Perret, Royal Delta lead parade of Hall of Fame inductees

Jockey Craig Perret and the mare Royal Delta are the two contemporary inductees voted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, part of a bulky 2019 class of 16 – including horses of yesteryear and Pillars of the Turf – announced Monday by the Hall of Fame.

Perret, who won 4,415 races during his career, had come up short after being on the ballot in several previous years but finally got his long-overdue spot in the Hall of Fame. Royal Delta was on the ballot for the first time, and seemed a slam dunk following a career that included three Eclipse Awards and consecutive victories in the Breeders’ Cup Ladies' Classic, the name of the Distaff during her reign.

Perret and Royal Delta were the only two on the contemporary ballot who received support from at least 50 percent of voters. The other seven finalists were the horses Blind Luck, Gio Ponti, Havre de Grace, and Rags to Riches, and the trainers Mark Casse, Christophe Clement, and David Whiteley.

For the second straight year, voters could choose as many candidates as they deemed worthy without a limit as to how many got in, making it a straight up-or-down vote for all nine finalists. The Hall of Fame does not release vote totals.

The historic review committee, equivalent to an old-timer’s committee, selected the champion racemares My Juliet and Waya. The Pillars of the Turf committee chose to honor 12 individuals -- James E. “Ted” Bassett III, Christopher T. Chenery, Richard L. “Dick” Duchossois, William S. Farish, John Hettinger, James R. Keene, Frank E. “Jimmy” Kilroe, Gladys Mills Phipps, Ogden Phipps, Helen Hay Whitney, Marylou Whitney, and Warren Wright Sr.

All 16 will be inducted Aug. 2 in a ceremony at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., just around the corner from the Hall of Fame.

Perret, 68, won the Eclipse Award for champion jockey in 1990, the year he won the Kentucky Derby on Unbridled. He led all apprentice riders in earnings in 1967, which likely would have won him an Eclipse Award had they existed then; the Eclipse Awards began in 1971. Perret also won the Belmont on Bet Twice, denying Alysheba’s Triple Crown bid, and won four Breeders’ Cup races, four Haskells, and two runnings of the Travers and Queen’s Plate. He retired in 2005.

Royal Delta was the Eclipse Award-winning 3-year-old filly of 2011 and the champion older female in 2012 and 2013. She won the Ladies' Classic in 2011 and 2012, those being two of six Grade 1 victories she recorded in a career that saw her win 12 of 22 starts, with earnings of more than $4.8 million. Bill Mott trained Royal Delta for the Besilu Stables of Benjamin Leon. Royal Delta died in February 2017 from complications after delivering a foal.

My Juliet won the Eclipse Award as champion sprinter in 1976, long before there were separate categories for male and female sprint champs. Her biggest victory against males that year came in the Vosburgh, in which she defeated Kentucky Derby and Belmont winner Bold Forbes. She won 24 of 36 starts, including the Michigan Mile and One Eighth. She was owned for most of her career by George Weasel Jr., and trained for most of her career by Eugene Euster. She died in 2001 at age 29.

Waya began her career in her native France but found her best form in the United States, where she defeated males in the Turf Classic and Man o’ War in 1978 while owned by her breeder, Daniel Wildenstein, and trained by Angel Penna Sr.. She was sold to Peter Brant and George Strawbridge before her 1979 campaign, and transferred to David Whiteley, under whom she won major stakes on turf and dirt en route to the Eclipse Award as champion older female. She won 14 of 29 starts. Waya died in 2001 at age 27.

Bassett, 97, is a trustee emeritus for Keeneland, where he was the president and chairman. He also was the president of the Breeders’ Cup. One of the most respected and decorated people in racing, his numerous awards include the Eclipse Award of Merit and Britain’s Lord Derby Award.

Chenery, the father of Penny Chenery, established the family’s Meadow Stud and was a founder of what became the New York Racing Association. Prior to becoming ill and his daughter taking over during the careers of Secretariat and Riva Ridge, Chenery raced the likes of Cicada, First Landing, and Hill Prince. He died in 1973 at age 86.

