In a series that began yesterday (here), we’re focusing on the inaugural class of the Maryland Thoroughbred Hall of Fame, whose achievements will be celebrated at Pimlico on Saturday, May 11, prior to the first post.
This time we’re looking at one of the great geldings — Find — and a National Racing Hall of Fame inductee in Gallorette.
FIND
You don’t find many like Find anymore.
The gelded son of Discovery out of the Bimelech mare Stellar Role made 110 starts in a racing career that began at age three and found him still competing in stakes company at age 11. Along the way, the Sagamore Farm product earned over $800,000 and the status of richest-ever Maryland-bred — a title he held, rather remarkably, until 1982. He won or placed in an astonishing 51 stakes races and was a rock-solid competitor from coast to coast.
Find found his way into the winners’ circle with regularity during his outstanding career. Photo from Maryland Horse Breeders Association.
He enjoyed his best years in 1956 and 1957 (when he was six and seven years old), earning more than $200,000 each season while winning or placing in 27 stakes total.
Find returned home at the end of his career in 1961 and died, in 1979, at the ripe old age of 29.
Learn more at the Maryland Thoroughbred Hall of Fame website.
GALLORETTE
In recent years, we’ve saluted a couple of fillies and mares that have successfully taken on the boys, Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra foremost among them.
Imagine how we’d revere Gallorette if she were racing today.
The chestnut daughter of Challenger II out of the Sir Galahad III mare Gallette made 51 starts against the boys and more than held her own, regularly besting the toughest males of her generation. In her three year-old campaign, she took down Hoop Jr., who won that year’s Kentucky Derby, and Pavot, who won the Belmont that year, causing one magazine to gush that she’d become “queen of the Eastern three year-olds.” The roster of her stakes wins includes some of the great races: the Carter, the Beldame, and the Whitney among them.
She was bred by Hall of Fame trainer Preston Burch and campaigned by William Brann, and if you feel like you’ve seen her pedigree before, that’s because Challedon – another Brann horse — was bred quite similarly.
Among the greats that Gallorette defeated was Stymie, here in the 1946 Brooklyn. Keeneland-Morgan photo.
In 1955, Gallorette was voted best race filly in history by members of the American Trainers Association, and she became the fourth filly or mare to earn induction into the National Racing Hall of Fame in 1962.
Learn more at the Maryland Thoroughbred Hall of Fame website.
(Featured photo is Gallorette, from the Maryland Thoroughbred Hall of Fame.)
