Pletcher, American Pharoah top list of 2021 Hall of Fame nominees
Todd Pletcher, whose voluminous accomplishments include the record for Eclipse Awards as champion trainer, and American Pharoah, who in 2015 became the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years, are on this year’s ballot for the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility, the Hall of Fame announced Wednesday.
Pletcher and American Pharoah are part of a strong final ballot of 10 that includes eight who appeared on last year’s ballot but came up short of getting in: the horses Blind Luck, Game On Dude, Havre de Grace, Kona Gold, and Rags to Riches, trainers Christophe Clement and Doug O’Neill, and retired jockey Corey Nakatani.
Hall of Fame voters can select as many as they deem worthy of induction, so in theory all 10 could get in this year. Arbitrary rules of the past -- such as requiring each class to induct one trainer and one jockey, or limiting the overall number of inductees per year to four -- were eliminated several years ago. Now, to get in, each candidate must receive support from more than 50 percent of those who cast ballots.
Ballots are scheduled to be mailed in early March, with inductees announced May 5. This year’s inductee class also will include those chosen by the Hall of Fame’s steeplechase committee, which meets every four years. They will join the class of 2020 – trainer Mark Casse and two-time Horse of the Year Wise Dan – for induction ceremonies scheduled Aug. 6 at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., where the Hall of Fame is located. Last year’s ceremony was canceled owing to the coronavirus pandemic, and the Hall cautioned in Wednesday’s announcement that “because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many details relating to the induction ceremony are still to be determined.”
The finalists were chosen by the Hall of Fame’s nominating committee (editor’s note: the author is part of that committee), which considered scores of candidates submitted by racing journalists, others who work in the sport, and fans. To make the final ballot, candidates had to receive support from at least 10 of the 15 committee members.
Pletcher, 53, has been a licensed trainer for 25 years, the requirement for getting on the ballot, and he ticks every box required for the Hall of Fame, making him a slam-dunk to get in. He has been champion trainer seven times, is the all-time leader in purse earnings with more than $400 million, ranks eighth all-time in wins with 5,072, has won the Kentucky Derby twice, both the Belmont and Kentucky Oaks three times, and has won 11 Breeders’ Cup races, fifth-best all-time.
We’re just getting warmed up. Eleven Pletcher trainees have won Eclipse Awards, including Hall of Famer Ashado, who won two championships. He has 16 training titles at Belmont Park and Gulfstream Park, and 14 at Saratoga. His graded stakes wins, nearly 700 strong, include the biggest races across the country, such as the Acorn, Alabama, American Oaks, Arkansas Derby, Beldame, Blue Grass, Champagne, Coaching Club American Oaks, Cigar Mile, Donn, Florida Derby, Frizette, Haskell, Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, Hollywood Gold Cup, Hopeful, Jockey Club Gold Cup, Met Mile, Mother Goose, Ogden Phipps, Personal Ensign, Spinaway, Travers, Vanderbilt, Whitney, and Woodward, most of which he’s won multiple times. He’s also won all three Canadian Triple Crown races, and the Godolphin Mile.
Horses can appear on the ballot five years after retirement, so this is the first year American Pharoah is eligible. As with Pletcher, he is a certainty to get in, as he was a Triple Crown winner, a divisional champion at ages 2 and 3, and a Horse of the Year. A homebred for the Zayat Stables of Ahmed Zayat, American Pharoah won nine times in 11 starts for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, with eight of his victories in Grade 1 races, most notably the Derby, Preakness, Belmont, and Breeders’ Cup Classic. With the exception of his debut, which he lost, he was ridden by Hall of Famer Victor Espinoza.
:: View American Pharoah career PPs
The other eight finalists all have appeared on the ballot previously, so they essentially are being endorsed anew by the nominating committee.
Blind Luck, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2010 when the won she Kentucky Oaks, captured Grade 1 races at ages 2, 3, and 4 after being purchased privately and transferred to Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, who also co-owned her. She won 12 times in 22 starts and earned more than $3.2 million. In addition to the Oaks, her six Grade 1 wins included the Alabama, Hollywood Starlet, Las Virgenes, Oak Leaf, and Vanity.
