At the end of 1996, Alphabet Soup got mmm-mmm good

ARCADIA, Calif. – For a 10-week period in the late summer and early fall of 1996, Alphabet Soup was given a four-race campaign that ended with an upset win in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Woodbine.

Normally, a win in the continent’s biggest race would lead to championship consideration, but 1996 was the year of Cigar who earlier in the year had gained international attention by extending a winning streak to 16 races.

The BC Classic would be Alphabet Soup’s finest moment, and the highlight of a 24-race career.

Alphabet Soup, who was euthanized at the age of 31 on Jan. 28 because of complications from kidney disease, won the seventh stakes of his career in the BC Classic, an improbable result considering some of his performances earlier that year.

Trained by David Hofmans, Alphabet Soup finished 10th of 11 in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap as the 9-2 third choice in March 1996. He was then given a springtime rest.

When Hofmans brought Alphabet Soup back to the races in the second half of the year, he used a gradual succession of distances to have the 5-year-old horse ready for a trip to Woodbine. Hofmans orchestrated a campaign for Alphabet Soup with races at seven, eight, nine, and eventually 10 furlongs.

In the comeback following the layoff, Alphabet Soup won the Grade 3 Pat O’Brien Handicap at seven furlongs at Del Mar on Aug. 17, and then finished second by a neck behind stablemate Dramatic Gold in the Grade 2 Del Mar Breeders’ Cup Handicap at a mile on Sept. 8.

On Oct. 5, Alphabet Soup was the 4-5 favorite in the Grade 2 Goodwood Breeders’ Cup Handicap at 1 1/8 miles at Santa Anita. Ridden by Chris McCarron, Alphabet Soup took the lead in the stretch and won by a length over Savinio, but was disqualified and placed third for causing interference when he drifted to the inside in the stretch.

Hofmans cross-entered Alphabet Soup in the BC Sprint at six furlongs and the BC Classic. Hofmans chose to run him in the BC Classic at 1 1/4 miles, although Alphabet Soup was dismissed as the 19-1 seventh choice. The mighty Cigar, who had his 16-race winning streak end that August, was the 3-5 favorite.

Alphabet Soup was in front of Cigar for most of the race in a field of 13. Ridden by McCarron, Alphabet Soup was fourth for the first six furlongs, and well placed at the end of the backstretch.

McCarron had told Hofmans before the race that he wanted to make an early move to see how Alphabet Soup would respond if challenged.

“He said, ‘If I put his head out in front in the last three-sixteenths, they might not get in front of him,’” the 79-year-old Hofmans recalled last weekend.

Alphabet Soup reached contention with a four-wide move, closely tracked by Cigar to his outside. McCarron got his wish in the final eighth, guiding Alphabet Soup to a narrow lead. Hofmans saw Alphabet Soup hold off Cigar and was confident Alphabet Soup had won the race. But owner Georgia Ridder was not so certain.

Louis Quatorze, winner of the Preakness earlier in the year, had rallied inside of Alphabet Soup, and Ridder wasn’t sure whether Louis Quatorze or Alphabet Soup had won.

“I’m not going to the winner’s circle until I know we’ve won,” Ridder told Hofmans.

The photo finish revealed Alphabet Soup had won by a nose over Louis Quatorze, who was a head in front of Cigar.

“I never saw Louis Quatorze,” Hofmans said. “I was watching Cigar.

“In my mind, I can still see that little gray horse with his ears pinned.”

Despite Alphabet Soup’s victory, it was Cigar who was named champion older horse and Horse of the Year for 1996.

Alphabet Soup gave Ridder and Hofmans their biggest win, although Hofmans had a memorable June of 1997. He won the Belmont Stakes with Touch Gold, and a few weeks later was back at Woodbine winning the Queen’s Plate with Awesome Again, who went on to win the 1998 Breeders’ Cup Classic while trained by Patrick Byrne.

Alphabet Soup started once in 1997, finishing second in the Grade 2 San Antonio Handicap in February, before injury curtailed his career.

Alphabet Soup was sent to stud and lived his final years at the Old Friends retirement farm in Kentucky. For one day in the autumn of 1996, Alphabet Soup was at the top of North American racing.