Elliot Burch
A Gentleman Trainer and a Trainer to Gentlefolk
Joseph Di Rienzi
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| Photo:Daily Racing Form |
Elliot Burch was pre-destined to be a trainer. Born John
Elliot Burch, his father and grandfather, not only were thoroughbred trainers
but became inductees into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in
Saratoga, New York. Indeed, Elliot’s father, Preston M. Burch is the author of
the definitive book, Training
Thoroughbred Horses. After being educated at Yale University and the
University of Kentucky, Elliot, an uncommonly literary horseman, first went to
work as a writer for The Daily Racing
Form, but he gravitated to a horse trainer’s life, as his father’s
assistant in Mrs. Isabel Dodge Sloane’s Brookmeade Stable, and then in 1957, at
age 33, became the head trainer after Preston’s retirement.
His first major victory was with Oligarchy in the 1958
Widener Handicap at Hialeah Park. In the 1¼ mile contest, Oligarchy defeated
the previous year’s Kentucky Derby winner, Iron Liege, by a head while in
receipt of 17 lb. Known as a meticulous trainer, Elliot Burch, just like his
father, took an academic approach, keeping careful notes of his individual
charges’ races, habits, eccentrics and workout schedules.
The horse that brought Burch national attention was Sword
Dancer who as a juvenile in 1958 showed good promise in finishing third in the
climatic Garden State Stakes. In 1959 as a three year-old, the small, but
attractive chestnut son of Sunglow developed a reputation as a durable,
tenacious battler who improved as the season wore on. After a narrow second in
the Florida Derby, Sword Dancer won impressively the Stepping Stone Purse at
Churchill Downs the week before the Kentucky Derby. Bill Shoemaker who rode Sword Dancer dismounted feeling he
had just ridden the future Kentucky Derby winner and sought (to no avail) to
get out of his riding commitment on Tomy Lee.
At the top of the stretch in the Derby, Tomy Lee had the
lead with Sword Dancer looming on his outside. The dramatic stretch run saw Tomy
Lee drifting out and making contact with Sword Dancer. Bumps were exchanged and
the finish was decided by a nose - Tomy Lee’s. An inquiry was lodged by Sword
Dancer’s jockey, Bill Boland, and after a lengthy time
interval, the Kentucky stewards were unwilling to be the first to disqualify a
horse that finished first in the Kentucky Derby. Thus, Bill Shoemaker, who tried to get off Tomy Lee to ride Sword
Dancer, emerged victorious. Elliot Burch, musing on the outcome months later
showed his characteristic grace and perspective saying, "No one would
really want to win the Kentucky Derby on a claim of foul. But there's no doubt
in my mind that we were bumped and that we bumped a little bit ourselves, too.
But you can't scream and holler because you've lost a horse race.'' (
Sports Illustrated, February 22, 1960.)
With Tomy Lee absent from the other classics, Sword Dancer
would next finish second in the Preakness Stakes, beaten 4 lengths by Royal
Orbit. In the three week interval between the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes,
Elliot Burch made the enterprising decision to enter his
three year-old in the Metropolitan Handicap against older horses at one
mile. Burch’s reason was two-fold. Sword
Dancer thrived on racing, and, at the scale of weights, he thought his classic
tested colt had a great chance to win. Carrying 114 lb., Sword Dancer scored an
authoritative victory and started a pattern that Elliot Burch would use
successfully with two other Belmont Stakes winners.
In the Belmont Stakes, Sword Dancer wore down Bagdad in the
stretch to win by ¾ of a length with Royal Orbit a distant third. Thus, the 1959
classics ended with a separate winner for each race, but with the Belmont
victor, a diminutive bright chestnut with four white stockings, assuming the
leadership of the division with his hardiness, stamina, and courage. The rest
of the year would see “Little Red” expand and extend this dominance.
