It's Derby Week and so it's fitting to look back at some of the more unusual stories surrounding past Derby winners. The Sunday Silence story is one of those worth telling.
He was born on February 25, 1986 by Halo. Sunday Silence was not an attractive horse. He was crooked-legged and someone called him a "triple zero." He was black (but registered as brown) and the reality is that no one wanted him. He was passed over in the sales ring twice as a yearling and he was eventually sold for $50,000 in California as a two-year-old in training (not a lot for a well-bred race horse at that time). Arthur B. Hancock, III bought him as a "buy-back" hoping to ship him (via van, not airplane) back to Kentucky.
He overcame adversity a few times in his youth, almost dying from a freak virus as a weanling and when he was vanned back to Kentucky from California as a two-year-old, the van driver had a heart attack and died and wrecked the van. The horse was injured but all of the other horses in the van were killed.
Not surprisingly Sunday Silence was a late bloomer and raced only late in his two-year-old year. As a three-year-old, he won an allowance race in California, the San Felipe Stakes and then the Santa Anita Derby, setting him up for the Kentucky Derby. He won the Derby in the mud, but it was the slowest time for a Derby since 1958 (2:05) but he won by 2 1/2 lengths over the two-year-old champion Easy Goer.
Seven days before the Preakness, Sunday Silence came up dead lame. He was diagnosed with a bruise under the sole of his foot and was fitted with custom-made aluminum bar shoes, returning to training only four days before the race. But the bar shoes were removed a day before the race, as Sunday Silence had a remarkable recovery. His top contender, Easy Goer, also had issues of his own leading up the to the race, with cracks on both of his heels. But Sunday Silence again prevailed, only by a nose this time, over his rival.
Sunday Silence and Easy Goer
Easy Goer, however, was to prevail in the Belmont, where he ran the second fastest time ever (second only to Secretariat at the time) and defeated his rival over a muddy track by eight lengths. But Sunday Silence was awarded the million dollar Visa Triple Crown bonus for the best three-year-old in the series.
Easy Goer won 4 Grade 1 stakes after the Belmont (impressive by anyone's standards) and a final face-off was set in the $3 million 1 1/2 mile Breeder's Cup Classic at Gulfstream Park that November. His jockey had been suspended for drug use and was replaced with a new jockey, Chris McCarron. At post time, Sunday Silence was the slight favorite over Easy Goer. Sunday Silence won the Classic, earning a single-season record of $4.59 million. He won the Eclipse Award for top 3-Year-Old Male Horse and Horse of the Year. In the end, Sunday Silence held the three-to-one edge over Easy Goer in the races they met. In 1996 Sunday Silence was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
Sunday Silence raced twice as a four-year-old, winning once and placing second in the Hollywood Gold Cup where he suffered a ligament injury and was retired. Out of 14 races, he won nine, placing second in the other five.
As a stallion, Sunday Silence was sold to a breeder in Japan and he flourished there, becoming the leading sire from 1995 to 2008 but he never had that same kind of success outside Japan. His descendants have broken many records in Japan and in Europe where the purses tend to be higher than in the US. He lived the remainder of his life in Japan.
Sunday Silence died on August 19, 2002. He had been treated for laminitis for the previous 14 weeks and had developed an infection in one leg as
well. He had been given a stronger dose of a different painkilling
medication the previous day to provide him relief, and apparently as a
result, he had become comfortable enough to lie down for the first time
in a week. The following morning, he appeared unable to rise, and while
veterinarians were discussing what to do, he died, apparently of heart
failure.
You'll see two descendants of Sunday Silence on Saturday in the Derby: Win Win Win is by Hat Trick , a son of Sunday Silence. And the top Japanese three-year-old, Master Fencer, is also a descendant as Sunday Silence was his paternal grandfather. So he is still influencing American racing, even from Japan. His is a great story - this is what I love about racing.
I saw Win Win Win run at Keeneland in April and he is dark just like his grandad.
Win Win
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Hat Trick (JPN)
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Sunday Silence
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| Tricky Code |
| Miss Smarty Pants |
Smarty Jones
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| Devotion Unbridled |
