Easy Goer Revisited

An athletic chestnut boasting a white star on his forehead, Easy Goer was nearly a second coming of his sire, the great Alydar. Not only did he bear a physical resemblance to his sire, but his career would encounter many of the same heartaches. Alydar is known for his rivalry with 1978 Triple Crown winner Affirmed, a champion to which he finished second in all three of the legs of that year’s epic Triple Crown. Easy Goer’s name also carries the legacy of a rivalry: his with Sunday Silence, winner of the 1989 Kentucky Derby (GI) and Preakness Stakes (GI).

Just as Alydar was a homebred for the legendary Calumet Farm, Easy Goer was a homebred for the well-known Ogden Phipps, a stockbroker and tennis player who owned a plethora of superb Thoroughbred racehorses. Placed in the barn of Shug McGaughey, Easy Goer followed in the steps of his sire as a two-year-old, winning the Champagne Stakes (GI). But unlike Alydar, Easy Goer’s campaign earned him the Eclipse Award for Champion Two-Year-Old Male.

Easy Goer was made the early favorite for the Kentucky Derby, but was second in the Run for the Roses over a muddy track behind the West Coast-based Sunday Silence. For Phipps and McGaughey, all their dreams of winning the Derby with the colt – hopes that had accumulated for months – came to an abrupt halt.

Nonetheless, they continued to pursue the rest of the Triple Crown races with Easy Goer. Two weeks later, Easy Goer met up with Sunday Silence yet again, this time in the Preakness Stakes (GI) at Pimlico Race Course in Maryland. Perhaps the race that defined their rivalry, the 1989 Preakness has been heralded as one of the greatest races of all-time.

Seizing an early lead near the end of the backstretch, Easy Goer was two lengths ahead of Sunday Silence as the field entered the far turn. But around the bend, the Derby winner drew even with Easy Goer to the champion juvenile’s outside, edging away from him near the culmination of the curve. But Easy Goer found more at the quarter pole and, rallying along the rail, refused to concede to Sunday Silence. Down the lane, the rivals dueled and although Easy Goer gained a minor lead mid-stretch, Sunday Silence was able to surpass his opponent within the final strides, capturing the race by a narrow margin.

With his victory, Sunday Silence had allowed the dream of a Triple Crown triumph to survive. It had been 11 years since a horse had won the Triple Crown. That horse was none other than Affirmed, Alydar’s arch nemesis that finished just ahead of Easy Goer’s sire in each of the Triple Crown races, leaving Alydar to be the 1978 Triple Crown “runner-up.”

But Easy Goer had not yet attained revenge. The Shug McGaughey trainee proceeded on to the Belmont Stakes (GI), the final and most grueling test of the Triple Crown series. On race day, nearly 65,000 filed into the gates of the expansive New York track with hopes of witnessing Sunday Silence capture the Triple Crown.

Phipps, McGaughey, and Easy Goer saw this as the perfect stage to finally avenge their losses to Sunday Silence. Easy Goer did not get revenge lightly, either. Before the crowd that watched anxiously, hoping for a Triple Crown triumph, Easy Goer transformed the Belmont into a tour de force. Swallowing up Sunday Silence with imposing strides around the far turn, Easy Goer drew off effortlessly, leaving his rival and the remainder of the field 8 lengths behind in the second fastest Belmont ever contested, a time second only to the legendary Secretariat.

Before the Belmont, the 1989 Triple Crown had been laced with disappointment for Phipps and McGaughey. Entering the prestigious three-race series with confidence surrounding their champion colt, losses in the Derby and Preakness were heartbreaking, terminating their anticipation of Easy Goer’s success each time Sunday Silence’s black nose finished ahead of their son of Alydar. But the Belmont provided a day of redemption, a day on which their talented colt could finally display his true brilliance, upsetting Sunday Silence when all eyes were fixed upon the two rivals.

The disappointment of the 1989 Triple Crown has likely since haunted Phipps and McGaughey. Wins in the Derby and Preakness eluded them and until this year’s Run for the Roses, they could only dream of standing in the winner’s enclosure on the first Saturday of May. But now Orb has entered the picture.

Orb
Photo by Brittlan Wall

Owned by Phipps Stable (headed by the son of the late Ogden Phipps, Ogden Mills “Dinny” Phipps) and Phipps’ cousin, Stuart Janney III, Orb presented these owners – as well as McGaughey – with their first Kentucky Derby victory. With his triumph, Orb has allowed the racing world to step back into the “golden age” of the Phipps and Janney families. Along with these names comes the remembrance of horses like the all-time greats Ruffian, Personal Ensign, and, of course, Easy Goer. Orb’s team, in just two words, is old school.

So now Orb approaches the Preakness and the remainder of the Triple Crown with these classic connections along for the ride. But in comparison to Easy Goer, the roles have been reversed. The opponents aligned to challenge Orb will attempt to spoil his Triple Crown bid and he, the Derby winner rather than the defeated Derby favorite, will strive to repel these competitors in an effort to end the Triple Crown drought – a drought that dates back to 35 years ago when Affirmed conquered Alydar – Easy Goer’s sire. This makes it seem as though the course of the Triple Crowns contested since 1978 have come full circle. Is this finally the year that racing will rejoice in the presence of the first Triple Crown victor in decades? It only seems fitting that these connections would be the ones to end the drought.

