The People's Horses: Part I, Carry Back

The People’s Horses, part I
Carry Back

Joseph Di Rienzi

Thoroughbred racing has been called, “The Sport of Kings”, and although there are not that many royals presently, (Queen Elizabeth and Middle Eastern potentates, excepted) it still attracts the modern day equivalent in terms of wealth and swagger. Prominent individuals from manufacturing, finance and technology are typical owners with enough assets to compete in this high risk activity. Still over the years, the relatively speaking “little person” has been able to race a top class horse, usually acquired at a modest price due to unsung bloodlines. The success of these horses have only enhanced the romance of the sport, and these “underdogs” have attracted a wide following among the general racing public. I deem these animals “The People’s Horses”, and in this series, I will examine the racing careers of four:  Carry Back, Smarty Jones, Funny Cide and California Chrome.  

The dominant two-year-old of 1960 in the U. S. was Hail to Reason. However, the son of Turn-to was injured in September forcing his retirement. In his place, a plucky brown colt, Carry Back, became the most successful late season juvenile. Bred and trained by the colorful Jack Price (although the owner of record was his wife Katherine), this modestly Florida bred son of Saggy (whose claim to fame was being the only horse to defeat Citation in 1948) was produced by the mare Joppy who Price had purchased for $300. (Saggy’s stud fee was a grand total of $400.) The foal, Carry Back, described as “scrawny”, nevertheless was able to run an incredible 21 times as a two-year-old in 1960. He began his juvenile season in a 3 furlong race in January at Hialeah Racetrack, a distance he would run five consecutive times.  Subsequently defeated thrice in stakes races by Hail to Reason, Carry Back started his climb up the ranks when the former was retired, and the distances started to stretch out. He won at Belmont Park the 7 furlong Cowdin Stakes, was unplaced in the 1 mile Champagne Stakes, but he roared down the stretch to win the 8½ furlong Garden State Stakes. Carry Back finished the year with a victory in the 1 mile Remsen Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack. 

With these triumphs, Carry Back was gaining a fan base. He was, at this stage of his career, on the small size with an uncharacteristic long tail. His regular jockey, John Sellers, was tall so this would even make the horse look smaller on the racetrack. He would race in the rear of the field and with a sweeping move on the stretch turn resolutely run down his opposition. Because he was always gaining ground at the end of his races, he appeared to be a bona fide contender for the classics in 1961, and this analysis would prove prescient.

At the beginning of 1961, Carry Back was sent to Florida, his birth state, to prepare for the classics. At Hialeah Park, he would find a talented and persistent rival in Fred W. Hooper’s Crozier. They met for the first time in the 7 furlong Bahamas Stakes. Crozier finished ahead of Carry Back who finished fourth, but Crozier was run down by Vapor Whirl. A week later, Carry Back won an 8½ furlong allowance race, and a week after that he came from 11 lengths back to beat Sherluck by a ½ length in the 9 furlong Everglades Stakes. (Crozier who had a bad habit of swerving in the stretch finished a close third but was disqualified and placed fifth.) In the Flamingo Stakes, the premier race of the Hialeah meet for three-year-olds, Crozier had a clear lead in the stretch, but Carry Back, who was a tracking fourth in the early going, beat him narrowly despite being carried wide by his rival.

They both ran in the Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park, with Crozier losing by a nose to Beau Prince with Carry Back a closing third. The Florida Derby result was a virtual replay of the Flamingo, only it was run on a sloppy racetrack, and Carry Back had to rally from a double digit length deficit. Once again, Crozier had a clear lead; once again he swerved into Carry Back; and once again, despite being bumped, Carry Back prevailed by a head with Beau Prince back in third.

As the three-year-olds moved north and east following their winter campaigns, Carry Back ran in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct, and despite his closing rally he could not get within 3 lengths of Globemaster who led all the way. In the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland Racetrack, Sherluck scored a runaway victory. Crozier had tuned up for the Kentucky Derby with an impressive victory in the Derby Trial Stakes over Santa Anita Derby winner Four-and-Twenty.

