Best Horses Not to Win a Championship Series: Sightseek

Best Horses Not to Win a Championship Series
Number 10: Sightseek

Joseph Di Rienzi

In thoroughbred racing history, we remember clearly the champion horses who won fame and glory on the racetrack. Their accomplishments are well documented, and the honors they have gained give testimony to their brilliance. However, there are a group of horses who by happenstance, missed opportunities or just being born in the wrong year missed out on any accolades. This occasional series will feature those somewhat forgotten thoroughbreds who did not win any championship but ran exceptionally well and under different circumstances might have garnered awards. I will discuss ten of these “unsung heroes” who raced between 1959 and the present in separate pieces with my first being the tenth ranked Sightseek.

                         

                                             

Sightseeek winning the 2004 Beldame Stakes
bloodhorse.com

                       

The aforementioned was a compact chestnut owned by the famed Juddmonte Farms. Sightseek, a foal of 1999, was a daughter of the farm’s stallion Distant View from the prized mare Viviana. Trained by what was then Juddmonte’s American trainer Bobby Frankel, Sightseek did not begin her racing career till the summer of 2002 when she won a maiden race at Saratoga Racetrack. After two allowance races, she moved up in class and concluded her sophomore year with victories in the Raven Run Stakes at Keeneland Racecourse and the Top Flight Handicap at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Based in California at the beginning of 2003, Sightseek raced at Santa Anita Park, a track that would beguile her throughout her racing career and, perhaps, be the biggest reason for Sightseek’s inability to secure a year end championship. In her initial sojourn in the Golden State, Sightseek finished second in the Santa Monica, La Canada and Santa Margarita Handicaps. Upon traveling east, Sightseek won in succession the Humana Distaff Handicap at Churchill Downs, the Ogden Phipps Handicap at Belmont, Park, the Go for Wand Handicap at Saratoga, and the Beldame Stakes (back at Belmont). In the last named, she defeated Bird Town, the leading three-year-old filly of the year.

The Breeders’ Cup was run at Santa Anita in 2003, and the Distaff, the feature race for fillies and mares, was missing the 2002 victress and the previous year’s older female champion Azeri due to an injury. In her absence, Sightseek was the strong favorite. However, the dark cloud on her resume were those three second place finishes at Santa Anita earlier in the year, suggesting the daughter of Distant View would not run her best race on this racetrack. This year’s Distaff which had a history of producing some major upsets had another in the horse with the highest odds (40-1), Adoration, winning the race. Setting all the pace, she shook off threats at the top of the stretch to win by 4½ lengths. Sightseek, who was caught between horses after the start, raced in sixth place down the backstretch. When asked for run by jockey Jerry Bailey, she closed a little ground to finish fourth. Sightseek’s loss in the Distaff no doubt cost her the divisional championship as Azeri repeated as Eclipse Award winner for Older Female.

Sightseek started 2004 on a down note in keeping her dubious record of never winning at Santa Anita intact by finishing fourth in the Santa Monica Handicap. Shipped east, the daughter of Distant View found Gulfstream Park more amiable in scoring a bloodless 7½ length victory in the Rampart Handicap. Racing at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Oaks day in the Louisville Breeders’ Cup Handicap, Sightseek reportedly did not handle the sloppy going, finishing a well beaten fourth. After this defeat, Bobby Frankel sent her to New York where she would race the rest of her career.

While double champion, Arzei and Sightseek were converging towards each other, the 2002 Two-Year-Old Filly Champion, Storm Flag Flying was attempting a comeback from an aborted and unsuccessful three-year-old season. After an allowance win in Florida and a third place finish in the Distaff Breeders’ Cup Handicap at Aqueduct, the daughter of Storm Cat won the Shuvee Handicap at Belmont Park.

The 8½ furlong Ogden Phipps Handicap at Belmont Park brought Azeri, Sightseek, and Storm Flag Flying together. (The only other entry was Passing Shot.) Sightseek continued her love affair with New York racetracks with an eased up 3½ length victory over Storm Flag Flying. Azeri, giving weight to all, was raced into defeat by Sightseek and faded to fourth, beaten a total of almost 12 lengths. The Ogden Phipps victory was the seventh win in as many starts in New York for the Juddmonte five-year-old mare.

The top older fillies and mares continued their intramurals during the Saratoga meeting. In the 9 furlong Go for Wand Handicap, Azeri, getting 2 lb. from Sightseek, but giving 3 lb. to Storm Flag Flying regained the leadership of the division with a wire-to-wire 1¾ length victory over the former with the latter another 2 lengths behind. In the 1¼ mile Personal Ensign Handicap, Azeri carrying 122 lb. was facing Storm Flag Flying (116 lb.) again but not Sightseek, who after suffering her first loss at a New York racetrack in the Go for Wand, was reserved for the fall meet at Belmont Park. In the race named after her grand dam, Storm Flag Flying, taking advantage of a rapid pace that softened Azeri, drove by her in the stretch for a 1¼ length victory. Azeri, game in defeat, held second by a ½ length over Nevermore.

After the Saratoga meet, Azeri was shipped to Kentucky where she scored a straightforward 3 length victory in the Spinster Stakes against weak opposition. Sightseek wrapped up her career at her favorite racetrack, Belmont Park, winning the Ruffian Handicap by 11¼ lengths and the Beldame Stakes by 2¾ lengths. In the latter race, Sightseek appeared to face competition in Storm Flag Flying and top three-year-old Society Selection, but after setting a moderate pace for the 9 furlong contest, she coasted to victory. Society Selection finished second, 1¼ lengths in front of Storm Flag Flying who uncharacteristically tried to keep pace with Sightseek. Bobby Frankel had announced before the Beldame that his mare would be retired afterward instead of going on to race in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (held this year at Lone Star Park in Texas). Subsequent reports indicated that Sightseek had been racing with a swollen left front ankle, and it was thought too risky to persevere with her any longer. Nevertheless, she had been racing in top form and foregoing the Distaff would consequently deny her an Eclipse award she probably merited.

Azeri made her final start of her illustrious career in the Breeders’ Cup Classic finishing fifth against male horses.  Despite her unplacing, she was voted the Eclipse Award (for the third time) for Older Female Horse. Sightseek, for the second year in a row, was the second ranked older female on dirt. She concluded her racing career with 12 wins (including 7 at the highest level) and 5 seconds in 20 outings, earning over $2.4 million. Upon retirement, Sightseek joined the broodmare band at Juddmonte Farms where she currently resides.