Horse Racing: Dr. Fager, American Horse of the Year 1968
One of the very few American thoroughbred racehorses to give spectacular performances in a single racing season, the Doctor of the industry, Dr. Fager was foaled in 1964. He was the only racehorse in American horse racing to have achieved four titles in
the same year. That was indeed the most important year (1968) of the stallion’s athletic career, as he was also voted as the Horse of the Year on the basis of his brilliant victories. The other three titles included the champion handicap horse, champion sprinter
and co-champion grass horse.
Sired by Rough ‘N Tumble out of Aspidistra, Dr. Fager was a bay coloured colt. He was owned by Tartan Stably and bred by its owner William L. McKnight. The champion thoroughbred was put under the training of the Hall of Fame trainer John Nerud. The legendary
racehorse was named in the honour of Dr. Charles Fager, the Boston brain surgeon who treated John after he was injured when he fell from his pony.
With two places and one show, Dr. Fager won 18 of the 22 career starts that he contended. He was also disqualified from the Jersey Derby, in which he had finished first. During the great thoroughbred stallion’s athletic career, only three other colts managed
to hold him off. These horses were Successor, Horse of the Year Buckpasser and Horse of the Year Damascus.
Nerud, Dr. Fager’s trainer always said that his horse was arrogant, conceited, and headstrong and yet the racehorse was successful in setting a world record at 1 mile on nay surface. He finished the Washington Park Handicap held at the Arlington Park on
the 24th of August 1968 in a time of 1 minute and 32 1/5 seconds carrying 134 pounds. This record remained intact for more than twenty years, and still is unbroken for dirt tracks.
In his first racing season 1966, the remarkable racehorse won the Cowdin Stakes, which is considered to be one of the major wins of his career. Then the next season, he finished the Gotham Stakes (1967), the Arlington Classic (1967) and the Vosburgh Stakes
(1967) in the first place. At the end of this season, his achievements were truly acknowledged by the industry and he was adorned with the American Champion Sprint Horse Award 1967.
Dr. Fager then went on to contend some of the most important races in American horse racing. The first race that he won in the year 1968 was the Suburban Handicap. Moreover, he won the California Stakes (1968), Roseben Handicap (1968) and the United Nations
Handicap (1968). He did however compete in some races in which he could not finish in the first spot. These include the Brooklyn Handicap, Whitney Handicap, Whithers Stakes and the Hawthorne Gold Cup.
During the three years of his amazing career, the great thoroughbred proved himself as the most talented of the era. He then also earned the American Champion Sprint Horse Award 1968, American Co-Champion Male Turf Horse 1968, American Champion Older Male
Horse 1968 and the American Horse of the Year 1968 titles.
The spectacular career of the racehorse has been recorded in some of the most popular magazines of the 20th century including the Champions, The Lives and The Times.
Dr. Fager is ranked sixth in the Blood Horse magazine’s list of the top 100 United States thoroughbred champions of the 20th century. Three years after his retirement, the champion was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame
in Saratoga Springs New York in the year 1971.
The legendary colt died at a premature age of 12 years, after he stood at stud at his owner’s Tartan Farm that is situated near Ocala, Florida. The racehorse died on the 5th of August 1976. Three of Dr. Fager’s offspring were the 1975 American
Champion Two Year Old Filly called Dearly Precious, Tree of Knowledge and L’Alezane. The popular thoroughbred is buried at Tartan Farm.
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