On Derby Day, the betting public endorsed Carry Back as the favorite in the fifteen horse field. The expectation of a lively pace between Four-and-Twenty, Globemaster and Crozier would seem to work in Carry Back’s favor. The Kentucky Derby of 1961 was one of those rare Derbies that enfolded exactly as anticipated. On a racetrack labeled “good”, Globemaster showed his speed to gain a clear lead with Four-and-Twenty in pursuit. Braulio Baeza on Crozier was able to rate Crozier and wait while Four-and-Twenty made his challenge to Globemaster at the top of the stretch. Swinging Crozier out a little wide, he ran down the embattled leaders quickly and opened daylight on the field. However, just as in the Flamingo and Florida Derby, Carry Back was launching his rally, this time from eleventh place. As Carry Back came up to Crozier in deep stretch, the latter resumed his penchant for bearing out, and even though being floated wide, Carry Back was able to prevail by ¾ of a length. Bass Clef was 2 lengths back in third, with Sherluck in fifth, Globemaster, sixth, and Four-and-Twenty finishing seventh. This was a very popular result. Carry Back’s modest breeding, his rousing finishes and his “everyman” connections made him the “people’s horse”.  

Carry Back in the 1961 Kentucky Derby winner's circle
(BloodHorse Library)

The Preakness Stakes two weeks later promised to be a redo of the Kentucky Derby with Carry Back and Crozier as the leading contenders. From the Derby, there was also Globemaster and Sherluck in the nine horse field. (Four-and-Twenty did not contest the Preakness having returned to California.) The Preakness unfolded similarly to the Derby with Globemaster having a clear lead stalked by Crozier and Carry Back well behind. As the field entered the stretch, it became apparent Crozier was not closing ground as Globemaster began separating himself from the field. Carry Back went very wide around the Pimlico Racetrack stretch turn, and his chances of winning appeared impossible. However, he kept coming and in the last 1/16 of a mile ran down Globemaster to win going away by ¾ of a length, his identical Derby victory margin. Crozier finished third 4 lengths behind Globemaster with Sherluck a nonthreatening fifth. After such a stirring finish, there was great jubilation in the winner’s circle, and the expectations of the first Triple Crown winner since Citation in 1948 reached a fever pitch.

Facing, with the exception of Crozier (who was not entered), most of the same horses he had defeated in the previous classics, Carry Back was an overwhelming favorite to win the Belmont Stakes and complete the Triple Crown. The additional distance of the Belmont were thought to play to the advantage of the stretch running Carry Back over his speedier rivals. However, history shows the Belmont Stakes is invariably won by a horse who is in striking distance from the ½ mile pole and can keep up a steady pace, rather than make a late surge.  Another factor was Sherluck, who after winning the Blue Grass Stakes by open lengths and finishing out of the money in both the Derby and Preakness, was reunited with Braulio Baeza, his Blue Grass rider. 

As the Belmont unfolded, to no one’s surprise, Globemaster took the lead and set a leisurely pace with Sherluck tracking him in second. Racing fans accustomed to Carry Back’s meteoric finishes did not panic when he placed himself well behind the leaders. However, when the field made the turn around the enormous Belmont stretch turn, there was no response from John Sellers’ urgings, and it became apparent that Carry Back would be no threat. At the top of the stretch, Sherluck (at odds of 65-1) ranged alongside of Globemaster and gradually widened his advantage to prevail by 2 lengths with Guadalcanal 2½ lengths further back in third. The scene in the winner’s circle was muted and awkward except for winning owner Jacob Sher and trainer Harold Young. Former President Dwight D. Eisenhower was there to presumably welcome a new Triple Crown champion. There is a great photograph of the Panamanian born Baeza graciously accepting the Belmont trophy from President and Mrs. Eisenhower. 

