Chad Brown's sweep of the first four places in the Matriarch Stakes (G1T) at Del Mar on Dec. 3 drove local history buffs to the record books. The challenge went out: Had it ever been done before at such a lofty level? The answer, of course, was yes. Chad Brown did it in the 2022 running of the Diana Stakes (G1T) at Saratoga Race Course, when he saddled four of the six in the race.
Before the recent Brown-outs at Del Mar and Saratoga, finishing 1-2-3 in a major event was as good as it got. It happened enough that the following list is by no means complete, but certainly revealing. Such sweeps are available only to deep stables with overwhelming numbers:
- Ben and Jimmy Jones went 1-2-3 in the 1947 Washington Park Futurity with Bewitch, Citation, and Free America, all three owned by Calumet Farm. Every schoolchild knows the records of the first two, but Free America was no slouch. As a 3-year-old, the son of Blenheim II finished second to Citation in the American Derby, and at 4 he beat his aging star stablemate Armed in the Churchill Downs Handicap, giving him weight.
- During the late 1960s, Jim Maloney ran rampant with the fillies and mares of William Haggin Perry. In the 1968 Vanity Handicap, run on June 29, Gamely carried 131 pounds and beat stablemates Princessnesian (128) and Desert Law (115). Maloney scratched Romanticism, winner of the Sequoia Handicap at the meet, otherwise a 1-2-3-4 would have been very much in play. Gamely went on to be the division champion, Princessnesian came right back to win the Hollywood Gold Cup, and Desert Law finished second next out in the Beverly Hills Handicap to Pink Pigeon, run over the year-old Hollywood Park turf course.
- Charlie Whittingham went 1-2-3 often enough in the 1970s that it became old hat. There was the 1970 Oak Tree Stakes at Santa Anita with Daryl's Joy, Fiddle Isle, and Cougar II. He did it again in the 1976 Sunset Handicap (G1T) with Caucasus, King Pellinore, and Riot in Paris. But the one he really enjoyed was the 1973 Hollywood Gold Cup (G1), when Kennedy Road and Bill Shoemaker edged Quack and Don Pierce, with Cougar II and Laffit Pincay coming on late for third.
- It would figure that D. Wayne Lukas would be a member of the club, given his relentless attack on the most prestigious races in the 1980s and '90s. For instance, in the 1987 Ruffian Handicap (G1) Lukas sent forth five of the 12 starters and finished 1-3-4 with Sacahuista, Clabber Girl and Without Feathers.
But Sacahuista was disqualified for interference with Clabber Girl, which gave the win to runner-up Coup de Fusil, who was trained by Jan Nerud and owned by Tartan Stable. Clabber Girl was owned by John Nerud, Jan's father and Tartan's general manager. This so badly confused the authorities that the first four finishers were coupled under one betting interest. Once the lights stopped flashing, fans looked at their win tickets at 2-to-5 and understood there would be no change in the mutuels in spite of the DQ. The exacta, from the entry to fifth-place Catatonic, paid $21.
By contrast, the 1988 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) at Churchill Downs was a clean, satisfying sweep. Again, Lukas had five of the 12 in the field and went 1-2-3 with Open Mind, Darby Shuffle, and Lea Lucinda after One of a Klein and Some Romance helped push the pace for their entrymates over a muddy, tiring track.
Any time a modern trainer pulls off a sweep similar to Brown's Matriarch, the name of Michael Dickinson comes bubbling to the surface. It was during his brief career as a steeplechase trainer in England that Dickinson's horses finished 1-2-3-4-5 in the 1983 Cheltenham Gold Cup, Europe's most prestigious race over jumps.
In order, the horses were Bregawn, Captain John, Wayward Lad, Silver Buck, and Ashley House. And while their names may have faded into the haze of time, the accomplishment is worshipped to this day. Dickinson's Famous Five made the Guinness Book of World Records. It was hailed as the greatest training feat in British history by the Racing Post. Earlier this year, during his annual pilgrimage to Cheltenham from his Maryland farm, Dickinson was feted to a grand round of celebratory interviews on the 40th anniversary of the Fabulous Five.
North American fans know Dickinson better for his flat racing career as the trainer of Tapit , the preeminent sire of his generation, and Da Hoss, the two-time winner of the Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T), the second of those wins coming after a two-year layoff and a single minor prep. Fleet Renee, Cetewayo, A Huevo, and Supreme Sound all won major events in the East and Midwest. Dickinson took swings in California with Bowman Mill, who finished second in the Hollywood Turf Cup Stakes (G1T), and Western Ransom, who finished up the track in an American Oaks Invitational (G1T).
Da Hoss also was well known to Californians. They watched him finish second to dual classic winner Thunder Gulch in the 1995 Swaps Stakes (G2), after which he got loose and went on a brief tour of the Hollywood Park stables before being corralled. Six weeks later, Da Hoss returned to California to win the Del Mar Invitational Derby (G2T). He lived to be 30, while spending the majority of his life at the Kentucky Horse Park before his death in early 2022.
"We would visit him all the time—me, Joan, and Jon Boy," Dickinson said, referring to his wife, Joan Wakefield, and Jon Ferriday, who rode Da Hoss in training. "It was a matter of who was going to cry first, but ended up all of us anyway."
In addition to celebrating the 40th anniversary of his Fantastic Five, Dickinson was honored this year with the John W. Galbreath Award for Outstanding Entrepreneurship in the Equine Industry by the University of Louisville Equine Industry Program. It's a mouthful, to be sure, but well-earned, since the award singles out individuals who have made an impact on the business of racing through innovation. In Dickinson's case, it was his development and advocacy of the Tapeta racing surface that is currently used at racetracks around the world, including the North American main tracks of Woodbine, Presque Isle Downs, and Golden Gate Fields.
Wakefield runs the company these days and is the point person in both research and development (Tapeta is in at least its 10th generation) as well as installation.
"Joan is in California right now, doing the training track at Santa Anita," Dickinson said. "At Belmont, the material has been delivered for its inner racing surface, but right now it sits in a pile awaiting installation. They won't be running until 2025."
Dickinson stepped away from training to spearhead the early years of Tapeta with Wakefield, then returned with a small stable in 2016. He won with 14 of just 48 starters in 2019, taking grade 3 races with the fillies Lift Up and Pamina. The Covid pandemic ensued, and Dickinson scaled back to concentrate on selling his 196-acre Tapeta Farm in North East, Md. His last starter came at Laurel in November of 2022, a winner.
"I'm too old to train any longer," claimed Dickinson, who is 73. "My memory's not as good as it was."
Fine, but the flesh seems willing. Dickinson's fitness routine includes a weekly run over natural ground decorated with log jumps.
"I did 13 miles last Saturday and 15 miles three weeks before," he said. "I'll be going tomorrow again."
And making his contemporaries feel like pathetic sloths in the process.
"Well, I do go very slowly," Dickinson conceded. "And I'm in agony afterwards."
