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Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS
Foolish Pleasure might be best remembered for being the other horse in the match race against Ruffian where Ruffian broke down - but damn - he was a pretty friggen nice race horse.
After Foolish Pleasure won the KY Derby - his record stood at 11 wins from 12 starts. 9 of those 11 wins coming in Stakes race. He won the Wood Memorial from the 15 post-position in his final Derby prep. He was voted the 2-year-old champion the year prior.
Though he failed to win the Preakness and Belmont and was not a great older horse - he did have a win over the great Forego on his resume and was a multiple Grade 1 winning 4-year-old.
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Foolish Pleasure was a super talented horse through the TC races ( he was second, to Master Derby and Avatar respectively ) in both the Preakness and Belmont. He never returned to that form, even losing to Stonewalk at 1:9 at Aqueduct late in the year, when he returned in the Governor later that year on Labor Day. It's pretty amazing, considering his early accomplishments, that any horse ( in this case the tremendous Wajima ) was able to wrestle 3YO of the Year from him.
His win over Forego, and Lord Rebeau, in the 1976 Suburban is worth looking up on Youtube. It was a great three horse battle, but Foolish Pleasure greatly benefited from being the lone speed, and Forego was forced to join the battle on the backstretch. There is a great photo of that finish on the wall outside our studio on the main floor of the Aqueduct Clubhouse.
Foolish Pleasure's Rodney Dangerfield act is further confirmed by the call from his Derby win, when Chic Anderson mistakenly called Prince Thou Art ( the Darby Dan runner that, as of then, was the only horse to defeat him ) the winner until deep stretch.