Swaps (horse)

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Swaps

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Sire: Khaled
Grandsire: Hyperion
Dam: Iron Reward
Damsire: Beau Pere
Sex: Stallion
Foaled: 1952
Country: USA
Colour: Chestnut
Breeder: Rex C. Ellsworth
Owner: Rex C. Ellsworth
John Galbreath (at Stud)
Trainer: Mesh Tenney
Record: 25:19-2-2
Earnings: $848,900
Major Racing Wins & Honours & Awards
Major Racing Wins
San Vicente Stakes (1955)
Santa Anita Derby (1955)
Kentucky Derby (1955)
Californian Stakes (1955)
American Derby (1955)
American Handicap (1956)
Hollywood Gold Cup (1956)
Washington Park Handicap (1956)
Racing Awards
United States Horse of the Year (1956)
Timeform rating: 138
Honours
United States Racing Hall of Fame (1966)
#20 - Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century
Life-size statue at Hollywood Park
Interred - Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs

Infobox last updated on: October 5, 2006.

Swaps, a California bred American thoroughbred racehorse born on the 1st of March, 1952, was the son of Khaled, and goes back to the immortal Man O' War, via his dam, Iron Reward, through the Triple Crown winner, War Admiral. In the list of the top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century by Blood-Horse magazine, Swaps ranks 20th. In articles and books on the subject, there are those who strongly believe that rank is too low.

Contents

[edit] West comes East

Once upon a time, the breeding of quality race horses in California was not taken very seriously. If a horse wasn't born and bred in Kentucky, or at least Virginia, that horse was from the "wrong coast," therefore bound to be second-rate.

Then along came Swaps.

Trained by Mesh Tenney (a man Easterners scornfully called "raw" and "basic", and yet was rightfully inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1991), bred and owned by the once cowhand Rex Ellsworth, the two-year-old Swaps was a good horse, but nothing to pin high hopes on. Yet the chestnut colt easily won his first 1955 start, the San Vicente Stakes —a good sign of things to come. But the San Vincente was raced over deep mud...and muddy water was forced into the sole of the three-year-old's thin right front hoof. It seemed a small infection, was treated, and off raced Swaps.

He traveled east by rail in May of 1955 to enter and win the Kentucky Derby under his jockey, Willie Shoemaker, beating the heavily favored east coast star, Belair's Nashua under Eddie Arcaro.

As a three-year-old, Swaps was brilliant. He broke records all over the country at various distances, on turf and on dirt, and often under heavy weight. (In the end, he broke or equaled six different track records.) He lost only one race out of the nine he ran that year, and that was a match race at Washington Park against Nashua, the horse he'd beaten in the Kentucky Derby The day before that race, he worked out on a track wet with a hard rain and re-injured his foot. Tenney and Ellsworth decided to risk it anyway. Swaps ran badly. Nashua was voted U.S. Horse of the Year honors. Swaps did not race for the rest of the year as his foot healed again.

As a four year old, he was a monster of racing talent. Even though his foot bothered him from time to time, there were enough times it made no difference at all...and Swaps raced everyone else into the ground. At the age of four he was Horse of the Year. In 1956 while Europe considered Ribot the best horse in the world, in the U.S., Swaps was first in American hearts.

William H.P. Robertson wrote in his "History of Thoroughbred Racing in America" that Swaps' summer of 1956 was, "The most amazing exhibition of speed in history."

[edit] Racing Highlights

at 3:

  • 1st - San Vicente Stakes
  • 1st - Santa Anita Derby
  • 1st - Kentucky Derby (front-running effort with a time of 2:01 4/5, 2/5 off the track record;
  • 1st - Will Rogers Stakes (by 12 lengths; first race in which Swaps was the betting favorite; favored in all subsequent races)
  • 1st - Californian Stakes (new world record for 8 1/2 furlongs with time of 1:40 2/5, "almost casually")
  • 1st - Westerner Stakes (front-running effort, "drew out at will" in the stretch to open a 10-length lead, won by 6 lengths after being eased at odds of 1-20; win betting only for a five-horse field)
  • 1st - American Derby on turf (front-running effort "under restraint"; new course record, equalled American record; win and place betting only for a six-horse field)
  • 2nd - Match race with Nashua

at 4:

  • 1st - LA County Fair Handicap (came from behind and drew away "under wraps")
  • 1st - Broward Handicap (new world record for 1 mile 70 yd with time of 1:39 3/5, carrying 130 lb., conceding at least 15 pounds to all rivals; had "mouth open" due to snug hold early and was eased late)
  • 1st - Argonaut (new world record for 1 mile with time of 1:33 1/5, replacing former record by Citation)
  • 1st - Inglewood (new World record for 8 1/2 furlongs with time of 1:39 flat, carrying 130 lb.; mile split was 1:32 3/5, 3/5 faster than his own world record)
  • 1st - American Handicap (equalled Noor's world record of 1:46 4/5 for 1 1/8 miles, carrying 130 lb.; conceded 19 lb. to runner-up Mister Gus; win betting only for a five-horse field)
  • 1st - Hollywood Gold Cup Stakes (new track record of 1:58 3/5 for 1 1/4 miles, lowering previous mark by a full second, carrying 130 lb.; win betting only despite a seven-horse field)
  • 1st - Sunset Handicap (new track and world record for 1 5/8 miles with time of 2:38 1/5, lowering previous track record by 2 2/5 seconds, carrying 130 lb.; front-running effort "under stout restraint, eased in the last sixteenth of a mile)
  • 1st - Washington Park Handicap (new track record of 1:33 2/5 for a mile carrying 130 lb.; six furlong split was 1:07 4/5, 2 full seconds faster than the track record)


Award winning journalist Morton Cathro wrote: "The ease with which he set those world records, going to the front and just saying goodbye, just more or less humbling his opponents—all of this despite fighting a recurring foot infection that never really went away entirely...look at the charts—in many of his races where he set world records, he was eased up. He was just so, so spectacular and so dominating."

[edit] The End of a Career

In October, training for the Washington, D.C. International at Laurel Park, he fractured his leg in two places in his left rear cannon bone, then a week later banged his leg in his stall, breaking his cast, and extending the fractures into his pastern joint. Unable to bear weight on his hind quarters, by this point, Swaps was dicing with death. Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons, the trainer of Nashua, sent him a special sling from Belmont. He hung in it for weeks needing round the clock attention. As a patient he was very like Barbaro is today and the sire of Kelso, Your Host, was as well: calm, patient, intelligent. His attending veterinarian at Garden State Park, William Miller, said, "If he makes one false move, he's done." In November of 1956, he beat the odds and jogged away from his cast and sling.

He was voted the U.S. Horse of the Year for 1956, and retired with career earnings of $848,900.

[edit] At Stud

Swaps stood his first season at Rex Ellsworth's farm, but then moved east to stand at John Galbreath's Darby Dan Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. His last five seasons were at Spendthrift Farm standing next to his old rival, Nashua.

Swaps's son Chateaugay won the 1963 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes. But it was the daughter he produced that proved the pinnacle of his success as a sire. He was father to a filly New Yorkers called the "Queen of Queens": Affectionately (out of the great racing mare, Searching). Affectionately is ranked no. 81 in The Blood-Horse magazine list of the top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century.

Swaps was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, New York in 1966. In November of 1972, he was humanely put to sleep at the age of 20.

(See Blood-Horse magazine's June 10th, 2006 issue for a long article on Swaps racing career)

[edit] References

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