gap. In the stretch, the duelists were locked in mortal combat, neither giving an inch. Whirlaway may have just gained a sliver of a lead on the outside, but Alsab fought back along the rail. According to a famous photograph taken a few jumps before the wire, Alsab held a narrow advantage, the pair's strides apparently synchronized. Whirlaway surged again as they charged across the line in unison. Spectators wondered if it could have been a dead heat. It must have seemed an eternity to develop the film. As the official photo-finish reveals, Whirlaway's late thrust brought him to within a whisker, yet it was Alsab's nostril touching the line first. They had flown the last three-sixteenths in :17 4/5 to complete the contest in 1:56 2/5.

Alsab racked up more thrilling conquests in the fall. Only four days after crushing that year's champion three-year-old filly and handicap female Vagrancy in the Lawrence Realization S., he was narrowly beaten by Whirlaway in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Quickly turning the tables just a week later, he defeated Whirlaway again when capturing the 2 1/4-mile New York H., nearly equaling the American record for the marathon distance in his third grueling race in 12 days. In his final start of the year, the November 11 Victory H., he stumbled shortly after the start, wrenching an ankle and nearly ejecting Woolf. Alsab was not moving well after that, but despite the pain, and despite conceding between 12 and 24 pounds to his older opponents, he won by a hard fought three-quarters of a length. He pulled up lame, but he had prevailed.

Because of his heroics against older horses, Alsab was honored as champion three-year-old, although some felt that Shut Out was more deserving, having beaten Alsab in the Derby and the Belmont. Others argued that Alsab deserved Horse of the Year honors, not Whirlaway, whom Alsab had defeated in two out of three meetings.

Alsab's injury was serious enough to keep him on the sidelines until August of 1943. Though he ran a few times that summer and fall, and once again at five, he was not the same horse. At his retirement, his record stood at 51-25-11-5 with earnings of $350,015.

Initially standing at stud in Kentucky, he was sold at a dispersal after Sabath's death and ultimately relocated to Bonnie Heath Farm near Ocala, Florida, where he was euthanized because of declining health on March 26, 1963. He was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 1976.

At stud, Alsab sired Myrtle Charm, champion two-year-old filly in 1948, whose granddaughter My Charmer (Poker) foaled 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew. His primary accomplishment as a stallion, however, was reinvigorating the languishing sire line of Domino by getting one very good son who was capable of preserving the flame. That son was Armageddon, winner of the 1951 Champagne S., who in turn sired 1962 Lawrence Realization winner Battle Joined, who then did his turn in the genetic relay by siring 1971 Horse of the Year Ack Ack, who sired 1987 Santa Anita H. (G1) winner Broad Brush. At the present time, the leading hope to continue the male line is Broad Brush's son Include, winner of the 2001 Pimlico Special H. (G1).

Flashing back to that August day at Saratoga in 1940, when a bay yearling, the son of an unpromising first-crop sire from a winless mare, was led into the sales ring, who could have prophesied his extraordinary career? Who could have foretold that upon his shoulders rested the survival of the once illustrious dynasty of Domino? Who could have divined in that unassuming frame such dazzling speed and unending reserves of stamina harnessed to an iron constitution and an indomitable spirit? If anyone had imagined one tenth of it, he would have been dismissed as an idle dreamer. But in Alsab's case, the dream was fulfilled.

As Kent Hollingsworth wrote in The Great Ones, Alsab embodied the "reality of all the dreams of all men who breed horses and hope, for Alsab was a real good one and he came from -- relatively speaking -- nowhere."

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One of the toughest challenges a horseplayer may face, but also one that can produce lucrative rewards, is trying to sort out a field of lightly raced, or unraced, two-year-olds. Often with little or no form lines at their disposal, handicappers must turn to pedigrees, trainer stats and workout patterns. While many astute followers of bloodlines are able, with a quick glance at the immediate pedigree, to sum up the potential "precociousness" of a particular horse, there are also tools available that can put this into number form. One such method is the sometimes controversial and often criticized "Dosage System."

Developed by Dr. Steven Roman, Dosage is a system that attempts to predict the distance potential of horses based on certain sires in the first four generations of their pedigree. Over the years, the main focus of this method has been to try to pinpoint the Kentucky Derby (G1) winner, but another, and maybe more informative use for the horseplayer, is to get an indication of whether a lightly or unraced individual is racing at a distance at which he, or she, should excel.

To keep things simple one can look at the so called "Center of Distribution" or CD. Without going into a lengthy explanation, the CD is a figure that pinpoints the distance at which the individual is bred to perform at his or her best. To find the correlation between the Center of Distribution and preferred distance, one can look at the chart below and see, for example, that the average stakes winner (of any age) at six furlongs has an average CD of 0.90. The right column shows the desired CD range designed to take into account the added precociousness of two-year-olds. In a six-furlong race for two-year-olds, the individual needs to have a CD of between 0.90 and 1.10 to become a "qualifier."

