What might have been: Hoist The Flag

     When you follow sports, part of having fun with sports is remembering events and athletes, talking about who was better than whom, and learning about the history of the sports of interest. 

However, in every sport, there are stories of what might have been due to various reasons, events, or injuries.

And as time goes by with fewer and fewer remembering those athletes, their tales can sometimes be forgotten.

Which brings us to Hoist The Flag.

The 1970 Juvenile champion, Hoist The Flag was never defeated on the track and even though he would never achieve greatness on the track, he would show his courage and toughness in a manner that allowed future injured equine stars a fighting chance at life.

As a two-year-old, Hoist The Flag won five of his six starts, including the Cowdin Stakes, and in his only defeat in the 1970 Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park, Hoist The Flag won going away but was placed last due to interference in the early portion of the race.

Hoist The Flag was assigned 126 pounds by the Jockey Club's Experimental Free Handicap, which the Jockey Club rates two-year-old horses by weight (the higher weights are assigned to the best horses) for a mythical race among two-year-olds at a one-mile and a sixteenth distance.

After Hoist The Flag suffered sore shins, he was sent to winter in South Carolina.

As Hoist The Flag was traveling north to New York where he would be based for the season, trainer Sidney Watters decided to stop in Bowie, Maryland for an allowance race to make his season debut against competition that would not test him too much in his first start.

During the six furlongs, he wasn't tested a bit as he eased to a fifteen-length victory as the road to New York and the "winter Triple Crown" at Aqueduct Race Track awaited.

The three-race prep series for the Kentucky Derby started with the seven-furlong Bay Shore Stakes, moved to the one-mile Gotham before ending with the Wood Memorial at a mile and an eighth.

Hoist The Flag burnished his credentials with a destructive performance in the Bay Shore, winning by seven lengths in a track and stakes record 1:21, a world record for a three-year-old running at the seven-furlong distance.

Hoist The Flag was the winter book favorite to win the Kentucky Derby and only improved his odds after the Bay Shore win.

The Bay Shore would be the final race that Hoist The Flag would ever run.

On March 30, 1971, Hoist The Flag was finishing a training session of five furlongs under his regular jockey (but not his regular training rider) Jean Crugret, when Cruguet felt a jolt under him with Hoist The Flag breaking his right hind leg, yet his momentum continuing to carry him another half-furlong causing further injury.

Hoist The Flag had suffered a broken cannon bone and a shattered long pastern bone and his life was in danger.

The equine insurance company had authorized the veterinarian who was handling Hoist The Flag to humanely destroy him. Still, the colt's owner Jane Clark authorized permission for doctors to attempt to save the colt provided that he did not suffer.

Surgeons would take a bone graft from Hoist The Flag, use screws and metal plates around the break to add strength and security, and create the first fiberglass cast to place around the leg to hopefully allow healing and blood flow to the damaged leg.

Lack of blood flow is often the fatal part in leg injuries as the blood doesn't flow to the damaged area and eventually causes the horse to be unable to stand, which in the equine world is the end of the line as there is nothing that the doctors can then do to help.

Hoist The Flag's temperament would be the most important part of his recovery as other injured horses would later discover that some horses simply would not tolerate the cast on their leg, and thrash around to remove it, which would cause more damage and force the horse to be euthanized, most famously with the 1975 injury to the filly Ruffian after her match race with 1975 Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure.

Hoist The Flag's patience and tolerance allowed him to deal with the cast without damaging the cast or his leg, which helped the healing process enough that months later, Hoist The Flag was able to be transported to his new home, Claiborne Farm in Kentucky.

It wouldn't be until 1973 that Hoist The Flag would start to breed mares, which meant his first crop wouldn't hit the racetrack as a two-year-old until 1976.  

Hoist The Flag would be active at stud for only eight seasons before another leg injury forced him to succumb and be humanely destroyed in 1980.

Hoist The Flag sired Alleged, the 1977 European Horse of the Year and two-time winner of the Arc De Triomphe, and Sensational, the 1976 champion two-year-old filly in his first crop and he would later sire Linkage, who won several stakes and finished second in the 1982 Preakness.

