Racing Career
At the age of two, Hoop Jr. started in five modest stakes events; he won twice, placed three times (the Bowie Kindergarten Stakes, the Pimlico Nursery Stakes, and the Aberdeen Stakes), and then developed osselets, a condition that afflicts mostly young horses. Hooper had his "ankles fired" (heat applied), then turned him out at his Alabama Farm to save him for the following year's Kentucky Derby. Most considered this ambition overly optimistic. But Hooper, who raced Susan's Girl, Precisionist, and Copelan, said, "He was the best racehorse I ever owned. He could run as far as races are laid out and as fast as anybody."
Trained by Ivan Parke, in his three-year-old debut, Hoop Jr. came in fourth, the only time in his career when more than one rival finished before him. He was beaten by the great filly Gallorette as well. In 1945, the Wood Memorial was run in two divisions. In the first, Gallorette came in second to Jeep. In the second division, Hoop Jr. won, running faster than both Gallorette and Jeep in their division.
In the 1945 Kentucky Derby, Eddie Arcaro rode Hoop Jr. over a muddy track against a field of 15. He took the lead going past the grandstand the first time and kept increasing it until he easily won by six lengths against Pot o' Luck and Darby Dieppe. Fred Hooper had won the Kentucky Derby with his first race horse. He said, "I never thought I'd make it this quick.".
Two weeks later, Hoop, Jr. ran in the Preakness Stakes. Running in a comfortable third place (although for a time he was pinched in along the rail), he then made his move only to suddenly give way. The race was won by Polynesian, although Hoop Jr. managed to come in second with a bowed tendon.
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