Updates - Famous Horses

Citation

admin April 3, 2025

Foaled on April 11, 1945, during the waning days of World War II, Citation was bred and owned by Calumet Farm, under the auspices of Warren Wright Sr., and trained by Horace ‘Jimmy’ Jones. Unfashionably bred, he nevertheless won 32 of his 45 races, including a then-record 16 consecutive stakes races, and became the first horse to win $1 million in prize money. Indeed, Citation finished outside the first three just once, on his penultimate start, as a six-year-old, in the Premiere Handicap at Hollywood Park Racetrack in Inglewood, California in 1951.

Citation will always be best remembered for his three-year-old campaign, in 1948, when he won 19 of his 20 races, including the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes, to become the eighth winner of the American Triple Crown and the last until Secretariat 25 years later. Indeed, ahead of the Kentucky Derby, Jones deferred to his father, Ben, as the official trainer of Citation, in an effort to allow him to equal the previous record set by Herbert ‘Dick’ Thompson.

In any event, Citation won the Kentucky Derby by 3½ lengths, the Preakness Stakes by 5½ lengths and the Belmont Stakes by 8 lengths. Jockey Eddie Arcaro, who rode hime to all three victories, later said of him, “Citation was the best ever. He was so fast he scared me.” Jimmy Jones went further still, saying, “My horse could beat anything with hair on it.”

Citation ended his career on a winning note, with victory in the Hollywood Gold Cup, again at Hollywood Park, on July 14, 1951, taking his career earnings past the $1 million mark. He subsequently stood at stud at Calumet Farm, where his progeny included the 1956 Preakness Stakes winner Fabius, until his death on August 8, 1970, aged 25.

Famous Horses

Black Caviar

admin April 3, 2025

A great-granddaughter of Nijinksy, Black Caviar was a prolific Australian mare, who was retired from racing unbeaten, after 25 starts over five seasons, on April 17, 2023. Indeed, her career tally included 15 Group 1 victories, one more than the previous record holder, Kingstown Town, who won the W.S. Cox Plate three years running in 1980, 1981 and 1982. She was awarded a Timeform Annual Rating of 136, making her the highest-rated Australian horse in the history of that distinguished organisation.

Owned by lifelong friends Colin and Jannene Madden, Gary and Kerryn Wilkie and Neil Werrett and trained by Peter Moody, in Melbourne, Victoria, Black Caviar recorded her first Group 1 success in the Patinack Farm Classic at Flemington – when ridden for the one and only time by Ben Melham – on November 6, 2010. Reunited with her regular partner, Luke Nolen, she followed up with an impressive, 3¼-length victory in the Lightning Stakes, also at Flemington, the following February and would go on to win that race twice more, in 2012 and 2013.

The closest Black Caviar came to defeat was in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot, in her one and only race outside Australia, on June 23, 2012. Sent off at prohibitive odds of 1/6, in a field of 14, Black Caviar looked like comfortably extending her winning sequence when taking command, under just hands and heels riding, inside the final furlong. However, Nolen prematurely dropped his hands in the closing stages, allowing the hard-driven Moonlight Cloud, ridden by Freddie Head, to press for the lead. Thankfully, though, Nolen realised his error and resumed riding just in time for Black Caviar to hold on by a head.

Black Caviar was humanely euthanised on August 17, 2024, shortly after delivering her final foal – her ninth in 11 years since her retirement – having been diagnosed with the extremely painful, and incurable, hoof disease laminitis. Completing the tragedy, the foal died shortly afterwards.

Famous Horses

Best Mate

admin April 3, 2025

At the time of writing, following the defeat of the odds-on favourite, Galopin Des Champs, in the 2025 Cheltenham Gold Cup, Best Mate remains the last horse to win the ‘Blue Riband’ event three years running, which he did in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Indeed, nearly two decades after his death, as a 10-year-old, on November 1, 2005, he remains the joint-twelfth highest-rated steeplechaser in the history of Timeform, albeit fully 30lb behind the eternal yardstick, Arkle.

Foaled on January 28, 1995, Best Mate was owned by the late Jim Lewis, in whose claret and blue colours he ran, and trained by Henrietta Knight in West Lockinge, Oxfordshire. All told, he won 14 of his 22 races under National Hunt Rules, including 11 of his 14 steeplechases, and just over £1 million in prize money. In fact, over fences, Best Mate finished outside the first two just once, when pulled up in the Haldon Gold Cup at Exeter on November 1, 2005.