Hoist The King, who set a record for a yearling colt in 1979, selling for 1.6 million was the progeny of Hoist The Flag but Hoist The King was a disappointment as a racehorse as he never broke his maiden in nine races and only twice finished in the money.

It was as a broodmare sire that Hoist The Flag made his mark as daughters of Hoist The Flag bearing such stars as multiple grade one winner's Broad Brush and Cryptoclearance, Breeders Cup Distaff winner and three-year-old filly champion Sacahuista, and arguably the great female racehorse ever in Personal Ensign, who was never defeated in thirteen starts with maybe the dramatic win in Breeders Cup history, her come from behind win to conclude her career in the 1988 Distaff over a sloppy track that she hated to nail 1988 Kentucky Derby winner Winning Colors at the wire.

So what might have been had Hoist The Flag not taken that bad step in 1971?

One never knows but Hoist The Flag was bred to last longer distances as a son of Tom Rolfe (Tom Rolfe won the 1965 Preakness, and lost by a neck in the Belmont) and I'd think that he would not have had an issue at a mile and a quarter in the Kentucky Derby.

The mile-and-a-half Belmont Stakes would have been anyone's guess but I'd say his chances wouldn't have been worse than any other horse in the race, if not better than most by his breeding.

Jean Cruguet was the regular ride of Hoist The Flag and 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew and Cruguet, who had nothing to gain by stating this, was quoted as believing that Hoist The Flag was the superior racehorse to Seattle Slew.

If you project greatness, that certainly removes the mania from the 1971 Triple Crown from the Caracas Cannonball Canonero II, who would win the Kentucky Derby and Preakness before a fourth-place finish in the Belmont Stakes.

If Hoist The Flag won the Triple Crown, it would have been Hoist The Flag as the first horse to win the Crown since Citation's 1948 Triple Crown and not Secretariat, so does that take away a little from Secretariat's achievement and mainstream media attention as a "Superhorse"?

It certainly affected the attention from Seattle Slew and Affirmed's win in 1977 and 78, coming so close to Secretariat's Crown run, so it makes sense that Secretariat would have received less than Hoist The Flag.

And for Secretariat vs Hoist The Flag, it's unlikely considering the value at stud even then for a Triple Crown winner that Hoist The Flag would have still been running at age five in 1973 but nor impossible that he could have still been racing, especially if something would have been at stake such as an all-time money winning racehorse, so there could have been a slim chance that a late fall matchup, likely in New York where the trainers of both horses (Sidney Watters for Hoist The Flag and Lucien Laurin for Secretariat) housed their stables, in either the Woodward Stakes or the Jockey Club Gold Cup could have happened.

What might have been is a series that will dwell on speculation and not on answers, and I hope that when I do these readers enjoy them.

For a far more detailed article on Hoist The Flag and one that was very valuable to me in writing this post read "The Will To Win, The Fight To Survive" from Past The Wire.com. 

Fusiachi Pegasus

  The death of the 2000 Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus at the age of 26 wouldn't ordinarily receive its own post, although "Fu Peg" would have certainly received a segment in the passings department of "Cleaning out the Inbox".

Pegasus was the most expensive yearling to be sold at auction at four million dollars in 1998, and after his racing career, Fusachi Pegasus was sold for stud duty for a still-record seventy million dollars to Coolmore Stud of Ireland, who stood him at their American stallion home, Ashford Stud in Kentucky, where he would stand for his entire North American career although he would be shuttled for service to various countries including Australia, Chile, and Uruguay.

Owner Fusao Sekiguchi's four million dollar purchase would never stand for a breeding season in Japan but at Japan's Northern Horse Park, a brilliant gold-plated full-sized statue of Fusiachi Pegasus stands in recognition of the 2000 Derby winner.

Trained by Hall of Fame trainer Neil Drysdale and ridden by another Hall of Famer in Kent Desormeaux, Fusaichi Pegasus prepped for the Derby with two Grade II victories in the San Felipe Stakes at California's Santa Anita racetrack and followed up with another win in New York in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct before his win in Louisville as the first post-time favorite to win the Derby since Spectacular Bid in 1979.

