SWC75
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Here are the horses that won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness but not the Belmont between Citation's 1948 Triple Crown and Secretariat's 1973 TC:
TIM TAM
Another Calumet horse trained by Ben Jones’ son Horace (Jimmy) Jones, Tim Tam won the 1958 Derby and Preakness and was the favorite to win the Belmont and the first Triple Crown in 10 years but fractured a sesamoid bone, (a bone within a tendon in his leg), down the stretch and limped home. He survived but his racing career was over. His jockey was Ismael Valenzuela and his record 10-1-2 in 14 races.
Tim Tam wins the Derby:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo-sgeHWC5g
And the Preakness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o7Mjz_Z0_A
His run in the Belmont is covered in the ABC clip at the beginning of this article.
CARRY BACK
Carry Back came from a modest lineage and a small farm in Ohio. He was owned by Jack Price, a retired manufacturer and his wife Katherine. Noted for coming from behind to win, he won the Derby and the Preakness but a sore leg doomed his Belmont run and he finished far back. He was sent to France to try his luck in France’s most famous race, the Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe but finished 10th. He had a long racing career, 61 races, 21-11-11 followed by a successful career at stud. Mr. Price was the trainer and Johnny Sellers the Jockey. U-Tube doesn't have any of the three races that eyar but here is Carry Back winning another race:
NORTHERN DANCER
Northern Dancer was a Canadian horse, foaled at Windfield’s Farm in Ontario. She was a smallish racehorse. His original jockey was Ron Turcotte, who would get Secretariat a decade later. Willie Shoemaker then rode him but chose another horse, Hill Rise, for the Derby. His arch-rival Bill Hartack, (who hated to be called “Willie” because he hated Willie), got the mount and held off Hill Rise and Shoemaker to win the Derby. He then won the Preakness but finished third in the Belmont and retired not long after that with a sore tendon. He went on to become the greatest sire of champion horses of the 20th century, his line producing champions all over the globe, including Nijinsky, the last winner of the British Triple Crown. His owner was Edward Taylor and his trainer Horatio Luro. His race record was 18 races, 14-2-2. Northern Dancer was never out of the money and either was Mr. Taylor.
An hour long, four part documentary on Northern Dancer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2FrZY4mjL4
KAUAI KING
This was actually a Maryland Horse, despite the name, (I haven’t been able to find out why he was called that). He was foaled at Pine Brook Farm in Maryland and owned by Mike Ford. He created a lot of excitement when he won both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. People thought they were going to see the first Triple Crown winner since Citation, especially after several owners who had run their horses in the Derby and Preakness pulled out of the Belmont, saying they didn’t feel their horses could compete with Kauai King:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1078592/index.htm
Eddie Arcaro was asked which horse he would prefer to ride that year: “Kauai King, of course. When you have a horse with the versatility to go to the front or come from behind, that's the horse for me."
But Kauai King was a hard horse to control and the jockey, Don Brumfield was not as experienced as some of his colleagues. He kept fighting the horse when some later advised maybe he should just have let it go. Still, he had the lead most of the way. But down the stretch, Amberoid, a good distance horse who had won the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct earlier in the year, (The Belmont took place at Aqueduct from 1963-67 while Belmont Park was being renovated), caught him down the stretch, just as so many winners of the Derby and Preakness have been caught down the stretch of that mile and a half race. Kauai King was trained by Henry Forest and had a record of 9-2-1 in 16 races.
There were two other highly-regarded horses that year: Graustark and Buckpasser. They had been the favorites going into the Derby Both were injured before the Derby and never participated in the Triple Crown races. Graustark’s injury ended his career as a racer horse but not his life and he lived to age 25 with a semi-successful career as a stud. Buckpasser became one of the greatest horses of all time, famed for his come-from behind victories, one over Kauai King what turned out to be the King’s last race.