Over the summer, Sword Dancer added the Monmouth Handicap at 1¼ mile to his
resume and suffered a narrow lost to older horse Babu in the Brooklyn Handicap while
conceding 12 lb. in actual weight. Back in his own division, Sword Dancer
cemented the three year-old championship with a narrow win while conceding
weight in the Travers Stakes – “The Midsummer’s Derby” at historic Saratoga Race
Course.
It was evident that by the end of the summer the three best
racehorses in the United States were the defending Horse of the Year, Round
Table, the top four year-old,
Hillsdale, and the upstart three
year-old, Sword Dancer. The venue for a “Clash of
the Titans” was Aqueduct, the new racetrack in New York City. The Woodward
Stakes on Saturday, September 26, at 1¼ mile at weight for age was the stage
set to determine Horse-of-the Year honors. Only one other horse, Inside Tract, was
entered to face the “Big Three”. There was a significant and eventful jockey
switch. Shoemaker, who had assumed the mount on Sword Dancer
after the Kentucky Derby, was also the regular rider on Round Table. He chose
the older horse over the three year-old. Elliot Burch contracted the veteran big race rider Eddie
Arcaro to highlight the importance he attached to
winning this race.
The 1959 Woodward Stakes was a thriller. Hillsdale went to the front and set a leisurely pace
with Round Table a close second. Inside Track and Sword Dancer traded places for third and fourth with the
latter saving ground on the inside. As the field entered the stretch, Sword
Dancer seemed trapped on the rail as Hillsdale was fighting off Round Table’s
bid. It appeared that jockey Tommy Barrow aboard Hillsdale was so intent on
Round Table that he allowed his mount to drift off the rail just sufficient to
allow Arcaro to slip Sword Dancer through and in a desperate finish defeat
Hillsdale by a head with Round Table retreating to third place.
Sword Dancer and Round Table would face each
other one more time in the 2 mile Jockey Club Gold Cup. The Gold Cup was
anticlimactic, but nevertheless, definitive in that Sword Dancer won by 7
lengths over Round Table. At the end of the year, Sword Dancer was voted Three
Year-old Champion and Horse of the Year. After racing in 1960, during which he
won the Suburban Handicap and the Woodward (a second time), Sword Dancer was retired
to stud where he sired one of the thoroughbred greats in Damascus.
The second champion Elliot Burch trained for Brookmeade
Stable was Bowl of Flowers. A beautifully bred daughter of Sailor from the
broodmare Flower Bowl, Bowl of Flowers showed speed and class from the
beginning. In 1960 as a two year-old, she won the National Stallion (Fillies
Division), Frizette and Gardenia Stakes which was a sufficient resume to be named
Two-year Old Filly Champion. Burch set his sights during Bowl of Flowers’
sophomore year on the Triple Series for fillies in New York. She won the first
race, the one mile Acorn Stakes but was upset by Funloving in the 9 furlong Mother Goose Stakes, but then
she came back and scored a resounding win in the 1¼ mile Coaching Club American
Oaks.
Bowl of Flowers’ rival was the striking
chestnut Primonetta. In the first of two pivotal meetings, Primonetta defeated
Bowl of Flowers in the Alabama Stakes at Saratoga by over 5 lengths. They would
meet once more in the weight for age Spinster Stakes at Keeneland, when Bowl of
Flowers would run down Primonetta in the stretch and claim the three year-old
filly championship. However, early in her four year-old season, Bowl of Flowers
sustained an injury that forced her retirement.
Burch’s second classic winner would be with a different
owner. With the passing of Mrs. Sloane, Elliot Burch in 1963 became the private
trainer for Paul Mellon, one the world’s foremost art benefactors. The confederate
gray and yellow silks of Mellon’s Rokeby Stable were up to this point primarily carried by
steeplechase runners. Owner and trainer made a striking pair when seen in the
walking ring and the winner’s circle. Both dressed very conservatively in their
suits and top coats. They looked more like bankers having a confab rather than participants
in a sporting event. Both were “Yalies” and, perhaps, that was the source of
their obvious chemistry.
