John Henry and Wise Dan: America’s Great Turf Geldings

He’s won 13 of his last 14 races, all coming in graded stakes racing. It’s time we start looking at Wise Dan in a historical perspective as one of the great geldings of American racing history. The last time we saw a gelding do as much as the Morton Fink homebred, was a full thirty years ago when John Henry ruled the American turf. Besides being the two best turf geldings of my lifetime, the pair of great thoroughbreds have more than a few things in common.

Both superstars came from modest beginnings. John Henry, a gelded son of Old Bob Bowers out of the Double Jay mare, Once Double, was bought and sold on numerous occasions as a young horse. Beginning with a $1,100 sale as a yearling, the bargain basement bay was sold five times. He finally ended up with Sam Rubin’s Dotsam Stable, after a $25,000 purchase. Wise Dan, meanwhile, never changed hands, but anyone who looked at the mating seven years ago of the unheralded sire Wiseman’s Ferry with a Wolf Power mare, Lisa Danielle, who won once in seven starts, and predicted greatness, probably also has some nice Florida swampland for sale.

They raced a whole lot more back in John Henry’s day, but both stars were consistent machines when it came to running big in rich turf stakes. In his career, John Henry accounted for 39 victories, 15 seconds and nine thirds in 83 starts and earned $6,597,947. To date, Wise Dan has recorded 22 victories, 2 seconds and 0 thirds in 30 starts while earning $6,952,920 under the guidance of trainer Charles LoPresti.

I keep emphasizing turf, but the truth is both John Henry and Wise Dan demonstrated remarkable versatility. He did most of his damage on the grass, but without big victories in the Santa Anita Handicap and Jockey Club Gold Cup, John Henry would not be quite the legend that he is today. Wise Dan, of course, has won numerous graded stakes on the main track, including the Grade 1 Clark, and overpowering wins on Keeneland’s Polytrack. Keep in mind, his initial Breeders’ Cup attempt came on dirt in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint back in 2010.

Neither John Henry nor Wise Dan were able to win a Triple Crown race, or even run in a single leg, as young horses, but like fine wine, they continued to improve with age, and Eclipse Awards in bunches began to follow.

Both magnificent geldings earned their first championship at five. John Henry finished that season with eight victories and three seconds in 12 starts. Seven of those wins came on grass, but a San Marcos win, and a Jockey Club Gold Cup place, demonstrated that the Ron McAnally Turf Champion of 1980 was more than strictlly a turf horse. At the same age, Wise Dan became a multiple Eclipse Award winner. In 2012, Wise Dan finished his season with five victories and one second in 6 starts. Like John Henry, all but one of those victories came on grass, but a Ben Ali win, and a Stephen Foster place, also showed that Wise Dan was far from a turf specialist.

John Henry's run of greatness would carry on over the next four years as he went on to win 18 of 30 starts. As a six-year-old, he dominated on turf and dirt, from coast to coast, and was named Champion Grass Horse, Champion Older Horse and Horse of the Year. The same trio of awards that Wise Dan repeated last year, also at six.

John Henry’s second greatest season came as a 9-year-old, when he accounted for six stakes races, and earned $2.3 million, on his way to snaring the Champion Grass Horse and Horse of the Year awards that lifted his Eclipse Award total to seven. Now seven, Wise Dan has collected six championships, and at 3-for-3 this year, including a courageous victory in Saturday’s Bernard Baruch, in his first race back after emergency colic surgery, is in with a shot to add, at the least, another turf award in 2014.

While John Henry never ran in a Breeders’ Cup, both great geldings found a signature race to showcase their best. From 1981 through 1984, John Henry competed in the Arlington Million three times. He was favored in America’s first million dollar race each time, and did not disappoint the fans. In ‘81 he got up to win the Million in the last possible stride to snatch victory away from The Bart, in what remains the greatest edition of the big race  He came back to just miss by a neck in 1983, before rolling home a winner in his final season.

Wise Dan meanwhile, has found a home in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. A race that has hosted such champions as Miesque and Goldikova, much like John Henry, Wise Dan has taken on international fields and proven his greatness with a pair of sensational victories. He is currently on course to go for a third straight Breeders’ Cup Mile in less than two months at Santa Anita.

Finally, and maybe the most important thing that John Henry and Wise Dan have in common, is what they have meant to American racing fans. It’s not common for our greatest runners to come back year after year, but that is exactly what John Henry and Wise Dan have afforded all of us. The longer his excellence lasted, the more popular John Henry became. The same is now true for Wise Dan. Proof of this couldn’t have been more clear on Saturday as the seven-year-old chestnut came back to the Saratoga winner’s circle in front of a loud and appreciative standing ovation. Much like John Henry, Wise Dan has become beloved.

I had the pleasure of being at the Meadowlands on October 13, 1984. We didn’t know at the time, but this would prove to be the great gelding’s last race. The Ballantine's Scotch Classic was vintage John Henry. He was inducted into thoroughbred racing's Hall of Fame less than six years later. We don’t know when the fantastic career of Wise Dan will come to a close, but wouldn’t it be happily fitting if we went out a resounding winner just as John Henry did thirty years ago.