The 1960 Classics

The 1960 Classics
Joseph Di Rienzi

I would like to look back 60 years to the Triple Crown series of 1960 to highlight the differences and similarities between thoroughbred racing in the U. S. then and now. In this drama, the major actors will be equines Bally Ache, Venetian Way, Celtic Ash and Tompion with cameo appearances from Warfare and Victoria Park. I will also briefly mention the respective human characters who played supportive roles.

Warfare was a hulking coal gray son of 1954 Kentucky Derby winner Determine that began racing in 1959 as a two-year-old in California. Traveling east in the fall, he swept the major juvenile races winning the Cowdin, Champagne and Garden State Stakes, thereby earning his age’s male championship and the early favoritism for the 1960 Kentucky Derby. Warfare’s fellow California based rival, Tompion, was bred to be a champion by owner C. V. Whitney. Trained throughout his career by Robert L. Wheeler, Tompion was a handsome seal brown colt by the illustrious Tom Fool from a mare sired by Triple Crown hero Count Fleet. Despite a stamina laden pedigree, Tompion made his initial start on January 9, 1959 in a 3 furlong race at Santa Anita Park, finishing fourth but put third after a disqualification. After a second place finish (Warfare was third) in the Hollywood Juvenile Championship Stakes, Tompion was sent to Saratoga Springs, NY. He assumed the pro-tem leadership of the two-year-old division with a come from behind win in the Hopeful Stakes. However, after defeats in the aforementioned Cowdin, Champagne and Garden State Stakes to Warfare, Tompion was regarded as the year’s second best juvenile.

Other promising two-year-olds of 1959 included Leonard Fruchtman’s Bally Ache. On the other end of the breeding spectrum from Warfare and Tompion, Bally Ache was a son of the modest stallion Ballydam out of the equally undistinguished dam Celestial Blue. He was able to outrun his breeding in any way it could be measured. Trained by H. J. “Jimmy” Pitt, Bally Ache, just as Tompion did, started the year in 3 furlong “baby” races (at Hialeah Park) and would race in just about all the major juvenile races in the East and Midwest culminating in the champion making Garden State Stakes in which he finished a close second to Warfare. Midwestern based Venetian Way was a bright chestnut with a broad blaze. Owned by Sunny Blue Farm, the son of Royal Coinage had won 4 of 9 juvenile starts and had bested Bally Ache in the Washington Park Futurity. Finally, Windfields Farm’s Victoria Park, the champion juvenile colt in Canada, impressed late in the year with a victory at Aqueduct Racetrack in the Remsen Stakes.

At the start of 1960, the major Triple Crown contenders were based on opposite coasts, namely in Florida and California.  As a testimony to his hardiness, Bally Ache started the year early with victories in the Hibiscus and Bahamas Stakes at Hialeah. He was upset by Victoria Park in a prep race for the Flamingo Stakes in which the Canadian champion broke the 8½ furlong track record. E. P. Taylor, the Toronto industrialist who owned and developed Windfields Farm into a juggernaut, would extend his influence to United States racing and breeding in a few years, and this venture by Victoria Park was in many ways a dress reversal for what was yet to come. In the Flamingo Stakes, Bally Ache under his now regular rider in Robert Ussery assumed an early lead and never looked back defeating Victoria Park by 3½ lengths.

Using the Fountain of Youth Stakes as a prep for the Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park, Bally Ache could not hold off Eagle Admiral who was the recipient of a significant weight allowance. In the Florida Derby, the threat to Bally Ache’s Florida supremacy would not come from Eagle Admiral but from Venetian Way trained by Victor Sovinski. The chestnut was a little slower to come to hand as a three-year-old but really challenged the front ranks in the Florida Derby. He wrested the lead from Bally Ache in the stretch and appeared on his way to victory when Bally Ache in a vivid display of his determination fought back along the inside to win by a nose.

Over the winter, there was a change in leadership in the three-year-old division. Warfare, finished second in an allowance race at Santa Anita but came out of the race with an injury. He had an abortive campaign to get ready for the classics. Shipping to New York to win the Swift Stakes at Aqueduct, Warfare reinjured himself and was forced into retirement. Tompion had finished second in the San Miguel Stakes but won an allowance prior to the Santa Anita Derby impressively and was thought to be on the verge of fulfilling his lofty reputation. The favorite in the Santa Anita Derby, however, was the lightly raced but somewhat erratic Flow Line who had won the San Felipe Stakes easily. In the 9 furlong race, Tompion showed his class and his ability at longer distances as he easily won in fast time under William Shoemaker. Flow Line was rank from the start and so difficult to handle around the turns that he was eventually eased up into last place.

In April Tompion confirmed his form at Keeneland Racecourse when he won the 7 furlong Forerunner Purse and defeated Victoria Park convincingly in the Blue Grass Stakes just 9 days before the Derby. Bally Ache also added to his credentials with another conquest of Venetian Way in the 7 furlong Stepping Stone Purse at Churchill Downs a week before the Run for the Roses. 