The November 5, 2005 card at Churchill Downs, when the whole program was devoted to two-year-olds and held over a fast main track with no apparent bias, provides a good study. In the nine dirt races, 32 juveniles fit the desired range, an average of 3.55 per race. Of these nine races, five were won by qualifiers.

A $2 win bet on each qualifier would have returned $62, a loss of 3 percent, and with a little handicapping, a healthy profit could have been achieved.

The 1ST race on the card was a decent example of how useful these figures can be. A full field of 12 maiden fillies were going six furlongs, with eight making their debut, and Cintarosa (Grand Slam) was the solid favorite. Trained by Steve Asmussen, she had already made two starts, contesting the pace in both before stopping. Favored in her most recent race, a seven-furlong heat at Keeneland, she had little apparent excuse for the loss, being on the inside through moderate fractions. However, Cintarosa's 1.17 CD indicated that she would have a hard time excelling at six furlongs, let alone the extra furlong she tried at Keeneland.

First timer Smart N Pretty (Elusive Quality) owned good works and was dispatched as the second favorite after taking a lot of late money. Trained by Dale Romans, she had more a desirable CD of 1.05. Another to see action at the windows was the Dallas Stewart-trained Brilliant Star (Storm Cat). She also sported good works, but her CD was out of the range for the distance at 0.82. The only other CD range qualifier was Sweetcarolinarose (Cape Canaveral) (0.97), who was cold on the tote board at more 20-1.

Slightly surprisingly, Cintarosa was not the early pacesetter. That role went to Brilliant Star who led for the first quarter until Morner (Broken Vow) (CD 0.35) took over, and she in turn was passed by Smart N Pretty, who went on to win by 1 3/4 lengths. Morner hung on well to finish second and her CD suggests that she will be more effective at longer distances. Cintarosa showed some speed to be well placed early but once again failed to finish well, winding up third.

Almost as important as finding horses to win today is spotting horses for future wagers. There were several horses on Churchill's card who may excel at slightly different distances including:

The Center of Distribution figure can also be helpful in indicating a possible liking for the turf, a surface over which many of the better runners will have CDs of 0.40 or less. This may be the case with the previously mentioned Morner (CD 0.35). At first glance her pedigree, by Unbridled out of a Gilded Time mare, suggested dirt, but closer examination revealed that her second dam is by the influential turf stallion Blakeney. Another who may like the switch to the turf is She's a Premium (Point Given) (CD 0.29). She was somewhat one paced when finishing third over the mile, but her low CD and the fact that her dam is by Roberto suggest that turf is in her future.

There is no handicapping angle that can be used on its own and be expected to automatically produce massive profits at the window. The Center of Distribution figure is no exception, but when used as a guide, rather than a rule, it can be another important clue in the never ending search for high-priced winners.

Dosage and Center of Distribution numbers are available for all horses in the American Produce Records CD-ROM, available annually at Brisnet.com.

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Do you know your return on investment (ROI) from wagers last year? How about your win percentage? Or the types of wagers with which you have had the most success? If you use TwinSpires.com, this tedious record keeping is a thing of the past. First, we need to look at why it's important to keep records.

Most horseplayers enjoy the fun aspect of playing the races, but very few players take the necessary time to record all their transactions. It's easy to go out to the track, bet a few races, and return at the next opportunity. It's another matter to make your wagers based on a plan for making money and, at the end of the day, record all your bets.

Record keeping is a critical component in understanding your wagering tendencies. By logging your wagers daily in a ledger or, ideally, a spreadsheet on your computer, you will have at your fingertips a history of your activity.

Recording your wagers need not be a scientific process. Simply note important factors, such as date, track and race number, the amount of the wager, type of wager, etc.

Why bother doing this? There are several advantages to recording your wagering activity every day. First, you will have a more disciplined approach to the game, and consequently, will be less likely to play every race. As a simulcast player, you will not want to record 15-30 wagers every day, but you won't mind recording the two or three spot plays made. Record keeping encourages spot plays, and in this handicapper's opinion, that is the best way to turn a profit.

Your account history will help you uncover the weaknesses in your wagering. You may love to play the Superfecta, but this enticing wager may be bleeding your bankroll dry while draining the profits earned from other wagers. The results will be right there in black and white, whether you like what you see or not!

If you are wagering on multiple tracks during the year, record keeping will also provide you with the details on each track. More likely than not, you will find that you have a better handle on certain tracks. As a result; you will determine that you have to work harder to find a way to win at a given racetrack and that can lead you to simply limit your wagers on that track in the future.

Of course, documenting your wagering will be a tremendous aid come tax time. It will serve as the basis for writing off any losses if you have any "big scores" to report to your favorite uncle.

Finally, keeping detailed records gives you a significant edge on the competition, the wagering public. Do you think John Q. Public sitting next to you with the track program is recording his wagers? Any chance of that is left on the table when he exits the track at the end of the day. In the long run, handicappers who fail to deal with the business aspect of wagering will under-perform players who make the extra effort.

One of the main reasons that few players take the necessary time to log their wagers is the amount of time it takes. For those wagering from home or work, there is a service that does most of the work for you, saving you precious time.