Duchossois, 97, used his own money to re-build what is now one of the nation’s most gorgeous racetracks, Arlington Park, following a devastating fire in 1985. The track won a Special Eclipse Award for putting on the Arlington Million less than a month after that fire. Duchossois also won a Special Eclipse Award, the Eclipse Award of Merit, and The Jockey Club’s Gold Medal. Like Bassett, he received the Lord Derby Award. He and Bassett are both decorated veterans of World War II, each receiving the Purple Heart.

Farish, 80, owns Lane’s End Farm and twice has been champion breeder. He also won the Eclipse Award of Merit. He was president of Churchill Downs for nearly a decade. His major runners include homebred Mineshaft and Bee Bee Bee, and was involved in breeding such top-class horses as A.P. Indy, Charismatic, Danzig, Lemon Drop Kid, and Storm Song. He is a trustee of Keeneland, and was vice-chairman of The Jockey Club, chairman of the executive committee of the Breeders’ Cup, and the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom.

Hettinger was a top owner and breeder in New York through his Akindale Farm, but is best known for being at the forefront of the anti-slaughter and horse rescue and retirement movements. He also owned a majority interest in Fasig-Tipton, was a member of The Jockey Club, and won the Eclipse Award of Merit. He died in 2008 at age 84.

Keene raced winners of major races in the U.S. and Europe in the late 1800s and early 1900s, including the Belmont six times and the Ascot Gold Cup. He bred more than a dozen champions, including Colin, Maskette, Peter Pan, and Sysonby. He died in 1913 at age 74.

Kilroe was one of the great racing executives and was instrumental in raising the quality of racing in Southern California during the 1970s after working at tracks in Chicago and New York. At Santa Anita, he was the senior vice-president of racing. The Kilroe Mile is named for him. He won the Eclipse Award of Merit, and was a member of The Jockey Club. He died in 1996 at age 84.

Gladys Mills Phipps was a co-founder of Wheatley Stable, which bred 11 champions, including Bold Ruler and Seabiscuit. Bold Ruler, sire of Secretariat, was the nation’s leading sire seven years in a row (from 1963-69) and again in 1973. Phipps died in 1970 at age 87.

Ogden Phipps, a son of Gladys Mills Phipps, built his own stable into one of the most powerful in the nation, his runners including Hall of Famers Buckpasser, Easy Goer, Heavenly Prize, and Personal Ensign, who was one of his four Breeders’ Cup winners. He won two Eclipse Awards as champion owner and one as champion breeder, and posthumously was voted the Eclipse Award of Merit. He was a founding member of the New York Racing Association, and was chairman of The Jockey Club for 20 years. The Ogden Phipps on Belmont Day is named in his honor. He died in 2002 at age 93.

Helen Hay Whitney raced as Greentree Stable and won major races on the flat and with steeplechasers, including two Kentucky Derbies and one Kentucky Oaks. Greentree’s top runners during her lifetime included Hall of Famers Devil Diver, Twenty Grand, and Jolly Roger. She was the first woman named as the Thoroughbred Club of America’s Honored Guest, in 1938. She died in 1944 at age 69.

Marylou Whitney, 93, remains one of racing’s great philanthropists, owners, breeders, and socialites. Her top runners included Birdstone, winner of the Belmont and Travers, and Kentucky Oaks winner Bird Town. She helped found the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, and has aided the plight of backstretch workers, among numerous charitable causes. She won the Eclipse Award of Merit, and is a member of The Jockey Club.

Wright guided his Calumet Farm to be the dominant force in racing the middle part of the 20th Century. Prior to his death at age 75 in 1950, Calumet under Wright’s leadership swept the Triple Crown with Citation and Whirlaway, won the Derby two other times, led the nation in purse earnings among owners seven times in the 1940s, and led the nation’s breeders in earnings six times in 10 years from 1941 through 1950. He was elected to The Jockey Club, and was a Thoroughbred Club of America Honored Guest.