On that fateful day, returning from a 308-break, having suffered a burst blood vessel during his preparation for the 2006 Cheltenham Gold Cup, he collapsed and died from a heart attack while being led back to the stables. He was subsequently cremated and his ashes were buried alongside the winning post at Cheltenham shortly afterwards.

In happier times, Best Mate was a top-class hurdler, good enough to finish second in the Tolworth Hurdle at Sandown and the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in 2000. Sent over fences in 2000/01, he won his first three starts, including the Scilly Isles’ Novices Chase at Sandown and, on Boxing Day 2001, was beaten just three-quarters of length by Florida Pearl in the King George VI Chase at Kempton, en route to his first success in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. The rest, as they say, is history.

Famous Horses

Barbaro

admin April 1, 2025

Barbaro was a hugely talented, but ultimately ill-fated, racehorse, best known for his runaway, 6½-length victory in the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in 2006. Bred and owned by Gretchen and Roy Jackson, under the Lael Stables banner, and trained by Michael Matz in Fair Hill, Maryland, the Dynaformer colt ran just once as a two-year-old, winning the Laurel Park Futurity at Laurel Park, Maryland by 8 lengths. He also won his first three starts as a three-year-old, the Tropical Peak Derby at Gulfstream Park West, the Holy Bush Stakes at Gulfstream Park and the Florida Derby at the same venue.

Thus, Barbaro was sent off at a narrow 6.1/1 second-favourite for the ‘Run for the Roses’, behind only the Illinois Derby winner Sweetnorthernsaint. However, he never gave his supporters an anxious moment. Having taken the lead with a quarter of a mile to run, he soon left the opposition floundering in his wake and only had to be pushed out by jockey Edgar Prado to become the widest-margin Kentucky Derby winner since Assault, 60 years previously.

Not altogether unsurprisingly, Barbaro was sent off at prohibitive odds of 1/2 for the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico two weeks later, but his troubles began when he broke through the starting gate, He was soon pulled up and, deemed fit to race, reloaded, but worse was to follow. Once the race was underway, after the field had travelled just a furlong Barbaro broke down on his off hind and was pulled up.

He was rushed to hospital at the New Bolton Center at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was found to have suffered a catastrophic fractures to three bones in his right hind leg, which, according to medical staff were ” shattered into more than 20 fragments.” After multiple surgeries and lengthy rehabilitation, Barbaro recovered sufficiently to walk again, but developed laminitis; he was humanely euthanised on January 29, 2007.

Famous Horses

Affirmed

admin April 1, 2025

Bred and owned by Harbour View Farm, under the auspices of American financier Louis Wolfson, and trained by Cuban-born Lazaro ‘Laz’ Barrera, Affirmed is best remembered for winning the American Triple Crown – that is, the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes – in 1979. In so doing, he made Steve Cauthen, who turned 19 on May 1, 1979, four days before the Kentucky Derby, the youngest jockey ever to win that coveted champhionship.

Foaled at Harbor View Farm in Ocala, Florida on February 21, 1975, Affirmed made a winning two-year-old debut in maiden special weight race at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York on May 24, 1977. He first met Alydar, who was making his debut, on his next start in the now-defunct Youthful Stakes, also at Belmont, the following month and the pair would go on to become career-long rivals.

Affirmed and Alydar met six times as two-year-olds, with the former winning on four occasions, and seven out of nine races in the season as a whole. The pair finished first and second in all three Triple Crown races, leaving Alydar with the dubious distinction of becoming the first horse to finish runner-up in all three. Alydar did have the last laugh when ‘winning’ their final meeting, in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga on August 19, 1978, but needed the help of the stewards to do so.

Affirmed was retired at the end of 1979 after winning 22 of his 29 races and a then-record $2,393,818 in prize money. He finished outside the first three just once, when fifth in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park in 1978, after his saddle slipped. He subsequently stood at stud at Jonabell Farm near Lexington, Kentucky, where he was humanely euthanised in early 2001, just turned 26, having suffered from the incurable hoof disease laminitis.

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