The Sunday silence spent a lifetime looking for respect, on the track and in the breeding dandruff. In the end he deserved it.
“He was very good,” said Shug McGaughey, a trainer of the Hall of Fame, who dealt with the archrival Basic Goer. “I ran against him four times and he struck us three times. And I ran a pretty good horse with him.”
In the beginning, however, the Sunday silence was a colt that nobody wanted. He just survived a virus as weaning. Coach Gary Jones once said his hind legs were “so crooked that they looked like clothes.” Bill Christine, a sports journalist for the Los Angeles Times, described the same legs as “shaped”.
Arthur B. Hancock III. In 1987 tried to unload the unsightly adolescent people at the Keeland Yearling Sale in order to buy him back for only $ 17,000. Later he sent him to Hollywood Park to make him available at an auction for the odds 2-year-olds. The pre -sale reserve was set at 50,000 US dollars. The bid never came close. Hancock kept him for $ 32,000.
He took over partners and the decision was made to send the Sunday swear back to Kentucky. He never made it. The driver suffered a fatal heart attack in Texas and the van tipped over. The horse was somehow unscathed and was returned to California to start his career there for Charlie Whitingham, himself a Hall of Fame trainer.
The Sunday silence completed an unfavorable 2-year season with a win in three starts.
“He was weed at the beginning,” said Hancock of Los Angeles Times. “He reminded her of a skinny teenager.”
This skinny teenage ripens dramatically between 2 and 3. These hind legs still didn't look like much, but the boy could move. He took an approval race to start his 3-year season, and suddenly stood in the front and in the center of the Kentucky Derby and a highly expected confrontation with Basic Goer by swinging the San Felipe Stakes and the Santa Anita Derby.
Practically the entire hype in front of the derby surrounded the praised east coast enemies on Sunday Silence. “When Basic Goer was the 2-year-old champion, he was in the next secretariat,” said Christine.
When the Sunday silence Basic Goer defeated 2½ lengths for the roses, the result was attributed to a muddy route in Churchill Downs. When the Sunday victory against Basic Goer prevailed through a nose after a dazzling stretch duel, most observers Pat Valenzuela owed the sophisticated Pat Day, who later admitted that he would have done things differently. When Basic Goer refused to play his competitor of the west coast with eight lengths in his home course in the Belmont Stakes, the critics of Sunday Silence were pleased.
Christine saw it differently. “Basic Goer loved Belmont. It was his route and his day,” he said. “He really fell on Sundays, but this route had a lot to do with it.”
The Sunday silence would have the last word – with a neck victory in the Breederers' Cup Classic in the Gulfstream Park. His seventh triumph in nine begins in an unforgettable campaign, which gave honor as the top 3 year antique and horse of the year.
“He was a pretty agile horse,” said McGaughey. “He could handle the curves better than we do.”
An injured volume forced Halo's son to retire during his 4-year season. His modest family tree and its destitute conformation aroused little interest from US breeders and prompted him to be sold to Japanese interests despite an ultra-consistent career, which brought nine victories and five runners-up in 14 starts to income of $ 4,968,554.
The horse, which has been overlooked again and again, became invaluable for the Japanese racing industry until his death in August 2002. Once again the last word of the Sunday silence belonged.
Amusing facts
- Earned a bonus of 1 million US dollars from the visa for the top performance in Triple Crown Series
- Driven by Pat Valenzuela in 12 of his 14 starts
- The 31st magazine of the Bloodhorse magazine in his list of the 100 best US full blood of the 20th century
- Japan's leading father 13 times
- Covered more than 2,000 mares in Japan