Kauai King wins the Preakness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tdV4GLXhsY
….but loses the Belmont:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpRzN2l2S1o
Buckpasser:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUhp7BjoKGQ&feature=related
FORWARD PASS
The 1968 Kentucky Derby was the most controversial in history. Dancer’s Image, like Northern Dancer, a son of Native Dancer, one of the top horses of the 50’s, won the race but was subsequently the only Kentucky Derby winner to be disqualified due to the presence of an anti-inflammatory drug, phenylbutazone, in his urine. Dancer’s Image suffered from sore ankles. The drug was legal at most racetracks, but not Churchill Downs. The owner, Peter Fuller and trainer, Lou Cavalaris Jr. claimed they’d stopped using it 6 days before the Derby so it would be gone from his system by then. They felt someone else must have administered it to the horse later than that, contrary to their instructions. Fuller was a sympathizer with the Civil Rights movement and an admirer of Martin Luther King who had given the prize money form a previous race to his widow. He felt that bigotry might have even been a factor in the disqualification of his horse. Sports Illustrated called it the “sports story of the year”:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1081208/1/index.htm
Forward Pass won the Preakness by 6 lengths, thus creating the possibility that the next Triple Crown Winner would be a horse that finished second in the Derby. But he lost in the Belmont to Stage Door Johnny, “ a horse who had not raced in the Derby or the Preakness but had been specifically bred and conditioned for competing at longer distances“. Forward Pass was a Calumet Farms horse but trained by Kauai King’s trainer, Henry Forrest and ridden by Milo Valenzuela. His career record was 10-4-2 in 23 races.
A documentary on Dancer’s Image:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&v=T-9oqxWMmTc&NR=1
Dancer’s Image was Maryland-bred and ridden by Bobby Ussery. His career record was 12-5-1 in 24 races.
Forward Pass gets beaten at the Belmont:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ-Xn85t87k
MAJESTIC PRINCE
I like racing horses to have impressive-sounding names, not some of the silly ones you hear, (like “I’ll Have Another”). None ever had a better name than “Majestic Prince”. If a horse could win a Triple Crown based on his name, surely this one could. Others thought so, too. He was purchased as a yearling for the then record price of $250,000 by Calgary oilman Frank McMahon from a California horse farm. McMahon’s close friend, Johnny Longden, who had ridden Count Fleet to the Triple Crown and recently retired as the winningest jockey in history, (to that point), became his trainer. Bill Hartack was hired to ride the hose. It proved to be an unbeatable combination- almost.
The Prince swept the top west coast races and was the favorite for the Derby, which he won by a neck over Arts and Letters, (Arts and Letters?). Longden became the first person to win the Derby as both a jockey and trainer- and the only one so far. The Preakness was another duel with Arts and Letters. This time the Prince won by a head.
But in pulling the Preakness out, Majestic Prince had injured a tendon. Per Wikipedia:
“Longden stated the horse wouldn't be able to run his best in the Belmont Stakes and therefore he was being shipped back to California to be rested until the fall. When asked by a reporter, McMahon said he concurred with Longden's view, adding: "We want a Triple Crown, not a Crippled Crown." But then McMahon changed his mind. “To this day, much speculation abounds as to why McMahon changed his mind and raced Majestic Prince in the Belmont, but the pressure from the press was intense, including Whitney Tower's article in Sports Illustrated entitled "The Prince Ducks the Big One". The decision to run never sat well with Longden, and despite his well-documented shouting match with the horse's owner in the days leading up to the race, Majestic Prince was still sent out to compete in the Belmont Stakes.” Quite a contrast to I’ll Have Another this year, (2012).
The first horse in history to reach the Belmont undefeated, Majestic Prince finished 5 ½ lengths behind Arts and Letters and never raced again. In 10 races he had a record of 9-1-0. A name isn’t enough.
A brief documentary on the Prince:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Py5_CooPnc
It skips over the Belmont. This doesn’t:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAoU4mc_4go
CANONERO II
Bred in North Carolina, this bay bolt had a crooked foreleg that suggested he had no future as a race horse. He was sold to a Venezuelan and had an undistinguished season as a two year old there. He nonetheless managed to get a spot in the 1971 Kentucky Derby based on his breeding. But he wasn’t considered much of a threat. He astonished everyone by coming from 18th place to win the race by 3 ½ lengths. “Experts” said he’d never win another race. But then he won the Preakness, setting a track record.
He became the darling of the Latino community who filled the stands at Belmont Park to see if he could win the Triple Crown. But he’d come down with a foot infection and the best he could do was finish 4th. He was sold to King Ranch and nursed back to health and defeated Riva Ridge in a race the following year. He was owned by Pedro Baptista, trained by Juan Arias and ridden by Gustavo Avila. He had a career record of 9-3-4 in 23 races.
(Most of the U-Tube tributes are in Spanish.) Here he is winning the Derby:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLv8Rvno_L4
And the Preakness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLol28v7gn8
But not the Belmont:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtHdWTMejqg&feature=related
It seemed we would never get a Triple Crown winner again.
