Of all the horses that have made their mark at Saratoga over the course of the racetrack’s 150-plus years of horse racing, one horse became synonymous with the historic upstate New York venue more than any other.
The Breeders’ Cup World Championships headed into its fourth year of existence firmly established as a signature event to accompany the springtime Triple Crown, and in 1987 it returned to the track where it was launched in 1984, Hollywood Park in Los Angeles.
On opening day of the 1954 Del Mar meet, a young rider named Bill Shoemaker was less than a month from turning 23 years old. Though still in the early chapter of what would become a storied career, the native Texan found himself the engineer of the most dominant run by any jockey that had ever competed at the seaside track.
In the pantheon of influential names in California racing, Clement L. Hirsch ranks up there with Bing Crosby, Dr. Charles Strub, and Elias “Lucky” Baldwin, owners and breeders whose passion for the sport translated to a lifetime of work on its behalf.
