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.
Longshot winners and New York-breds always receive royal treatment at Saratoga. And no horse better merged these two criteria, along with a love for the Spa, than the horse who ended a 125 year drought for New York-breds in the Travers–Thunder Rumble.
The 1992 Jim Dandy was billed a star studded audition for the Travers. It featured speedster Dixie Brass, an undefeated Shug trained prodigy, Furiously, the consistent Devil His Due, and Belmont runner-up (to A.P. Indy), My Memoirs. Over 37,000 flooded the Spa that day to watch the Travers trial. And as the New York Times wrote, the 37,000 fans “watched in wonder as an interloper defeated the favorites, equaled the stakes record for the Jim Dandy, and paid $51.80 to anybody smart enough or bold enough to bet $2 on him.”
But it wasn’t as though Thunder Rumble was a slouch prior to the Dandy—he was simply out of sight, out of mind. The Richie O’Connell trainee earned three stakes victories in the winter and early spring of his three year old campaign in 1992. However, a virus forced him to the miss the Triple Crown series. Entering the Jim Dandy he had just one start in five months, a failed effort in allowance company.
Despite his Dandy win, Rumble was overlooked again in the Travers, going off as the 7-1 fifth choice. Dixie Brass again went to the lead. Rumble, ridden by Hollywood Herb McCaulley, who also piloted the Dandy win, boldly rushed toward the lead after a slow start. He went at least four wide around the turn and sat just off a brutal pace which saw a 23 and change opening quarter. Rumble went five wide around the far turn. It didn’t matter. He exploded down the stretch and won going away, becoming the first New York-bred to win the Travers in over 125 years. “And Thunder Rumble rambles home.” We’ll let the maestro, Tom Durkin, provide the complete narrative.
Thunder Rumble would win another stakes and compete in the Jockey Club Gold Cup before heading to South Florida for the 1992 Breeders’ Cup Classic. Unfortunately, Thunder Rumble was injured in the race. He would miss his entire four year old campaign. He returned in 1994 at the age of five but lost all three starts in California. He returned to the East Coast and finally got a win in allowance company at Belmont. As O’Connell would say—he was “0 fer 23 months” and needed the win.
Following the allowance win Thunder Rumble returned to Saratoga and stakes company in the $250,000 Saratoga Cup. Ridden by Richard Migliore, the “Saratoga Sensation”, as one AP article referred to him, won going away, completing Thunder Rumble’s improbable comeback from near retirement. Thunder Rumble wasn’t the only one finding redemption in the 1994 Saratoga Cup, the race also marked O’Connell’s return to training after missing months due to a fall at his home.
Fittingly, after his stud career ended, Thunder Rumble was retired to Old Friends’ Farm’s Upstate New York location—just outside the Spa City, where he was a fan favorite. As Migliore would say of Thunder Rumble: “I always read the Black Stallion books when I was little, and Thunder Rumble is Black Stallion to me. He acts like him, and even looks like him.”
Thunder Rumble succumbed to complications from colic this past January. But he will remain a Saratoga icon as the New York-bred who stole the summer of 1992 and defied odds to return to the stakes winning ranks two years later.
