HORSE RACING EPHEMERA

 This is an alphabetical index—dating back to the 1790s—of the American (and some foreign) race horses that are contained in the Chronological Database download. It contains all of the important racers since that time. It also includes many animals guessed to be potentially “interesting” to memorabilia collectors by the compiler, the author.

 This project originally was devised to concentrate on the era of colored totalizator tickets, and their to collection specifically. But it has since been enlarged to encompass other famous talented ones who ran before the arrival of the mutuel system, in order to aid in collecting dated artifacts of any nature. Since the primary purpose was to “calendarize” American starts for collectors to use, the author originally did not include numerical totals of overseas races in these summaries. He has since backtracked, and has begun adding such data to the list on the following pages, although that effort still re-mains incomplete. In the database itself, overseas races do not appear.

 This is not a rigidly-constructed list, and undoubtedly includes dozens that could be supplanted by those having superior abilities, if not racing accomplishments. In fact, a handful of them are inferior horses that were subjects of research by the author for other projects. He decided not to bother to delete them, because their lesser stature is fairly obvious. Bottom line: after merit, or having a memorable story, recognizability was the chief remaining criterion for inclusion for all of the others.

 That being said, the vast majority of horses meet at least one of the following:

1. Hall of Famer.
2. Horse of the Year.
3. Recognized or unofficial annual champion of one of categories such as three-year old, sprinter, or the like.
4. Leading money winner.
5. American Triple Crown race winner.
6. Breeders’ Cup race winner.
7. Important sire or dam.
8. Winner of multiple important stakes races.
9. Kentucky Derby runner-up.
10. Other characteristics, such as important early contributor to Quarterhorse breeding.
11. Participant in certain memorable races. (e.g., the other three also-rans besides Sham in Secretariat’s Belmont were not otherwise noteworthy, except for that particular race.)
12. Historic early-Californian runner; or a significant west coast racer that might have merited better recognition if based in the East.
13. Certain busy domestic horses that helped keep the sport alive during its legally-impaired period in the early 1900s.
14. Several horses (possibly non-Thoroughbred) which held historic significance during the post-Revolutionary times or the gold rush era in California.
15. Unimportant animal that happened to win a stakes race of continuing significance, when no other included horse happened to be entered. For example, a winner of the Peter Pan or Arlington Classic. These notable stakes races have seen their significance increase or decrease over the years, but, nevertheless, the author includes most of their runnings regardless. Again, this was done with memorabilia in mind; an uncashed ticket on one of these winners would have some value beyond specimens representing also-rans in the same races.
16. Brilliant two-year-old which had its career cut short by injury.
17. The alphabetical index below does not contain certain Breeders’ Cup race winners that came from overseas to compete only once. Their appearances can be easily spotted in the chronological database without the help of this index. Also, the records of some horses are incomplete, either due to a. the fact they are present day horses that were still in training at the time of this compilation; or b. they are horses from the distant past for which the author has not been able to research fully yet. For some of the latter horses, their full records likely will never be completely discovered (for a number of reasons). In each case, the author has denoted them with the abbreviations shown at the top of the list on the next page.

On the other hand, the author has uncovered previously non-included races for a host of those in the list; among them are for some of the most prominent Thoroughbreds in American history, such as Planet and Pan Zareta. In addition, the author has added races that were recorded, but never previously compiled by record-keepers from the distant past; and whose errors have been passed down through many generations of their counterparts that used them without checking. So, should a reader notice a discrepancy between what has been published heretofore and the data in this index, it is the result of one of those reasons. In order to highlight those circumstances, the author has put notes in the far right column of the database to denote the previously missing races.

Some consideration has been given to recent horses who have won the races containing massive purses in Dubai and Saudi Arabia. Not every one is included. Generally those who won other prestgious U. S. races are included.

In order to achieve some consistency, the author has added all walkover races to the horses’ records. In the past, some compilations by others have included them, and others have not. The author considers all of them to be bona fide races.

In the first pages of the database are horses that ran before the existence of any “racing calendars,” which appeared later and compiled racing results. The author attempted to expand the list despite of that. It was done through the usage of old newspaper articles of the era plus some data contained in the earliest editions of the “American Turf Register.” Erring on the side of more-rather-than-less, he included some lesser racers that might help to sleuth the unknown dates which pepper that part of the project.

Finally, complete records for a few horses that ran in both flat and hurdles races are included, but not all. Those champions who gained their status solely by running in jumps have significant gaps. However, the author might reconsider and complete them at a later date.