Fusiachi Pegasus defeated Aptitude by a length and a half in his Derby win and Pegasus's Derby winning time of 2:01.12 is currently the tenth fastest of all time in the Derby and he was a heavy favorite entering the Preakness but would finish second to Red Bullet by three and three-quarter lengths.

Without the Triple Crown to be won, Drysdale decided to skip the Belmont Stakes to order to concentrate on a fall campaign that would end in the Breeders Cup Classic and would win the Grade II Jerome Handicap in New York as his only prep for the Classic, where he would return to Louisville and finish sixth to Tiznow in his final race before retirement.

As a son of legendary sire Mr.Prospector from a Danzig mare (Angel Fever) Fusiachi Pegasus was expected to be a huge star at stud, considering the speed in his pedigree and showing ability to go the classic distance on the racetrack.

It didn't turn out that way as the Fusaichi Pegasus stud fee slowly declined from a starting point of $150,000 to end his stud career at $7,500.

Fusaichi Pegasus ran near the end of my intense following of thoroughbred racing, so I was a big fan of his but I also associate him with my late pal Teddy.

Why?

Well, I traveled to pick Teddy up on the morning of the 2000 Preakness as Pegasus was expected to win the second leg of the Triple Crown and it was mildly raining (which may have been a major reason that Red Bullet upset Pegasus on a Pimlico track rated as good not fast) as Ryan and I picked the little guy up.

It's hard to believe that it's been twenty-three years since that day and so much has changed both in and out of my life since my best buddy scrambled up those stairs for the first time.

I'll never forget that day or how much joy Teddy brought into my life and I'll always associate Fusaichi Pegasus and the 2000 Preakness with the dog that meant so much to me and always will.

Cleaning out the Inbox

   The inbox cleaning is a bit overdue and most of the links are to the Athletic, so if you aren't a subscriber this inbox might be a bit short for you!

We start with the story of the New York Islanders' "Gorton Fisherman" logo that was so reviled in its day and lasted only a few years before the Islanders returned to their original logo as quickly as they could!

The Gorton Fisherman only was used for two seasons (1995-96 and 96-97) and is remembered to this day for its "unique' look with fans jeering the Islanders at home and on the road with the chant "We Want Fishsticks" as the team finished forty games under .500 while wearing the sweaters!

The logo is making an occasional return this season for the Islanders as part of the NHL's "Reverse Retro" series.

The Athletic writes on the long-defunct World Football League with more tales of the crazy league's legendary tales off the field as well as a few from on the gridiron as well.

These articles on the defunct leagues of the seventies and eighties are always a fun read but they also sometimes tell the same stories that have been told before.

This one has a few different ones with a different twist on some of the teams that moved in the middle of their only season and just how bad the finances and debt really were.

This article deals with 1-AA football power North Dakota State, the issues with their fan base, and if they could eventually move to Division I, and if so, what conference?

Any school wishing to move to Division I from a lower level must have a conference invitation in order to make the move.

Flightline would win the Breeders Cup Classic by eight and quarter lengths in what would be his final start but for a horse with few starts in his career (a mere six) Flightline is being talked about as an all-time great in the sport of thoroughbred racing by more than only his team.

This piece by Dana O'Neil looks at what was being said about Flightline before the race and when you read the article, imagine his classic victory by the biggest margin in the history of the classic.

Flightline will stand at Lane's End Farm in Kentucky for a fee of $200,000.

Finally, the only non-Athletic link in the inbox- ESPN writes of Andrew Luck and what Luck has been doing since his surprising retirement in 2019.

Luck also mentions some of his thinking in the run-up to his announcement, why he made the decision, and why he thinks he may decide to coach eventually.

Luck also discusses his many injuries and just how difficult his rehabilitation was for his injured shoulder in 2017.

It's a very depth look into Andrew Luck and how he is far from the stereotypical athlete in some ways and yet has the same mentality in others.

Forgotten Superstars-Skip Away

We leave the human division of the Forgotten Superstars universe today for the first time as we look at perhaps my favorite racehorse ever- Skip Away.

