Oct. 30, 1937: Sir Barton, the first American Triple Crown winner, died at age 21. After an undistinguished career as a sire, Sir Barton was sent to the U.S. Army’s Remount Division in Nebraska, and then to a ranch in Wyoming, where he remained until his death.
Oct. 30, 1988: After the blinkers on his mount, Roaring River, worked loose, jockey Francisco Torres grabbed them and placed them between his teeth to keep his hands free for riding. Roaring River won the race, at Hawthorne, by three lengths.
Oct. 31, 1944: The saddle cloth numbers of the first five race winners at Jamaica corresponded to the number of the race in which each horse started.
Oct. 31, 1964: Seven-year-old Kelso won his fifth consecutive Jockey Club Gold Cup, a record. In each of those races, Kelso was the odds-on favorite.
Oct. 31, 1987: Jockey Chris Antley became the first rider to win nine races in a single day. He rode four winners from six mounts at Aqueduct and five winners from eight tries during The Meadowlands’ evening program.
Oct. 31, 2002: Hall of Fame jockey Julie Krone returned to race riding after a two-year absence. She finished fifth aboard both of her mounts on the day at Santa Anita Park.
Nov. 1, 1944: Racing returned to Hollywood Park after a three-year hiatus, which followed the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Nov. 1, 1938: Before a crowd of 40,000 spectators, Seabiscuit, under jockey George Woolf, defeated odds-on favorite War Admiral in the Pimlico Special, run as a winner-take-all match race with a purse of $15,000.
Nov. 1, 1947: Man o’ War died at Faraway Farm, Lexington, Ky. He lay in state for three days before being ceremoniously buried on Nov. 4.
Nov. 2, 1968: John Nerud-trained Dr. Fager, carrying 139 pounds, won the last race of his career, the seven-furlong Vosburgh Handicap at Aqueduct, by six lengths. Dr. Fager was subsequently named champion handicap horse, champion sprinter, turf champion and Horse of the Year.
Nov. 2, 1985: Trainer D. Wayne Lukas won his first Breeders’ Cup race, the Juvenile Fillies, with Twilight Ridge, whose entrymates Family Style and Arewehavingfunyet finished second and eighth, respectively.
Nov. 2, 1991: Dance Smartly won the Breeders’ Cup Distaff and passed Lady’s Secret as racing’s then all-time leading female Thoroughbred money-earner, with $3,083,456.
Nov. 2, 1991: The Breeders’ Cup Pick 7, a wager linking the seven Breeders’ Cup races, was inaugurated. Wagering on the Pick 7 alone, excluding wagers made on the individual Breeders’ Cup races, was $8,526,985.
Nov. 2, 2001: The National Thoroughbred Racing Association and Breeders’ Cup Limited announced that the Oct. 27 Breeders’ Cup World Thoroughbred Championships, held at Belmont Park, raised approximately $2.5 million for the NTRA Charities _ New York Heroes Fund. In total, more than $5 million was been raised by the international horseracing community for the Heroes Fund, created to aid the families of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Total contributions by the horseracing community to all Sept. 11-related funds exceeded $10 million.
Nov. 3, 1923: Tanforan, in suburban San Francisco, opened for a 25-day, non-betting meet.
Nov. 4, 1927: Bateau was disqualified from her third-place finish in the Pimlico Futurity after her jockey, Earl Sande, used the filly to ram the future Kentucky Derby winner, Reigh Count, into the rail. Sande subsequently was suspended for his action.
Nov. 4, 1998: Michael Rowland became the 88th rider in North America to reach 3,000 career wins when he piloted Bells Gladiator to victory at Thistledown.
Nov. 4, 2000: Total wagering on the 10-race Breeders’ Cup Day program at Churchill Downs was a record $108,598,136.
Nov. 5, 1988: Miesque became the first horse to win two consecutive Breeders’ Cup Championship races when she won the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Churchill Downs.
