Skip Away - 1997 Breeders Cup Classic

[ramairluvr]

You've got to love Tom Durkin's call of this one. Skippy was AWESOME!

[TicinoParadise]

Skip Away was a Good one, a win in 1996 would have cemented him a higher ranking, But ol Soupy got by him. Heck of horse though that Skip Away.

[SuperCharlieKitty]

I love Skip Away's silks.

[ZenyattaLuvr]

wow fantastic race never heard of him before. love him now.. what happened to him?!

[razorback9926]

It's an insult to Skip Away calling him one of the best of the 1990's. He's one of the best ever. He and Cigar both won ten unrestricted G1 races. No other horse since has done that, and very few before (Secretariat didn't). Skip Away is #32 all-time on the Bloodhorse ranking. So sad that he died this year, he was only 17-18.

[bnegs521]

@razorback9926 Great call!

[nottap22]

My favorite horse of all time... I just wish he could of handled the churchill downs track

[Premaro]

RIP Skip Away.

He was fantastic.... and will be greatly missed.

[rockybudgeboa]

RIP dear Skip Away

[Tammicat21]

Love you Skip, please keep my baby Tiz Chrome close

[christophyde]

RIP, Skip. you always gave it your all. (unless you were on that track you hated, Churchill Downs).

[abitaamber1]

RIP SKIP AWAY...a true great.

[LeeAnne151]

RIP Skippy!!! One of best of the 1990's died this morning of a heart attack.

[LauraLovesMocha]

R.I.P Skip Away ;(

[73KHS]

Sad to hear Skip Away died today of a heart attack. RIP bid guy

[alvinbvi]

he's one of those iron horses - kept winning time after time!

[joefederico]

Skippy made this look easy. The Hines were great race horse owners too. Always did right by them all. The money? I think they had to supplement him into this race so they didn't care about the money. They were giving back their hard earned success to the sport by racing him.

[lapswimmer23]

He does have some progeny out there racing, but they are not up to par really...such a shame he was an amazing performer

[DOMINICANINC]

i remember skip away is from texas but i havent see his sons running yet.

[ereaven]

RIP Deputy Commander.

[SacredInDecember]

Cigar's Classic, Barbaro's Derby and this race - they all still move me to tears.

[Barbaro2012]

i'm so happy that they didn't retire him after he ran so well like they did with Street Sense and Raven's Pass

[ericadelahunty]

skip is one of my all time favorites, not to mention one of the most gorgeous.

just an imposing presence wherever he went.

[LiquorWreckedEm]

Monster performance no doubt.

[Curlinroxs]

Truly a horse of the ages!

[superemperador1]

Best since specutacular bid....I know what those other "great" horses beat.before and after him!!

[carlykaiser]

This is really a spectacular race.

[ehflipya]

IMO opinion, they all had a lot of heart. Very difficult to seperate horses such as Cigar, Ghost Zapper, Skip Away, Formal Gold...besides perhaps racing luck. Great vid.

[ruffchamp1]

in my opinion- the 3 greatest horses since spectacular bid are easy goer,sunday silence and cigar...i do believe that skip away,holy bull and ghostzapper are also right there in that category of true greats!

[greatdane83]

i have this whole call memorized. There never was a better Breeders' Cup on the whole in my opinion. Skip Away is my all time second favorite horse. This was so awesome!!

[jhordanian]

An absolutely power-house performance. He was so fast, but also so strong, so physical;he could really intimidate other horses and was very difficult to get by. This wasn't the greatest Classic field, but he won by 6 easy lengths, ruuning the half in 46 and 1, 6 furlongs in 109 and 3, the mile in 1:33 and 4.He did slow down w/ a final quarter in 25 and 1,but by that time the race was over. Still, the final time of 1:59 flat was a record equaled by only Ghostzapper since.Great run by great horse

[jhordanian]

Skip Away was a truly great horse; already in the Hall of Fame. Since 1990,I rank Skip Away #2,and actually believe that there are valid reasons to place him above Cigar.Jerry Bailey, who rode Cigar and also rode Skippy 10of his last 11 starts, said that when Skippy was at his peak, he wasnt sure if Cigar was actually any better. Skippy-champ at 3,4, and 5. Won 10 gr.I races, had a 9 race win streak (7 gr.1), won w/131,130,128,127 lbs, earned 4 Beyers over 120, and 22 Beyers over 110.

