Horse Racing: Sunday Silence, American Horse of the Year
The American thoroughbred racehorse Sunday Silence was foaled in 1986. Sired by Halo out of Wishing Well, the colt has the honour of being the 1989 American Horse of the Year. The dark bay coloured stallion is ranked #31 in the list of the top 100 Racehorses
of the 20th century by the Blood Horse magazine.
The talented racehorse was owned by H-G-W Partners and bred by the Oak Cliff Thoroughbred Limited. At the end of his spectacular racing career, the colt had earned $4,968,554 under the training of fames trainer Charlie Whittingham.
Sunday Silence started his athletic career in his 2 year old season. He won a maiden special weight and finished second in an allowance meet out of the three races that he contended. At the age of three, Sunday Silence managed to win the San Felipe Stakes
and the Santa Anita Derby. These two victories confirmed his participation in the 1989 Kentucky Derby, the first jewel of the United States Triple Crown.
Sunday Silence had to face strong competition from the American Champion Two Year Old Male Horse Easy Goer in the Kentucky Derby. However, Sunday Silence took over the field under the jockey Pat Valenzuela and won the American Classic race by a distance
of 2 ½ lengths. Easy Goer was held off by Sunday Silence on the muddy track that the thoroughbred was not comfortable on, according to his trainer Shug McGaughey.
Since Easy Goer was a media favourite thoroughbred, he was highly publicised for the second leg of the Triple Crown the Preakness Stakes despite his loss in the Kentucky Derby. Unfortunately Easy Goer once again lost the race to Sunday Silence, under the
jockey Pat Day. The two champion racehorses were then sent out to contend the last leg of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes. This rime Sunday Silence was held off by Easy Goer by a distance of 1 ½ miles. That racing season, the legendary colt was adorned
with the 1989 United States Three Year Old Colt and the United States Horse of the Year titles.
Apart from the Triple Crown races, Sunday Silence also finished the 1989 Super Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic in the first place. In the $3 million Breeders’ Cup Classic event run at Gulfstream Park, Sunday Silence was once again encountered by the champion
thoroughbred Easy Goer. Although Easy Goer was dominating the field throughout the race, Sunday Silence managed to win by a neck.
Out of the nine races contended by Sunday Silence in 1989, the great racehorse won seven of the starts. On the basis of this great achievement, he was then inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in the year 1996.
The year the followed, Sunday Silence went on to win the Californian Stakes and finished the Hollywood Gold Cup in the second place. The racehorse was then laid down with an injured ligament which finally led to the colt’s retirement from the sport. Sunday
Silence has the honour to not have finished any of his 14 career starts in a spot worse than second. At the end of his racing career, he had to his credit list nine first place and five second place finishes.
After retirement, the Horse of the Year thoroughbred was sold to a Japanese breeder named Zenya Yoshida. The fancied racehorse succumbed to a heart attack after he suffered from an infection that caused laminitis in his left leg. He died in August 2002,
and is buried at Shadai Stallion Station.
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