The 86^th edition of the Kentucky Derby appeared to have two standouts in the 13 entries, Tompion and Bally Ache, representing West and East Coast racing and two acolytes, Venetian Way and Victoria Park. Tompion went off as the nearly even money favorite off his breeding, reputation and recent good form, but there was also strong support for Bally Ache because of his consistency and determination. The track conditions may have played a significant part in the outcome. Somewhat wet from earlier rains, the under footing was not the type Tompion could get a hold of, subsequently, he was a non-factor in finishing fourth. In addition he returned with a hoof injury after losing a shoe in the race. This running of the Kentucky Derby was reminiscent of the Florida Derby with two exceptions as Venetian Way, under rider Bill Hartack, tracked Bally Ache most of the way around the Churchill Downs oval. One is that Venetian Way defeated Bally Ache, and second the result was by a definitive 3½ lengths. Victoria Park would finish third representing, at the time, the best effort of a Canadian bred in the Derby. 

Venetian Way winning the 1960 Kentucky Derby
(UPI Telephoto)

The dust had not quite settled in Kentucky when Bally Ache appeared at Pimlico Racetrack a week later in an allowance race unofficially known as the Preakness Prep. He won that race handily and proceeded to the Preakness with a lot of confidence in his handlers’ eyes. The big news before the Preakness was the sale of Bally Ache to a group called Turfland which included his previous sole owner Leonard Fruchtman for at that time an astounding $1,250,000.

Tompion, nursing his hoof, sat out the Preakness Stakes. In a sign of what would be to come in thoroughbred racing, Venetian Way raced in the Derby on the drug phenylbutazone, a pain reducer, which was legal in Kentucky at the time but was prohibited as a race day medication in Maryland. In the Middle Jewel, Bally Ache regained his mastery over Venetian Way whom he had finished in front of four times prior to the Derby. Establishing a clear lead and setting a measured pace, the bay son of Ballydam easily turned back Venetian Way’s challenge on the far turn. At the finish, he was 4 lengths in front of a rallying Victoria Park. Celtic Ash, a lightly raced import from Ireland, owned by Joseph O’Connell and trained by Tom Barry was a good finishing third. Venetian Way, racing without his pharmaceutical, tired to be fifth.

Bally Ache after winning the 1960 Preakness Stakes
(baltimoresun.com)

Not letting the three week interval between the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes find them idle, Bally Ache, Venetian Way, Tompion (deemed recovered from his sore hoof) and Celtic Ash ran in the Jersey Derby at Garden State Race Track. In a spirted stretch duel, Bally Ache prevailed by a neck over Tompion with Celtic Ash third and Venetian Way fourth.

With clear leadership in the three-year-old male division accorded to Bally Ache, winning the Belmont Stakes would be considered the ultimate achievement for this horse who at one time 

appeared to have distance limitations. However, this test was not to be as he suffered an injury in training and was removed from the Belmont prospective field. (In addition, Victoria Park, having returned to Canada, did not contest the race either.) After William Hartack had been replaced by Eddie Arcaro aboard Venetian Way, he secured the mount on Celtic Ash for the Belmont Stakes. The race’s 1½ miles were ideal for the distance loving Irish bred, and he easily defeated Venetian Way by 5½ lengths. Tompion, the odds-on favorite, was rank when attempting to set the pace and tired, finishing a very disappointing fourth, prompting the phrase, “Tompion is no chompion”.

Celtic Ash winning the 1960 Belmont Stakes
(NEWS photo by Walter Kelleher)

If we stopped time after the Belmont Stakes and told racing people of this day that the eventual three-year-old champion would not only be none of the Triple Crown participants but would be a horse who did not make his three-year-old debut till after the Belmont Stakes was run, would there be any believers? With the perfect optics of history, we know this was the case and not only would this horse emerge to be the champion of 1960, he would forge a career that would place him among the greatest horses every to race in the United States. That horse was Kelso.

None of the three classic winners distinguished themselves afterwards. Bally Ache, probably the most gifted of all, had a tragic ending. After returning from his injury to win two allowance races prior to finishing third in the United Nations Handicap, he broke his ankle in a prep race at Hawthorne Racetrack. Shortly thereafter, he succumbed to an intestinal affection, a sardonic irony to his name. Venetian Way was only able to win a minor stakes race at Washington Park before his retirement in 1961, and Celtic Ash went lame soon after his Belmont Stakes triumph ending his racing career.

It was the often disappointing Tompion who had the most success post classics. During the summer of 1960, Tompion reaffirmed his affinity with Saratoga Racetrack winning the Bernard Baruch and Travers Stakes. The son of Tom Fool continued to race through the end of his four-year-old season placing in stakes races against the best and even winning in 1961 the Aqueduct Handicap. He was also a fair success at stud whereas, Venetian Way was a failure, and Celtic Ash had only a few major winners from limited opportunities. (Bally Ache’s premature death, of course, precluded a stud career.) Tompion, standing at times in the U. S., France and Japan, sired several stakes winners including the cheekily named Chompion, the hero of the 1968 Travers Stakes.