was just looking at some old PPs and it is truly remarkable how differently horses used to be campaigned, the following is all Whirlaway --
1) ran 16 times as a 2yo -- the first 14 were all sprints, only the last two were routes in November -- both at Pimlico -- yes Pimlico used to have a November meet.
2) after 5 sprint prep races in February, March, and early April (no stakes -- all allowances and one handicap) -- he ran 7 races in 8 weeks and 3 days as follows:
April 24 - Blue Grass - Keeneland -- 9 furlongs - ran 2nd by 6 lengths in a 4 horse field on a muddy track
April 29 - Derby Trial -- Churchill -- 8 furlongs (presumably one turn) -- ran 2nd in a six horse field
May 3 -- won the Derby by 8 lengths against 10 horses.
May 10 -- won the Preakness by 5.5 lengths against 7 horses
May 20 -- back to one turn, ran a mid-week allowance against older horses at Belmont -- 1 and 1/16
June 7 -- won the Belmont
June 21 -- won the Dwyer -- then run at 10 furlongs
he still had plenty more to go in his 3yo campaign, but his races were more sanely spaced (although nothing still like spacing today).
3) In his 4yo debut, on April 9, 1942, in the Phoenix Handicap, run at 6 furlongs - he spotted a precocious 3yo 14.5 pounds (no typo - the 3yo carried 113.5) -- Whirlaway lost to the 3yo by a head -- the 3yo went on to be the Derby favorite -- at 9-5 in a field of 15 horses. So yes, the 1942 KY Derby Favorite had actually beaten the prior year\'s TRIPLE CROWN WINNER in his only prep for that year\'s Derby. Ironically, he ran a lackluster 6th.
I do recall 30-40 years ago 3yos running against older horses -- Conquistador Cielo and Gulch in the Metropolitan Mile as a prep for the Belmont come to mind -- but they were outliers by that time.
My fandom of horseracing started in the mid-1970s -- the DRF used to run non-equine stories on the front page on rare occasions -- one was when there was a big move in the price of newsprint (which usually presaged a drf price increase) and the other was when the annual figures came out on spectator sports and horseracing was always the number one spectator sport in America. Boy have times changed -- who cares about the price of newsprint?
Also, anybody here remember listening to news radio for the races results and they would read out the results and the prices? I loved it when I horse would pay more to show than to place -- and they would say -- \"prices okay\" -- so you knew it wasn\'t an error and the prices just came out odd.
I remember in the 70s listening to my little transistor radio for results,if im not mistaken Harvey Pack gave a delayed stretch calls for NYRA races ,I think it was on news radio 88 ,it was done 12 and 42 past the hr,also there was a phone# you could call to get the stretch call also.(Im a Queens boy) 1st OTB opened in Queens was on Queens BLVD.(those were the days)
philywheel
I can’t read a recounting like this without recalling Spectacular Bid.
To prep for the Triple Crown, the Bid won four Florida preps: Hutcheson, Fountain of Youth, Flamingo and Florida Derby, before moving on to Kentucky and taking the Blue Grass and Derby.
The Bid went on to have one of the great campaigns in thoroughbred history as a 4YO, setting track records and carrying significant weight at distances from 7 to
10 furlongs.
You can look it up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_French_(horse)
Check out Johnny Campo’s Jim French.
It was 1973/74...on 660am...it was called \"Pack at the Track\"...he would come on the air about 20 minutes after the race was run and do a recreation of the last 1/2 mile of the race...I believe that it was always the early DD and the feature
John
The OTB dial in # was the ONLY remote way you could get the results \'quickly\'...nice recall Philly!!
If memory serves, it was 976-2121...I called it enough!!
WOW, thats the # ,I called it enough times myself,Their was only 1 DD back then and 8 races,the feature was the 7th.I also recall the Saturday TV show with Frank Wright and Charlsie Canty on WOR ch.9 it was on Delay,I used to Call my Girlfriend
(now and still mywife) knowing the results and told her who Bet (knowing the results)told her who I bet ,never picked a loser she thought I was amazing
Philwheel
That’s great nostalgia thanks fellas..
Put 6 in the gate. Bid, Slew, Curlin, Arrogate, Gun Runner, Affirmed.
All as 4yos, all carrying 126. A mile and an eight at Saratoga.
Who are you taking and why?
Good Luck,
Joe B.
Dr. Fager easy.
Old PP\'s? For a real hoot how \'bout looking at some old ThoroGraph sheets! NOT the beautiful computer printed .pdf files of today. But the \"rough and hand-marked by Jerry Brown\" versions of yesteryear. For sentimental reasons, I\'ve kept a few. For example:
I have an A.P INDY sheet going into the 1992 Kentucky Derby indicating he won the 1992 Santa Anita Derby with a 7.5! [Today that\'s VERY VERY S-L-O-W!]
I have an UNBRIDLED sheet indicating he won the 1990 Florida Derby with a 8.5!
No doubt: These slices of paper with Jerry\'s penmanship should be in the Smithsonian Institution.
I started in the late 80s Alphabet instead of # for horses my high light was Goin to restaurant on 34th st paying $5 for track odds and getting a steak dinner if you win lol
For authentication purposes - any residual bourbon stains from the author?
and then the guy would come out the door and post it on the board, as the crowd surged to see the winner you had to sing yourself a tune so you wouldn\'t hear people yelling the letter results
Bourbon?? Not hardly.
Richie’s mention of Bid almost got me into talking about vodka martinis with Tommy Meyerhoff in Saratoga.
