At some point the unusual becomes commonplace – indoor plumbing, Presidential tweeting, kale smoothies – and the moment when the whole thing started is rendered obscure. But sometimes, when the unusual acts as if it always belonged, that moment is seared forever in a part of the memory reserved for only the most spectacular snapshots.
So it was on the chilly afternoon of November 29, 1981, as this reporter gazed across the ghostly expanse of Hollywood Park’s infield to the bank of arena lights glaring from atop the grandstand. It was a little past 5 pm, the sun long gone from the horizon, and in short order the dozen 2-year-old Thoroughbreds entered in the first edition of the Hollywood Futurity would be winding their way around the clubhouse turn to the distant saddling paddock near the finish line. The 8½-furlong race would be run through the shadows over a nasty, muddy track that none of the young horses had ever encountered. But, for a total purse of $715,000, richest by far in the history of California racing, their owners were game for a try.
The Hollywood Futurity was the brainchild of track CEO Marjorie Everett, which means no one should have been surprised.
During her reign at Chicago tracks during the late 1960s, Everett cultivated purses for the Arlington-Washington Futurity that approached $400,000, more than twice what classic 3-year-olds were running for in the races of the Triple Crown. Given California’s new fall racing dates in 1981, with racing right up to the day before Christmas Eve, Everett wanted a crown jewel for her meet and got it.
The Hollywood Futurity stood as the West’s most important 2-year-old event right up to its final running before the track was closed, at the end of the 2013 fall meet. The winner that year was Shared Belief, whose victory by nearly six lengths was impressive enough to secure an Eclipse Award.
Since 2014, the Futurity has been run at Los Alamitos under the name of its host and been won every year by a horse from the Bob Baffert stable. Undoubtedly, Baffert will have another crack at it on Saturday (December 19), when the Futurity will be run for the 40th time. Until then, here is a chance to appreciate the previous 39, led by a Top Ten of special significance:
10. 1981 – That first Futurity made national headlines and a spread in Sports Illustrated keyed to the victorious Stalwart, a son of Hoist The Flag trained by Wayne Lukas, who beat the one-eyed Cassaleria by half a length. Aesthetically, the race was a mess. The winner needed 1:47.80 to get the 8½ furlongs over the drying mud and three horses were too exhausted to finish. Stalwart, for all his hyped press, trained for a bit after the Futurity then was retired in January of 1982 with soft tissue damage to both forelegs.
9. 1983 – The Futurity made history once again as the first million-dollar race for 2-year-olds, although the purse was goosed by six supplementary nominations at $40,000 each, making for a total pot of $1,049,725. Three of the gambles paid off when Fali Time, Bold T. Jay, and the filly Life’s Magic ran 1-2-3. Also in the field were the filly Althea, winner of the 1984 G1 Arkansas Derby, and favored Precisionist, the future Hall of Famer who washed out badly on his way to the paddock. Seems he did not like the lights.
8. 1990 – By its tenth running, the Futurity was established as a key race in predicting future success for its winners at the highest levels. Stephan’s Odyssey (1984) won the 1985 G1 Dwyer Stakes. Temperate Sil (1986) won the 1987 G1 Santa Anita Derby. King Glorious (1988) won the 1989 Haskell Invitational. No Futurity winner, however, enjoyed a racing career of more breadth and depth than Best Pal, whose one-length score in the 1990 Futurity (see video above) was a memorable highlight on the gelding’s way 13 Graded wins, $5.6 million in earnings, and a place in the Hall of Fame.
7. 1982 – In her wildest dreams, Everett was hoping that her Futurity would become the ultimate late-season showdown for division championship honors. That pre-Breeders’ Cup wish came true in only the second running, when East Coast star Copelan arrived to butt heads with G2 Del Mar Futurity and G1 Norfolk Stakes winner Roving Boy. Copelan threw in a stinker, while Roving Boy, a son of Olden Times, defeated Desert Wine in a thriller, prompting winning trainer Joe Manzi to reverently proclaim, “The Eclipse Award. The Eclipse Award. He just won the Eclipse Award.”
