Jay Hovdey’s popular series continues with a champion filly whose unforgettable Breeders’ Cup success was the culmination of a unique three-year-old campaign
There was a moment during the stretch run of the 1993 Breeders’ Cup Distaff when the unlikely seemed about to come true. Hollywood Wildcat, a rousing winner of four straight important California stakes on turf and dirt against her own age and older, finally had her hands full with Paseana, the defending Distaff champ.
Side by side they battled, heads bobbing in ferocious counterpoint, the brown filly and the bay mare paying tribute to the best of all possible Thoroughbred worlds. Eddie Delahoussaye was grunting and hand-riding Hollywood Wildcat nearest the rail, while Chris McCarron flailed away aboard Paseana, clinging tight to his opponent.
Then, in two blinks of the eye, Delahoussaye’s whip spun to the ground and the wire arrived, with the brown nose just in front of the bay.
The victory of Hollywood Wildcat that day marked the end of a championship campaign that stands in unique contrast to even the most popular three-year-old fillies of the era.
Go For Wand was the tragic heroine of 1990 when she died trying to complete a campaign of near-perfection. Dance Smartly blazed her way through Canadian colts in 1991 before winning her version of the Distaff. And in 1992, it was good enough that Saratoga Dew was the undisputed queen of New York, her only season of competition.
Hollywood Wildcat was the pride and joy of Irving and Marjorie Cowan, best known outside the racing world as the owners of the famous Diplomat Hotel in Hollywood, Florida.
They bred Hollywood Wildcat from a mating of Kris S. to their homebred mare, Miss Wildcatter, a daughter of Mr. Prospector. With the exception of a fourth generation cross to Nashua, the pedigree goes six generations without a repetition.
Kris S. was a son of Roberto, the 1972 Epsom Derby hero whose victory that summer over Brigadier Gerard in the Benson and Hedges Gold Cup rates as one of the all-time greatest confrontations.
Host of stakes winners
Standing at the Darby Dan Farm of owner John Galbreath, Roberto sired a host of stakes winners over 15 seasons, including champion Sunshine Forever, Florida Derby winner Brian’s Time, and Celestial Storm, second in the 1986 St Leger in the UK.
Kris S. was one of Roberto’s lesser stakes winners, but it wasn’t his fault. After winning the restricted Bradbury Stakes at Santa Anita in 1980, he sustained a career-ending injury while finishing fourth in the San Felipe Handicap. After 11 seasons at stud in Florida, Kris S. moved on to Prestonwood Farm in Kentucky, where he built on his growing reputation as a landmark stallion of two champions and five winners of Breeders’ Cup events.
The female family of Hollywood Wildcat predicted nothing of the filly she became. Miss Wildcatter never raced, while her dam, Elizabeth K, was a Hobeau Farm product who managed to win seven of 25 starts but only place in a minor stakes at two. As a broodmare, three of Elizabeth K’s offspring won stakes … in Puerto Rico and South America.
The Cowans had three foals from Miss Wildcatter before sending her to Kris S. in 1989. On Feb. 4, 1990, their daughter was foaled in Ocala, Florida. She made a winning debut in April 1992 for Manny Tortora, who was well on his way to becoming the all-time leading trainer at Calder Race Course in Miami.
The filly’s quality was apparent, and Tortora did not hesitate to take her on the road. In early June they were at Churchill Downs to win the Debutante Stakes, a race of sterling pedigree won in the past by the likes of Bewitch, Airman’s Guide, Furl Sail, and Excitable Lady.
In August, Hollywood Wildcat was in New Jersey, winning the historic Sorority Stakes by four lengths to remain unbeaten in four starts. Her season ended in the Susan’s Girl Stakes back at Calder, in which she sustained a minor leg fracture while losing for the first time.
By the following March, Hollywood Wildcat was back in action with a solid third in a Gulfstream Park allowance race. A second in the subsequent Florida Oaks was encouraging, but then came a disastrous trip to Arkansas for the Fantasy Stakes.
