The 1970s could be called another Golden Age in racing much like the 1940s, a decade awash in legends. In addition to three Triple Crown winners, that 10-year period was packed with greats like Forego, Ruffian, and Spectacular Bid. Such immortals often eclipsed other high-class performers in an era full of fantastic performances.

Whether they were named for world-class athletes or beloved family members, Chris Evert, Susan’s Girl, and Wajima were all sensational during their years on the racetrack, adding more names to the long list of champions of the 1970s.

Susan’s Girl (1969-1988)

Fred Hooper hit the lottery on his first try. This jack-of-all-trades had paid $10,000 for his first yearling purchase in 1943, a colt he named Hoop, Jr., after his son, and won the war-delayed 1945 Kentucky Derby with that fortuitous purchase. For the next 50 years, as Hooper tried to get back to that historic winner’s circle, he created a legacy of breeding and owning champions from Copelan to Precisionist. One of those was a filly named Susan’s Girl.

Susan’s Girl and Braulio Baeza after 1973 Spinster Stakes. (Keeneland Library)

Hooper’s wife, Laura, owned Quaze, a filly by South American stallion Quibu who finished second in the 1960 Kentucky Oaks. In 1968, Quaze visited Quadrangle, the 1964 Belmont and Travers Stakes winner, and then foaled a bay filly with a prominent blaze and three white socks on March 23, 1969. While Quaze was pregnant with this newest filly, Laura Hooper passed away, leaving Quaze to her son Fred Hooper, Jr. He named the new filly Susan’s Girl after his wife and then sold her to his father for $25,000 plus half of the filly’s first season’s earnings. In the Hooper red and blue silks, Susan’s Girl would become a superstar.

She started her 63-race career on Independence Day 1971 with a fourth-place finish in a maiden special weight at Saratoga. Susan’s Girl broke her maiden two races later and then won her stakes debut in the six-furlong Signature Stakes before stretching out to one mile and 70 yards in the Villager, both at Liberty Bell Park. In between, she scored seconds in the Frizette, Gardenia, and Demoiselle Stakes, and ended her juvenile season with five wins in 13 starts.

At age 3, Susan’s Girl was once again showing the quality her breeding promised. She opened the year on the West Coast, winning three stakes at Santa Anita Park before shipping back east to Louisville and Churchill Downs. She then won the La Troienne on Saturday, April 29 and followed that with a one-length victory in the 1972 Kentucky Oaks a week later, giving Hooper his second win in that marquee race. Her 3-year-old season also featured wins in the Beldame Stakes, Gazelle Handicap, Acorn Stakes, and Cotillion Handicap; Susan’s Girl exited the year with nine wins in 13 starts, enough to earn her the Eclipse Award for champion 3-year-old filly.

Early in her 4-year-old season, she raced twice against open company in stakes at Santa Anita, finishing fifth in both, before reeling off three straight wins in distaff handicaps like the Santa Margarita. She then came back east to win the Susquehanna Handicap, the Delaware Handicap, and the Spinster Stakes. The following season was shortened by a fractured sesamoid, which might have ended any other horse’s career, but Hooper wanted his champion racemare to break the seven-figure mark, so he kept her in training at age 6. That final season, Susan’s Girl was better than ever.

She started the year on the West Coast again, with top-three finishes in the Santa Monica, Santa Maria, and Santa Margarita Handicaps, before shipping to Oaklawn Park for the second running of the Apple Blossom Handicap. Carrying high weight, Susan’s Girl had little trouble with the field of 11 other older fillies and mares and won by 3½ lengths. A trip to Hollywood Park yielded only one win in five starts there before she headed east for her final races. She earned second victories in Delaware Handicap as well as the Beldame and Spinster Stakes along with wins in the Matchmaker Stakes and Long Beach Handicap. She ended her career with $1,251,667 in purse money, becoming the first North American filly or mare to earn seven figures on the racetrack.

For her efforts, Susan’s Girl earned another Eclipse Award for older female, having previously won it in 1973, and then was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame the following year. Satisfied with his best horse to date in his decades as a breeder and owner, Fred Hooper retired his champion mare to his Circle H Farm near Ocala, Fla., where she produced 11 foals, including Copelan, a multiple stakes winner named for Dr. Robert Copelan, the veterinarian who repaired her fractured sesamoid. Her dam, Quaze, also foaled Quaze Quilt, a third Kentucky Oaks winner for Hooper. But the dominant distaffer named for his daughter-in-law remained Hooper’s best horse until a chestnut sprinter named Precisionist came along a decade later.

Chris Evert (1971-2001)

On the surface, the pedigree might not impress, but on the racetrack, the filly Chris Evert was every bit the champion that her human namesake was.

