Whitney/Dandy Figs

[Silver Charm]

Add this bit of trivia to the Meadowlake and Ogygian history. I was working in Chicago that summer, it was the year that Arlington burned down. My living quarters were two miles from Arlington and the week I was scheduled to go to Chicago for the remainder of the summer the track burned down.

All racing was then moved to Hawthorne which is completely on the other side of town. Between Rush Street hangovers and the track I didn\'t have a whole lot else going on that summer. Anyway got to the track for the first race one Saturday and watched a 12-1 morning line horse who was bet down to 5-2, win by TWENTY THREE LENGTHS.

His name Meadowlake.  

Flew home a couple of years ago with Juvenal Diaz who rode Meadowlake that day. I asked him how they were able to pull that kind of price off with a horse that fast. He told me Bert Sonnier the trainer never gave the horse a name until the week before the race, and they got his gate card in the dark hours of the morning.

Diaz also told me that the first time he got on this horse he told Bert this horse can absolutely FLY. He swears the horse was as fast Secretariat. They actually wanted to go to Saratoga and run him in the Grade I Hopeful as a FIRST TIME STARTER but were afraid the owner throw a fit if it didn\'t work out. So they stayed in Chicago and made a nice little score on him that day.

Makes you really want to bet those two year old races today doesn\'t it.

[4singles2all]

When the meet shifted to HAW after the fire, they had no time to properly prepare the track and just layed down an additional cushion to accomadate the racing. Older, seasoned stakes horses were having a hard time seeing anything this side of 1:12 and Meadowlake broke his maiden in 1:09 and change.

He then ran in Arlington-Washington Futurity which was GR1 back then. One of the trainers who shipped in walked the track and said of Meadowlake\'s maiden score ...\"if he ran that fast on this, he will win by the length of the stretch\". He broke bad and drew off to win by 10 in a gallop.

I waited the whole winter for the Ogygian/Meadowlake match-up, but it never materialized. Two year olds always seem to pay a big price for fast races.

[Silver Charm]

You got a pretty good memory 4singles2all.

That trainer who walked the track was named Mr D. Wayne Lukas. He REALLY could not believe the time because the additional cushion you spoke of was six inches of sand.

And yes you are totally correct the poor condition of the track is what broke Meadowlake down. Diaz is doing a little pinhooking in Ocala these days and it is probably only fitting that his name and this story came up on Arlington Million Day. Since he used to be a dominant force in Chicago.

If you called him today he will still swear that Meadowlake was as fast as Secretariat.

[OPM]

Yes, I remember 86 very well because Mogambo was supposed to be very good but Ogygian(who is one of my favorite horses of all time) slapped him around pretty good.  Mogambo was trained by Jolly and that is the same time Track Barron was running. Jolley gave Cordero a share in the horse at stud to get him to ride against Lady Secret in the 86 Whitney in which Lady Secret manhandled him(or is it woman handled).  I don\'t know if horses are getting better but they are getting faster!!  But, we always look back at the older horses and say what good have been. Ogygian hurt his back in one of those races and was never the same again.
Meadowlake was super fast but a cripple who I thought would be much better at Stud than he actually was.

[MO]

I seem to recall Mogambo paying a rediculously high show price the day a Lukas 1-5 shot (Ketoh?) ran off the board in (I think) the Champagne.

[Lucy]

I\'ll save the 80\'s discussion for that day that I\'m hanging out in the old guys\' bar on the corner, drinking my old style.
as far as silver charm\'s crop, I am of the suspicion that this bunch made an impression on you because they produced aome top older horses, or in deputy commander\'s case, ran well against older (in the cup).
in this respect, you are absolutely right that they have done more as older horses than smarty\'s peers.
I\'m not really sure what it is that smarty\'s peers should have done up to now to garner a higher score from the french judge.

judging by the #\'s --- which is how *I* would evaluate them, smarty\'s crop looks just as good, if not better than most.
how these fast 3 yo #\'s will translate into older handicap horses, I have no idea, but there\'s always hope that a few will make it.
the fact is, most of smarty\'s peers haven\'t won anything so far because smarty kept beating them.
the few that managed to win the races of note that smarty didn\'t gobble up --- purge, a couple zitos, lion heart, were pretty much all handled by smarty, w/the exception of his belmont loss, in which he ran second.
these are all good horses, judging by the #\'s --- they just ran into a horse that ran faster.

I wouldn\'t know what criteria a horse must meet for hall of fame acceptance, but I think smarty\'s resume was a little short, regardless of his peers.
I don\'t think simply winning the derby should merit inclusion --- however, had he won that last one, I probably would have to give him my imaginary vote, despite the short career.

[JJP]

If we\'re going to bring 1986 into the equation, we can\'t forget the horse that should\'ve been Horse of the Year in 1986: Manila.  IMO, he won the best edition of the BC Turf, beating future champion Theatrical, British superhorse Dancing Brave and champion filly Estrapade.