TwinSpires.com, an TwinSpires affiliate, offers "Account Wagering History" as a free service to their members. Within seconds, one can quickly see not only all phone and online wagers made since a certain date, but also the result summary of those wagers.

With the click of a mouse, you can quickly view the amount wagered, number of bets placed, Win-percentage, and return on investment (ROI)! Queries can be done based on the racetrack(s), date range, type of wager, and any combination of those three.

Below is an example from my account, looking at only Pick-3 wagers at all tracks during the entire 2002 season. The "exclude detail" box is checked, which means the program will only display the summary. Otherwise, you would see all 434 wagers that were placed in detail. The Account History confirms that I'm on the right track with my Pick-3 wagering.

Account Wagering History at TwinSpires.com saves both the professional and recreational horseplayer a tremendous amount of time. If you're new to TwinSpires.com, sign up today*, and from this point on, you'll have easy access to complete records concerning all your transactions. Good luck!

-- Rich Nilsen is Marketing Director for Brisnet.com.

* service available in states that allow account wagering. See site for complete details.

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"There’s a sucker born every minute."

-P.T. Barnum

"If it’s too good to be true, it probably is."

-Anonymous

Imagine this scenario. A fellow comes up to you and says "I just bought a red sports car a few weeks ago for $50,000. It looks great. But now I need to sell this car, TODAY. I’ll let you have it for $40,000. You have 15 minutes to decide." You ask, "Can I at least drive the car?" He replies no, you have to take the car "As is."

Probably no one reading this article would take up the mysterious man’s proposition and buy the car. But let’s try a new scenario. Let’s say the item for sale was a claiming horse entered for $50,000 two weeks ago, and won its last start. Now today that same horse is in for $40,000. Obviously the horse is "for sale" today, for some owner to claim. Would you bet on this horse? Usually these horses appear dominant on form, because they are facing outclassed animals. But these types of ‘dominant’ horses do lose quite often, and they go off at short odds. The argument I will present to you today is that these "for sale" horses could well be past their peak form and are not 100% for today’s race. That’s why they have the "for sale" sign with the drastic drop in price from past efforts, making these favorites vulnerable.

Turkish Prize, a career earner of $606,095, was entered off a layoff of 57 days, with 2 wins in 12 downhill sprints. A Cal-bred, Turkish Prize was eligible for the lucrative stakes races set aside for Cal-bred horses, but rather than wait for one of those races his connections entered for a rather low claiming price of $50,000. This should set the alarms that all was not well. A horse with his background should have been entered for at least $62,500, if not $80,000 or an allowance race.

The obvious contender was Ditch Digger. A winner of 3 races in 4 starts this year, he ran a BRIS speed figure of 97 in his last two downhill sprints, 2 lengths faster than par.

Here’s how the two horses compared on the Brisnet numbers:

The large edge in Prime Power told me that Turkish Prize was "entered too cheap" and was probably a vulnerable favorite. Ditch Digger won in a photo with another horse at 5/2 odds. Turkish Prize dead heated for 3^rd, 2 ½ lengths back.

  Santa Anita, March 29, Race 9, 8f turf, $50,000 claiming

Que Facil Corazon had just won her last race by 2 ½ lengths for $62,500 at odds on. Today she was dropping to $50,000. Again, warning belles should sound. Her main competitor was Hazen, who ran second at the $40,000 level and was being stepped up to $50,000 by the sharp Jack Carava barn. Here’s how the two matched up:

Again, it looks like Que Facil Corazon in a runaway. But Hazen was peaking that day, coming on late under Martin Pedroza to win by a head at 13/2 odds. Que Facil Corazon was second, completing a $52 exacta for $2. Note not only was the fire sale horse lost, but that the "outclassed" horse stepped up and won. Winning claiming barns know when there stock is peaking and point for the right race(s) to get the money.

 Santa Anita, April 5, Race 9, 6-½ f turf, $40,000 claiming

Eventually in the claiming game, every dog has his day. And vice versa. Ditch Digger, our hero on March 23 for $50,000 claiming, was entered 13 days later for $40,000. This is a horse, going into the race, who was 8 for 17 lifetime, and had won 4 of his last 5 starts. Great form and a class drop is a 7-alarm fire.

Here is how Ditch Digger matched up:

De Valmont, with first-time blinkers, showed high speed and went wire to wire in his U.S. debut. Brave souls were rewarded with a 9/1 return. Deploy Venture ran second. Ditch Digger, "for sale" sign and all, did not fare very well, running 11^th in a 12-horse field at 6/5 odds. Bill Spawr claimed him back for $40,000 for his former owners.

 Conclusion

Horses that appear dominant on form in claiming races may be "running too cheap" and may be in declining form. Be especially wary of horses dropping in class off wins or excellent form. These horses are vulnerable to losing at short odds. Inflated Prime Power numbers can point out these "vulnerable favorites."

-- Tony Kelzenberg is a long time Brisnet.com member who relies on BRIS performance ratings in his handicapping. This is just one of many applications using Prime Power. Please note that Tony’s unique application is specifically targeted to claiming events.

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