The Seventies might be known as one other Golden Age in racing very similar to the Forties, a decade awash in legends. Along with three Triple Crown winners, that 10-year interval was full of greats like Forego, Ruffian, and Spectacular Bid. Such immortals usually eclipsed different high-class performers in an period stuffed with improbable performances.

Whether or not they have been named for world-class athletes or beloved relations, Chris Evert, Susan’s Woman, and Wajima have been all sensational throughout their years on the racetrack, including extra names to the lengthy record of champions of the Seventies.

Susan’s Woman (1969-1988)

Fred Hooper hit the lottery on his first strive. This jack-of-all-trades had paid $10,000 for his first yearling buy in 1943, a colt he named Hoop, Jr., after his son, and received the war-delayed 1945 Kentucky Derby with that fortuitous buy. For the subsequent 50 years, as Hooper tried to get again to that historic winner’s circle, he created a legacy of breeding and proudly owning champions from Copelan to Precisionist. A kind of was a filly named Susan’s Woman.

Hooper’s spouse, Laura, owned Quaze, a filly by South American stallion Quibu who completed second within the 1960 Kentucky Oaks. In 1968, Quaze visited Quadrangle, the 1964 Belmont and Travers Stakes winner, after which foaled a bay filly with a distinguished blaze and three white socks on March 23, 1969. Whereas Quaze was pregnant with this latest filly, Laura Hooper handed away, leaving Quaze to her son Fred Hooper, Jr. He named the brand new filly Susan’s Woman after his spouse after which bought her to his father for $25,000 plus half of the filly’s first season’s earnings. Within the Hooper purple and blue silks, Susan’s Woman would change into a celebrity.

She began her 63-race profession on Independence Day 1971 with a fourth-place end in a maiden particular weight at Saratoga. Susan’s Woman broke her maiden two races later after which received her stakes debut within the six-furlong Signature Stakes earlier than stretching out to 1 mile and 70 yards within the Villager, each at Liberty Bell Park. In between, she scored seconds within the Frizette, Gardenia, and Demoiselle Stakes, and ended her juvenile season with 5 wins in 13 begins.

At age 3, Susan’s Woman was as soon as once more exhibiting the standard her breeding promised. She opened the yr on the West Coast, profitable three stakes at Santa Anita Park earlier than delivery again east to Louisville and Churchill Downs. She then received the La Troienne on Saturday, April 29 and adopted that with a one-length victory within the 1972 Kentucky Oaks every week later, giving Hooper his second win in that marquee race. Her 3-year-old season additionally featured wins within the Beldame Stakes, Gazelle Handicap, Acorn Stakes, and Cotillion Handicap; Susan’s Woman exited the yr with 9 wins in 13 begins, sufficient to earn her the Eclipse Award for champion 3-year-old filly.

Early in her 4-year-old season, she raced twice towards open firm in stakes at Santa Anita, ending fifth in each, earlier than reeling off three straight wins in distaff handicaps just like the Santa Margarita. She then got here again east to win the Susquehanna Handicap, the Delaware Handicap, and the Spinster Stakes. The next season was shortened by a fractured sesamoid, which could have ended another horse’s profession, however Hooper wished his champion racemare to interrupt the seven-figure mark, so he saved her in coaching at age 6. That ultimate season, Susan’s Woman was higher than ever.

She began the yr on the West Coast once more, with top-three finishes within the Santa Monica, Santa Maria, and Santa Margarita Handicaps, earlier than delivery to Oaklawn Park for the second operating of the Apple Blossom Handicap. Carrying excessive weight, Susan’s Woman had little hassle with the sphere of 11 different older fillies and mares and received by 3½ lengths. A visit to Hollywood Park yielded just one win in 5 begins there earlier than she headed east for her ultimate races. She earned second victories in Delaware Handicap in addition to the Beldame and Spinster Stakes together with wins within the Matchmaker Stakes and Lengthy Seaside Handicap. She ended her profession with $1,251,667 in purse cash, changing into the primary North American filly or mare to earn seven figures on the racetrack.

For her efforts, Susan’s Woman earned one other Eclipse Award for older feminine, having beforehand received it in 1973, after which was inducted into the Racing Corridor of Fame the next yr. Glad along with his greatest horse up to now in his a long time as a breeder and proprietor, Fred Hooper retired his champion mare to his Circle H Farm close to Ocala, Fla., the place she produced 11 foals, together with Copelan, a a number of stakes winner named for Dr. Robert Copelan, the veterinarian who repaired her fractured sesamoid. Her dam, Quaze, additionally foaled Quaze Quilt, a 3rd Kentucky Oaks winner for Hooper. However the dominant distaffer named for his daughter-in-law remained Hooper’s greatest horse till a chestnut sprinter named Precisionist got here alongside a decade later.

Chris Evert (1971-2001)

On the floor, the pedigree won’t impress, however on the racetrack, the filly Chris Evert was each bit the champion that her human namesake was.

Her dam, Miss Carmie, received one black-type stakes at 2 for her house owners Don and Shirley Sucher of Echo Valley Farm, who then retired her after one season. The couple felt that she was extra priceless as a broodmare than a racehorse and that assumption proved to be proper. Miss Carmie’s sire, T.V. Lark, was a stakes winner on each grass and grime and her dam, Twice Over, was a product of Calumet Farm’s storied breeding program. Her first cowl by Darby Dan Farm’s twin traditional winner Chateaugay was the filly Anachronism, who received as soon as in eight begins, so the Suchers opted to ship Miss Carmie to a distinct stallion for her second. Their selection? Swoon’s Son, a constant stakes winner who raced primarily within the Midwest. His document actually was interesting – 30 wins in 51 begins – however his $5,000 stud charge made the choice a lot simpler.