6. 1989 – Roving Boy did not make the 1983 classics, then he later suffered a fatal injury while winning his comeback. The same tale of what might have been descended upon Grand Canyon, whose 6½-length victory in the 1989 Futurity, clocked in 1:33 for the one-turn mile, promised the moon. At the time, Lukas called the son of Fappiano the best male horse he’d ever trained, and no one argued. But then Grand Canyon was sidelined with what his trainer referred to as a minor knee injury that somehow led to a bout of founder, and the colt was mercifully euthanized in July of 1990.
5. 1997 – It took him seven tries to win his first race. He was life and death to hit the board in New Mexico. Had he been uncoupled from his more fancied stablemate in the Hollywood Futurity he would have been a juicy price. And yet, when the Futurity dust cleared, there was Real Quiet, a son of Quiet American nicknamed The Fish, alone in front by a length over future star Artax (see video below) and on his way to a career that would take him to a championship season, $3.2 million in earnings, and the tantalizing brink of winning the 1998 Triple Crown.
4. 2000 – Real Quiet’s victory marked the first of 12 for Baffert in the Futurity, including the five offered at Los Alamitos. But even the trainer will concede that none of them could top Point Given in terms of sheer ability. After an unlucky loss in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, the son of Thunder Gulch earned his Futurity win by a length over the stubborn Millennium Wind. From there Point Given secured his place in history by winning two legs of the 2001 Triple Crown, the Travers Stakes, Horse of the Year, and eventually a place in the Hall of Fame.
3. 2007 – Before he became Into Mischief – all-world champion stallion and brother to Beholder – he was Into Mischief, a handy maiden winner tossed into the Hollywood Futurity by a trainer named Richard Mandella, who apparently knew what he was doing. The son of Harlan’s Holiday beat 2008 Travers winner Colonel John by 1¼ lengths in a quick 1:40.82 for the Polytrack surface, hitting at odds of 13/1. And, while he raced only three more times over the next 12 months, without the Futurity, Into Mischief might never have gotten a chance to make his impact on the breed.
2. 1985 – Some great Thoroughbreds are appreciated with the head, others with the heart. Then there are those who captivate their fans body and soul. Snow Chief, a near black pocket rocket, was that kind of horse. His 6½-length scorching of the fifth Hollywood Futurity was accomplished against a field that included champion filly Family Style and future Derby winner Ferdinand. But that was only the beginning of a racetrack legend that stretched over three seasons, as Snow Chief parlayed his humble beginnings into a Preakness Stakes title, a 3-year-old championship, and more major wins at age four.
Looking back at a race like the Hollywood – now Los Alamitos – Futurity unearths a pile of forgotten nuggets. A piece of internet video has preserved for posterity the sight of the eminent racing writer Joe Hirsch presenting the trophy to the owners of Snow Chief. I recalled that eventual classic winners Ferdinand, Alysheba, Giacomo, Thunder Gulch, Tanks Prospect, and Gato del Sol had failed to win the Futurity, but I’d forgotten that Preakness winner Oxbow also gave it a try. And I was there when victorious Comma To The Top caused a delay in the start of the race in 2010, but 25 minutes for a new shoe? Yep.
Then there was the Futurity that will forever rank at the top of this very personal list:
1. 1991 – The term ‘futurity’ suggests that the best should be yet to come. If there was a Hollywood Futurity winner who fit the bill better than A.P. Indy, go ahead and try to make the case. The son of Seattle Slew, out of a Secretariat mare, came to the race for Neil Drysdale as an allowance winner with far more pedigree than experience, and he only defeated the Lukas colt Dance Floor by a well-measured neck under Eddie Delahoussaye (see video below).
What followed, however, was a 3-year-old campaign punctuated by brilliant early wins, untimely injury, and an inspiring comeback to take the 1992 Belmont Stakes, Breeders’ Cup Classic, and Horse of the Year.
A.P. Indy went on to sire 156 stakes winners, including Eclipse champions Mineshaft, Rags To Riches, Bernardini, Honor Code, and Tempera. He also did us the favor of living to age 30 before his death last February, a quiet passing that caused the game to pause and call his name.
The photograph at the top of this article, of course, shows A.P. Indy (left) getting the better of Dance Floor in the 1991 Futurity.