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Genuine Risk, 1977-2008
Only two days after Proud Spell very likely clinched this year's filly championship comes the news that Genuine Risk, the champion filly of 1980, died in her Virginia paddock this morning. Genuine Risk won 10 of her 15 career starts, including the Demoiselle and Ruffian Handicap, and never finished worse than third (PDF), but what earned the chestnut mare with the distinctive blaze her fame was being the second filly to win the Kentucky Derby: She remains the only filly to have finished in the money in every Triple Crown race, placing four lengths behind Codex in the Preakness after...
Posted by JC, Aug 18, 2008 02:00 PM
They Come From the South
Thanks to commenter Dylbert for mentioning Canonero II and giving me another excuse to dive into the Sports Illustrated Vault. The 1971 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner's name has been bubbling up lately in relation to mystery Peruvian horse Tomcito, scheduled to start in the Florida Derby at Gulfstream on Saturday. The two are terrific racing stories: Both Kentucky-breds, each was purchased for a modest price at a Keeneland sale and shipped to South America, where both became winners. Canonero, however, arrived in the United States two weeks before the Kentucky Derby, losing four days training time in quarantine,...
Posted by JC, Mar 24, 2008 11:00 AM
SI Opens the Vault
Sports Illustrated has launched an amazing new online feature called SI Vault, which makes available 54 years of articles, photographs, and covers. Check out this incredible trove of horse racing materials. It's all there -- Julie Krone, "The Best Woman Jockey Ever"; Steve Cauthen, "Sportsman of the Year"; Secretariat; Ruffian; Kelso; the bizarre story of a Uruguayan ringer at Belmont; a photo spread on the grandes dames of racing; the nation's No. 1 Race Track Character; the story of why Derby and Preakness winner Majestic Prince skipped the Belmont; the 1959 opening of Aqueduct and the origins of NYRA;...
Posted by JC, Mar 20, 2008 10:45 PM
From the Archives
Tennis player Chris Evert meets her namesake, champion filly Chris Evert, at Hollywood Park, 1975: More from the UCLA library digital collection of 5,746 photos culled from the Los Angeles Times and Daily News archives: Check out pics of grooms striking at Santa Anita; Mary Bacon training at Hollywood Park; and great California jockeys, with and without movie stars....
Posted by JC, Feb 25, 2008 09:00 PM
