I would like to preface this with one of the overall best statements I have EVER heard about the race track. Attributed to Stampede Park historian Doug Abraham it goes: "If you can't find an interesting story at a race track, your vital signs have flat lined and you have no pulse."
There was a great goings on at the 1930 Travers stakes. First lets set the stage. Whichone (a full brother to the great Mother Goose) was far and away the champion two year old of 1929. His Futurity win alone was the FIRST American stakes race to reached 6 figures Injured late in his two year old season and got a late start at three/ His reputation was not tarnished as he esily won the Withers but was beaten by the Fox in the Belmont by three lengths.
Gallant Fox Triple Crown winner of 1930 (had the distinction of being the first colt ever to compete in a classic from the "contraption:'"the starting gate in the Preakness). A darling of the press, he had shipped all over the Midwest and East awaiting the showdown on Saratoga's Travers day August 16, 1930.
It had rained heavily the night before the race, and although sunny at post time, the track was heavy. A huge throng (along with then governor Franklin D. Roosevelt) were in attendance and cars were abandoned as far away as two miles with their occupants hiking in.
The crowd, the newspapers, and the other trainers ASSUMED the contest would be a match race with these two power house entrants so only two other colts came out to meet them: Sun Falcon 30-1 Jim Dandy 100-1. As William P. Robertson states in his
History of Thoroughbred Racing in America, p. 278 "Jim Dandy had come to Saratoga as a two year old and almost exactly a year previously had won the grand Union Hotel Stakes at odds of 50-1 over the same type of footing. Apparently nobody in the vast throng awaiting the Travers with such anticipation remembered that race. THIS race they never forgot."
As the video shows and the description of the contest reviews, both Sonny Workman (Whichone) and Earle Sande (on the Fox) took off as if it was a match race (much akin to Aloma's Ruler and Conquistador Cielo did). These two appeared to NEVER consider any other colts being in the race going wide almost the whole trip. So out of touch were these two that they opened up a big lane on the rail and little old mud loving Jim Dandy sailed on by. Exhausted by their duel, Gallant Fox could only offer token resistance and lost by 8 lengths. It took such a heavy toll on Whichone that he never race again.
It was not only Jim Dandy's only stakes win (at 100/1) but it was his ONLY victory of and kind in 20 starts that season.
Moral to the story: (similar to the advice Apollo Creed's corner gave to him: "He doesn't know its a game he thinks its a damned fight) When you are in a battle don't get too cocky as there are others around who can beat you.I have seen this race scenario repeat often.
I was able to find a video of this race abbreviated as it is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRIrN8AibSY
