It was a good thing that before the results of the summer races at Saratoga Race Course executives with the Phillip Morris tobacco company decided to put up $250,000 to sponsor a race at Belmont Park.
There are racehorses, and then there are racehorses, the ones who seem born with an innate desire to excel in competition and outrun opponents no matter the distance, conditions, or level of competition.
There can no doubting that the great Miesque was a racehorse in the truest sense.
On the Sunday morning of Oct. 26, 1986, Larry Bramlage was minding his own business in a Chicago hotel as he prepared for a lecture to the American College of Veterinary Surgeons. Bramlage was a Kansas native who received his DVM credentials at Kansas State University and his master’s degree from Ohio State University, where he was on the teaching faculty, as well as an equine veterinary surgeon of growing repute.
A nine-race card awaited fans at Del Mar that Labor Day afternoon, Sept. 4, 1967, as the venue navigated through the second half of its summer meet. Over the course of those contests, a total of 86 horses would engage in competition as thousands of people watched from the grandstand.
But of all the Thoroughbreds who appeared on track, one towered above everybody because of his popularity and the plethora of victories he had collected since debuting in September 1961.
When a jockey wins two races in a single afternoon, he’s enjoyed a successful day. Three wins signifies a banner afternoon and four is bound to generate buzz among racing fans and horseplayers.
But how about seven wins in a single day? Only on the rarest of occasions will a jockey embark on such a memorable win streak. During the first 69 years of racing at Del Mar in California, no jockey managed to win more than six races on a single card.
