Stymie (horse)

Thoroughbred racehorse infobox
horsename = Stymie


caption =
sire = Equestrian
grandsire = Equipoise
dam = Stop Watch
damsire = On Watch
sex = Stallion
foaled = 1941
country = USA flagicon|USA
colour = Chestnut
breeder = Max Hirsch
owner = Ethel D. Jacobs
trainer = Max Hirsch
Hirsch Jacobs (from 4/43)
record = 131:35-33-28
earnings= $918,485
race = Brooklyn Handicap (1945)
Butler Handicap (1945)
Westchester Handicap (1945)
Pimlico Cup Handicap (1945)
Riggs Handicap (1945)
Saratoga Cup (1945, 1946)
Continental Handicap (1945)
Grey Lag Handicap (1945, 1946)
Gallant Fox Handicap (1946, 1947)
New York Handicap (1946)
Manhattan Handicap (1946)
Edgemere Handicap (1946)
Whitney Stakes (1946)
Gold Cup (1947)
Massachusetts Handicap (1947)
Aqueduct Handicap (1947, 1948)
Metropolitan Handicap (1947, 1948)
Sussex Handicap (1947, 1948)
Questionnaire Handicap (1947)
awards= U.S. Champion Handicap Horse (1945)
honours = U.S. Racing Hall of Fame (1975)
#41 - Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century
The Stymie Handicap at Aqueduct Racetrack
updated= February 7, 2007

Stymie (April 4, 1941 - 1962) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse. A small red chestnut who started out running with his head high, but unfortunately, also running slowly, was one of the great bargains in thoroughbred racing history.

Competing poorly and inconspicuously in cheap claimersref|claimers as a two-year-old, he was sold on June 2, 1943 to the knowledgeable trainer Hirsch Jacobs when Stymie's first trainer, the Hall of Famer Max Hirsch dropped his claiming price to $1,500. Hirsch Jacobs ran a successful stable of modest claimers. He must have seen some potential in Stymie, or at least figured he could be a good little earner in the lower echelons of thoroughbred horse racing—but whatever it was he saw, that day was Jacobs' lucky day. As was his habit, he put the horse in his wife's name, Ethel Jacobs, who was ever after the "owner" of Stymie.

Bred in Texas by Max Hirsch, though actually a King Ranch bred foal due to the as yet unregistered ownership of his dam, Stop Watch (a granddaughter of the great Colin as well as the granddaughter of the unforgettable Man o' War), Stymie's was an all American pedigree, at least for the first three generations. He began as a King Ranch horse with the King Ranch's idea of "line breeding" which they'd first applied to their cattle. Line breeding meant doubling up strong strains. Stymie's sire was by Equipoise also out of Man o' War...with a nice connection to the Domino line.

From a selling plater to a stakes winner

Meanwhile, Stymie lost every race but one he ran at the age of two. He also lost most of his three-year-old races. The best he could do in better company at two was place in the Ardsley Handicap and show in the Thomas K. Lynch Memorial Handicap. At three, he came in second in the Wood Memorial Stakes, and third in the Gallant Fox Handicap, Westchester Handicap, Riggs Handicap, Pimlico Cup Handicap, Flamingo Stakes, and the Shevlin Stakes.

Ten times Jacobs, known as the "voodoo veterinarian" for making good horses out of bad, gave others the chance to claim Stymie in claiming races (this included the King Ranch), but there were no takers.

But at four, Stymie found his feet and when he found his feet, he found fame. Stymie became "the people's horse," almost as popular as Seabiscuit...maybe even "as" popular as the Biscuit. Rested after a racing ban during some of the darker days of the Second World War, be came back to win 25 stakes races.

