Clement, Shirreffs head class of 11 Hall of Fame inductees
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – It figures to be a more emotionally charged ceremony than usual Friday when the late trainers Christophe Clement and John Shirreffs head a class of 11 inductees into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
The ceremony will be held at the Humphrey S. Finney Sales Pavilion, across the street from Saratoga Race Course, beginning at 10:30 a.m. It is open to the public and will be aired live on the museum website at racingmuseum.org. Charlsie Cantey, the retired racing analyst, will emcee the ceremony.
Clement, who died at 59 in May 2025, and Shirreffs, who died at 80 last February, were both on the ballot many times while they were alive but failed to receive the necessary votes for induction. Clement was voted in on the eighth time he was on the ballot.
“It’s the pinnacle of the sport, he would have loved to have had a big party,” said Miguel Clement, Christophe’s son who has taken over the stable. “A lot of people he admires and looks up to greatly are in the Hall of Fame. That he can’t be there to celebrate it all is a travesty. It’s tough for him not to be there for that.”
Christophe Clement, a native of France, won 2,576 races, including 286 graded stakes, and amassed purse earnings of $184.1 million – 12th all-time – during a career that spanned 1991 to 2025. He was based primarily in New York and in Florida during the winter. He trained 22 horses who earned $1 million or more, led by three-time Eclipse Award winner Gio Ponti and Tonalist, the 2014 Belmont Stakes winner who also won consecutive runnings of the Jockey Club Gold Cup.
Shirreffs, who had a few starters in 1978, trained regularly from 1994 through 2025. He won 596 races, including 113 graded stakes, and his horses amassed purse earnings of $58.5 million.
Shirreffs is best known as trainer of the Hall of Famer and 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta through four racing seasons (2007-10) during which she won 19 consecutive races, including 13 Grade 1s. Zenyatta’s only loss came in her career finale, a head defeat to Blame in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Shirreffs won the 2005 Kentucky Derby with Giacomo, one of nine horses he trained to earn more than $1 million. That list included Baeza, who is now with Bill Mott and is running in Saturday’s Grade 1 Whitney Stakes at Saratoga.
“I don’t think horses like Zenyatta would have been Zenyatta without him training her,” said Cherie DeVaux, trainer of Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner Golden Tempo. “I think he would have been the only person who would have been able to develop her like that.”
DeVaux is the stepmother of Reagan Ingordo, the 15-year-old granddaughter of Shirreffs. Ingordo recalled a day when she was in middle school in the Lexington area and her class was learning about the history of Kentucky.
“One of the pages was obviously about the Kentucky Derby and this full page is just of Mike Smith riding Giacomo winning the 2005 Kentucky Derby,” Ingordo said. “I started freaking out. I told everybody in my class, ‘That’s my grandfather’s horse. He trained that horse!’ ”
Clement and Shirreffs were voted in under the Contemporary category, as was the late sprinter Kona Gold, another whose enshrinement came later than many expected.
Kona Gold, appearing on the ballot for a ninth time, was the Eclipse Award-winning sprinter of 2000. That year, he won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, setting what at the time was the Churchill Downs track record for six furlongs (1:07.77). Trained by Bruce Headley, who was also part-owner, Kona Gold had a record of 14-7-2 from 30 starts and earnings of $2.29 million in a career that spanned 1998 to 2003.
The horses Gulch and Mongo, as well as the late trainer David Whiteley, were selected by the Historic Review Committee. The late Prince Khalid bin Abdullah, Dr. Robert Copelan, Seth Hancock, G. Watts Humphrey Jr., and the late Joseph Widener were chosen by the Pillars of the Turf Committee.
Gulch was the Eclipse Award-winning sprinter of 1988. A son of Mr. Prospector, Gulch compiled a record of 13-8-4, including seven Grade 1 stakes victories, from 32 starts and earned $3.1 million. He was campaigned by Peter Brant and trained by LeRoy Jolley and then D. Wayne Lukas.
Mongo, a Virginia-bred son of Royal Charger, had a record of 22-10-4 from 46 starts and earnings of $820,766 in a career that spanned 1961-64. He was voted champion male turf horse in 1963, a year in which he won six stakes, including a defeat of Kelso in the D.C. International.
Whiteley, a native of Easton, Md., who died in 2017, won 454 races and his horses amassed $11.8 million in purses during a career that spanned 1970-95. Whiteley won 45 graded stakes and trained champions Revidere, Waya, and Just a Game. Whiteley won the 1979 Belmont Stakes with Coastal, denying Spectacular Bid the Triple Crown.
Prince Abdullah, a native of Saudi Arabia who died in 2021, established Juddmonte Farms, one of the world’s most accomplished breeding and racing operations. Under Abdullah’s leadership, Juddmonte was voted champion breeder five times (1995, 2001-03, and 2009) and champion owner four times (1992, 2003, 2016-17).
Juddmonte’s horses have won more than 500 stakes worldwide, including 118 Group or Grade 1 events.
Copelan, a native of Cincinnati, is regarded as a pioneer in the field of equine surgery and was one of 11 founding members of the American Association of Equine Practitioners. Copelan, now 100 years old, was among the pioneers of equine joint surgery in the 1960s at his Sunnyside Farm in Paris, Ky. In addition to his veterinary work, Copelan was an adviser and contributed to the emergence of William T. Young’s Overbrook Farms racing and breeding program.
Seth Hancock, a Lexington native, followed in his father and grandfather’s footsteps in running the operations of Claiborne Farm, which he assumed control of in 1972 at age 23 following the death of his father, Bull. In addition to having a strong influence on the breeding of future stallions, Claiborne, under Seth Hancock, won the 1984 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes with Swale.
Humphrey, a native of Cleveland, was born into a family with strong ties to Thoroughbred racing. Humphrey is the grandson of George Humphrey, a prominent owner who served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Humphrey’s stable has traditionally focused on fillies, including Grade 1 winners Centre Court, Clear Mandate, and Personal Diary, as well as multiple graded stakes winners Frivolous, Rey de Cafe, and Communique. Humphrey bred or co-bred classic winners Genuine Risk and Crème Fraiche.
Widener (1871-1943), a Philadelphia native, owned and bred steeplechase immortals Fairmount and Bushranger, both members of the Hall of Fame. He also bred flat champions Polynesian, winner of the 1945 Preakness, as well as Stagehand and Valenciennes.
Widener won the Belmont Stakes with Fair Play, Hurryoff, and Peace Chance. Later, Widener acquired majority control of Belmont Park and became president of the Westchester Racing Association.
In 1929, Widener purchased controlling interest in Hialeah Park, making upgrades and enhancing purses which enticed many of the East Coast’s top outfits to winter at the South Florida racetrack.