By that time, the reputation of the hotshot two-year-old filly was beginning to fade. Nearly halfway through her three-year-old season, Hollywood Wildcat and her people needed something to restore their eroding confidence, but a third-placed finish back home at Calder in the Azalea Stakes did not help matters.
California transfer
The Cowans decided a change was in order, and since they were beginning to spend summers at Del Mar, they looked to a California stable for their talented filly and came up with Neil Drysdale (right).
The Englishman was fresh from a 1992 season during which he fashioned a Horse of the Year campaign for A.P. Indy, despite a foot problem that kept the colt out of the Kentucky Derby and compromised his chances in other key starts. A.P. Indy was at his best, though, to win the Belmont Stakes and the Breeders’ Cup Classic, before going on to an historic stallion career.
By the time Hollywood Wildcat arrived in his barn, Drysdale was predisposed to look favorably on the family. The trainer worked a couple of minor miracles in 1989 with Prized, a three-year-old son of Kris S. who not only defeated Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Sunday Silence in the Swaps Stakes at Hollywood Park, but also upset the Breeders’ Cup Turf later in the year at Gulfstream Park, in his first start on grass.
“She arrived in good nick, and we were able to go right on with her,” Drysdale said of Hollywood Wildcat. “We did a few things with her – don’t really remember – then when the Hollywood Oaks came up light we decided to give her a try.”
At the very least, Drysdale had enough confidence to grab his go-to jockey, Eddie Delahoussaye (above), for the Oaks ride. They had collaborated already with champion Princess Rooney and Kentucky Oaks winner Bold n’ Determined, as well as A.P. Indy and Prized.
‘I had to take him seriously’
“I’d just won a stakes on a filly for Richard Mandella, and she was heading for the Oaks as well,” Delahoussaye recalled. “When Neil told me I’d want to ride this filly who just came into the barn, I had to take him seriously.”
Going postward with Delahoussaye at 16-1, Hollywood Wildcat reverted to her best form and aced the Hollywood Oaks to win by a length and three-quarters. Fit To Lead, the filly who had just won the Princess Stakes with Delahoussaye, finished second under his replacement, Chris McCarron.
“It doesn’t always work out that way,” the rider said. “But I’m sure glad I did it. The rest was history.” Delahoussaye was attached to Hollywood Wildcat for the rest of her career.
After the Hollywood Oaks, the circuit moved to Del Mar, where Hollywood Wildcat was introduced to the grass in the San Clemente Stakes at one mile. She won easily, then came right back to win the Del Mar Oaks at nine furlongs, also on the turf.
“The Cowans were staying at Del Mar and wanted to see their filly run, and since the Del Mar program for three-year-old fillies is all on the grass, we didn’t have much choice,” Drysdale noted. “But there was no reason I could see that she wouldn’t handle the turf. She was a slight filly, wiry, with an easy way of going.”
Delahoussaye described her stride as “floating”, adding: “She had that stamina, too. She made my job easy.”
Even if that jockey dropped his whip, which happened on the biggest stage of 1993 in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita Park. Late in the race, after a long hard drive, Delahoussaye had the stick in his right hand, still turned down.
“I don’t know why I even uncocked it,” Delahoussaye said with a laugh. “She was going to win anyway.”
Delahoussaye lost his grip and the whip went airborne. It was quite a sight, captured in slow motion for the television audience and replayed with great delight by the NBC crew. Delahoussaye has spent the last three decades in playful self-deprecation, sometimes adding cracks like, “When I looked over and saw it was McCarron, I knew I didn’t need the whip to beat him anyway.”
Lost composure
“I think I lost my composure,” Delahoussaye said. “Normally I didn’t in those situations, but that day I did. Nobody’s perfect. Then I slapped her on the neck, but as hard as I hit her, it didn’t make no difference. She probably thought it was a love tap.”
Not long after the Distaff, Drysdale received a souvenir of the race from a Hollywood Wildcat admirer. “It was a sequence of photos of Delahoussaye’s whip at various stages of its fall,” the trainer said. “You could see it quite clearly, although I’m not sure Eddie appreciated the gesture.”
