From Mary Lou to Tom; Jim Dandy to Fourstardave; Siro’s to backyard tailgating; and morning workouts to give aways; Saratoga has a cast of heroes, customs, and institutions which make it, in our opinion, the most unique sporting venue on Earth. Over the next 40 Days, we will profile 40 of these legends and traditions, adding our own memories and experiences from 30 plus years of summering at the Spa. It’s our Salute to Saratoga. We hope you enjoy following along.
Winning the Triple Crown is one of the most difficult and unique accomplishments in all of sports. In the lengthy history of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes (the youngest of those races is 140 years old), there have only been 12 Triple Crown winners. Those horses represent the most exclusive club of horses in North American racing: Sir Barton, Gallant Fox, Omaha, War Admiral, Whirlaway, Count Fleet, Assault, Citation, Secretariat, Seattle Slew, Affirmed and, now, American Pharoah. Within that most exclusive club of horses in the history of North American racing, however, there is a VIP section. And right now, that VIP section consists of just one horse — surrounded by velvet ropes and enjoying his bottle of Grey Goose over some ice cold rocks.
Right now, the VIP section is graced by the sole winner of horse racing’s “superfecta,” each of the Triple Crown races as well as the Travers Stakes at Saratoga — the “Midsummer Derby.” That winner is Whirlaway, the 1941 winner of the Triple Crown.
Whirlaway went to the starting gate 60 times in his career, spanning four seasons. He won 32 of those starts, and was in the top three 24 other times, for a whopping 56 of 60 in the money. His 1941 season is the one that resonates in the record books, however. After coming in second in the Blue Grass and the Derby Trial, he took to the 1 1/4 Derby like a fish to water, winning by 8 lengths. He followed that up with a 5 1/2 lenth win in the Preakness. Then, in an event that will never happen again, Whirlaway squeezed an allowance race into this schedule between the Preakness and the Belmont, prevailing in that by 2 1/4 lengths.
Eddie Arcaro had taken the allowance race off, after having been on board for the first two Triple Crown victories, and he was back in the irons for Whirlaway’s win in the Belmont, making Whirlaway the fifth Triple Crown winner in American racing and vaulting him to immortality.
Unlike the horses of the modern era, however, there was no rest for the weary (this, of course, is probably for the better). Whirlaway came back and won the Dwyer Stakes at Aqueduct just two weeks later and then competed in two stakes races at Arlington Park, winning won and gaining second in the other, before heading to Saratoga for August. His prep for the Travers would be the Saranac Handicap over 1 mile. He prevailed by a nose, drifting out down the stretch. He came back just 10 days later in the Travers, ready to face two other rivals and a muddy track. Although the short field and the track surface were reminiscent of the conditions facing Gallant Fox when he fell victim to the “Graveyard of Champions” against Jim Dandy in the 1930 Travers, there would be no such upset on August 16, 1941. Whirlaway became the first Triple Crown winner to win the Travers by 3 3/4 lengths, with the Daily Racing Form trip note summarizing the win in just one word: “Easily.”
Whirlaway closed out his 3 year old season for the ages with a win in the American Derby at Washington Park, a second in the Naragansett Special at Naragansett Park, a win in the Lawrence Realization Stakes at Belmont Park and then a second in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, which was at that time run over 2 miles at Belmont.
Whirlaway would come back for a stellar 4 year old season, and then a brief (2 race) and unmemorable 5 year old campaign. He would be retired to Calumet Farm, where he would have limited success in the breeding shed before moving to a farm in France, where he eventually passed away in 1953. He was elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1959.
Not counting American Pharoah, only three of the prior 11 Triple Crown winners have even attempted the Travers, with Gallant Fox famously losing to Jim Dandy in 1930, and Affirmed losing by disqualification to Alydar in 1978, after Laffit Pincay caused Jorge Velazquez to check badly on the far turn at Saratoga.
Therefore, the stage is set for American Pharoah. He is coming to Saratoga, to the Travers, with a chance to do something that only one horse has ever done before, and to move closer to cementing his 2015 season as one of the greatest (if not the greatest) single season in the history of horse racing.
In what is shaping up to be a red-letter season at Saratoga Race Course, this is the race that everyone wanted to see. Can American Pharoah come to the Graveyard of Champions, defeat all of his three year old rivals and set himself up for the Breeders’ Cup Classic with a chance to have a truly remarkable, undefeated season? (ed. note: Please, Beholder, stay healthy and run in the Breeders’ Cup Classic).
We will all be watching on Saturday. But until then, Whirlaway should enjoy his last few drinks as the only one past the bouncers and the velvet ropes — he might have some company come Saturday night.