The first significant racehorse for Burch and Mellon was
Quadrangle, a rangy son of Cohoes, produced by the Bull Lea mare Tap Day. Quadrangle
was slow to develop in 1963 as a juvenile but ended the year with a 10 length victory
in the Pimlico Futurity, promising more to come in his three year-old year. Winner
of the Wood Memorial Stakes in his last start prior to the Kentucky Derby,
Quadrangle came into the Derby as a solid contender. However, Burch had another
rider issue, similar to what he faced with Sword Dancer, in that Bill Hartack
who had ridden Quadrangle to victory in the Wood, opted to ride Northern Dancer
in the Derby after that colt’s rider, Bill Shoemaker, replaced Donald Pierce on
the favorite, Hill Rise. Elliot Burch chose Robert Ussery, who started the year on Northern Dancer, to
ride Quadrangle in the big race. In the Derby, Northern Dancer held off Hill
Rise’s charge by a neck with Quadrangle finishing fifth but beaten only a total
of a little more than 3 lengths.
The Preakness, won by Northern Dancer, found Quadrangle
finishing fourth, about 2½ lengths behind the Triple Crown aspirant. To prepare
Quadrangle for the Belmont Stakes, Burch repeated the pattern he used with
Sword Dancer running Quadrangle in the Metropolitan Mile in which his three
year-old finished second, beaten 2 lengths by the six year-old Olden Times.
In the Belmont Stakes, Northern Dancer was made the prohibitive favorite to complete
the Triple Crown. The Belmont is usually run at a completely different pace
than the two other Triple Crown races. This year’s running was no exception as
longshot Orientalist set a lugubrious pace with Quadrangle, with blinkers off
to relax him and ridden by Manuel Ycaza, raced just off the pace. Quadrangle
forged along the inside to the lead with a ½ mile remaining, and when Northern
Dancer and Roman Brother challenged him in the stretch, he fought them off and
was slowly pulling away at the finish 2 lengths ahead of Roman Brother.
Northern Dancer just held off Hill Rise for third place beaten a total of 6
lengths, his Triple Crown hopes dashed. Paul Mellon, master of Rokeby Farm located near Middleburg,
Virginia, had his first classic winner (it would not be his last), and this was
Elliot Burch’s second.
In August, Northern Dancer suffered an injury that forced
his retirement. In his absence, Quadrangle became the leading three year-old in training,
winning, after his Belmont Stakes victory, the Dwyer Handicap, and finishing a
close second in the Jim Dandy. In the Travers Stakes, Quadrangle raced Hill
Rise into defeat and held on strongly to repel the
charge of longshot Knightly Manner, winning by a ½ length. It was Paul Mellon’s first Travers win and
Elliot Burch’s second. In the fall, Quadrangle
was able to win the Lawrence Realization, but he could not defeat the best two
older horses (Gun Bow and Kelso) in finishing third in the Woodward Stakes.
Quadrangle finished the year with a third place finish in the Jockey Club Gold
Cup behind the mighty Kelso. He would race only briefly as a four year-old in
1965.
Elliot Burch was more than just a trainer of classic bound
three year-olds. He also had a flair for developing outstanding horses suited
for grass racing. His best was Rokeby Stable’s Fort Marcy, a foal of 1964, sired
by the English bred Amerigo. Gelded and nearly sold after only winning one of
10 starts as a two year-old, Fort Marcy found his form in 1967 when Burch
placed him on turf. He went on to win several stakes races that year culminating
with an upset victory (by a nose) over Horse of the Year Damascus in the
Washington D. C. International, at that time the most prestigious grass race in
the U. S. Over a career that lasted till 1971, Burch sent his gelding back and
forth across the U. S., running in the best grass races at extended distances.
Although, Fort Marcy was not always victorious, he was nearly always
competitive, winning, among others, a second Washington D. C. International,
the Man o’ War Stakes, the United Nations, the Sunset and the Hollywood Turf
Handicaps. He was Champion Grass Horse of 1967, co-Champion Grass Horse of
1968, and Champion Grass Horse and co-Horse of the Year in 1970.
