Six to be Inducted Into Horse Racing Hall of Fame

Unbridled became the second of two horses to win the Kentucky Derby and the Breeders’ Cup Classic in the same year.

Edgar Prado rode Barbaro to his Kentucky Derby triumph in 2006.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y - Standouts from the past six decades – three horses, two jockeys and one trainer – have been elected to the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame.

Edgar Prado, who rode Barbaro to his Kentucky Derby triumph in 2006; two-time Derby winner Ismael “Milo” Valenzuela, regular rider of Kelso; and trainer Carl Nafzger, who developed champions Unbridled, Banshee Breeze and Street Sense are members of the Hall of Fame’s class of 2008. Prado, Valenzuela and Nafzger and the horses Inside Information, Manila and Ancient Title will be inducted on Monday, August 4 in Saratoga Springs in a ceremony at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion.

Inside Information, Manila, Prado and Nafzger were elected in the contemporary categories by the 184 members of the Hall of Fame’s voting panel. Valenzuela and Ancient Title were selected for induction by the Historic Review Committee, which considers candidates who have not been active in the sport for more than 25 years.

Prado and Nafzger were elected the first year that their names appeared on the ballot. They had been eligible in previous years, but had not received enough votes in the nominating committee selection process to become finalists and appear on the ballot.

Manila was elected in his 11th time on the ballot. It was Inside Information’s fourth time on the ballot.

Prado finished first in the voting in the contemporary jockey category ahead of Randy Romero and Alex Solis. Nafzger and the late Robert Wheeler were the finalists in the trainers’ category. Manila finished ahead of Best Pal and Tiznow in the male horse voting. Inside Information received more votes than Open Mind, Silverbulletday and Sky Beauty in the female horse division.

Nafzger, 66, was a top rodeo competitor in the 1960s before turning to training horses. He handled quarter horses for a few years before switching to Thoroughbreds. His first Thoroughbred winner was the 2-year-old filly Pretty Li’l Bessie in 1971 at Santa Fe Downs. Later that season, he saddled his first stakes winner, Speedy Karen, in the Fiesta Derby Handicap at Santa Fe Downs.

In 1990, Unbridled became the second of two horses to win the Kentucky Derby and the Breeders’ Cup Classic in the same year. Banshee Breeze was the 3-year-old filly champion of 1998. She won five Grade 1 races in her career. Street Sense is the only horse to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and the Kentucky Derby. The colt owned by James Tafel won the 2006 Juvenile at Churchill Downs. Seven months later, he won the 2007 Derby over the same track.

For 40 years, Nafzger and his wife, Wanda, have operated a relatively small stable. Their highest number of starters in a year was 449 in 1988. Through December 31, 2007, available computer records show he has 1,068 victories from 8,041 starts and purse earnings of $50,203,640. Since 1976, he has won 68 graded stakes and 140 total stakes. He saddled at least one stakes winner every year from 1980 through 2007.

This year, Equibase statistics show that through Sunday Nafzger has won with four of 16 starters and earned $125,501 in purses. His career totals 1,072 victories from 8,057 starts and purse earnings of $50,329,141.

In 2006, Nafzger began moving toward retirement and turned over the bulk of his stable to longtime assistant Ian Wilkes. Last year, Nafzger won with 18 of 77 starters and finished 24th nationally with purse earnings of $4,378,855. He was the only trainer in the top 100 in earnings with fewer than 100 starters.

Though aware that he had a “50-50 shot” since the late Robert Wheeler was the only other trainer on the ballot, Nafzger was silent for a moment when told he had been elected. “That’s good,” he said, softly. “That’s really good.” Nafzger summoned a line he said he had used before to describe his reaction to being elected. “If you don’t believe in God, study my life. It’s been a miracle,”’ he said. The Olton, Texas resident said it was the highest tribute to be honored by voters from within racing. “The other thing is that you must remember that these people have elected you now to be a representative of a sport that has been very good to Wanda and me. Horses have taken us to places you just can’t go,” he said. “I’ve been very blessed, very fortunate. “You’ve also got to remember the responsibility of where you are now. You represent a sport and you better represent it good. I just hope I can represent it as good as some of the people who are in the Hall of Fame.”

Prado, 40, led the nation in victories for three consecutive years, from 1997 to 1999 while based in Maryland. Since relocating to New York in the summer of 1999 he has been among the leaders in purse money won and has added dozens of graded stakes wins – including the Kentucky Derby and two Belmont Stakes – to his resume. He won the Eclipse Award as the champion jockey of 2006. “I’m just speechless. I’m shaking like a leaf,” he said when told of his election. “Just to be nominated for the Hall of Fame among all my peers, was great. To win is amazing.” Prado grew up in a racing family of 11 children in Peru and began his riding career there as a 16-year-old. His first winner was Tatin in October 1983. He moved to the United States in 1986 and rode in Florida and Massachusetts before settling in Maryland. His first graded stakes win was on Pappas Swing in the Grade 3 Hawthorne Derby on July 16, 1988. Prado became the fourth rider in history with more than 500 victories in a season when he rode 535 in 1997.