Nov. 5, 1988: Julie Krone became the first female jockey to compete in the Breeders’ Cup when she rode Darby Shuffle to a second-place finish in the Juvenile Fillies race.
Nov. 5, 1988: Ogden Phipps’ four-year-old filly Personal Ensign concluded her racing career with a 13-for-13 lifetime record when she edged Winning Colors by a nose to win the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Churchill Downs. She was the first American racehorse to retire undefeated in major competition since Colin in 1908.
Nov. 6, 1946: Three fillies from Argentina arrived at Newark Airport, having made a journey of 8,250 miles, the then-longest flight ever for horses.
Nov. 6, 1973: Secretariat was paraded before 33,000 fans at Aqueduct, as his final appearance at a racetrack before retirement to stud at Claiborne Farm.
Nov. 6, 1993: The Breeders’ Cup was simulcast to England for wagering purposes for the first time.
Nov. 6, 1993: Lure became the fourth horse to win consecutive Breeders’ Cup events when he won the Breeders’ Cup Mile. The three other runners with consecutive victories were Miesque, Bayakoa (ARG) and Morley Street (IRE), the latter a two-time winner in the steeplechase division.
Nov. 7, 1998: Skip Away finished sixth to Awesome Again in the Breeders’ Cup Classic and was denied the title of racing’s all-time leading money earner. Skip Away was retired after the race with earnings of $9,616,360, second to Cigar, whose earnings total $9,999,815.
Nov. 7, 1998: Jockey Richard Migliore gained his 3,000th career victory, winning aboard Belle’s Appeal in the second race at Aqueduct.
Nov. 8, 1997: Favorite Trick won the Breeder’s Cup Juvenile, concluding an 8-for-8 two-year-old campaign. Favorite Trick would later be voted 1997 Horse of the Year.
Nov. 8, 2000: The New York Racing Association announced that it would begin using the color-coded saddlecloths adopted by many other racetracks around the country.
Nov. 9, 1957: Wheatley Stable’s Bold Ruler, with Eddie Arcaro aboard, won the Trenton Handicap in a wire-to-wire victory over Gallant Man and Round Table in a three-horse race. Bold Ruler was subsequently named Horse of the Year off this performance.
Nov. 9, 1972: Secretariat worked seven furlongs in 1:25 4-5 at Garden State Park in preparation for the final race of his two-year-old season, the Garden State Stakes on Nov. 18.
Nov. 9, 1988: Laffit Pincay Jr. became the second jockey in history to win 7,000 races when he won the seventh race at Hollywood Park aboard Phone Bid.
Nov. 9, 1998: A world-record-equaling bid of $7 million was made by Jayeff B Stable for the broodmare Korveya at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale. The only other broodmare sold for $7 million was Miss Oceana, who went through the auction ring in 1985.
Nov. 10, 1978: Jockey Patrick Valenzuela won his first career race, aboard Parker Petite, at Sunland Park, New Mexico.
Nov. 10, 1984: The inaugural Breeders’ Cup was run at Hollywood Park. The highlight of the seven Breeders’ Cup races, the Classic, pitted Wild Again, Gate Dancer and Slew o’ Gold, who was the odds-on favorite despite having a well-publicized hoof injury. After a furious drive to the wire, which involved considerable bumping among the three horses, Wild Again prevailed, but Gate Dancer was disqualified from his second-place finish for interference and was placed third, behind Slew o’ Gold.
Nov. 11, 1973: Secretariat was flown to Claiborne Farm to begin his stud career.
Nov. 11, 1978: At age four, 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew won his last race, the Stuyvesant Handicap at Aqueduct Racetrack, by 3 1-4 lengths.
Nov. 12, 1904: Four-year-old Machine Gun carried 159 pounds, believed to be the highest impost in a winning effort on the flat, at Riccarton in New Zealand. Time for the five-furlong race was :58.
Nov. 12, 1999, Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, a driving force behind American racing, died in Mill Neck, N.Y., at age 87.
