Ask any Thoroughbred racing fan who has a toe-hold in the latter half of the 1980s decade to list the most popular horses with the racing fans, and guaranteed the name Alysheba will be near—if not at—the top of the list.
Bred in Kentucky by Preston Madden of famed Hamburg Place (when it was a breeding farm and not a sprawling suburban shopping/residential complex), the handsome bay son of Alydar and the stakes-placed Lt. Stevens mare Bel Sheba went through the 1985 Keeneland July Yearling Sale where Charles Scharbauer, a Texas-based oilman and rancher, purchased him for $500,000, a hefty price indeed but a far cry from the $13.1 million spent by BBA England for Seattle Dancer, the Nijinsky II—My Charmer colt that topped the sale in those free-wheeling spending days that marked the end of the decade.
Seattle Dancer raced in Ireland where he won a pair of group stakes and was runner-up in the Grand Prix de Paris (G1) in his five-start career. He earned $152,413, a whopping 1.1% of his purchase price.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Alysheba, racing for Scharbauer's wife, Dorothy, and their daughter, Pam, won nine grade 1 stakes (10 if you count the Blue Grass from which he was DQ'd to third) from coast to coast in his 26 starts. He earned $6,679,242 (13.4 times his purchase price), three Eclipse Awards, including 1988 Horse of the Year, and the public's adoration.
However, Alysheba's journey to the top was not without its hiccups.
Trained by veteran hardboot horseman Jack Van Berg, Alysheba was a 2-year-old blooming with promise but by year's end, he had only a maiden victory and several graded stakes finishes in which he only budded, having finished second or third in such events as the Breeders' Futurity (G2) at Keeneland, the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) at Santa Anita Park, and the Hollywood Futurity (G1), all races he could and probably should have won.
Explanations were sought and an answer found. Following a narrow loss in the San Felipe Handicap (G1), Alysheba underwent surgery for an entrapped epiglottis. When he returned a month later in the Blue Grass, he was a new horse. He also had a new jockey, Chris McCarron.
Alysheba overcame a horrendous trip in the Kentucky Derby (G1)—in which he and McCarron had to rely on the 3-year-old's athleticism and talent to keep from falling—to defeat Bet Twice by three-quarters of a length. Two weeks later he again defeated Bet Twice to take the Preakness (G1). He had too much to overcome in a roughly run Belmont (G1), fourth behind Bet Twice, who also defeated him in the Haskell Invitational (G1).
Alysheba rebounded from his dullest finish (sixth) ever to win the Super Derby (G1) at Louisiana Downs. In his final sophomore at bat, he challenged older horses for the first time, finishing a narrow nose second to Horse of the Year Ferdinand.
In full bloom at 4, Alysheba took Santa Anita's older horse warriors to task, winning the Charles H. Strub (G1), Santa Anita Handicap (G1), and the San Bernardino (G2) during the winter meet.
Off the boil to begin his East Coast invasion, Alysheba lost the Pimlico Special to old rival Bet Twice, then traveled west to be runner-up in the Hollywood Gold Cup (G1).
His trip to the Jersey Shore in August proved just the right elixir. His victory in the Philip H. Iselin Handicap (G1) with Bet Twice second began a run of four straight grade 1s that included the Woodward, the Meadowlands Cup, and the Breeders' Cup Classic.
Perhaps his best race, the Classic, run over a muddy track in the growing darkness of a raw, late-evening November day at Churchill Downs, found him in a nip-and-tuck struggle with 3-year-old stalwart Seeking the Gold, over whom he prevailed by a half-length.