TIM TAM
Another Calumet horse trained by Ben Jones’ son Horace (Jimmy) Jones, Tim Tam won the 1958 Derby and Preakness and was the favorite to win the Belmont and the first Triple Crown in 10 years but fractured a sesamoid bone, (a bone within a tendon in his leg), down the stretch and limped home. He survived but his racing career was over. His jockey was Ismael Valenzuela and his record 10-1-2 in 14 races.
Tim Tam wins the Derby:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo-sgeHWC5g
And the Preakness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o7Mjz_Z0_A
His run in the Belmont is covered in the ABC clip at the beginning of this article.
CARRY BACK
Carry Back came from a modest lineage and a small farm in Ohio. He was owned by Jack Price, a retired manufacturer and his wife Katherine. Noted for coming from behind to win, he won the Derby and the Preakness but a sore leg doomed his Belmont run and he finished far back. He was sent to France to try his luck in France’s most famous race, the Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe but finished 10th. He had a long racing career, 61 races, 21-11-11 followed by a successful career at stud. Mr. Price was the trainer and Johnny Sellers the Jockey. U-Tube doesn't have any of the three races that eyar but here is Carry Back winning another race:
NORTHERN DANCER
Northern Dancer was a Canadian horse, foaled at Windfield’s Farm in Ontario. She was a smallish racehorse. His original jockey was Ron Turcotte, who would get Secretariat a decade later. Willie Shoemaker then rode him but chose another horse, Hill Rise, for the Derby. His arch-rival Bill Hartack, (who hated to be called “Willie” because he hated Willie), got the mount and held off Hill Rise and Shoemaker to win the Derby. He then won the Preakness but finished third in the Belmont and retired not long after that with a sore tendon. He went on to become the greatest sire of champion horses of the 20th century, his line producing champions all over the globe, including Nijinsky, the last winner of the British Triple Crown. His owner was Edward Taylor and his trainer Horatio Luro. His race record was 18 races, 14-2-2. Northern Dancer was never out of the money and either was Mr. Taylor.
An hour long, four part documentary on Northern Dancer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2FrZY4mjL4
KAUAI KING
This was actually a Maryland Horse, despite the name, (I haven’t been able to find out why he was called that). He was foaled at Pine Brook Farm in Maryland and owned by Mike Ford. He created a lot of excitement when he won both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness. People thought they were going to see the first Triple Crown winner since Citation, especially after several owners who had run their horses in the Derby and Preakness pulled out of the Belmont, saying they didn’t feel their horses could compete with Kauai King:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1078592/index.htm
Eddie Arcaro was asked which horse he would prefer to ride that year: “Kauai King, of course. When you have a horse with the versatility to go to the front or come from behind, that's the horse for me."
But Kauai King was a hard horse to control and the jockey, Don Brumfield was not as experienced as some of his colleagues. He kept fighting the horse when some later advised maybe he should just have let it go. Still, he had the lead most of the way. But down the stretch, Amberoid, a good distance horse who had won the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct earlier in the year, (The Belmont took place at Aqueduct from 1963-67 while Belmont Park was being renovated), caught him down the stretch, just as so many winners of the Derby and Preakness have been caught down the stretch of that mile and a half race. Kauai King was trained by Henry Forest and had a record of 9-2-1 in 16 races.
There were two other highly-regarded horses that year: Graustark and Buckpasser. They had been the favorites going into the Derby Both were injured before the Derby and never participated in the Triple Crown races. Graustark’s injury ended his career as a racer horse but not his life and he lived to age 25 with a semi-successful career as a stud. Buckpasser became one of the greatest horses of all time, famed for his come-from behind victories, one over Kauai King what turned out to be the King’s last race.
