Kentucky Derby Preparation
In 1973 at the age of three, Sham won the Santa Catalina Stakes (G2) and took second place in the Wood Memorial Stakes (G1) beating Secretariat, who finished third. Prior to the Santa Anita Derby, he was easily beaten by Linda's Chief in the San Felipe.
On March 31, 1973, in the Santa Anita Derby (GI), California's primary Kentucky Derby prep race, Sham scored a 2 ½ length surprise victory over 1-2 favorite Linda's Chief under jockey Laffit Pincay Jr. and equaling the Santa Anita Derby record for the 11⁄8 miles of 1:47 in front of 49,654 fans, which was set in 1965 by Lucky Debonair. Sham provided Pincay with his third win in the Santa Anita Derby and was greatly helped by his stablemate Nightly Dawn cutting off Linda's Chief and forcing him back, causing him to lose many lengths just after the start.
Read more about this topic: Sham (horse)
Famous quotes containing the words kentucky and/or preparation:
“The head must bow, and the back will have to bend,
Wherever the darkey may go;
A few more days, and the trouble all will end,
In the field where the sugar-canes grow.
A few more days for to tote the weary load,—
No matter, ‘t will never be light;
A few more days till we totter on the road:—
Then my old Kentucky home, good-night!”
—Stephen Collins Foster (1826–1884)
“With memory set smarting like a reopened wound, a man’s past is not simply a dead history, an outworn preparation of the present: it is not a repented error shaken loose from the life: it is a still quivering part of himself, bringing shudders and bitter flavours and the tinglings of a merited shame.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)