Despite the exemplary 1993 record of New York-based Sky Beauty, who finished fifth in the Distaff, Hollywood Wildcat was voted champion three-year-old filly in Eclipse Award balloting.
She carried that title into 1994 and did not appear to miss a beat, even though she was now giving away weight in handicaps and competing against older, more seasoned stars like Flawlessly, Exchange, and Skimble.
After a comeback third in the La Canada Stakes, Hollywood Wildcat picked up where she left off on grass to win the Gamely Handicap at Hollywood Park.
Next time out, she was a hard-luck second while giving weight to the classy Corrazona, from the Mandella barn, in the Beverly Hills Handicap. Then came a showdown with champion turf mare Flawlessly in the Ramona Handicap at Del Mar.
‘I rode a bad race’
“I rode a bad race that day,” Delahoussaye said. Flawlessly beat them by a diminishing head.
“I should have won,” he went on. “On the turf, especially at Del Mar, you’ve got to cut the corner if you want a better chance. I don’t know why I did it, but I switched to the outside and it cost me the race. If I stay on the inside, I beat Flawlessly easy. Neil never chewed me out, but he did that day.”
“I did?” Drysdale said. “I really don’t remember. But if I did, I was only hot for a moment, then forgot about it. I’m never one for blaming jocks.”
All was forgiven, if even necessary, after the Lady’s Secret Handicap back on the dirt at Santa Anita. Hollywood Wildcat cruised home by better than two lengths over Exchange, who had just come within a nose of upsetting Paseana at Del Mar. The race appeared to set Hollywood Wildcat on a sharp edge for a defense of her Breeders’ Cup title at Churchill Downs.
Unfortunately, the Distaff that year was turned upside down by One Dreamer, who went wire-to-wire at odds of 47-1 to defeat three-year-old Heavenly Prize and Miss Dominique, at 77-1. Observers were mystified as Hollywood Wildcat finished sixth as the favorite, Exchange finished seventh, and Sky Beauty ran last of the nine scattered behind the surprising winner.
Both Delahoussaye and Drysdale wrote off the race to the track surface. It was a far different Churchill Downs than the one Hollywood Wildcat had mastered as a two-year-old in her second start.
“That was in the era Churchill Downs could be quite difficult,” Drysdale said. “It was very much a horse-for-course kind of track. It could dry out and get very sandy.”
One Dreamer had won a G2 event earlier that year at Churchill Downs with an identical, front-running style.
“She didn’t like that track at all,” Delahoussaye said. “She had a pretty good run until that happened.”
With 11 wins and six placings in 20 starts, no one would argue. On Feb. 4, 1995, Hollywood Wildcat turned five years old. Six days later, she won a minor stakes at Santa Anita by 4½ lengths going seven furlongs. Then she was retired.
As much broodmare as racehorse
“She might have had something coming on, a tendon perhaps,” Drysdale said. “I really don’t recall. Clearly, though, she was meant to be a broodmare as much as a racehorse.”
This would qualify as understatement. Still owned by the Cowans, Hollywood Wildcat produced a dozen foals. Five were stakes winners, led by War Chant, winner of the 2000 Breeders’ Cup Mile at Churchill Downs for Drysdale and the Cowans, and two of her four daughters produced stakes winners, including the Canadian classic winner Danish Dynaformer and Hong Kong Sprint winner Danon Smash.
After a lengthy stay at Lane’s End Farm, Hollywood Wildcat spent the last five years of her life at the Roseglade Farm of Hal Snowden, Jr., in Wilmore, Kentucky.
“What a wonderful mare she was,” Snowden said. “And a great mother. I remember her like it was yesterday – a dark bay or brown mare who looked to be solid black. Just a lovely mare.”
Hollywood Wildcat was euthanized on June 23, 2012, because an inoperable malignancy. She was 22.
“At the time, she was in-foal to Kitten’s Joy,” Snowden added. “It was a sad, sad thing. We buried her here at the farm, in her own isolated area. It’s not marked, but we know she’s there, and that’s what matters.”
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