The day Dehere made the Earth stand still at Saratoga

When Saratoga opens next week, more than anything I will be looking forward to seeing all the future stars to hit the track. The grand oval on Union Avenue is many things, but as much as anything, Saratoga is for 2-year-olds.

Hope springs eternal at the Spa, and this couldn’t be more true for all the wonderful juveniles unveiled at the Upstate New York track. The unofficial start to the 2-year-old season is something to savor and look forward to each year. From Man O’ War to Secretariat, many of racing’s greatest legends cut their teeth racing at Saratoga.

Then you have Dehere. Named for Terry Dehere, a star basketball player at Seton Hall, he was never to reach the legendary status of racing’s greatest. But the bay colt sired by Deputy Minister, out of the Secretariat mare Sister Dot, always will have one summer at the Spa.

Owned and bred by Robert Brennan’s Due Process Stable and trained by Reynaldo Nobles, Dehere was bred to be a good one, and he did not disappoint in his 1993 debut. Closing like a freight train down the Monmouth Park stretch, he defeated 11 other juveniles, winning by four lengths going away as the odds-on favorite.

He arrived at Saratoga full of potential and in less than five weeks, he fulfilled those dreams in a whirlwind of juvenile talent. First came the Saratoga Special (G2), then the Sanford (G3), and finally the Hopeful (G1). Dehere won each with style, and when he left the Spa, he was the hottest thing going.

His wins in the Sanford and the Hopeful were decisive and impressive, but it was the victory in the first of the series, the Saratoga Special, that really stood out.

Sent off as the 2-1 favorite under Eddie Maple in a field of nine, Dehere turned in one of those races that people talk about for years. Nearly three decades later, I still cannot think about the impending Saratoga meet without thinking back to that day at Saratoga when I saw something truly special in the Saratoga Special.

The short comment in his past performances benignly reads, “angled out 5w, driving.” It remains one of the most understated comments I’ve ever seen. It seems mere words fall short of doing the performance justice.

Largely because his three consecutive graded stakes wins at Saratoga, and the way he won them, Dehere took home an Eclipse Award as America’s champion 2-year-old male of 1993. Seemingly well on his way to being something very special, the career after Saratoga, though, had fewer ups than downs for the Due Process Stable star.

Somehow the son of Deputy Minister would lose three of his next four starts, which included a fast closing second in a sloppy edition of the Futurity (G1) to the unbeaten and speedy Holy Bull, and a romping win in the Champagne (G1), both at Belmont Park.

Dehere later would break a two-race losing streak with a solid rally to win the Fountain of Youth (G2) at Gulfstream Park. The victory came over both that season’s future Kentucky Derby winner, Go For Gin, as well as the horse who would be named Horse of the Year, Holy Bull.

Suddenly back on track as an early Kentucky Derby favorite, Dehere was injured while training for the Florida Derby (G1). The injury was serious enough to force his retirement from racing. The Fountain of Youth thus became his final start in a nine-race career that featured five graded stakes victories.

He retired a champion and became a very good sire here and abroad, but it is a shame he never had the opportunity to race again. Who knows how good a mature Dehere might have been. At the very least, I would have loved to see him run at Saratoga again.

Thankfully, the memory of that afternoon at the Spa, when Dehere made the Earth stand still in the closing stages of the Saratoga Special, is one that I will take to my grave.