The Hawthorne Derby is an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually since 1965 at Hawthorne Race Course in Stickney, Illinois near Chicago . Raced in October, it is open to three-year-old horses. In 2024, it was contested for a purse of $ 150,000 over a distance of 1 + 1 ⁄ 8 miles on turf .
15-593: Inaugurated as the Hawthorne Diamond Jubilee in 1965 (through 1968), it was run on dirt until 1984 when it was switched to the turf course. The John R. Gaines colt Bold Bidder won the inaugural race then the following year returned to the Hawthorne Race Course to win the 1966 Hawthorne Gold Cup . From inception, the Hawthorne Derby has been run at various distances. Since 1989 it has been set at
30-403: A few times". The result was that Secretariat became second, rather than first, in the aggregated final list. Blood-Horse promotes its top two selections as a ranking that "will generate debate for years to come". After the results became available, panel-member William Nack criticized the voting process as "skewered" because one of the seven voters had ranked Secretariat 14th, thus costing him
45-555: A mile and one eighth. In 1979 the race was run at the now closed Sportsman's Park . The race was not run in 2014, 2016, 2018, 2019, & 2020. Time records: (At current distance of 1 + 1 ⁄ 8 miles turf) (At the prior distance of 1 + 1 ⁄ 16 miles dirt) Bold Bidder Bold Bidder (1962–1982) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse . Bred by the Wheatley Stable partnership of Gladys Mills Phipps and her brother, Ogden L. Mills , Bold Bidder
60-645: A rational exercise and of the maddening arbitrariness of its outcome." A total of 192 horses received at least one vote for inclusion in the list. Sports Illustrated had conducted a 1992 poll of a panel of seven experts: ( Joe Hirsch , executive columnist, Daily Racing Form ; Woody Stephens , thoroughbred trainer for more than 50 years; Jim McKay , broadcaster, ABC Sports ; Jim Bolus , secretary-treasurer, National Turf Writers Association ; Frank E. Kilroe, retired California racing official; Tommy Trotter, Arlington International Racecourse steward; and William F. Reed, turf writer for 28 years) with Man o' War voted
75-486: The Associated Press . Hammonds revealed that Secretariat and Man o' War had both received three of the seven first-place votes. ( Citation received the other first-place vote.) Man o' War was listed in first, second or third place on all seven ballots; six of the voters gave the same placement to Secretariat. However, Hammonds noted, a single voter left Secretariat out of that person's top 10 "because he got beat
90-696: The Kentucky Derby . Instead, his Wheatley stablemate Bold Lad , the 1964 American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt and 1965 Derby Trial Stakes winner, was entered. Sent off as the betting favorite, Bold Lad finished tenth in an eleven-horse field. Neither horse ran in the Preakness Stakes , but Bold Bidder finished eighth in the Belmont Stakes . He was purchased by August Paul and trainer Randy Sechrest in 1965 and then sold to Paul Falkenstein who leased him for five years to John R. Gaines . Bold Bidder won
105-731: The 1966 Hawthorne Gold Cup , the Monmouth and Washington Park Handicaps , and the 1966 Strub Stakes at Santa Anita Park . In the Strub, he set a track record that stood until 1979 when his son, Spectacular Bid , broke it. Bold Bidder's performances saw him named 1966 Champion Handicap Male Horse by the Thoroughbred Racing Association with the three-year-old Buckpasser taking the rival Daily Racing Form award. Retired to stud at Gainesway Farm in Lexington, Kentucky , Bold Bidder
120-555: The 1980 American Horse of the Year and ranked number 10 in the Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century . Bold Bidder also sired champions Highest Trump (Ireland), Rash Move ( Sovereign Award, Canada ), Caspian (England), and Parioli (France). He was the sire of Consultants Bid, who sired U.S. Racing Hall of Fame filly Bayakoa . From his daughters, Bold Bidder
135-476: The 20th Century Around 1998, The Blood-Horse magazine polled a seven-person panel of distinguished horse racing people: Keeneland racing secretary Howard Battle, Maryland Jockey Club vice president Lenny Hale, Daily Racing Form columnist Jay Hovdey , Sports Illustrated senior writer William Nack , California senior steward Pete Pedersen, Louisville Courier-Journal racing writer Jennie Rees and Gulfstream Park steward Tommy Trotter. Each of
150-455: The experts compiled a list of what they considered to be the top 100 Thoroughbred racehorses of the 20th century, which was then combined into a master list first published in a special issue of the magazine in February 1999. The controversial list, which named Man O'War number one and Secretariat number two, was expanded into a 1999 book which included complete biographies of the horses. All
165-522: The horses on the list had raced in the United States except Phar Lap , and a few others such as Northern Dancer , Dahlia and Miesque began their careers in another country. Ruffian was the top-ranked filly. The small body of voters meant that any individual ballot had the potential to disproportionately influence the final tally, which ended up coming to pass. At the time of the list's unveiling, Blood-Horse managing editor Evan Hammonds spoke to
SECTION 10
#1732872127879180-515: The top slot. "That's an outrage," Nack told the New York Daily News . "You mean this one person thought Secretariat would finish last in a 14-horse race?" The electoral friction was reflected in the introduction to the Top 100 Racehorses book produced by Blood-Horse , which conceded, "For all the work and dreaming that went into it... one approaches the list... with a nagging sense of its folly as
195-469: Was an outstanding stallion. The sire of fifty-three stakes winners, he produced include two Kentucky Derby winners. Cannonade won the 1974 Derby and sired Caveat , who won the 1983 Belmont Stakes . Spectacular Bid , a Hall of Fame inductee who in addition to winning the Derby and the Preakness Stakes , was the 1978 American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt , the 1979 American Champion Three-Year-Old Male Horse ,
210-666: Was sired by their great stallion Bold Ruler , an eight-time Leading sire in North America and U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee. He was out of the Wheatley mare High Bid. In 1952, her sire, To Market , set new track records in the Massachusetts Handicap , the Hawthorne Gold Cup and a six- furlong sprint at Santa Anita Park . First trained by future Hall of Fame inductee Woody Stephens , Bold Bidder did not run in
225-477: Was the damsire of two American Champion Two-Year-Old Fillys . In 1982, Champion Landaluce went undefeated in five starts but died in November of an intestinal infection. In 1992, Champion Eliza won the 1992 Santa Anita Oaks and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies . Bold Bidder died in 1982 and was buried in the equine cemetery at Gainesway Farm . Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of
#878121