The immediate aftermath was incredulity over Carry Back’s seventh place finish, beaten over 13 lengths. He did come out of the Belmont with a filled ankle that may have affected his performance but more telling may be his stamina limitations. Carry Back’s acceleration enabled him to win at shorter distances with a late surge, but bursts could not be maintained at the Belmont’s 1½ mile distance, especially when the race is run at a moderate pace. The fact remains that in Carry Back’s entire career he was never able to win a distance greater than a 1¼ mile.

The remainder of Carry Back’s three-year-old year showed inconsistency. He was victorious in the Jerome Handicap at 1 mile defeating Beau Prince and Sherluck. However, against older horses he was unplaced in the U. N. Handicap on grass and third to the mighty gelding Kelso in Woodward Stakes. Racing at 13 furlongs in the Lawrence Realization, he finished a weak third to his Belmont Stakes conqueror Sherluck. Carry Back did finish the year on a high note winning the Trenton Handicap at 1¼ mile at Garden State Park. In year-end honors, Carry Back was unanimously voted Male Three-Year-Old Champion.

As a four-year-old, after a slow beginning, Carry Back demonstrated he could compete against the best in the U. S.  He started 1962 running well without winning in most of the winter races for handicap horses. He re-found his championship form in May in the 1 mile Metropolitan Handicap at Aqueduct setting a new track record in defeating Kelso who finished sixth.

Kelso and Carry Back met again in the 1¼ mile Suburban Handicap with Kelso carrying 132 lb. and Carry Back 126 lb. But there would be a new adversary for both trained by the legendary Allen Jerkens in Beau Purple. He came into the Suburban with the reputation of a speedy but erratic racehorse. What no one but Allen Jerkens seemed to know was that if left alone on the lead, his courage would increase, and his pedigree would carry him as far as racehorses needed to travel. Weighted at 115 lb. in the Suburban, Beau Purple set a moderate pace and met the challenge of Kelso winning by 2½ lengths in new track record time at Aqueduct with Carry Back finishing last. Within two weeks, this trio were re-matched in the 1¼ mile Monmouth Handicap. This time, Beau Purple (117 lb.), after being pressed on the lead, faded, and Carry Back (124 lb.) drew clear to defeat Kelso (130 lb.) by 3 lengths. Kelso did not contest the Brooklyn Handicap, but Beau Purple (117 lb.), finding his courage again, led all the way besting his recently set track record with Carry Back (127 lb.) back in fourth. At Saratoga, Carry Back would win the 9 furlong Whitney Stakes beating his old classics rival Crozier who returned the favor downstate in the 1 mile Aqueduct Stakes.

Always eager to challenge convention, Carry Back’s owners ambitiously sent their homebred to France in October to contest the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, a rare attempt by a North American-based runner to win the European continent’s greatest race. He could not finish better than tenth, but on grass, going 1½ miles, racing the opposite direction than he was accustomed to, it is a better performance than appears at first blush.

Returning to the U. S. in time to face again Kelso and Beau Purple, Carry Back stayed on turf for the 1½ mile Man o’ War Stakes at Belmont Park. At equal weights with his rivals, Beau Purple, defied his critics that claimed he needed weight concessions to win, by leading all the way beating the pursuing Kelso by 2 lengths and setting a new course record in the process with Carry Back fifth. In the climatic Washington D. C. International at Laurel Racetrack, Kelso’s connections, determined not to let Beau Purple “steal another race”, sent Kelso after Beau Purple early in the race. He ran that rival into the ground, fought off Carry Back’s charge in the stretch but was unable to withstand the closing kick of the French representative Match II who defeated Kelso by 1½ lengths with Carry Back finishing third.

Retired to stud in Florida, Jack Price, surprising everyone, announced that his horse would be returned to racing competition in the summer of 1963. After some disappointing efforts including a drubbing by Kelso in the Woodward Stakes, Carry Back silenced Price’s critics in winning for the second time the Trenton Handicap. After this triumph, he was officially retired from racing.

Carry Back’s record includes 61 starts over a span of four years with 21 victories and 22 additional in the money performances. His stud career showed some modest success with a few stakes winners. In 1983, he was diagnosed with cancer and died soon after at age 25. His grave stone identifies him as “The People’s Choice”.