Chris Evert (horse)

Chris Evert
Sire	Swoon's Son
Grandsire	The Doge
Dam	Miss Carmie
Damsire	T.V. Lark
Sex	Filly
Foaled	1971
Country	United States
Colour	Chestnut
Breeder	Echo Valley Farm
Owner	Carl Rosen
Trainer	Joseph A. Trovato
Record	15: 10-2-2
Earnings	$679,475
Major wins
Demoiselle Stakes (1973) Golden Rod Stakes (1973) Acorn Stakes(1974) Mother Goose Stakes (1974) Coaching Club American Oaks (1974) La Canada Stakes (1975)
Awards
3rd U.S. Filly Triple Crown Champion (1974) U.S. Champion 3-Yr-Old Filly (1974)
Honours
United States Racing Hall of Fame (1988)
Horse (Equus ferus caballus)
Last updated on November 25, 2006

Chris Evert (1971–2001) was an American Hall of Fame Champion Thoroughbred filly racehorse. Carl Rosen (1918–1983), owner of clothing manufacturer Puritan Fashions Corp., purchased the filly at a Keeneland yearling sale. He named her for the rising young star tennis player Chris Evert, whom he had signed to endorse his company's line of sportswear.

Chris Evert began racing at age two. Of her five starts, she won four and finished second in the other. At age three, she dominated her class, winning the U.S. Filly Triple Crown and earning the Eclipse Award for Outstanding 3-Year-Old Filly.

The Match Race

In 1974, Aaron Jones, the owner of West Coast based filly Miss Musket, issued a challenge to Chris Evert's owner for their horses to meet in a match race. Miss Musket's record included winning the Hollywood Oaks, and her confident owner offered to put up $100,000 if Chris Evert's owner would match it. Hollywood Park Racetrack offered another $150,000 to the winner-take-all race that they would host and would bill as the Hollywood Special Stakes. Carl Rosen could not pass up that kind of money and accepted the offer for a match race to be held on July 20, 1974. Chris Evert won by an astounding 50 lengths, the large purse significantly contributing to her becoming 1974's leading money earner in U.S. Thoroughbred racing.

At age four, Chris Evert won two more times but was retired early after competing in only four races. Rosen decided to use her as the foundation mare to establish his own horse breeding operation at Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Kentucky. As a broodmare, Chris Evert produced graded stakes race winners Wimbledon Star and the filly Six Crowns, who was sired by Secretariat. Six Crowns in turn produced Eclipse Award and Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Chief's Crown.

Chris Evert was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1988. Pensioned in 1990, at age 30 she was humanely euthanized on January 8, 2001 due to the infirmities of old age. She was buried at Three Chimneys Farm's broodmare cemetery.

References

• Chris Evert's pedigree and racing stats
• Carl Rosen & Associates at the NTRA
• Chris Evert at the United States' National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame