Horse Racing: Easy Goer, the American Champion Hall of Fame Thoroughbred
Famous for earning American Champion Two Year Old Colt (1988), Easy Goer was foaled in 1986. The champion is also popularly known for defeating the 1989 American Horse of the Year Sunday Silence by 8 lengths in one of the most significant races run in America,
the Belmont Stakes. This loss cost Sunday Silence the United States Triple Crown. Easy Goer’s pace in this start is also recorded as the second fastest after Secretariat in 1973. The chestnut coloured stallion is ranked #34 in the Blood Horse magazine’s list
of the Top 100 Racehorses of the 20th Century.
Sired by Alydar out of Relaxing, the great racehorse was owned and homebred by Ogden Phipps. Relaxing was the 1981 American Champion Older Female and Horse. The bright chestnut colt was trained by Shug McGaughey, meanwhile his regular jockey was Pat Day.
The massive and long-striding champion is the winner of 14 starts out of his 20 races. Moreover, he has five second place finishes. Easy Goer has three runner up finishes to his arch rival Sunday Silence.
The talented thoroughbred started his athletic career at the age of two. Finishing the Grade I Champagne Stakes in a time of 1 minute and 34 4/5 seconds, Easy Goer became the fourth fastest winner of this event in the history of horseracing. The fastest
three are Vitriolic, Seattle Slew and Devil’s Bag. He also won the Grade I Cowdin Stakes at the age of two. The stallion then went on to contend the Grade I Breeder’s Cup Juvenile, in which he settled in the second place. The race was run on a dirt track.
After this event, Easy Goer earned the Champion Two Year Old Colt 1988 and was thus sent out to the Kentucky Derby as a heavy favourite.
At the age of three, the legendary stallion took over the field at the Swale Stakes. Winning the race in 1 minute and 22 1/5 seconds, Easy Goer set a track record at the Gulfstream Park. He then went on to win several other major races of the 1989 racing
season. These races include the Grade II Gotham Stakes, the Grade I Wood Memorial, the Grade I Woodward Stakes, the Grade I Whitney Handicap, the Grade I Woodward Stakes, the Grade I Travers Stakes and the Grade I Jockey Club Gold Cup. Easy Goer’s remarkable
credentials also include his record of being the only horse in the history to have won the Whitney Handicap, Travers Stakes, Woodward and the Jockey Club Gold Cup in a single racing season.
At the age of four, the great stallion went on to contend the successful Gold Stage Stakes and the Grade I Suburban Handicap. He also participated in the Grade I Metropolitan Mile. This was the first race in which Easy Goer was not the winner or the first
runner up. He lost this race to Horse of The Year Criminal Type and Housebuster (the two time sprint champion). What makes Easy Goer’s athletic career so amazing is the fact that the talented stallion has never been held off for more than 2 ½ lengths in the
20 races that he contended.
Easy Goer’s arch rival in the racing industry was Sunday Silence, and the duo’s rivalry was very famous among the fans of the sport. The first encounter of the two champions was during the 1989 Kentucky Derby. Sunday Silence managed to win the race, while
Easy Goer finished 2 ½ lengths behind him. Sunday Silence repeated the scene of the Kentucky Derby when he won the Breeder’s Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs. Easy Goer again finished second.
The horses then met again to contend the second leg of the Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes. It was a close victory that Sunday Silence got over the champion Easy Goer. Nevertheless, the former thoroughbred did not allow Sunday Silence win the Triple Crown
as he won the third jewel, the Belmont Stakes.
Tags: