The high-class sprinter Kona Gold and late trainers Christophe Clement and John Shirreffs have been elected into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame as contemporaries, part of a group of 11 new Hall of Fame members.

Joining Clement, Shirreffs, and Kona Gold in the Hall of Fame's Contemporary Category, are several more Hall of Fame inductees in the Historic Review Category including the racehorses Gulch and Mongo, and the late trainer David A. Whiteley, all chosen by a committee vote. Additionally, in the Pillars of the Turf Category, the late Prince Khalid bin Abdullah (Juddmonte), Dr. Robert Copelan, Seth Hancock, G. Watts Humphrey Jr., and the late Joseph E. Widener received the necessary support from the selection committee for induction.

Kona Gold, Clement, and Shirreffs were chosen on the majority of ballots submitted (50% plus one vote is required for election). A total of 143 voters (92.8%) participated from the 154 eligible to cast ballots. In the Historic Review and Pillars of the Turf categories, 75% approval from the respective committees is required for election.

The 2026 Hall of Fame Class will be enshrined at 10:30 a.m. ET on Friday, Aug. 7, at Fasig-Tipton's Humphrey S. Finney Sales Pavilion in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. 

Kona Gold

Kona Gold won the 2000 Breeders' Cup Sprint. (Anne M. Eberhardt)

A bay gelding bred in Kentucky by Carlos Perez, Kona Gold (Java Gold – Double Sunrise, by Slew o' Gold) won the Eclipse Award for Champion Sprinter in 2000. That year, he set the Churchill Downs track record of 1:07.77 for six furlongs with his win in the Breeders' Cup Sprint. Campaigned by Bruce Headley (who also served as his trainer), Irwin and Andrew Molasky, Michael Singh, et al, Kona Gold raced from 1998 through 2003 with a record of 14-7-2 from 30 starts and earnings of $2,293,384. He set a track record for 5 1/2 furlongs at Santa Anita Park and won a total of 10 graded stakes.

Kona Gold, who was ridden in all 14 of his victories by Hall of Fame jockey Alex Solis, won multiple editions of the Grade 2 Bing Crosby Handicap, Grade 2 Potrero Grande Breeders' Cup Handicap, and Grade 3 El Conejo Handicap.

Andrew Molasky praised the contributions that Headley and Solis made to Kona Gold, whose class and longevity were reflected by five consecutive appearances in the Breeders' Cup Sprint.

"I'm stunned. I'm speechless. I'm thrilled," Molasky said of the Hall of Fame honor.

After his racing days, Kona Gold became a pony for Headley, who couldn't stand the thought of being too far away from Kona Gold, said his daughter, Karen. Besides training Kona Gold, Headley would gallop him on a regular basis during his racing days.

Karen Headley called the election "the best news" after years of Kona Gold being a finalist without securing the necessary votes to join the Hall.

She said her late father would have been proud. "He always knew he was a Hall of Fame horse," she said.

Christophe Clement

Christophe Clement. (Eclipse Sportswire)

Christophe Clement (1965-2025), a native of Paris, France, won 2,576 races with purse earnings of $184,127,449 million (12th all-time) in a career that spanned from 1991 through 2025. He trained three-time Eclipse Award winner Gio Ponti, winner of four straight Grade 1 stakes on the turf in 2009, as well as 2014 Belmont Stakes winner Tonalist, who won consecutive runnings of the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup in 2014 and 2015. Clement won 286 graded stakes. His Grade 1 wins included multiple editions of the Beverly D. Stakes (2001, 2007, 2008), Del Mar Oaks (2007, 2013), Diana Handicap (2003, 2015), Manhattan Handicap (2001, 2009, 2010), Man o' War Stakes (2009, 2010), Coolmore Turf Mile Stakes (2010, 2011), and Sword Dancer Stakes (1999, 2011, 2021, 2022, 2024), which has been renamed the Christophe Clement Turf.

Other Grade 1 winners trained by Clement included Discreet Marq, Far Bridge, Forbidden Apple, Gufo, Mauralanka, Relaxed Gesture, Rutherienne, Voodoo Dancer, and Winchester, among others. Clement won the 2021 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf with Pizza Bianca.

He trained 22 millionaires.

John Shirreffs

John Shirreffs celebrates a Zenyatta victory. (Eclipse Sportswire)

John Shirreffs (1945-2026) was a native of Leavenworth, Kansas, who trained the winners of 596 races, including 113 graded events, with purse earnings of $58,581,916. Although he had a few starters as early as 1978, Shirreffs did not train full-time until 1994. He won the Kentucky Derby in 2005 with 50-1 longshot Giacomo and later became the conditioner of one of racing's all-time greats, Hall of Fame member Zenyatta.

Shirreffs trained the four-time Eclipse Award winning Zenyatta to 19 consecutive victories, including 13 Grade 1 wins, from 2007 through 2010. Named Horse of the Year in 2010 and Champion Older Female each year from 2008 through 2010, Zenyatta's Grade 1 wins included the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic in 2008 and the 2009 Breeders' Cup Classic the following year. In 2009, Shirreffs also won the Ladies' Classic with Life Is Sweet, becoming the first trainer to win both the Ladies' Classic and Classic in the same year.

At the Grade 1 level, Shirreffs won five editions of both the Santa Margarita Handicap (1999, 2003, 2005, 2009, 2010) and Vanity Handicap (1999, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010), three runnings of the Lady's Secret Stakes (2008, 2009, 2010), Santa Anita Derby (2007, 2017, 2020), and Clement L. Hirsch Stakes (2008, 2009, 2010), and two renewals of the American Oaks (2010, 2011), Apple Blossom Handicap (2008, 2010), and Santa Maria Handicap (2000, 2003). Shirreffs trained nine horses that earned more than $1 million also including Baeza, Express Train, Giacomo, Gormley, Hollywood Story, Life Is Sweet, Manistique, Tiago, and Zenyatta.