Riva Ranger (2-for-2) broke down and was euthanized on the track after winning the Graduation Stakes at Del Mar.

Thanks, that sounds like the horse. I wish I could get video on that horse, he was extremely nice.

How'd you figure that out? I think I've mentioned this horse to you a bunch of times over the years but never could figure out his name.

Rollo,

I loved Yonder.. I mean LOVED. There was a booth at Belmont one Stakes Weekend where they would embroider a horse name over a bay, grey, etc. runner, and I made a Yonder hat. Still have it. I saw him win the Remsen at 2 and I'm sure I thought at the time he was going to be the Derby winner. He ended up 5th in the Belmont I think...

He was actually a stiff that was never as good as he might have been as a son of Slew. He's a sire in Korea or the Phillipines or somewhere. His first four broodmare sires were Forli, Round Table, Hail to Reason and Stymie (!).

Another one like Yonder that I was crazy for was the enigmatic Lost Mountain... Saw him win the Haskell but had been crazy about him as a classic horse earlier. He was pretty good.. Won a few other stakes besides the Haskell, but was 15th or so in Strike the Gold's Derby and maybe 8th in Hansel's Belmont.

I hated Sea Hero.. likely because of Bailey, but for whatever reason. I've always felt he was the luckiest 'big race' winner ever. And why there is a statue of him in the Saratoga paddock continues to escape my comprehension. Of all the Travers winners in history, Sea Hero gets a monument in the Spa enclosure? :rolleyes:

I laughed.

That has to be brought up in any discussion of Sea Hero or of the Travers paddock. Always perplexed me too. In that Lost in the Fog movie, Harry Aleo walks by it and goes "Sea Hero.. He wasn't that good."

That is priceless.. As big a fan as I was of Aleo, that just takes my apprciation to a new level. I have to get the guy that made the LITF film on the show this week...

Funny, when I saw there was a Lost in the Fog movie, I said " Lost in the Fog? He wasn't that good. "

Didnt Paul Mellon donate it to the racetrack?

If they had to pay for it themselves.. I doubt it would be there..

Paul Mellon was a great friend to racing. He donated the Sea Hero statue and it was put up, most likely, as a tribute to him. Call me crazy but I think he has earned the right.

Perhaps after another forty years of Carolina Barbecue, with both Steve and Joey working there, Saratoga can replace the Sea Hero statue with a statue of a large weenie commemorating all they have done for the game.

I agree...

Owners like Mellon are sorely missed today... If anything, the statue is a reminder of some of the better days of racing...

This would be better

Are you basing this on his career Beyer Speed Figures, his 10-race win streak to start his career, or the fact that he won the Aristides with a tumor the size of a car battery?

We still have the 1993 Derby poster hanging in our living room. :p

As a tribute to Paul Mellon, the Sea Hero statue is fine. It's the horse I never cared for... And if they are to erect a statue to me and The 'Cue, it would be of a Chicago Italian Beef Sandwich, which I consider my lasting contribution to the culinary offerings at the Spa.

(And as an FYI, Joey spent just a summer and a half working the Carolina mines. His career as a Cue-slinger is over.. While it may have shown flashes of brilliance, it was not a statue-earning tenure.)

why does everyone hate bailey ? i love him

Aside from the Mellon items added above, I think it's because Sea Hero was the first (or at least first in several decades) to complete the Derby - Travers double.

oh, here we go again......the clock starts NOW on the 'i would have liked to own such a pig' line.

how long is it going to take you to catch on?

Was first since Shut Out (1942) but first Derby-Travers winner was Baden Baden (1877). Others included Hindoo, Azra, Twenty Grand, Whirlaway (only TC winner to win Travers), Omar Khayyam...

Of course most famous non-Derby/Travers winner would be Gallant Fox who was stunned in 1930 by.....































Jim Dandy.