Racing Career
Stage Door Johnny did not run in the 1¼ mile Kentucky Derby or the 1 mile Preakness Stakes. Trained by future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee John M. Gaver, Sr., he was bred and conditioned for success in the gruelling 1½ mile Belmont Stakes.
In 1968, a great deal of controversy swirled around the Belmont Stakes as Forward Pass had won the first two legs of the U.S. Triple Crown series as a result of the disqualification of Kentucky Derby winner Dancer's Image. The controversy filled the sporting news of every media outlet in North America and was the cover story for Sports Illustrated magazine, which referred to it as the sports story of the year. A victory by Forward Pass in the Belmont Stakes would make him the first Triple Crown winner in twenty years and many fans, experts, and CBS racing commentators felt he would be an illegitimate champion.
Ridden by Heliodoro Gustines, Stage Door Johnny ended the Triple Crown debate when he won the Belmont Stakes in 2:27 1/5 with Forward Pass second, a length and a half back. Stage Door Johnny also won the Saranac Handicap at the end of June, then July's Dwyer Handicap. At a time when three organizations voted on the various annual racing awards, the Thoroughbred Racing Association and Daily Racing Form voted Stage Door Johnny 1968's U.S. Champion 3-Yr-Old-Colt, while Forward Pass topped the poll organized by Turf & Sports Digest magazine.
Read more about this topic: Stage Door Johnny
Famous quotes containing the words racing and/or career:
“Upscale people are fixated with food simply because they are now able to eat so much of it without getting fat, and the reason they don’t get fat is that they maintain a profligate level of calorie expenditure. The very same people whose evenings begin with melted goat’s cheese ... get up at dawn to run, break for a mid-morning aerobics class, and watch the evening news while racing on a stationary bicycle.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“In time your relatives will come to accept the idea that a career is as important to you as your family. Of course, in time the polar ice cap will melt.”
—Barbara Dale (b. 1940)