Wise Dan and Game On Dude top Hall of Fame ballot
Wise Dan, a two-time Horse of the Year during a career in which he won consecutive runnings of the Breeders’ Cup Mile, and Game On Dude, one of the most accomplished dirt horses of the past decade who swept California’s major races for older runners, both are on the ballot for the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility.
They were part of a robust final ballot of 11 that was released Monday morning by the Hall of Fame. There are four other horses – Blind Luck, Havre de Grace, Kona Gold, and Rags to Riches, all champions who have made the ballot before but fallen short of induction – as well as trainers Mark Casse, Christophe Clement, Doug O’Neill, and David Whiteley, and one jockey, the recently retired Corey Nakatani. All the male horses on the ballot are geldings who had long, successful careers.
Hall of Fame voters can select as many as they deem worthy of induction, so in theory all 11 could go in. Arbitrary rules of the past -- such as limiting each class to one trainer or one jockey, or limiting the overall number of inductees per year to four -- were eliminated several years ago. To get in, each candidate must receive support from more than 50 percent of those who cast ballots.
The finalists were chosen by the Hall of Fame’s nominating committee (Editor’s note: The author is part of that committee), which sifted through 91 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 11 of the 16 nominating committee members.
This year’s class of inductees will be announced May 6, and also will include those chosen by the Hall of Fame’s historic review and Pillars of the Turf committees. The historic review committee is equivalent to baseball's old-timer’s committee. The Pillars of the Turf recognizes those who contributed to the sport who were not horses, trainers, or jockeys, the only ones who are on the yearly ballot or discussed by the historic review committee. All will be inducted in ceremonies at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion in Saratoga Springs, where the Hall of Fame is located, on Aug. 7.
Wise Dan was Horse of the Year in 2012 and 2013, years in which he also won the Breeders’ Cup Mile and Eclipse Awards as both champion older male and champion male turf horse. He won 23 of 31 starts and earned more than $7.5 million, with victories in 19 graded stakes on dirt, turf, and synthetic. He won 11 Grade 1 races, including two editions of the Shadwell Turf Mile, Maker’s 46 Mile, Woodford Reserve Turf Classic, and Woodbine Mile. Charlie LoPresti trained Wise Dan for owner-breeder Morton Fink.
Game On Dude, a gelding whose high cruising speed made him effective going two turns, won eight Grade 1 races during a career that saw him capture 16 of 34 starts and earn just shy of $6.5 million for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert. He is the only horse to win the Santa Anita Handicap three times, including a stakes record of 1:58.17 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 accomplish that feat.
Blind Luck, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2010 when the won she Kentucky Oaks, won Grade 1 races at ages 2, 3, and 4 after being purchased privately and transferred to Hall of Fame trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. The slight but gritty filly won 12 times in 22 starts and earned more than $3.2 million. In addition to the Kentucky Oaks, her Grade 1 wins included the Oak Leaf, Hollywood Starlet, Las Virgenes, Alabama, and Vanity.
Havre de Grace, a female contemporary of Blind Luck, was Horse of the Year and champion older female in 2011. She won the Apple Blossom and Beldame, and beat males in the Woodward, during her Horse of the Year campaign 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.
Kona Gold, one of the most brilliant sprinters of any era, returns to the ballot after not garnering enough support from the nominating committee in recent years. He 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 Stakes, as well as the Kentucky Oaks, in 2007, the year in which she was champion 3-year-old filly for trainer Todd 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. She won five times in seven starts and earned $1.3 million.
Casse, 59, last year won the Preakness with War of Will and Belmont with Sir Winston, adding to a resume that already included five Breeders’ Cup wins and a victory in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot with Tepin, one of four Eclipse Award winners he has trained. Casse, a two-time winner of the Queen’s Plate, was inducted into the Canadian Racing Hall of Fame in 2016. He has won the Sovereign Award for champion trainer in Canada a record 11 times. He has 2,850 career victories and his runners have made $173.8 million.
Clement, 54, 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 241 graded stakes, including some of the most significant grass races in the nation, like the Beverly D., Diana, Manhattan, Man o’ War, Shadwell Turf Mile, and Sword Dancer. He has 1,990 career victories, and his runners have earned $133 million.
O’Neill, 51, is a two-time winner of the Kentucky Derby, with I’ll Have Another (who also won the Preakness) and Nyquist. He is five-time winner of Breeders’ Cup races, highlights of a career that has seen him win 2,473 races and his runners earn $134 million. He trained the popular Hall of Famer Lava Man, who won the Hollywood Gold Cup three times and twice won 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 Japan Cup Dirt and Godolphin Mile. O’Neill has won multiple training titles at Santa Anita and Del Mar, and led meets at Hollywood Park, too.
Whiteley, who died in 2017 at age 72, was one of the most respected and successful trainers of his era, his victories including the 1979 Belmont with Coastal when denying Spectacular Bid the Triple Crown. He trained Eclipse Award winners Revidere, Just a Game, and Waya, who is a Hall of Famer. He won major Grade 1 races in both California, where he wintered during much of the 1970s, and New York, where he was largely based, in races like the Coaching Club American Oaks, Haskell, Marlboro Cup, and Man o’ War, all while carrying far fewer horses than is the norm in this era. His father, the late Frank Whiteley Jr., was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1978.
Nakatani, 49, won 3,909 races and his mounts earned $234 million during a 30-year career that saw him win 10 Breeders’ Cup races, one of only 10 jockeys to reach that plateau. He won 341 graded stakes, including two runnings of the Kentucky Oaks. He won five Grade 1 races aboard Lava Man, and won multiple runnings of the Santa Anita Handicap, Hollywood Derby, Hollywood Gold Cup, Del Mar Derby, and Beverly D., showing prowess on both dirt and turf. Internationally, he won the Golden Shaheen. Based in Southern California, Nakatani won riding titles at all three major tracks operating at the time – Santa Anita, Del Mar, and Hollywood Park. He ranks second all-time for stakes wins at Del Mar, behind only Chris McCarron, and eighth all-time in stakes wins at Santa Anita; the seven in front of him are all in the Hall of Fame.