Game On Dude, a gelding, won eight Grade 1 races and 16 of 34 starts overall while earning just shy of $6.5 million, nearly all of that after being purchased privately and moved to Baffert. He is the only horse to win the Santa Anita Handicap three times, including a stakes record of 1:58.17 for 1 1/4 miles in the 2014 running. In 2013, he won the Santa Anita Handicap, Hollywood Gold Cup, and Del Mar’s Pacific Classic, becoming only the second horse – after Hall of Famer Lava Man – to do so.
:: View Game On Dude career PPs
Havre de Grace was Horse of the Year and champion older female in 2011, the year she scored her three career Grade 1 wins. She won the Apple Blossom and Beldame, and beat males in the Woodward in 2011 when trained by Larry Jones. She was trained earlier in her career by Tony Dutrow. She won nine times in 16 starts and earned more than $2.5 million.
:: View Havre de Grace career PPs
Kona Gold, one of the most brilliant sprinters of any era, set track records at Churchill Downs (six furlongs) and Santa Anita (5 1/2 furlongs) during a career in which he won 14 times from 30 starts, including the 2000 Breeders’ Cup Sprint, one of five consecutive times Kona Gold, a gelding, appeared in that race. He was the champion sprinter of 2000. Kona Gold recorded Beyer Speed Figures of 110 or more 17 times, 10 times was credited with a figure of at least 115, and had a career best of 123. The earner of nearly $2.3 million was trained and co-owned by Bruce Headley.
Rags to Riches is best known for winning the Belmont, as well as the Kentucky Oaks, in 2007, the year in which she was champion 3-year-old filly for Pletcher. She won two other Grade 1 races – the Las Virgenes, when trained by Pletcher’s assistant at the time, Michael McCarthy – and Santa Anita Oaks. Rags to Riches is one of only three fillies to win the Belmont. In her brief career, she won 5 of 7 starts and earned $1.3 million.
:: View Rags to Riches career PPs
Clement, 55, is best known for his success with the likes of Gio Ponti, a three-time Eclipse Award winner whose victories included the Arlington Million, and Tonalist, who won the 2014 Belmont as well as the Cigar Mile and consecutive runnings of the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Clement has won 248 graded stakes, including multiple runnings of some of the most significant grass races in the nation, like the Beverly D., Del Mar Oaks, Diana, Manhattan, Man o’ War, Shadwell Turf Mile, and Sword Dancer. Entering Wednesday’s racing, he had 2,094 career victories. His runners have earned $139 million, placing him 12th all-time.
O’Neill, 52, is a two-time winner of the Derby, with champions I’ll Have Another (who also won the Preakness) and Nyquist, as well as five Breeders’ Cup races, highlights of a career that has seen him win 2,552 races, including 132 graded stakes, and claim multiple training titles at Del Mar, Hollywood Park, and Santa Anita. His runners have earned $138 million, placing him just behind Clement in 13th. He trained Hall of Famer Lava Man, who won the Hollywood Gold Cup three times and twice both the Santa Anita Handicap and Pacific Classic. Five of his horses have won Eclipse Awards. In addition to his dozens of stakes victories in this country, O’Neill owns international victories in the Godolphin Mile and Japan Cup Dirt.
Nakatani, 50, won 3,909 races and his mounts earned $234 million during a 30-year career that saw him win 10 Breeders’ Cup races, making him now one of only 11 jockeys to reach that plateau. He won 341 graded stakes, including two Kentucky Oaks. He won five Grade 1 races aboard Lava Man, and won multiple editions of the Beverly D., Del Mar Derby, Hollywood Derby, Hollywood Gold Cup, Hollywood Starlet, Santa Anita Handicap, Santa Anita Oaks, and Santa Margarita, proving skilled on dirt and turf. Internationally, he won the Golden Shaheen. Nakatani won riding titles at Del Mar, Hollywood Park, and Santa Anita. He ranks second all-time for stakes wins at Del Mar, behind only Hall of Famer Chris McCarron – those third through 10th are all in the Hall of Fame, too -- and eighth all-time in stakes wins at Santa Anita, behind seven who are all in the Hall of Fame.