Kauai King wins the Preakness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tdV4GLXhsY
….but loses the Belmont:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpRzN2l2S1o
Buckpasser:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUhp7BjoKGQ&feature=related
FORWARD PASS
The 1968 Kentucky Derby was the most controversial in history. Dancer’s Image, like Northern Dancer, a son of Native Dancer, one of the top horses of the 50’s, won the race but was subsequently the only Kentucky Derby winner to be disqualified due to the presence of an anti-inflammatory drug, phenylbutazone, in his urine. Dancer’s Image suffered from sore ankles. The drug was legal at most racetracks, but not Churchill Downs. The owner, Peter Fuller and trainer, Lou Cavalaris Jr. claimed they’d stopped using it 6 days before the Derby so it would be gone from his system by then. They felt someone else must have administered it to the horse later than that, contrary to their instructions. Fuller was a sympathizer with the Civil Rights movement and an admirer of Martin Luther King who had given the prize money form a previous race to his widow. He felt that bigotry might have even been a factor in the disqualification of his horse. Sports Illustrated called it the “sports story of the year”:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1081208/1/index.htm
Forward Pass won the Preakness by 6 lengths, thus creating the possibility that the next Triple Crown Winner would be a horse that finished second in the Derby. But he lost in the Belmont to Stage Door Johnny, “ a horse who had not raced in the Derby or the Preakness but had been specifically bred and conditioned for competing at longer distances“. Forward Pass was a Calumet Farms horse but trained by Kauai King’s trainer, Henry Forrest and ridden by Milo Valenzuela. His career record was 10-4-2 in 23 races.
A documentary on Dancer’s Image:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&v=T-9oqxWMmTc&NR=1
Dancer’s Image was Maryland-bred and ridden by Bobby Ussery. His career record was 12-5-1 in 24 races.
Forward Pass gets beaten at the Belmont:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJ-Xn85t87k
MAJESTIC PRINCE
I like racing horses to have impressive-sounding names, not some of the silly ones you hear, (like “I’ll Have Another”). None ever had a better name than “Majestic Prince”. If a horse could win a Triple Crown based on his name, surely this one could. Others thought so, too. He was purchased as a yearling for the then record price of $250,000 by Calgary oilman Frank McMahon from a California horse farm. McMahon’s close friend, Johnny Longden, who had ridden Count Fleet to the Triple Crown and recently retired as the winningest jockey in history, (to that point), became his trainer. Bill Hartack was hired to ride the hose. It proved to be an unbeatable combination- almost.
The Prince swept the top west coast races and was the favorite for the Derby, which he won by a neck over Arts and Letters, (Arts and Letters?). Longden became the first person to win the Derby as both a jockey and trainer- and the only one so far. The Preakness was another duel with Arts and Letters. This time the Prince won by a head.
But in pulling the Preakness out, Majestic Prince had injured a tendon. Per Wikipedia:
“Longden stated the horse wouldn't be able to run his best in the Belmont Stakes and therefore he was being shipped back to California to be rested until the fall. When asked by a reporter, McMahon said he concurred with Longden's view, adding: "We want a Triple Crown, not a Crippled Crown." But then McMahon changed his mind. “To this day, much speculation abounds as to why McMahon changed his mind and raced Majestic Prince in the Belmont, but the pressure from the press was intense, including Whitney Tower's article in Sports Illustrated entitled "The Prince Ducks the Big One". The decision to run never sat well with Longden, and despite his well-documented shouting match with the horse's owner in the days leading up to the race, Majestic Prince was still sent out to compete in the Belmont Stakes.” Quite a contrast to I’ll Have Another this year, (2012).
The first horse in history to reach the Belmont undefeated, Majestic Prince finished 5 ½ lengths behind Arts and Letters and never raced again. In 10 races he had a record of 9-1-0. A name isn’t enough.
A brief documentary on the Prince:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Py5_CooPnc
It skips over the Belmont. This doesn’t:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAoU4mc_4go
CANONERO II
Bred in North Carolina, this bay bolt had a crooked foreleg that suggested he had no future as a race horse. He was sold to a Venezuelan and had an undistinguished season as a two year old there. He nonetheless managed to get a spot in the 1971 Kentucky Derby based on his breeding. But he wasn’t considered much of a threat. He astonished everyone by coming from 18th place to win the race by 3 ½ lengths. “Experts” said he’d never win another race. But then he won the Preakness, setting a track record.
He became the darling of the Latino community who filled the stands at Belmont Park to see if he could win the Triple Crown. But he’d come down with a foot infection and the best he could do was finish 4th. He was sold to King Ranch and nursed back to health and defeated Riva Ridge in a race the following year. He was owned by Pedro Baptista, trained by Juan Arias and ridden by Gustavo Avila. He had a career record of 9-3-4 in 23 races.
(Most of the U-Tube tributes are in Spanish.) Here he is winning the Derby:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLv8Rvno_L4
And the Preakness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLol28v7gn8
But not the Belmont:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtHdWTMejqg&feature=related
It seemed we would never get a Triple Crown winner again.