He won the Brooklyn Handicap, Butler Handicap, Westchester Handicap, Pimlico Cup Handicap, Riggs Handicap, Saratoga Cup, Continental Handicap, Grey Lag Handicap, came in second in the Suburban Handicap, the Queens County Handicap and Yonkers Handicap, and third in the Pimlico Special, Jockey Club Gold Cup, Merchants' and Citizens' Handicap, and the Whitney Stakes. When he was five, he won the Gallant Fox Handicap (beating the winner of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, Assault), New York Handicap, Grey Lag Handicap, Manhattan Handicap, Edgemere Handicap, Whitney Stakes, and the Saratoga Cup, placed in the Brooklyn Handicap, Dixie Handicap, Jockey Club Gold Cup, Monmouth Handicap, and the Pimlico Special, and showed in the Suburban Handicap, Butler Handicap, Saratoga Handicap and Sussex Handicap. At six years of age, Stymie won the Gold Cup, Gallant Fox Handicap, Massachusetts Handicap, Aqueduct Handicap, Metropolitan Handicap, Sussex Handicap, Questionnaire Handicap, placed in the Brooklyn Handicap, Butler Handicap, Edgemere Handicap, Manhattan Handicap, and Queens County Handicap, and came home third in the Jockey Club Gold Cup and Whitney Stakes. When he was seven, he won the Aqueduct Handicap, Metropolitan Handicap, Sussex Handicap, took second in the Suburban Handicap, Dixie Handicap, Queens County Handicap, and third in the Brooklyn Handicap and Excelsior Handicap. In his last year at eight, he was second in the New York Handicap.

He was Champion handicap horse in 1945. Running from ages 2 to 8, he won from five furlongs to 16 furlongs. From 1944 to 1947, he ran against the best of his generation: Armed, Assault, Devil Diver, Pavot and Polynesian. He was nothing but gallant in every race.

Out of 131 lifetime starts, he won 35, placed in 33, and showed in 28. Stymie's career winnings added up to $918,485. That made him, at the time, the richest race horse in America. At Suffolk Downs on July 7, 1947, Styme became the first horse ever to eclipse the $700,000 earnings mark. Stymie was so heavily bet that a minus show pool of $25,887 was created that day, and the tote board actually, though briefly, jammed due to the flood of money wagered on him. Like the great Silky Sullivan, Stymie was also known for tremendous late charges. "Here comes Stymie!" was the cry as he ate up horses in the stretch—and he won much more than Silky ever did. On the other hand, he raced much more than Silky ever did, and for much longer.

His "rags-to-riches" racing career came to an abrupt end in the Monmouth Handicap when he suffered a fractured a sesamoid bone in his right forefoot.

Ever After

A grandson of Equipoise and inbred to Man O' War, in 1975, he was elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. In the Blood-Horse magazine ranking of the top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century, Stymie is ranked #41.

Jacobs, who died in 1970, was elected as a trainer to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1958. He and his wife had named their Sparks, Maryland breeding operation, Stymie Manor.

Stymie died in 1962.

Footnotes

# Explained by Jane Smiley, author of "Horse Heaven." "Claiming races are for what you might call working class horses who haven't made it into the big time or the bigger time. When the trainer enters his horse in a claiming race, he is saying that the horse is for sale. If another owner or trainer wants the horse, he puts down the required amount of money (set by the value of the race and some other factors) any time up to fifteen minutes before the start of the race. As soon as the horses leave the gate, the horse belongs to the one who claimed it, whether it wins or loses, lives or dies. After the horses head back to the receiving barn, a track official comes out and hangs a red tag on the horse's bridle, and the horse goes to the barn of its new owner. Needless to say, you can run a horse over and over in claiming races, hoping that it will get claimed, and it won't, or you can risk it once, hoping that it won't get claimed, and it will. One reason to put it in a claiming race even though you don't want it to get claimed is that you think it has a good chance of winning the pot and a small chance of getting taken because it has obscure breeding or something like that. There's also an element of daring and gambling in claiming races that track people like."

References

* [http://www.racingmuseum.org/hall/horse.asp?ID=142 Stymie's page in the Hall of fame, with photo]
* [http://www.pedigreequery.com/stymie Stymie's pedigree]
* [http://www.jewishsports.net/BioPages/HirschJacobs.htm Featuring Hirsch Jacobs]
* [http://ultimatehorsesite.com/dictionary/dictionary.html Ultimate Horse Dictionary]