Dam Iron Reward Foaled March 1, 1952 Country United States Species Equus caballus Parents Khaled Earnings 848,900 USD | Damsire Beau Pere Died 1972 Colour Chestnut Sex Stallion | |
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Swaps (March 1, 1952 – November 3, 1972) was a California bred American thoroughbred racehorse. He won the Kentucky Derby in 1955 and was named United States Horse of the Year in the following year. He was known as the "California Comet," and occasionally with affection, due to his wins despite numerous injuries and treatments, the "California Cripple."
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Background
Swaps was a chestnut horse bred and owned by Rex C. Ellsworth. He was trained throughout his racing career by Mesh Tenney. He was the son of Khaled, a stallion imported from the Aga Khan's stud in Europe. His dam Iron Reward was a half-sister of the Kentucky Derby winner Iron Liege.
Racing career
Trained by Mesh Tenney (who was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1991), bred and owned by the once cowhand Rex Ellsworth, Swaps won his first 1955 start, the San Vicente Stakes. In May 1955, he won the Kentucky Derby under jockey Willie Shoemaker, beating the heavily favored east coast star, Belair's Nashua, under Eddie Arcaro. Arcaro was quoted before the race that Summer Tan was the primary threat, which manifested the east-west division between the Swaps-Nashua camps. This rivalry culminated in a famous match race later that year.
Nashua followed up the Derby with wins in the Preakness and Belmont Stakes in which Swaps did not compete because a split hoof wall in his right forefoot, incurred in January, had inflamed again. Returning to the West Coast, Swaps broke records all over the country at various distances, on turf and on dirt, and often under heavy weight. (In the end, he broke or equaled six different track records.) With much interest in a match race between Nashua and Swaps looming, a deal between the camps was reached for the colts to meet at Chicago's Washington Park on August 31, 1955. Swaps tuned up with a win in the prestigious American Derby, setting a 1 3⁄16 mile course record of 1:54 3⁄5 on the turf. However, the day before the scheduled match race, Swaps re-injured his foot on a wet track. Nashua broke alertly under Arcaro, and he gained a tactical advantage on the lead. Arcaro's tactic forced Shoemaker with Swaps to get the worst of the poor footing. Nashua drew clear in the stretch to win easily. Nashua went on to earn 1955 U.S. Horse of the Year honors. Swaps did not race for the rest of the year as his foot healed again.
Although occasionally troubled by the hoof after the recovery, Swaps generally performed well. At the age of four, Swaps was named Horse of the Year by Turf and Sport Digest after beating Nashua by 78 votes to 45, and topping a similar poll organized by Triangle Publications. William H.P. Robertson wrote in his "History of Thoroughbred Racing in America" that Swaps "entered stud with the largest collection of recognized world records (five) in history, and a lifetime performance summary, as follows: 25 starts, 19 wins, two seconds, two thirds, earnings of $848,900."
Racing Highlights
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The End of a Career
In October, training for the Washington, D.C. International at [Garden State Park, Cherry Hill, New Jersey], he fractured his leg in two places in his left rear cannon bone, then a week later banged his leg in his stall, breaking his cast, and extending the fractures into his pastern joint. Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons, the trainer of Nashua, sent him a special sling from Belmont Park. He initially had to be raised and lowered every 45 minutes and trainer Mesh Tenny stayed with the horse and performed the function for the first 36 hours. In November 1956, despite losing 300 pounds during the ordeal, he beat the odds and jogged away from his ordeal and was saved for stud duty.
Stud record
Swaps began at stud at Rex Ellsworth's farm, moving to John Galbreath's Darby Dan Farm in Lexington, Kentucky after a season. His last five seasons were at Spendthrift Farm.
Swaps sired several dozen offspring, including 35 stakes winners. Among his offspring wereChateaugay won the 1963 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes and Affectionately.
In November 1972, he was euthanized at the age of 20. He was buried at Spendthrift Farm, but his remains were moved in 1986 to the Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky.
Honors
A bronze of Swaps with jockey Bill Shoemaker stands at the Hollywood Park Clubhouse entrance gardens. Dedicated July 1, 1958, its design and setting was created by Millard Sheets and the sculpture by Albert Stewart. Swaps was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, New York in 1966.
In the list of the top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century by Blood-Horse magazine, Swaps ranks 20th.
(See Blood-Horse magazine's June 10, 2006 issue for a long article on Swaps's racing career)