On May 30, 1946, Americans bowed their heads in recognition of the first Memorial Day following the end of World War II. The United States military suffered 291,557 combat deaths during the war, a horrific number that did not include, thank goodness, such veterans as Charlie Whittingham, Noble Threewitt, Leonard Dorfman, Clement Hirsch, Nick Puhich, George Handy, and Lou Rowan. Thoroughbred racing benefited from their survival and return to the sport.
On Memorial Day 1956, again on May 30, Alfred Vanderbilt Jr. was at Belmont Park, along with more than 51,000 fans, for the traditional Metropolitan Handicap. During the war, Vanderbilt commanded a patrol torpedo boat in the South Pacific. On the night of March 12, 1944, his PT-Boat 196 (nicknamed "Green Dragon") was attacked by a Japanese float plane with a near miss. Vanderbilt's crew shot down the plane, and their commander was awarded the Silver Star.
As for the Met Mile, Vanderbilt had to settle for third money with his 6-year-old gelding Find. The winner was Midafternoon, who was ridden by Bill Boland to a narrow score over Bobby Ussery and Switch On. Nashua, 1955 Horse of the Year, was the odds-on favorite but finished fourth, somehow failing to give 19 pounds to the winner.
By Memorial Day 1966, the number of American military deaths in Vietnam was on its way to more than 6,000 for the year. President Lyndon Johnson issued a proclamation designating May 30 as "a day of prayer for permanent peace." Greg Gilchrist, Tom Knust, and John Shirreffs were among the racetrackers who served in the war and came home to make racing a better place.
In the '66 Jersey Derby, a Memorial Day fixture, Creme dela Creme gave the 44,659 fans at Garden State Park a scare when he bolted to the outside fence while leading at the eighth pole, then corrected his course to beat Indulto by 2 lengths.
"He's always been spooky, wanting to gawk at the crowd during a race, but this was the worst thing he's ever done," said his rider, Don Brumfield. "It scared the life out of me."
By 1976, during America's bicentennial celebration, Memorial Day had officially moved to the last Monday of the month. President Gerald Ford took pains to designate May 31 as a day of prayer for permanent peace, seeing as earlier invocations didn't seem to do the trick. It couldn't hurt to keep trying.
On Memorial Day '76, Charlie Whittingham hoped he had finally unlocked the key to the Americanized version of the grand European filly Dahlia. After only a modest allowance win in six California starts, local players were beginning to wonder what the fuss was all about. Then Dahlia celebrated the holiday by tearing a page from her glitzy history to take the Hollywood Invitational Handicap (G1T) at a mile and a half, with Bill Shoemaker in the irons. The 11 boys she beat included group or grade 1 winners Caucasus, Avatar, One On the Aisle, Winds of Thought, and Top Command. Those were the days.
Half a century later, Memorial Day 2026 will be celebrated May 25 with American armed forces deployed once again, and 13 names added to the long list of military deaths. Another prayer for permanent peace would be in order, just in case we're due.
In the meantime, Thoroughbred racing's candy store of diversionary entertainment will be on holiday display across the land. Unfortunately, the managements of several major tracks—including Aqueduct Racetrack, Monmouth Park, and Delaware Park—have declined to entertain their Memorial Day patrons with anything but a collection of claiming and allowance events. Does it seem like forever since Criminal Type, Housebuster, and Easy Goer came to the finish 1-2-3 in the Metropolitan Handicap on Memorial Day 1990? Yes, it does.
At least Santa Anita Park is putting its best foot forward with grass milers in the Shoemaker Mile Stakes (G1T) and turf mares in the Gamely Stakes (G1T), as well as offering the Hollywood Gold Cup Stakes (G2) on the undercard, still clinging to relevance. At Lone Star Park, the Louisiana hotshot Touchuponastar will be taking his show on the road again in the Steve Sexton Mile Stakes (G3), while Bob Baffert has sent Desert Gate there for the Texas Derby.
All of those races have meaning, but none is more important to the people involved than the third race Monday at Emerald Downs in Washington state. The 5 1/2-furlong allowance race for fillies and mares will mark the return to competition for Someday Lady, a two-time stakes winner at Hastings Racecourse, across the Canadian border in Vancouver.
Someday Lady is the marquee runner for the Claim To Fame Racing, led by Kevin Sengara and supported by a collection of new investors, including his parents, the longtime owners Jeffrey and Naseem Sengara of Budroyale fame. Their trainer is Mike Puhich, who has battled back from lifesaving liver transplant surgery last December to resume a career decorated by such graded stakes winners as Favored One, He's a Cajun, Southern Africa, and Daros.
Hastings Racecourse is out of business now, so a filly such as Someday Lady will need to find her stateside level.
"I don't know what kind of competition she had up there, but she's got some good form," Puhich said. "I think she'll be better going around two turns, though, and there's a filly in there named Aloha Breeze who's just a pure sprinter. Hopefully, she'll come running down the lane to get some positive vibes on the finish and a good gallop out. I've already told Kevin if she keeps going like she's been so far, we're going to win the Distaff with her."
The $50,000 Emerald Distaff, at 1 1/16 miles, is on the Aug. 16 program along with the 91st running of the Longacres Mile Stakes, a race Puhich won in 2021 with Background.
The trainer's father, Nick Puhich, was a jockey's agent and ex-Marine who fought and somehow survived the Battle of Peleliu Island in the South Pacific, waged over a bloody two months during the fall of 1944. Up against Japanese forces dug into the cave networks of the coral island, the fighting cost the lives of some 1,300 Marines, with approximately 5,000 wounded.
"My dad didn't talk about it much," Puhich said. "But I heard from some of his friends that he was one of only eight guys that got out of their platoon alive."
There can be upwards of 100 Marines in a platoon.
"You think of what those guys went through, and winning or losing a horse race doesn't seem quite so important," Puhich said. "And me—I'm just glad to be alive."
