Great mares Beholder, Tepin among those saluted at Hall of Fame induction
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Between them, Beholder and Tepin won six Eclipse Award statues. They now have between them two Hall of Fame plaques which were presented to their connections Friday morning.
Beholder and Tepin, this year’s two contemporary inductees selected by a National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame voting panel in the first year of eligibility for both, were the headline attractions of the annual free public induction ceremony, held in Fasig-Tipton’s Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion, down the block from Saratoga Race Course prior to the Friday card. Immediately following the ceremony, staff were standing by to begin turning the ceremony stage, which emcee Tom Durkin presided from, into a sale ring for Fasig-Tipton’s Saratoga yearling sale which begins Monday. Outside, yearlings were already being inspected by buyers perhaps looking for another Tepin, purchased in this very pavilion by owner Robert Masterson a decade ago.
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Beholder’s induction was bittersweet, as neither her owner, B. Wayne Hughes of Spendthrift Farm, nor trainer, Hall of Famer Richard Mandella, were in attendance. Hughes died last August at 87, while Mandella was unable to travel from California due to a bout with COVID-19. Spendthrift president Eric Gustavson, Hughes’s son-in-law, took a long pause to swallow emotions before speaking of Hughes, “without whom none of this would be possible.
“He should be standing here right now instead of me,” Gustavson said. “We take solace in remembering how much Beholder meant to Wayne. … He wasn’t the type to allow his emotions to come along for the ride – until Beholder, that is. She changed him in that regard.”
Gustavson also recognized Mandella’s “masterful horsemanship, patience, and judgment,” and the work of the trainer’s staff, “who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to make her all she was.”
Hughes and Mandella campaigned Beholder to four divisional Eclipse Awards. Along the way, her 11 Grade 1 victories included the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and 2014 and 2016 editions of the Distaff. The latter, by a nose over champion Songbird, made her only the second horse, after Hall of Famer Goldikova, to win three Breeders’ Cup races.
Along with Gustavson, Gary Stevens, Beholder’s regular rider for the latter part of her career, made up the mare’s human family in attendance. Stevens was one of 10 current Hall of Famers at the ceremony, along with Mark Casse, who conditioned 11-time graded stakes winner Tepin throughout her career and to a pair of Eclipse Awards as outstanding turf female of 2015 and 2016.
Tepin earned signature Grade 1/Group 1 victories against males in the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland; the 2016 Queen Anne Stakes at the renowned Royal Ascot meeting; and the Woodbine Mile. She was the first American horse to win the Queen Anne, in which she overcame the hurdles of racing on soft turf on an undulating straight course, and running with no Lasix.
“We called it a quagmire – it was up to her knees,” Masterson recalled of Royal Ascot.
Masterson spoke fondly throughout his acceptance speech of interacting with Tepin’s fans, who chanted her name during trophy presentations – and even after her loss in her 2016 Mile defense.
“When she was leaving to go back to the barn, the grandstand started going ‘Tep-in, Tep-in, Tep-in,” Masterson recalled. “She just had a way of capturing the people.”
In addition to these two contemporary inductees, the Hall of Fame recognized the sport’s history through the class of 2022. The racehorses Hillsdale and Royal Heroine – winner of the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Mile – along with trainer Oscar White, were chosen by the Historic Review Committee. Accepting for those honorees were Pat McDonough, nephew of Hillsdale’s trainer; Historic Review Committee chairman Michael Veitch on behalf of Royal Heroine; and Sally Jeffords, for whose parents White trained exclusively, for the trainer.
Veitch offered perspective on Royal Heroine’s victory in the Breeders’ Cup, which marked “the beginning of a new era” in racing, and also reflected on the importance of the Historic Review process.
“The thing I would like to stress is, we don’t look at it as ‘overlooks,’ ” Veitch said. “We look at it as catching up with rightful candidates.”
Honored this year as Pillars of the Turf were James Cox Brady, with his son Nicholas Brady accepting; Marshall Cassidy, with great-granddaughter Cindy Hlywa accepting; and James Ben Ali Haggin, with great-great-great-grandson Ben Haggin accepting. The influence of all three is apparent today. Brady, former chairman of the New York Racing Association among other prominent roles, oversaw the upgrading of Saratoga Race Course, and Cassidy helped develop the modern starting gate and photo-finish cameras, among other innovations. Meanwhile, the Haggin family remains involved in racing nearly 200 years after the birth of the patriarch.
“The Haggin family remains very committed to racing,” said Ben Haggin, a managing partner of Woodford Racing. “Many of us are still involved. We love Thoroughbred racing, and we’re eager for many generations of Haggins to continue moving this great industry forward.”
Nicholas Brady recalled a direct quote from James Cox Brady in discussing racing’s influence on his life.
“Racing has made my life whole,” the late Brady had said. “The names come back to me over the years, running like a bright red thread through the tapestry of my life.”
The Class of 2022 has now joined the tapestry of racing history enshrined in the Hall of Fame.
◗ The Hall of Fame had previously announced and honored a group of inductees into its Joe Hirsch Media Roll of Honor, with Daily Racing Form national correspondent Jay Privman joining the late turf writers Walter Haight and Jack Mann.