JohnTChance Wrote:
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> No doubt: These slices of paper with Jerry\'s
> penmanship should be in the Smithsonian
> Institution.
Wow JTC that was my first introduction to TG.
I would always find the guy (Alan) who sold them in the GGF box seats, he was nice enough to share them with me. My bankroll wasn\'t big back then, but I would buy them on a really big race card. He was friends with Jamie Ough and they would teach me how to read them. This was very early 90\'s. When I saw the results from these hand written little sheets of paper, I was instantly intrigued.
I bowled for years and we always went to Reno for a weekend trip in May. Sex, drugs and R&B (I was one of the few white dudes in the league).
I called Alan and asked for his best play. He tells me bet Turkish Lord ( I think that was the name). I looked at my DRF. I said really?? He said just bet him. Ok, if you say so.
So Sunday morning my buddies and I stagger into the race book at the Nugget in Sparks.
Turkish Lord is 9/1. I put $200 on him, which was by far the biggest wager of my life to that point (I did put $100 on Sunday Silence in the 87 Preakness). I convince my buddies to just bet the damn horse. They do.
People overhear us talking about the race. Every last person thinks we\'re nuts. This horse has run off the board recently, many lengths back. We get unsolicited handicapping lessons. You add this number, divide by the earnings, bonus points for these workouts. Yeah sure thx bud.
The horse draws off and pays $20.
They think I\'m a genius.
I thought I was going to be rich using this stuff.
That didn\'t happen, but its made me a buck or two over the years.
Been a TG guy ever since.
Funny how indelible those memories are, huh?
May 15, 1993. 6th at GG. Turkish Lord is the 5th choice in a 6-horse field, draws off to win by 3, pays $19.80.
And we all know you meant the \'89 Preakness.
BB Wrote:
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> Funny how indelible those memories are, huh?
>
> May 15, 1993. 6th at GG. Turkish Lord is the 5th
> choice in a 6-horse field, draws off to win by 3,
> pays $19.80.
>
> And we all know you meant the \'89 Preakness.
Duh, yes the \'89 Preakness. That trip was always Preakness weekend.
That was all off memory, Thx for the fact check!!! ......and yes BB after all these years I can still remember that day clearly.
Didn\'t mean it as fact-check, just curious and love these stories.
The one that sticks with me was a September (1991) 2YO, second-time starter for Woody Stephens named Onlooker. Not a sheets play, but won a maiden special by 10 and paid $39.80. Still remember that sweet feeling of being the only one in my section of the Belmont grandstand cheering him on. I was hooked.
Judge Angelucci (Whittingham) is the horse who hooked me as a bettor and future owner at Hollywood Park in 1988. For those with time on their hands (everyone), google the 1988 Big Cap one that he did not win. I claimed my first horse in 1990 also at Hollywood Park, Latin American, who eventually won the Grade 1 (at the time) Californian. Does anyone know about Judge? I looked him up on horseracingnation and they have pedigree info on him that says he is 37. That doesn\'t seem possible.
Strike Wrote:
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> Judge Angelucci (Whittingham) is the horse who
> hooked me as a bettor and future owner at
> Hollywood Park in 1988. For those with time on
> their hands (everyone), google the 1988 Big Cap
> one that he did not win. I claimed my first horse
> in 1990 also at Hollywood Park, Latin American,
> who eventually won the Grade 1 (at the time)
> Californian. Does anyone know about Judge? I
> looked him up on horseracingnation and they have
> pedigree info on him that says he is 37. That
> doesn\'t seem possible.
He ran in the 87 Classic, the one with Alysheba and Ferdinand. That was 33 years ago
BB I didn’t mean you were checking on the validity.
Hey, Strike. There\'s only so much time you can spend reading, writing, doing crossword puzzles, and I\'ve had enough with looking at the news for a while, so I did a little leg work on the Judge.
You probably know that he was sold to Japanese interests for stud duty. He didn\'t do all that much over there (some decent broodmares and he did sire a champion steeplechaser), but there\'s not much else to be found on the internet. I reached out to a person I\'m familiar with on Twitter who works in Japanese racing and was able to get the following: He was pensioned from stud duty in 1998 and was sent to an \"Old Friends-style\" life at Shadai Farm. Unfortunately, not long after arriving there he had a paddock accident and did not survive. Sorry it\'s not a better story, but figured you would want to know.
And Paul, I figured as much, but wanted to be sure. Take care, all.
BB Wrote:
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> Hey, Strike. There\'s only so much time you can
> spend reading, writing, doing crossword puzzles,
> and I\'ve had enough with looking at the news for a
> while, so I did a little leg work on the Judge.
>
> You probably know that he was sold to Japanese
> interests for stud duty. He didn\'t do all that
> much over there (some decent broodmares and he did
> sire a champion steeplechaser), but there\'s not
> much else to be found on the internet. I reached
> out to a person I\'m familiar with on Twitter who
> works in Japanese racing and was able to get the
> following: He was pensioned from stud duty in 1998
> and was sent to an \"Old Friends-style\" life at
> Shadai Farm. Unfortunately, not long after
> arriving there he had a paddock accident and did
> not survive. Sorry it\'s not a better story, but
> figured you would want to know.
>
> And Paul, I figured as much, but wanted to be
> sure. Take care, all.
Well, certainly not good news but I didn\'t think he was still alive at the age of 37. I appreciate your research. I think we all have a horse who just grabbed us by the throat and into the game. He took me beyond just wanting to be a bettor. I can\'t really explain why. He wasn\'t the best at the time running against Alysheba, Ferdinand and others. But, he was damn good.