Probably the best horse Elliot Burch trained, and the best
American raced horse Paul Mellon owned was Arts and Letters. Born in 1966, he
was a son of the European super horse Ribot from a stout female family. On the
small side but well conformed, the chestnut colt followed the familiar pattern
with Burch’s classic colts: a modest two year-old campaign that would indicate
potential followed by an aggressive assault on the Triple Crown races the next
year. In his fourth start as a juvenile, Arts and Letters was beaten only a
total of 1¼ lengths when fourth in the Pimlico-Laurel Futurity.
Arts and Letters began his three year-old campaign at
Hialeah finishing a distant third in an allowance race. But, apparently this
was just the prep Arts and Letters needed to make himself fit, because he produced
an upset in the Everglades Stakes at 9 furlongs. Getting 10 lb. from the
previous year’s two year-old champion, Top Knight, Arts and Letters came from
off the pace to win by 3 lengths. In the Flamingo Stakes at equal weights, Top Knight
ran down Arts and Letters to win by 2 lengths in almost track record time.
After a second in both the Fountain of Youth Stakes and the Florida Derby at
Gulfstream Park, in the latter losing again to Top Knight, this time by 5
lengths, Arts and Letters was sent to Kentucky to prepare for the Derby.
In the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, Arts and Letters, shook off his recent
“seconditis” with a resounding win by 15 lengths in a time 2/5 seconds off the
track record. This performance sent strong signals that this was a different
animal than was seen in Florida over the winter.
The 1969 Kentucky Derby would have President Richard Nixon
in attendance making him the first sitting U.S. President to watch in person
the Derby. (President Nixon was actually present in 1968 as a private citizen
before his election.) Among the 26 Republican governors attending the Kentucky
Derby was also, a future President in Ronald Reagan.
As fate would have it, Burch for the third time was faced
with having to make a late jockey change for the Kentucky Derby. Bill Shoemaker,
who had ridden Arts and Letters in his most recent races, suffered a injury and
could not ride Arts and Letters, so trainer Elliot Burch substituted Braulio Baeza. The use of a jockey, even
one as talented as Baeza, who had no familiarity with his mount in the biggest
race of the year may have put Arts and Letters at a disadvantage.
There were only eight entries with the “Big Four”, Majestic
Prince, Top Knight, Arts and Letters
and Dike. Majestic Prince, an undefeated world record priced yearling from
California, was the charismatic horse of destiny. Everything about him said he
was extraordinary. The only question was he was untested against top horses,
especially at 1¼ mile. Top Knight was the returning two year-old champion who
dominated Florida racing. However, he had not raced since his Florida Derby
triumph and rumors surfaced about his soundness. Arts and Letters was the
“talking horse”. Since coming to Kentucky, he seemed to be blossoming, and from
his pedigree, there was no question about his ability to go the distance. Dike,
winner of the Wood Memorial, also had his supporters who reasoned that any type
of speed duel among the other contenders would set up his closing rally.
As a horse race, this Kentucky Derby was terrific, one of
the best run in memory. Longshot Ocean Roar was sent to a daylight lead down
the stretch the first time with Top Knight, Majestic Prince and Arts and Letters grouped together in pursuit, and Dike further
back in seventh place. With a ½ mile to go, Top Knight slipped along the inside
to grab the lead, but as he did so, both Majestic Prince on the outside and
Arts and Letters on the inside made their moves. Arts and Letters accelerated
quickly to take the lead, followed soon after by Majestic Prince’s challenge
around the final turn. Top Knight faltered and dropped suddenly out of
contention finishing fifth. Dike meanwhile was making progress, and at the top
of the stretch, he was within striking distance of the embattled pair. Majestic
Prince rested the lead from his smaller rival, and though he was unable to draw
away, held a short advantage to the wire defeating Arts and Letters by a neck.
Dike finished third just a ½ length further behind. With this result,
thoroughbred racing had an undefeated Kentucky Derby winner on his way to the
Preakness. However, the Derby also identified a formidable adversary in Arts
and Letters who would make Majestic Prince’s Triple Crown quest much
more difficult to accomplish.