Chris Evert after winning CCA Oaks. (NYRA Photo)

Her dam, Miss Carmie, won one black-type stakes at 2 for her owners Don and Shirley Sucher of Echo Valley Farm, who then retired her after one season. The couple felt that she was more valuable as a broodmare than a racehorse and that assumption proved to be right. Miss Carmie’s sire, T.V. Lark, was a stakes winner on both grass and dirt and her dam, Twice Over, was a product of Calumet Farm’s storied breeding program. Her first cover by Darby Dan Farm’s dual classic winner Chateaugay was the filly Anachronism, who won once in eight starts, so the Suchers opted to send Miss Carmie to a different stallion for her second. Their choice? Swoon’s Son, a consistent stakes winner who raced primarily in the Midwest. His record certainly was appealing – 30 wins in 51 starts – but his $5,000 stud fee made the decision much easier.

On Valentine’s Day 1971, the product of the Suchers’ planning made her debut, a chestnut filly with a wide blaze who soon would gain an iconic name. As a yearling, the couple sold her at the 1972 Keeneland July sale, her price $32,000 for trainer Joe Trovato, buying on behalf of Carl Rosen, owner of the Puritan Fashions Corporation of Boston, Mass. That same year, Rosen signed rising tennis star Chris Evert to endorse a line of tennis clothes. When he asked the young athlete about naming a horse for her, Evert agreed and thus the daughter of Miss Carmie and Swoon’s Son became Chris Evert. She joined Trovato’s barn and soon became his biggest star.

Trovato had played multiple roles in the sport before taking out his license, working as a jockey’s agent as well as owning horses himself. He also had worked as an assistant for Bobby Frankel in the late 1960s before taking out his trainer’s license in 1971. When Chris Evert arrived in his barn in 1973, she quickly won Trovato’s favor with the nascent trainer carefully preparing his future star in her juvenile season. She did not debut until mid-September and quickly racked up two wins before trying stakes company in the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes. After rearing at the start and getting away from the gate in last, Chris Evert rallied to finish second by a half-length. She followed that with two Grade 3 wins in the Golden Rod Stakes and the Demoiselle Stakes, rounding out a season where she started five times in eight weeks.

Trovato waited until May to start Chris Evert’s 3-year-old season in the Grade 3 Comely Stakes at Aqueduct. After finishing third, the daughter of Swoon’s Son tried the Grade 1 Acorn next which was split in two divisions in 1974. The filly sailed to victory in her race by three-quarters of a length and then wheeled back three weeks later in the 1 1/8-mile Mother Goose Stakes. Her win in that race earned her two of the three New York Triple Tiara classics. Chris Evert then stretched out to 1½ miles in the Coaching Club American Oaks and led gate-to-wire to win by 3½ lengths, sealing her Triple Tiara.

One month after that achievement, Rosen matched his filly with the West Coast version of a 3-year-old filly superstar in Miss Musket for a $350,000 winner-take-all purse. On hand that July day at Hollywood Park was her human namesake fresh off a victory at Wimbledon, there to promote Rosen’s tennis clothing line. Chris Evert easily bested Miss Musket, the margin of victory a gaudy 50 lengths. She followed that with a trip to Saratoga for two Grade 1 stakes, including the Alabama, where Quaze Quilt scored an upset by a neck over Chris Evert, and she then faced the boys in the Travers for her last start of the year.

The 1974 edition of the Midsummer Derby included Little Current, the Preakness and Belmont winner, and the gelding Holding Pattern, who had defeated the former in the Monmouth Invitational. Chris Evert broke alertly, running second a quarter of a mile into the 1¼-mile race, and then she took the lead on the backside. Holding Pattern caught up to her on the far turn, but Chris Evert was able to hold him off until the nine-furlong marker. He took over in that last eighth as Little Current mounted a bid, passing Chris Evert in late stretch. The Triple Tiara winner ended up third, 4½ lengths behind Holding Pattern and Little Current. Her record earned Chris Evert the Eclipse Award for champion 3-year-old filly.

Trovato gave the filly a break until late December, when she shortened up in the six-furlong Conniver Stakes at Aqueduct. She won that race with ease and then shipped out to California and Santa Anita to try the La Canada Stakes as a prep race for the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Handicap. Chris Evert won the La Canada but then finished eighth in the Santa Margarita as Tizna upset a field that also included Fred Hooper’s champion filly Susan’s Girl. Six weeks later, Rosen announced that his filly named for the famed tennis star was retiring to broodmare life at Claiborne Farm, with Secretariat tabbed as her possible first cover.

In her nearly 15 years as a broodmare, Chris Evert produced only five fillies, with reproductive issues causing her to go years without a live foal. All five carried on the champion’s genetic influence and became good broodmares, with her first foal, Six Crowns, doing the best of all. Sired by Secretariat, Six Crowns – referring to her sire’s Triple Crown and her dam’s Triple Tiara – was a minor stakes winner for Rosen, but later produced Chief’s Crown, champion 2-year-old male of 1984, and multiple Grade 1 winner Classic Crown.

Wajima (1972-2001)

Wajima beat the odds and gave Americans a preview of what was to come when Japanese industrialist and breeder Zenya Yoshida invested in North America’s racing scene.

