Flashback: Silky Sullivan a Santa Anita Derby winner to remember
Through the years, we’ve seen some memorable performances in the historic Santa Anita Derby at Santa Anita Park. Sham clocking 1 1/8 miles in the stakes-record time of 1:47 flat in 1973… future Triple Crown winner Affirmed cruising by eight lengths in 1978… the filly Winning Colors leading all the way to dominate in 1988… I’ll Have Another battling to victory by a nostril in 2012…
But has there ever been a more spectacular victory in the Santa Anita Derby than the heart-stopping success of fan favorite Silky Sullivan in 1958?
Few horses have ever been as charismatic as Silky Sullivan, a California-bred chestnut owned by Phil Klipstein and Tom Ross. Physically, he was an imposing specimen. In The History of Thoroughbred Racing in America, William H. P. Robertson described the colt as “a gleaming chestnut of such prodigious muscular development that he seemed of a different breed, more like an artist’s romantic conception of a war charger than a race horse… his girth was so enormous he required a custom-made surcingle, and in a field of typical thoroughbreds mincing to the post, Silky resembled a battleship under escort.”
But it was Silky Sullivan’s performances on track that earned him lasting renown. Under the care of trainer Reggie Cornell, Silky Sullivan routinely defied logic with his dramatic late-running style. For Silky Sullivan, rallying from a dozen lengths off the lead wasn’t exciting enough. Much more interesting was to drop a dozen lengths behind the whole pack, concede the front-runners 20 or 30 lengths, and endeavor to win from there.
Amazingly, Silky Sullivan was routinely successful with his unorthodox approach to racing.
When Silky Sullivan arrived at the Santa Anita starting gate for the 1958 Santa Anita Derby, he had already gained a reputation as the “heart attack horse,” a reference to the heart-stopping effect his late-surging style was presumed to have on his supporters. The previous December, Silky Sullivan had rallied from 27 lengths off the pace to win the Golden Gate Futurity, and from there, his antics only grew more ridiculous. Just 11 days before the Santa Anita Derby, Silky Sullivan had elevated his game to a new level in a 6 1/2-furlong allowance race, somehow rallying from 41 lengths behind to win by half a length.
Exactly how Silky Sullivan developed his trademark style is open to debate, but Robertson speculated it may have been health-related. In The History of Thoroughbred Racing in America, he noted “Over the winter (Silky Sullivan) had a bad cold, and as a three-year-old he made a noise while running. Evidently it required a few furlongs for his respiration to clear up, after which he began to run in normal fashion.”
Facing nine rivals in the Santa Anita Derby, Silky Sullivan and stablemate Harcall were favored in the betting for an event that promised “to provide more excitement than any race at Santa Anita Park in many a year,” according to the March 7, 1958 edition of the Terre Haute (Ind.) Star. Silky Sullivan would break from post seven, but The Terre Haute Star noted “post position doesn’t mean much to Silky. He quickly decides to linger well back and let the other runners handle the early racing.”
A crowd of 61,123 – a record for the Santa Anita Derby – turned out to see the wildly popular colt in action. “And astonishingly enough, the magic of Silky Sullivan’s name lured an estimated 10,000 more than turned out a week ago to see the superb Round Table win the… Santa Anita Handicap,” wrote the St. Petersburg, Fla. Times of March 9, 1958.
The massive crowd did not leave the track disappointed.
No one knows exactly how far Silky Sullivan fell behind in the early stages of the Santa Anita Derby; it’s difficult to judge large distances, and estimates varied widely. One thing is certain – Silky Sullivan was the trailer by a wide margin in the early going, with a result chart in The Los Angeles Times of March 9, 1958 describing the margin as 28 1/2 lengths.
For most horses, regaining such a deficit would have been impossible. But up front, the pace was swift – a quarter in :22 4/5, a half-mile in :46 1/5, six furlongs in 1:10 3/5 – and as the field entered the far turn, Silky Sullivan began to advance under jockey Bill Shoemaker, gradually picking up steam as the real running began.
At that point, Shoemaker made a bold decision. Rather than allow Silky Sullivan to advance outside of rivals and risk being carried wide, he guided his surging mount to the inside, saving ground around the bend before shifting outside for the run down the homestretch.
“Those other jocks figured we would lose a lot of ground by taking the overland as in the past,” Shoemaker later told The Los Angeles Times. “Silky fooled ‘em on his own. I was just a copartner.”
Truth be told, it’s unlikely any route around Santa Anita would have changed the outcome. Down the lane, Silky Sullivan was full of run, roaring past rivals under little more than a confident hand ride from Shoemaker. Surging to the front just before the sixteenth pole, Silky Sullivan powered clear in the final 110 yards to win by three lengths in 1:49.40, just 0.60 off the stakes record.
Silky Sullivan’s triumph produced no shortage of accolades from journalists of the day, who were quick to heap praise on the breathtaking colt. The Tampa Bay Times described Silky Sullivan as “a real threat for national 3-year-old honors” and “the most exciting race horse in America today, and for many a day…”
Ultimately, the Santa Anita Derby proved to be Silky Sullivan’s last major hurrah. Though heavily supported in the 1958 Kentucky Derby, his late rally fizzled prematurely over a muddy track and he finished 12th out of 14 runners, beaten nearly 20 lengths by the victorious Tim Tam.
But Silky Sullivan remained a favorite in the hearts of his fans, and he remains a most extraordinary winner of the Santa Anita Derby.
J. Keeler Johnson is a writer, videographer, handicapper, and all-around horse racing enthusiast. A great fan of racing history, he considers Dr. Fager to be the greatest racehorse ever produced in America, but counts Zenyatta as his all-time favorite. You can follow him on Twitter at @J_Keelerman.