I'll Have Another Showing Shades of Affirmed

Among the most well-known stretch duels in the history of racing, most racing fans can easily picture the image of Affirmed and Alydar deadlocked at the eighth pole at Belmont Park as the pair of chestnut Thoroughbreds battled down the stretch of the twelve-furlong race, their jockeys striving to guide their mounts to a victory in the Belmont Stakes. For Affirmed, a Triple Crown was on the line. For Alydar, the opportunity of redemption was just ahead.

Affirmed's grave
Photo by Terri Cage

The clash between the two in the Belmont did not deteriorate at the eighth pole, but rather, it continued all the way to the wire, at which it was Affirmed that got his nose ahead, capturing not only a win in the Test of the Champion, but the title of Triple Crown winner. He was only the eleventh horse in history to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes, and since then, not a single horse has achieved the same feat.

But I’ll Have Another looks to change that on Saturday, June 9 when he goes to post in the Belmont Stakes. The Derby and Preakness winner will attempt to become the twelfth Triple Crown victor, rather than the twelfth horse since Affirmed won the Triple Crown to triumph in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes but fall short in the Belmont.

Remarkably, I’ll Have Another possesses many similarities to Affirmed. These parallels, which were briefly discussed in my article “I’ll Have Another Keeps Hopes Alive in Preakness,” do not only exist in the two Thoroughbreds’ racing endeavors, but also in their pedigrees and phenotype.

Their connections begin with the female families from which they descend. Their dam lines do not coincide until you stumble across Gallopade, a gray mare born in 1828 who won the eighteen-furlong Doncaster Cup. Continue to backtrack and you will find that both Affirmed and I’ll Have Another hail from female family twenty-three, which has also yielded the additional Kentucky Derby winners Burgoo King, Kingman, Lil E. Tee, Mine That Bird, Ponder, Tim Tam, Winning Colors, and Zev. This female family has proven to be filled with stamina, producing such stayers as the champion Ardross, a winner of several prestigious races at distances of over two miles in Chanticleer, the Grand National victor Cortolvin, and the great filly Twilight Tear, who won several route races.

Of course, the most obvious relationship between Affirmed and I’ll Have Another to those unfamiliar with the sport of horse racing is their appearance. Like Affirmed, I’ll Have Another is a mahogany-colored chestnut with a fairly small white marking on his face. His similarities to Affirmed in exterior extend even further, however. Comparable to Affirmed, I’ll Have Another is a robust individual with a slender neck that ties in appropriately to a powerful, sloping shoulder. The angle of their strong shoulders allows each Thoroughbred to be very well-balanced individuals, being easily divided into thirds at the girth and flank. Like Affirmed, I’ll Have Another also has a long, stout hip that allows him to propel himself forward, giving him much length to his stride.

One of the most riveting parts of I’ll Have Another’s Triple Crown campaign is his young, charismatic jockey, Mario Gutierrez. This is yet another similarity I’ll Have Another shares with Affirmed, who was ridden by the compelling teenager, Steve Cauthen. Though seven years older than Cauthen was when he captured the Triple Crown aboard Affirmed, Gutierrez has only been race riding for six years. Both riders quickly became successful, each winning riding titles within their first year of riding races. Once they each hit the national headlines, they immediately became immensely successful. For instance, Mario Gutierrez’s first grade one victory came in the Santa Anita Derby, aboard I’ll Have Another no less, and he then followed up that win with his Triple Crown journey.

A few parallels between the horses’ trail to the Triple Crown can be found as well. I’ll Have Another, like Affirmed, made starts in California and New York as a juvenile – though Affirmed also raced in Maryland once as a two-year-old. Both colts contested in the Hopeful Stakes (GI) at the renowned Saratoga Race Course in New York, though their results were completely different. I’ll Have Another struggled over the sloppy track and finished sixth of ten, whereas Affirmed met rival Alydar – who ironically appears in I’ll Have Another’s pedigree – for the third time and prevailed by a half-length. As three-year-olds, both colts prepared for the Triple Crown at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California with the San Gabriel Mountains as a beautiful backdrop. Each Thoroughbred captured California’s premier Kentucky Derby prep, the Santa Anita Derby, despite doing it in very different fashions. Whereas Affirmed set the pace for the majority of the nine-furlong race before drawing off to an eight-length victory, I’ll Have Another sat off the leader prior to running down Creative Cause for a nose win. Yet both colts ended a dry spell for Santa Anita Derby victors to triumph in the Run for the Roses: Affirmed was the first Santa Anita Derby winner to win the Kentucky Derby in nine years, while I’ll Have Another was the first winner of California’s most significant Derby prep to capture the Derby in twenty-three years.

In both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes, both Affirmed and I’ll Have Another faced a fierce rival. For Affirmed, he went up against Alydar, who he had already formed a rivalry with as a result of their six meetings as juveniles. In the Triple Crown, Affirmed bested Alydar, defeating him in the Derby by 1 ½ lengths and in the Preakness by a neck. Astonishingly, these are the same margins by which I’ll Have Another conquered rival Bodemeister in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, respectively. However, unlike, Alydar, Bodemeister will dodge the Belmont, in which Affirmed battled Alydar intensely down the stretch to prevail by a head.

It is eerie how similar I’ll Have Another has proven to be to Affirmed. It is the hope of racing fans worldwide that the son of Flower Alley will continue to be similar to the most recent Triple Crown winner, as that would, of course, provide him with a Triple Crown victory, thus ending the thirty-four-year drought. Similar in appearance and fight, I’ll Have Another has shown the same determination as Affirmed while hailing from the same female family and participating in similar racing endeavors. With any luck, these parallels are not just coincidences, but rather a hint of what is to come on June 9.




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