By 1971, Bold Ruler was a star sire for Claiborne Farm and Arthur ‘Bull’ Hancock Jr., but his best son, Secretariat, was just a yearling at that point. The son of Nasrullah had led the sire list multiple times, yet the perception of his progeny suggested that he did not produce horses that could go a classic distance. Secretariat would prove that assumption wrong and make the last of Bold Ruler’s crops all the more valuable. Before cancer claimed Bold Ruler in 1971 and Hancock the following year, the star stallion would produce one more crop, with one name rising above the rest: Wajima.

Wajima and trainer Stephen DiMauro (BloodHorse Library)

His dam, Iskra, had already foaled a star in Naskra, who won or placed in multiple stakes like the Everglades and Belmont Stakes plus the Lexington and Suburban Handicaps. Covered by Bold Ruler in 1970, she foaled a bay colt with two white socks on May 8, 1972. A year later and just weeks after Secretariat’s Triple Crown, Iskra’s yearling colt would go through the sales ring at Keeneland’s July Sale, with Irish bloodstock agent Tom Copper opening the bidding at an astounding $500,000. Representing Yoshida among other owners, Lexington bloodstock agent James Scully raised the bidding to $600,000 with no other bidders, hammering down at a record price for a yearling in 1973. That large price tag came with even larger expectations as other high-priced yearlings tended to fizzle on the racetrack.

Scully put together a partnership for his record purchase, East-West Stable, which included Louisiana physician James Welch; an Ohio pharmaceutical and plastic manufacturer named Harold Snyder; and Yoshida, who had started his investment in the sport in the mid-1960s. Yoshida’s Shadai Stallion Station would later bring Sunday Silence to Japan, a decision which helped make his breeding program one of the most dominant in that country. He suggested naming the colt for star sumo wrestler Hiroshi Wajima, who had achieved sumo’s highest status of Yokozuna that year.  

The newly christened Wajima joined trainer Stephen DiMauro’s stable in New York but would have a delayed start to his career because of bucked shins. As a 2-year-old, he started only four times, winning his debut at Belmont Park in late September. He followed that with a second win in an allowance, but his two stakes tries in 1974 included a second in the Laurel Futurity; that race’s winner, L’Enjoleur, would win the 1975 Queen’s Plate and the Prince of Wales Stakes, two-thirds of the Canadian Triple Crown.

Wajima started his 3-year-old season on an inauspicious note, finishing fifth in the Bahamas Stakes at Hialeah Park. He came out of the race with a leg injury, which kept him off the track until mid-June. He therefore missed the 1975 Triple Crown season, but returned to form with two allowance wins at Belmont Park. Wajima then returned to stakes company, with seconds in the Saranac Stakes and the Dwyer Handicap. The Bold Ruler colt was back in the winner’s circle with his win in the Marylander Handicap at Bowie, the first of what would become a torrent of notable stakes wins, raising his stature within the 3-year-old male division.

After his Marylander win, Wajima eked out a neck win in the Grade 1 Monmouth Invitational Handicap before heading to Saratoga and the Travers Stakes. Also intended for the Travers was Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure, setting up a confrontation between the upstart Wajima and the colt who had been the star of the year’s Triple Crown season. Trainer Leroy Jolley scratched Foolish Pleasure after the colt trained poorly leading up to the Midsummer Derby, leaving Wajima to face only four others. The 1¼-mile race was a crowning moment for the son of Bold Ruler, his winning margin 10 lengths. He then met the Derby winner in the Governor Stakes at Belmont Park and won by a head before going on to the Marlboro Cup Invitational less than two weeks later.

The field for the Grade 1 Marlboro Cup included not only Foolish Pleasure but also Belmont Stakes winner Avatar and Forego, 1974 Horse of the Year and a future Hall of Famer. Carrying 119 pounds to Forego’s 129, Wajima battled the older horse down the stretch, unwilling to give an inch as they approached the wire. At the finish, the 3-year-old had beaten Forego by just a head. In the Grade 1 Woodward Stakes, Forego turned the tables on Wajima, winning by 1¾ lengths. A month later, the son of Bold Ruler attempted the two-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup but was second again, a neck behind 5-year-old upset winner Group Plan.

As the colt was syndicated by Spendthrift Farm for $7.2 million, the East-West Stable partners opted to retire Wajima at the end of his 3-year-old season. Together with his $822,816 in purse money, the colt had beaten the odds stacked against him as a record-priced yearling, overcoming the trend of poor returns for such large investments, as he logged nine wins in 14 starts, including four Grade 1 wins. As a stallion, Wajima sired 26 stakes winners, including 1984 Queen’s Plate winner Key to the Moon and multiple stakes winner Excitable Lady. In 1987, Wajima moved to Stone Farm, where he lived out the rest of his days.

These three stars had names inspired by humans, but each were every bit an example of the best that an equine athlete can be. Each gave performances that made them champions in an era stacked with legends, ones who may have overshadowed them, and now we have a chance to celebrate their accomplished careers once again.