Forego

[46zilzal]

The more I study this one, the more in awe I become. Weight carrier, sprinter, router......A truly amazing animal.
http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Track/1298/forego.html

[toetoe]

Hey, he won by nine on Sec's Belmont Day, earlier on the card. He also got tuned by Prove Out, just one race before PO whipped Sec, I guess. Forego took up the mantle of monstrous sophomore after Sec's retirement. :ThmbUp:

[falconridge]

Get a load of that Woodward/Vosburgh/JC Gold Cup sequence on which Forego closed out his 1974 (4yo) campaign: winning at a mile and a half in the Woodward, then cutting back to seven furlongs to give crack Stop the Music 13 pounds and a beating in the Vosburgh, then stretching back out to two miles :faint: in the Cup.

One of the old fellow's most thrilling victories came in the 1976 Marlboro Cup Handicap (witnessed on-track by PA colleague Overlay). I recall Shoemaker, in the post-race interview, admitting that when he rattled the bit to get the big gelding underway at the quarter pole, "I thought we had a slim, slim chance to finish in the money; I knew damn well we weren't going to win." But win they did, at the expense of a game, lightly weighted Honest Pleasure (whose impost was 18 lbs. less than the winner's) in the slop--the one type of footing Forego never relished.

Whenever I see, nowadays, horses top-weighted at 119 lbs in graded races, I lament the passing of an era in which superior critters routinely packed 9 1/2 stone and more. Hail Forego, the last of the great American weight-carriers. :ThmbUp:

[the little guy]

I was at that Marlboro in 1976, and 1975 when Gustines foolishly sent Forego up the fence and got photoed by the mighty Wajima, and it was a great moment. It wasn't a sloppy track, though it may have been listed as muddy, but it wasn't a quagmire. Forego did win the Woodward in 1977 in the slop where one of the all-time great mudders, Cinteelo, finished fourth.

[bigmack]

"137lb package"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWeWHgHivWk

[toetoe]

tlg,

THE greatest slopster/mudder. :jump: I loved Waquoit too, but he failed me in the BC Classic. :(

F'ridge, get yerself over to the Darkside thread and help us get the winner in Nfld's 12th, y'hear? Just 9.5 stones' throw from here (LB 133).

[Tom]

Forego - the most impressive horse not named Secretariat I ever saw. Just an amzing old guy who gave it his all. How many time he was beaten at the top of the stretch to come on and win. :jump:

[CryingForTheHorses]

The more I study this one, the more in awe I become. Weight carrier, sprinter, router......A truly amazing animal.
http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Track/1298/forego.html


He was a monster when it came to running.I loved him.What a great horse he was. :)

[Overlay]

As falconridge said, I'll never forget having had the chance to see him in the '76 Marlboro, and I also got to visit him at the Kentucky Horse Park when I lived in Lexington. Of course he wouldn't have raced nearly as long, or had the chance to show the remarkable durability of his winning form, if he hadn't been a gelding (and maybe he wouldn't have been as good a runner, either). But it's a shame we never got to see if he could have passed some of that consistency, versatility, and weight-carrying ability on through sons and daughters.

[john del riccio]

My all time favorite. ...and I was just a kid. You would see a racing secretary dare assign that kind of weight today or he'd be selling programs the following day.

JOhn

[Cratos]

The more I study this one, the more in awe I become. Weight carrier, sprinter, router......A truly amazing animal.
http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Track/1298/forego.html

What an era in racing, especially in New York when there was Secretariat, Forego, and Ruffian at the top of their careers from 1973-75 and after Secretariat’s early retirement and Ruffian’s unfortunate demise, Forego would carry the load (no pun intended) until his retirement in 1978.

[46zilzal]

video of his Vosburg.
http://www.racingmuseum.org/hall/horse.asp?ID=74

[PaceAdvantage]

Frank Whitely sure was blessed with some serious horse power during the 70s. Forego + Ruffian....

[the little guy]

Frank Whitely sure was blessed with some serious horse power during the 70s. Forego + Ruffian....


Frank Whitely didn't train Forego until 1976 I believe. Sherill Ward had him prior to that.

Whitely also trained Damascus in the 60s.

[ghostyapper]

He's not nearly as talented or versatile but I think better talk now is the forego of this generation.

This old guy is still winning g1's at the age of eight. Remember he was also within a 1/2 length of winning 2 breeders cup turf races.

[46zilzal]

Thank our lucky stars that quality horses like these wind up with good trainers like Barrera, Whittingham. the Burches, Drysdale, Fitzsimmons, Frankel, Max Hirsch, Jerkens, Jolley, Nerud, Woody, Van Berg, Penna, Luro, Mack Miller, Mott, Shug, Zito, Schulhofer, Sid Waters, Veitch and the like.


Who knows how many potential great were ruined before they got to the track by overly aggressive training.

[Cratos]

Frank Whitely sure was blessed with some serious horse power during the 70s. Forego + Ruffian....


You are absolutely right even though he took over from Sherrill Ward when Forego was a 6yo and for Forego’s last 11 starts he went 7-2-2 with him. The Forego-Shoemaker-Whiteley team was one of the best combinations of trainer, jockey, and horse that I have ever seen in racing. Frank Whiteley also trained Tom Rolfe many years earlier.

[falconridge]

The Forego-Shoemaker-Whiteley team was one of the best combinations of trainer, jockey, and horse that I have ever seen in racing. For the first 25 years of his riding career, whenever Bill Shoemaker was asked which was the best horse he'd ever ridden, he never equivocated. He'd answer with a single word, Swaps. Shortly after the 1976 Marlboro Cup, Shoemaker heard the same question, but this time said of Forego, "I don't know when I've ever ridden a better horse."

At the end of his career, Shoemaker had a new answer for the same old question: Spectacular Bid. But he had to have fallen hard for the big Forli gelding for that mount to displace Swaps at the top of Shoe's list. After all, he'd ridden a few pretty good ones between Swaps and Forego: Kelso, Buckpasser, and Damascus (to name but three).