The Preakness Stakes, two weeks later, featured a rematch
between Majestic Prince and Arts and Letters. Dike was reserved to await
the Belmont Stakes, but Top Knight was entered to erase his subpar Derby
performance. Just as in the Derby there were only eight entries with Majestic
Prince the prohibitive favorite and Top Knight the second choice.
The race had controversy from the start with Majestic Prince bumping Arts and Letters shortly after the break. Then going to the
first turn, Majestic Prince bore out slightly into Al Hattab squeezing Arts and
Letters, who was racing in between them, sufficient enough that Baeza had to
steady Arts and Letters and drop his mount several lengths back of the leaders.
Longshots contested the pace several lengths ahead of Majestic Prince and Top
Knight. Arts and Letters, back in sixth place, began to make up the lost
ground. As the leaders approached the far turn, Majestic Prince made his move
with Top Knight. Just as in the Derby, the latter was unable to sustain his
rally and dropped back before the stretch finishing again in fifth. However,
Arts and Letters, although forced the go wide on the final turn, was launching
a powerful rally. In the stretch, Majestic Prince had a clear lead, but Arts
and Letters was closing relentlessly on the far outside. He seemed to be
gaining with every stride, but Majestic Prince had enough left to hold him off,
albeit by a diminishing head. Soon afterward there was a jockey’s claim of foul
by Baeza for interference on the part of Majestic Prince, but after a lengthy
deliberation, the Pimlico stewards’ let the result stand.
In the immediate afterward, trainer John Longden announced that Majestic Prince would not contest the Belmont Stakes, thereby
foregoing the opportunity to complete the Triple Crown. Longden indicated that
Majestic Prince was tired from his joint efforts in the Derby and Preakness.
The racing press and public thought this was heretical. Was Majestic Prince really
just tired of Arts and Letters, especially the prospect of
facing him at the 1½ mile Belmont distance, which seemed to favor the Rokeby
colt? Added was the feeling among some
that Arts and Letters was really best in the Preakness and denied by the
stewards’ failure to disqualify Majestic Prince. In any case, by midweek owner
Frank McMahon made an executive decision that, indeed, Majestic Prince, would
contest the Belmont Stakes and have his date with racing history.
As you have probably surmised, Elliot Burch again used the Metropolitan Handicap as Arts
and Letters’ prep for the Belmont Stakes. In the Metropolitan field was the year’s
leading older horse, Nodouble. He was assigned 129 lb., significantly more than
Arts and Letters’ feathery 111 lb. This differential was too much for the older
horse to concede. Arts and Letters, very sharp, won with authority by 2½
lengths with Nodouble second. So once again, Elliot Burch had found the perfect
Belmont prep.
The Belmont Stakes drew six entries, but only three were
considered to have legitimate chances - Majestic Prince, Arts and Letters and Dike. They each had their supporters, but
the general public was rooting for Majestic Prince to complete the Triple
Crown. The betting public, however, made Arts and Letters the close second
choice. The running of the race was completely unexpected. Dike who was known
for his closing rallies, went out to set the pace, if you could call it that.
The fractions were glacial with horses barely getting out of a gallop. Arts and
Letter tracked Dike about 3 lengths behind and Majestic Prince, who in his
previous races was always eager to run, was well back in fifth. At the ½ mile
pole, Arts and Letters made his challenge inside Dike and easily pulled away.
Around the turn, Baeza had Arts and Letters cruising on the lead waiting for
the challenge from Majestic Prince that effectively never came. Without opposition,
Arts and Letters powered to the finish 5½ lengths in front of Majestic Prince who
was able to pass Dike in the stretch for second.
So once again, an Elliot Burch trainee had foiled a Triple
Crown bid. Was Majestic Prince as tired as the trainer intimated? Was he
unsound as Longden stated afterward? Did the race shape undo him, or was Arts
and Letters just the superior horse, especially at the
Belmont distance? These questions were never answered. Majestic Prince was
returned to California where efforts to return him to racing were unsuccessful.
