Gallant Fox - Racing Career

Racing Career

In 1929, Gallant Fox won twice, taking the Flash Stakes and the Cowdin Stakes, but in his biggest test he finished third to Harry Payne Whitney's Whichone in the Belmont Futurity Stakes.

Despite showing unremarkable form as a two-year-old, Gallant Fox was regarded as a major contender for 1930's major three-year-old races and confirmed his status with a win in the Wood Memorial Stakes, beating Crack Brigade by four lengths at Jamaica Racetrack in April.

In May Gallant Fox started favourite for the Preakness Stakes, then the first of the "Triple Crown" races. Ridden by Earl Sande, he took the lead early in the straight and held the late challenge of Crack Brigade by three quarters of a length. The win was enthusiastically received with the popular Sande smiling and raising his whip to the crowd. The Kentucky Derby two weeks later, attracted a crowd of 50,000 despite heavy rain at Louisville and Gallant Fox started favourite. He broke slowly but took the lead on the backstretch from the filly Alcibiades before winning comfortably by two lengths from Gallant Knight, completing the course in 2:07.6 on a muddy track. Sande was winning the race for a record third time following wins on Zev and Flying Ebony. By this time, Gallant Fox was becoming known as "the red-headed-horse" because of the bright red hood he wore in his races. At Belmont Park three weeks later, Gallant Fox won the Belmont Stakes easily from Whichone who had missed the Derby but won the Withers Stakes and had been favoured to win by many "experts". Before the end of June he added a win in the Dwyer Stakes at odds of 1/10, although the lack of effective opposition (Whichone missed the race through injury) made the victory a "hollow" one. By July, Gallant Fox was being described as a "super horse" and at least 50,000 were in attendance in Chicago when he won the Arlington Classic by a neck from Gallant Knight.

Gallant Fox and Whichone met again in August in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga, but in a huge upset, they finished second and third to the 100/1 outsider, Jim Dandy, who appeared ideally suited by the muddy track and won easily by three lengths. Fitzsimmons blamed the state of the ground for the colt's defeat and claimed that he had only run on the insistence of his owner. In the Lawrence Realization Stakes at Belmont Park in September, Gallant Fox, by now the generally acknowledged champion of the year, defeated Questionnaire by a nose. His win took his earnings to $317,865, surpassing the world record held since 1923 by Zev. By the end of a season he had increased his earnings to $328,165, although the record lasted only a year before it was beaten by Sun Beau.

In October, after wins against older horses in the Saratoga Cup and the Jockey Club Gold Cup, it was announced that Gallant Fox would be retired to stud. At the end of the year, Gallant Fox was described as "easily the outstanding Thoroughbred" of 1930, although there was no formal "Horse of the Year" award.