Howard Hamilton - HORSE SENSEThis week we conclude our look at the achievements of some of the greatest thoroughbreds.
BIGGEST EARNER: With prize money now in the millions of dollars it is difficult to compare the earnings over the years but, for what it's worth, the Japanese horse of the year T.M. OPERA O is the first horse to earn over $10 million. His race record is 26 starts with 14 wins, six seconds and three thirds and earnings of J$16,200,337.
RACING'S CLASSIEST: John Henry must go down in history as racing's classiest thoroughbred. He moved from the claiming ranks to be a winner of 39 races, including 30 stakes races, of which 19 were Grade One wins. FOREGO and AFFIRMED each won 14 Grade One stakes races. SPECTACULAR BID accounted for 13 Grade One wins from his 21 Graded stakes victories.
MOST WINS: We are no longer privileged to see horses run as frequently as they did in years gone by. The records show that the stallion, SPENDTHRIFT, sired KINGSTON which won 89 races from 138 starts and BANKRUPT which won 86 races from 348 starts. KING CRAB who raced 310 times and LITTLE MINCH, who raced 222 times each, won 85 races.
HIBLAZE in a 14-year career started a record 406 times in the 1930s and 1940s and managed to win 79 races.
THE UNBEATENS: The foundation sire ECLIPSE, the ancestor of more than 95 per cent of modern-day thoroughbreds, won all 18 of his starts easily. ORMONDE andRIBOT were also unbeaten in their careers, winning all 16 of their races. Colin ended his 15- race career unbeaten, winning the Belmont Stakes in his last effort. NEARCO, unbeaten in 14 career starts, is probably the most influential thoroughbred sire of the 20th century. Unbeaten in nine starts, there are those that consider St. Simon (leading Sire for nine times) the greatest horse ever.
UNBEATEN TRIPLE CROWN WINNERS: American Triple Crown winner SEATTLE SLEW and English Triple Crown winners BAHRAM and NIJINSKY II were unbeaten when they completed their classic sweeps, during the 20th Century. Other winners had accomplished the feat in England in the past.
THE LONGEST WINNING STREAKS: BOSTON, which raced in the United States, had two amazing winning streaks, one of 14 straight and another of 17 in a row. Racing exclusively in Puerto Rico, CAMARERO won the most consecutive races 56 races in a row, breaking the record in Puerto Rico of Galgo Jr. who raced on that island in the 1930s and won 39 in a row. PHAR LAP, the 17.1 hands wonder horse from Australia won the Melbourne Cup Handicap at a distance of two miles carrying 138 pounds as a four-year-old. PHAR LAP, known as the 'Red Terror' won 14 races in a row. Australian-raced MISS PETTY won 22 in a row, in the 1980s, the most to date of any horse running in Australia. In modern times, Buckpasser's achievement of 15 wins in America and BRIGARDER GERARD's 15 in a row in England mark these two great ones as being virtually unbeatable.
In the final analysis the title of the greatest horse to ever race goes to a little chestnut filly born in 1874 KINCSEM. Her career started in 1876 when as a two year old she ran 10 times in 10 cities in three countries Germany, Austria and Hungary and won each contest carrying weights varying from 118 to 129 pounds. Her two-year- old racing season started on June 21st in Berlin and ended on October 29 in Prague.
KINCSEM raced 17 times at three years old and won all seventeen starts with two being walk- overs. She won her races by great margins and 10 times she finished 10 lengths clear of her nearest pursuer, twice distancing the rest of the field.
KINCSEM started her four-year-old campaign in Vienna on April 22, 1878 having run 27 races without defeat. She carried weight assignments of over 143 pounds in 11 of her 15 victories in 1878, six in which she carried over 150 pounds. She proceeded to win nine races after the next five weeks two in Vienna in the space of three days, once at Pozsony, three times in Budapest in the space of five days, and then back to Vienna for another three victories in the space of five days. She next easily won the Goodwood Cup on August 1 by two lengths and took the Grand Prix de Deauville carrying 135 pounds just 17 days later, running both races in fast times. She continued her phenomenal schedule travelling from city to city. At the end of her four-yearold season KINCSEM had participated in 42 races without a loss.
KINCSEM faced the started 12 times at five carrying weights from a low of 136 pounds to a high of 168 pounds. The summary of her racing career is 54 wins in 54 starts at distances from 4-1/2 furlongs (947 meteres) to 2 1/2 miles (4000 metres). KINCSEM left the tract as sound as when she first started.
The story of KINCSEM is almost impossible to believe in this day and age where no horses seem to stay around to compete very long and none is willing to carry high weights. Think about it! Bless all the thoroughbred horses, great and not-so-great, because they gallantly provide us with the thrills of our business.
'Horse Sense' is grateful to Robert Fox, director of the New York Horsemen's Association and leading bloodstock agent in the United States, for the information provided and used in these two articles. I look forward to a similar story on Jamaican thoroughbred heroes by one of our historical scribes.
Howard L. Hamilton C.D., J.P., is a former chairman of Caymanas Track Limited and is the current president of Thoroughbred Owners & Breeders Association. He can be contacted at howham@cwjamaica.com.