"Skippy" raced for 4 years from ages 2 to 5 and racked up 4 Eclipse Awards, which are the racing versions of winning MVPs only in specific categories.

Skip Away was the 3-year-old of the year for 1996, won the Eclipse for the top older horse (4 years and up) for 1997 and 1998, and was Horse of the Year (kinda like Best of the Champions) for 1998.

Skip Away also is the third-highest money winner of all time, although one can make a real argument for being the top money earner in North American history ( and Bill Finley does here) as the two horses ahead of him on the earnings list (Curlin and Cigar) both inflated their earnings by winning highly overpriced purses in Dubai to boost their totals and without those wins, neither would have finished ahead of Skip Away...

So why isn't Skip Away remembered by the average or casual fan?
Well, it comes down to one reason-he hated the track surface at Churchill Downs.
Skippy ran two races at the Twin Spires and was well beaten in both the Kentucky Derby at three and the Breeders' Cup Classic at 5.
Most of the general public believes that racing begins in May at Louisville and ends in June at Belmont, so the poor Derby kept him out of the public eye, and the loss in the 1998 Classic was the difference in catching Cigar for the top spot in money earnings, as Curlin would race after both had retired.
Wins in those two races would likely have made Skip Away the most remembered horse in the last twenty years.
When you add his close seconds in the Preakness and Belmont to the equation, his Q score among sports fans just doesn't add up.

Skip Away would charge up late in his three-year-old year with wins in the Ohio Derby, Haskell Invitational, Woodbine Million, and in his only meeting with Cigar, defeated him in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.
Skip Away's win over Cigar cemented him as the better horse(in our opinion), as a great older horse usually has the edge over a great three-year-old.
Look back to 1978 when 4-year-old Seattle Slew beat 3-year-old Affirmed and a year later when the same Affirmed nipped 3-year-old champ Spectacular Bid for just two examples, so when the three-year-old wins, it says it all.
Cigar fans point to the five-pound weight difference as the factor in their horse's loss, but watch the replay, Preakness winner Louis Quatorze presses Skip Away the entire race, giving him anything but an easy lead, and that contributes to the greatness of the victory.
Watch this classic below!



At four, Skip Away was not as dominant as the handicap division was as strong as it was in years with powerhouses such as Gentleman, Formal Gold, Will's Way, and Skippy swapping wins and losses with each other.
Skip Away still added wins in the Massachusetts Handicap, Suburban Handicap, a repeat win in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, and this dominant win in the Breeders' Cup Classic to nail down the Eclipse for the top older horse.


At five, Skip Away was just about unbeatable in winning his first seven races of the year, five of which were Grade Ones, before running into a sloppy track in a third try at the Jockey Club Gold Cup and then his final visit to Churchill Downs.

Wins in the Hollywood Gold Cup in his only race in California in 1998 were in addition to wins in the Donn and Gulfstream Park Handicaps, the Pimlico Special, Mass Cap, Iselin Handicap, and my favorite, a win against the best field of the season to date -a dominant win in the Woodward Stakes below.
Skip Away was retired after the loss in Kentucky and currently stands for $10,000 at
Hopewell Farm in Kentucky, where his numbers as a stallion are solid but not spectacular.

Was Skip Away the horse of the nineties?
Well, we think so, but he certainly deserves the recognition and entry into our universe as a Forgotten Superstar.

Bullpen Notes

The big fight in Los Angeles tonight as Antonio Margarito defending his WBA Welterweight strap against Shane Mosley at the sold-out Staples Center.
This shapes up as a top-action fight, and we like Margarito by either a late-round stoppage or a unanimous decision.
The fight will be televised live on HBO.

The Cleveland Browns fired Pro Personnel director T.J. McCreight as the George Kokinis train prepares to arrive by the lake.
McCreight had a background of working with Kokinis and was considered a strong candidate to stay in his position. However, Kokinis may have thought that he could handle the job himself, as he had already managed those tasks in Baltimore...

Until tomorrow! 

Photo Credit
Skip Away:Downthestretchphotos.com