In the Belmont winner’s circle, Paul Mellon, celebrated his second
classic win and Elliot Burch had his third Belmont trophy. Arts and Letters
raced the rest of the year unbeaten marching toward the Three year-Old
Championship and Horse of the Year honors. In that span, he won the Jim Dandy,
Travers, Woodward and Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes, in the last two defeating Nodouble
at scale weights. Similar to Quadrangle, Arts and Letters’ four year-old season
ended abruptly after suffering an injury in a race in the California Stakes.
The next champion to race for Elliot Burch started off as a
promising dirt competitor, but found his true niche on grass. Run the Gantlet
(note, the correct spelling) was a smallish son of Tom Rolfe from the female
family of champion filly Quill. Ending his juvenile season in 1970 with a
capstone win in the Garden State Stakes, he gave Mellon and Burch thoughts of a
classic campaign the following year. However, he was slow in finding his best
form in the early part of 1971, dashing any hopes for Triple Crown glory. In
mid-year, Burch decided to try Run the Gantlet on turf. In Aqueduct’s Tidal Handicap,
Rokeby’s aging champion Fort Marcy was withdrawn, and Burch found an able
substitute in his three year-old, who carrying a feathery 109 lb. won by 4
lengths. Run the Gantlet followed with additional wins against his elders in the
Kelly-Olympic and U. N. Handicaps, both at Atlantic City Race Course.
Now considered a serious candidate for grass champion, Run
the Gantlet continued his march to the title with a decisive win by 2½ lengths
in 1½ mile Man O’ War Stakes on a soft turf course. In the Washington D. C.
International, Run the Gantlet was scheduled to face American raced but Chilean
bred Cougar (who he had defeated in the U. N.) to settle the championship.
However, heavy rains leaving the Laurel turf course soggy forced Cougar’s
withdrawal, but the Rokeby Stable runner had no difficulty negotiating the
track nor overcoming the opposition. Run the Gantlet won by 6 lengths providing
Paul Mellon, and Elliot Burch their third win in the International (Fort Marcy
winning the race in 1967 and 1970.) and their second champion turf runner.
(Paul Mellon had other reasons to celebrate in 1971. In Europe, his super
horse, Mill Reef, won the English Derby, the
King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.)
The last major racehorse trained by Burch and owned by
Mellon was Key to the Mint. The tall, long bodied son of Graustark was born to
be a champion being from the same dam as Fort Marcy. Much more precocious than
his older sibling, and successful on dirt, Key to the Mint had a productive
juvenile year. In addition to finishing third in the Garden State Stakes to champion
Riva Ridge (a frequent rival), he missed by a nose in the Cowdin Stakes and
finished the year with a determined win in the Remsen Stakes. As a result of
these performances, his future and classic aspirations seemed bright.
Key to the Mint’s classic preparation in 1972 was suspended after
two poor performances at Hialeah, of which in the second he sustained a minor
injury. However, Key to the Mint recovered in time to win the one mile Derby
Trial. After some consideration, Elliot Burch decided that Key to the Mint did not have the
seasoning to run in the Kentucky Derby and instead would prep for the
Preakness. (Burch did run Key to the Mint’s stable mate, Head of the River, in
the Derby, but he could only finish eighth behind the victorious Riva Ridge.)
In the intervening week between the Derby and the Preakness
Stakes, Key to the Mint won an allowance race dubbed as the Preakness Prep at
Pimlico, strengthening his case as Riva Ridge’s main rival for the
remaining classics. He did finish ahead of his adversary in the Preakness, but
neither were victorious as longshot Bee Bee Bee led all the way on the sloppy
oval leaving Key to the Mint (in third place) and Riva Ridge (fourth) in his
wake.
Elliot Burch, who three times before had employed the
Metropolitan Mile as a prep for his three Belmont Stakes winners, in 1972 used
the 1 mile Withers Stakes for Key to the Mint. Restricted to three year-olds,
it was shifted in the New York racing calendar to specifically serve as a
Belmont prep. In the race, Key to the Mint scored a hard fought length win. This may be a dubious achievement, but Key to
the Mint in winning the Withers completed a triple of sorts winning the
designated prep races (Derby Trial, Preakness Prep and Withers) for each of the
classics.