[JSanity01]

He said that after his win in Woodward. At his peak he was good, really good. Jerry Bailey still ranks Cigar then Skip Away but they are both great horses. Skip Away was the last good one we seen. I have Cigar higher then Skip Away but I will still take Skip Away over some of the recent stars like Bernadini, Curlin, Ghostzapper, and Invasor

[Vette209]

Skip away is one of the best who ran out here in california! no dout

[sidewalkcafe2007]

An ultra-impressive performance by a wonderful horse. When he was on, it was very tough to get by him. The Classic that year had the makings of one of the deepest ever. Formal Gold, Gentlemen, and Skip Away all were headed for a classic confrontation, but FG and Gentlemen got injured and didn't run. A great run from Skip Away

[JSanity01]

You also forgot Free House who was injured and Silver Charm who was giving a break. Gentlemen was never the same horse, Formal Gold had Skip Away's number that year. I think Will's Way got injured too. Oh cant forget Siphon too was injured in the Gold Cup.

[BIBNR4L]

Skip Away was an AWESOME horse, definitley the biggest race of his career. Maybe I should start back up the fan club I had for him when he was racing ;)

[javaqwe]

what a performance.. Skip Away made it look so easy.. was this like a top level Allowance race or something lol.. jus kidding..

[JettRink50]

How I would have loved to see Skip Away

against Cigar, did they ever race against

each other, I think once, but Skip Away

was injured???

[samrothstein1]

I believe skip away beat Cigar in the Jockey Club at Belmont in 1996

[cf1970]

That's right. My friend partymanners posted that fine race quite a while back.

[JettRink50]

I found that race but a bunch of people

fighting on it. Honestly I don't remember this

at all. My memory was that Skip Away was the

champion horse and making his first start of

the year and Cigar was completely unknown.

Skip Away broke down and I think that was

his last race and Cigar won and nobody

know how great Cigar would be at that time,

I believe the race was in Florida. I dont

ever remember them meeting again.

[samrothstein1]

You're thinking about Holy Bull - I forget the race name - think Partymanners has it posted - but Holy Bull is pulled up on the backstretch and Cigar wins - kind of like the torch was passed in that race

[cf1970]

Holy Bull was terrific, one my all time favourites. It was the 1995 Donn Handicap partymanners posted back in February. A very sad day for racing. He posted a fine feature on Holy Bull and Cigar as well.

Their rivalry would have been legendary; it changed the course of racing history. Cigar would not have had anywhere near the winning streak he had, had The Bull continued running. I firmly believe that.

Take care.

[samrothstein1]

I agree - Cigar was awesome - saw him run twice in person and it was great for racing.

but The Bull would have probably taken him a couple of times as their paths certainly would have crossed again.  Of course we'll never know, but I do agree

[Jazzgirl8888]

What a fun race to watch!

A truly amazing and powerful horse!

He is a beautiful horse as well.

Thank you so much for taking the time to post this race for us cf! It made my day!

I hope you will have a great week!

[cf1970]

Thanks Jazzy! I appreciate the comments. It was my pleasure to post this; Skippy is a fine horse.

Take care, my friend.

[carlykaiser]

Mikey.... =)

[Mintano]

"We intend to run him as long as he's competitive."

Amen to that!

[cf1970]

Totally agree. That's what the racing game needs; more owners that are willing to keep running their horses instead of cautiously sending them to stud at three. Sure, it's a risk to do so, but too many possibly great horses are denied the chance to show their true potential. A real shame for racing and it's fanbase.

Thanks for the comments.

[Wings71ny]

tell me about it.. I know alot of you guys aren't trotter people but whats the odds Donato retires?

[cf1970]

I watched Donato Hanover win the Hambletonian, he's a terrific horse. I have a gut feeling that they'll run him one more year. I hope so anyway.

Take care.

[Wings71ny]

Donato has won out the string this year... look up his Kentucky Futurity on here, WOW 1:50.1... IF he races next year he will become the first trotter to break 1:50!

[JSanity01]

couldnt agree with u more.

[gfn02]

Boy did he FLY! A magnificent performance and another fine upload; I did not know of Skip Away before seeing this.

[cf1970]

Thank you kindly. Fly he did. Skippy is the second highest N.A. money earner of all time with $9,616,360, just behind Cigar's $9,999,815. A fine horse indeed.

[gfn02]

My goodness. Is he a gelding?

[cf1970]

He's a pretty good stallion with quite a few profitable progeny, up to this point.

[gfn02]

That's a fantastic earnings total for a horse that wasn't gelded. Usually they don't let those kind of horses race long enough to win that much cuz they're so keen of cashin in on breeding.

[XxemoxqueenxX]

My jaw was seriously on my keyboard. I can understand why the BC Classic from 1997 got so much praising!

Thanks fpr the post =D

[cf1970]

As was mine when I saw this! Skip Away ran amazingly fast, and so early on! This race is arguably his best performance.

I'm happy you liked it. Have a great week!

[gregcz2000]

Thanks for posting! I was looking for this, as they said this years Classic will be the deepest since 1997. An impressive performance!

[cf1970]

Glad you enjoyed it!. I appreciate the comments.

[sugarpuppy137]

Wow, that was an excellent performance! He sure is a pretty horse =)

[cf1970]

I agree. Thank you for watching.