In Equibase statistics for North American races through December 31, 2007, Prado had 5,978 victories from 31,188 starts, purse earnings of $200,915,884 and 254 graded stakes wins. He won his 6,000th race this year. This year in North America, Prado has a record through Sunday of 62 victories from 351 starts and purse earnings of $4,367,577. His career totals in North America are 6,040 victories from 31,539 starts, earnings of $205,283,461 and 261 graded stakes. He ranks seventh on the career earnings list. Prado said he has realized in recent years that reaching the select 500-victory club was not the pinnacle of his time in the saddle, but one of many accomplishments. “I thought that was the highlight of my career, until I went to New York,” he said. “There I reached another level, where I ride better horses and ride Grade 1 winners and meet so many great people. That makes it really special. This sport is very, very special because you never know who you can meet around the corner and which one will have the next champion for you to ride.” Among the champions Prado has ridden are Horse of the Year Saint Liam, Folklore, Smuggler, Lemon Drop Kid and Kitten’s Joy.

Valenzuela, a resident of Arcadia, California, rode from 1951 through 1980. He finished in the top ten in purse money won in a season nine consecutive years, from 1956 to 1964. His highest finish was third in 1963 with $1,922,339. During his career, he rode 2,545 winners from 21,203 mounts to earn purse money of $20,122,760. In 1958, he won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness with Tim Tam. Ten years later, he completed the Derby-Preakness double with Forward Pass. He was a regular rider of Hall of Famer Kelso and they won 22 stakes together. “I am the happiest man today knowing that I have been recognized and accepted to the Hall of Fame,” Valenzuela said. “It would have been even a happier moment if my wife Rosa could have been here to share this dream. This was my last chapter in my racing career that I wanted to complete. My last ride across the finish line, at 73 being inducted into the Hall of Fame.”

Inside Information won 14 of 17 races in three seasons of competition for owner-breeder Ogden Mills Phipps. The Private Account filly, a 1991 foal, closed her career for Phipps and trainer Shug McGaughey with three Grade 1 victories. In the final start of her career, the 1995 Breeders’ Cup Distaff, she beat stablemate Heavenly Prize by 13 lengths, a Breeders’ Cup record. That performance at Belmont Park helped secure the Eclipse Award as the champion older filly of 1995. “She was a marvelous filly who had her problems,” Phipps said. “She had some impingement in her neck and Shug trained her extraordinarily well and got around that. Her big race, of course, was in the Breeders’ Cup, which she won by a greater distance than any filly has ever won the Distaff. She was a wonderful mare and she was a great racehorse.” Inside Information is a member of the Phipps family’s broodmare band at Claiborne Farm.

Manila, one of the most successful grass horses in American racing history, made his first appearance on the Hall of Fame ballot in 1992. He was a finalist 10 other times before being elected this year. The son of Lyphard, now standing at stud in Turkey, won 12 of 18 career starts and earned $2,692,799 for trainer Leroy Jolley. “I’m totally astounded to hear that he was elected,” said owner Bradley “Mike” Shannon of Lexington, Kentucky. “It’s a great thrill.” Shannon purchased Manila from owner-breeder Eduardo Cojuangco Jr. after the colt’s winless 2-year-old season of 1985. Shannon’s timing proved to be ideal, as Manila compiled a 12-3-0 record in the final 15 starts of his career. He won nine consecutive races between June 7, 1986 and July 15, 1987. Following a half-length loss in the Bernard Baruch at Saratoga that ended his streak, Manila won the Arlington Million, which turned out to be the final race of his career. Among the horses he defeated in the Million were Sharrood, and Theatrical. “Manila was a very, very special horse,” Shannon said. “It was the greatest thrill to have owned him and been associated with him. And to be associated with his breeder, Eduardo Cojuangco, was a great, great thrill. “He was a really good horse. He won the Breeders’ Cup as a 3-year-old. He ran against everybody. I always said my life was AM and PM: prior to Manila and after Manila. It was all about Manila.”

Ancient Title, a durable and versatile California-bred gelding, was bred and owned by the late William and Ethel Kirkland. He competed for seven seasons, from 1972 to 1978, and won 24 of 57 starts – 20 of them stakes – earning $1,252,791 in purse money. At the time of his retirement he ranked 10th in career earnings. During his career, Ancient Title successfully carried weight in major stakes races. As a 5-year-old in 1975, he won the Grade 1 Californian and Hollywood Gold Cup while spotting the competition weight. Though Ancient Title primarily raced in California, trainer Keith Stucki brought him to the East in 1975 for three major events. He won the Whitney Handicap by a neck over Group Plan, who was carrying 13 fewer pounds. He was third by two lengths to Wajima in the Governor Stakes while conceding 15 pounds and was third to Wajima and Forego in the Marlboro Cup while again conceding weight to the winner.

Stucki, who had a 50-year training career, handled Ancient Title for the Kirklands. Now retired and living in Bradbury, California, Stucki, 88, said Ancient Title deserved to be elected to the Hall of Fame. “I’m very proud of it,” Stucki said. “I thought he should have gone in there two or three years ago, but I’m glad to hear that’s he made it.”

Adding comments to these stories has been disabled. View the current sports stories Salem-News Sports