Fanfreluche Reached Pinnacle of Her Career in Alabama

Saratoga Race Course's Alabama Stakes (G1) is one of the United States' oldest stakes races for 3-year-old fillies. Inaugurated in 1872, the first winner of the then nine-furlong event was August Belmont Sr.'s Woodbine. The Alabama, which holds its 140th anniversary Aug. 15, is contested at 1 1/4 miles. Throughout the course of the race's history, many outstanding fillies have triumphed, but not many have a story as compelling as the filly from north of the border who stood in the Saratoga winner's 50 years ago to the day Aug. 15, 1970: Fanfreluche. Bred in Ontario by wealthy businessman Jean Louis Levesque, Fanfreluche came from the second crop of Northern Dancer. She was the first foal of her stakes-winning dam Ciboulette (Chop Chop). Trained by Joseph "Yonnie" Starr, the medium-sized, bay filly with a star and ankle socks on each hind foot, spent her formative year on the Canadian circuit, winning three stakes in her six starts. Fanfreluche returned the following year to exceed the promise she had shown as a 2-year-old. From 15 starts she finished out of the top three only once in the Washington D.C. International. Lacking in turf experience, she tackled a field of top-tiered turf horses and finished seventh behind champion Fort Marcy. Her sophomore season spanned the distances and the breadth and depth of North America. She won the Selene Stakes at seven furlongs at Woodbine, took the Manitoba Centennial Derby at Assiniboia Downs in the western province and the Quebec Derby at Blue Bonnet, and scored at 12 furlongs in the Benson & Hedges Invitational Handicap at Woodbine. Her U.S. invasion took her as far south as Lexington, where she ran second behind Taken Aback in the Spinster Stakes at Keeneland. Fanfreluche reached the pinnacle of her achievements in the 90th Alabama Stakes at Saratoga on an exceptionally hot sunny August day. Favored in the field of 12 was Coaching Club American Oaks winner Missile Belle. With her Canadian credentials firmly in hand, Fanfreluche was the second choice, narrowly ahead of Office Queen who was pro-tem leader of the U.S. contingent with seven stakes victories. Jockey Ron Turcotte rousted Fanfreluche to the lead from the outside post for the 10-furlong trip. Like a sailboat tacking with a fair breeze, Fanfreluche glided through the quarter-pole times, with her rivals in her wake. She crossed the finish line 1 1/4 lengths ahead of Hunnemannia with Office Queen third. Missile Belle fizzled to 11th. At year's end Fanfreluche earned Horse of the Year and champion 3-year old filly honors in Canada and shared the U.S. 3-year-old filly championship with Office Queen. As a broodmare for Levesque at Claiborne Farm in Kentucky, one evening in late June 1977, thieves cut through a couple of mesh wire fences, put a shank on her halter, and walked Fanfreluche, in foal to Secretariat, to a waiting trailer, and drove off. Despite an extensive search and a $25,000 reward for information leading to her return, Fanfreluche remained missing. Six months later a tip led to Fanfreluche being located on a small southern Kentucky farm near the Tennessee border in the hinterlands of Monroe County, where the Larry McPherson family of Tompkinsville had taken her in after a neighbor found her wandering near the McPherson farm. The multiple champion was living life as a pleasure horse for the family. Not much the worse for wear, Fanfreluche returned to Claiborne, five stakes winners (three champions) and numerous stakes-producing daughters. The Secretariat foal was named Sain Et Sauf (the French equivalent of "safe and sound") and won three races.