The following excerpt about this race is from Steve Haskin's wonderful BloodHorse blog: http://cs.bloodhorse.com/blogs/horse-racing-steve-haskin/archive/2011/09/20/h...
"One of the most memorable days of 1968 had come at Saratoga in the Hopeful Stakes when a home movie taken on an old 8 millimeter camera captured two rising stars -- Top Knight and Reviewer -- being saddled.
Going into the race it looked as if the powerful Phipps family, owner of Reviewer, was on its way to sending out its fifth consecutive 2-year-old champion. Reviewer, another in the long line of Bold Ruler offspring to dominate the 2-year-old ranks, was undefeated in four starts, including impressive victories in the Sapling Stakes and Saratoga Special and seemed on his way to following in the footsteps of previous Ogden Phipps-Wheatley Stable juvenile champions, Bold Lad, Buckpasser, Successor, and Vitriolic.
Four days before the Saratoga Special, however, a sleek liver chestnut son of Vertex named Top Knight turned in a breakout performance winning a 5 ½-furlong allowance race at Saratoga by six lengths in near-track-record time. He previously had broken the newly rebuilt Belmont Park's record for 5 ½ furlongs, romping by 15 lengths in a maiden race before coming from far back to finish sixth in the Sapling.
In the 6 ½-furlong Hopeful, Reviewer, favored at 7-10, was away a step slowly from the rail. He took the lead nearing the quarter pole, but Top Knight blew right by him to win by 2 ½ lengths in 1:16 flat, two fifths off the track record. The 2-year-old division had a new leader and a top prospect for the classics. Reviewer came out of the race with a hairline fracture of the left front cannon bone and was put away for the year.
Top Knight went on to romp by six lengths in the Futurity and 3 ½ lengths in the Champagne, but could only finish a fast-closing third in the Garden State Stakes behind Phipps' late-running Beau Brummel, whom he had beaten handily in the Champagne. Despite the defeat in a race that was probably one too many, Top Knight was voted champion 2-year-old and established as a clear-cut Future Book favorite for the Kentucky Derby."
Also from Steve's blog, here is an, ultimately, heartwarming look at what became of Top Knight after his initial retirement from racing:
"Top Knight's life took a totally different turn. He disappeared into obscurity after proving infertile. Brought back to the races three years later, the one-time champion raced until he was 9, competing in cheap allowance races at tiny Narragansett Park and Lincoln Downs in Rhode Island. He did manage one victory as a 9-year-old, winning by seven lengths at Lincoln Downs, but lost his next six races. He was retired for good with a hoof infection, losing the bottom half of his foot, which took a year and a half to grow back. He lived out the rest of his years at a small farm near Rehobeth, Mass. in the company of donkeys, mules, and ponies. According to his owners at the time, Charlotte and Edward Pritchard, who would take in old run-down horses and find them a home, he was "having a picnic". The last report on him was in 1992, and he was living a happy life at the age of 26. A young racing novice will never forget his dominating victories in the Hopeful, Futurity, Champagne, Flamingo, and Florida Derby. That was the real Top Knight, a champion long forgotten."
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Bold Reasoning - 1971 Withers Stakesby cf19702,119 views
Congrats, cf, on sharing your 600th video for all of us to enjoy! - Regards, Jerry P.S. "May the horse be with you!" - Harvey Pack
JerryG918 5 months ago
@JerryG918 Thank you for the kind words; I appreciate them very much, and long live Harvey Pack; he was/is terrific.
God bless.
cf1970 5 months ago
CF Thanks for the video but most of all thanks for the link to Haskin's blog which I had never read. The full article is some of the best writing on horse racing I have ever read.
bbob0911 5 months ago
@bbob0911 You're very welcome. Steve is, in my mind, the best horse racing writer that I've had the pleasure to read. I admire Bill Nack very much as well.
Take care.
cf1970 5 months ago