The Belmont Stakes was a tour de force for Riva Ridge. He
took over the lead by the clubhouse turn, set steady fractions and just
galloped the field to submission. At the end, he was 7 lengths in front of Ruritania. Key to the Mint who gave
chase to Riva Ridge down the backstretch, tired from his efforts to finish
fourth, beaten over 12 lengths.
At this point, it appeared that Riva Ridge would be the
certain three year-old champion. However, after a courageous win in the
Hollywood Derby, the Meadow Stable colt went into a protracted losing streak.
Key to the Mint, on the other hand, found his top form in defeating older foes
in both the Brooklyn Handicap and Whitney Stakes and then adding the Travers
Stakes to his resume. (It was Burch’s fourth Travers victory.)
The Woodward Stakes featured Riva Ridge against Key to the Mint with the three year-old title in the balance.
Since the Woodward was now being run at 1½ mile, Elliot Burch also entered his top class filly, Summer Guest, due to the facility she showed at the distance
in winning the Coaching Club American Oaks. On a sloppy racetrack, Riva Ridge
and Key to the Mint went head and head for the lead. In the stretch, Riva Ridge
gave way and Key to the Mint, despite a furious rally by Summer Guest, held
sway by a diminishing 1¼ lengths. Four year-old Autobiography, who finished
third 3 lengths back, was elevated to second on the disqualification of Summer
Guest who was deemed to have cut him off around the turn. Riva Ridge finished a
disappointing fourth, 6¼ lengths behind Key to the Mint. This Woodward victory
was the fourth by a Burch trainee.
All the Woodward principals were entered in the 2 mile
Jockey Club Gold Cup. However, on race day Summer Guest was removed to give her
stablemate, Key to the Mint, the opportunity to win a championship. Autobiography
gained command in the early stages with Riva Ridge and Key to the Mint tracking
him. Down the backstretch the second time around, Autobiography readily pulled
away and turned the race into a rout. At the finish, he was 15 lengths ahead of
Key to the Mint with Riva Ridge 3 lengths further back. Despite his loss, Key
to the Mint, by virtue of his summer and fall victories, was named Champion
Three Year-old of 1972, the third Burch trainee to do so.
As a four year-old in 1973, Key to the Mint won the time
honored Suburban Handicap. However, his long time rival, Riva Ridge, defeated
him in the Brooklyn Handicap. When Key to the Mint faced Riva Ridge and his
younger stable mate, Triple Crown hero Secretariat, in the inaugural Marlboro
Cup Stakes, it was no contest as the Meadow Stable pair finished 1-2 with the
incomparable Secretariat leading the way.
Tiring badly in the Marlboro, Key to the Mint finished seventh and last.
He raced once more, trying the turf in the U. N. Handicap, but showed little in
finishing eleventh.
In 1976, Elliot Burch suffered what was reported a nervous
breakdown and stepped down as trainer for Rokeby Stable. When recovered, he
became the trainer for C. V. Whitney and in that capacity developed State
Dinner, a son of Buckpasser, to win the Metropolitan and Suburban Handicaps in
1979 and the Whitney Stakes the following year. In 1982, another offspring of
Buckpasser, Silver Buck, from the same female family as State Dinner, won both
the Suburban and Whitney Handicaps for Burch and Whitney. In all, Elliot
Burch’s tally for these venerable New York fixtures were three Metropolitan,
four Suburban and four Whitney Handicaps.
Fully retiring from horse racing in 1985, Burch spent his
remaining years, according to family members, pursuing his interests in
literature, art and cross word puzzles. A true gentleman with a scholarly bent
in a more cultivated era of thoroughbred racing, Elliot joined his father and
grandfather when he was inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of
Fame in 1980. Living in Rhode Island, he passed away in 2011 at age 86.