On Valentine’s Day 1971, the product of the Suchers’ planning made her debut, a chestnut filly with a large blaze who quickly would achieve an iconic identify. As a yearling, the couple bought her on the 1972 Keeneland July sale, her value $32,000 for coach Joe Trovato, shopping for on behalf of Carl Rosen, proprietor of the Puritan Fashions Company of Boston, Mass. That very same yr, Rosen signed rising tennis star Chris Evert to endorse a line of tennis garments. When he requested the younger athlete about naming a horse for her, Evert agreed and thus the daughter of Miss Carmie and Swoon’s Son grew to become Chris Evert. She joined Trovato’s barn and shortly grew to become his largest star.

Trovato had performed a number of roles within the sport earlier than taking out his license, working as a jockey’s agent in addition to proudly owning horses himself. He additionally had labored as an assistant for Bobby Frankel within the late Nineteen Sixties earlier than taking out his coach’s license in 1971. When Chris Evert arrived in his barn in 1973, she shortly received Trovato’s favor with the nascent coach rigorously getting ready his future star in her juvenile season. She didn’t debut till mid-September and shortly racked up two wins earlier than making an attempt stakes firm within the Grade 1 Frizette Stakes. After rearing in the beginning and getting away from the gate in final, Chris Evert rallied to complete second by a half-length. She adopted that with two Grade 3 wins within the Golden Rod Stakes and the Demoiselle Stakes, rounding out a season the place she began 5 instances in eight weeks.

Trovato waited till Could to start out Chris Evert’s 3-year-old season within the Grade 3 Comely Stakes at Aqueduct. After ending third, the daughter of Swoon’s Son tried the Grade 1 Acorn subsequent which was cut up in two divisions in 1974. The filly sailed to victory in her race by three-quarters of a size after which wheeled again three weeks later within the 1 1/8-mile Mom Goose Stakes. Her win in that race earned her two of the three New York Triple Tiara classics. Chris Evert then stretched out to 1½ miles within the Teaching Membership American Oaks and led gate-to-wire to win by 3½ lengths, sealing her Triple Tiara.

One month after that achievement, Rosen matched his filly with the West Coast model of a 3-year-old filly celebrity in Miss Musket for a $350,000 winner-take-all purse. Available that July day at Hollywood Park was her human namesake recent off a victory at Wimbledon, there to advertise Rosen’s tennis clothes line. Chris Evert simply bested Miss Musket, the margin of victory a gaudy 50 lengths. She adopted that with a visit to Saratoga for 2 Grade 1 stakes, together with the Alabama, the place Quaze Quilt scored an upset by a neck over Chris Evert, and he or she then confronted the boys within the Travers for her final begin of the yr.

The 1974 version of the Midsummer Derby included Little Present, the Preakness and Belmont winner, and the gelding Holding Sample, who had defeated the previous within the Monmouth Invitational. Chris Evert broke alertly, operating second 1 / 4 of a mile into the 1¼-mile race, after which she took the lead on the bottom. Holding Sample caught as much as her on the far flip, however Chris Evert was capable of maintain him off till the nine-furlong marker. He took over in that final eighth as Little Present mounted a bid, passing Chris Evert in late stretch. The Triple Tiara winner ended up third, 4½ lengths behind Holding Sample and Little Present. Her document earned Chris Evert the Eclipse Award for champion 3-year-old filly.

Trovato gave the filly a break till late December, when she shortened up within the six-furlong Conniver Stakes at Aqueduct. She received that race with ease after which shipped out to California and Santa Anita to strive the La Canada Stakes as a prep race for the Grade 1 Santa Margarita Handicap. Chris Evert received the La Canada however then completed eighth within the Santa Margarita as Tizna upset a subject that additionally included Fred Hooper’s champion filly Susan’s Woman. Six weeks later, Rosen introduced that his filly named for the famed tennis star was retiring to broodmare life at Claiborne Farm, with Secretariat tabbed as her potential first cowl.

In her almost 15 years as a broodmare, Chris Evert produced solely 5 fillies, with reproductive points inflicting her to go years and not using a reside foal. All 5 carried on the champion’s genetic affect and have become good broodmares, along with her first foal, Six Crowns, doing the most effective of all. Sired by Secretariat, Six Crowns – referring to her sire’s Triple Crown and her dam’s Triple Tiara – was a minor stakes winner for Rosen, however later produced Chief’s Crown, champion 2-year-old male of 1984, and a number of Grade 1 winner Traditional Crown.

Wajima (1972-2001)

Wajima beat the percentages and gave People a preview of what was to return when Japanese industrialist and breeder Zenya Yoshida invested in North America’s racing scene.

By 1971, Daring Ruler was a star sire for Claiborne Farm and Arthur ‘Bull’ Hancock Jr., however his greatest son, Secretariat, was only a yearling at that time. The son of Nasrullah had led the sire record a number of instances, but the notion of his progeny instructed that he didn’t produce horses that would go a traditional distance. Secretariat would show that assumption fallacious and make the final of Daring Ruler’s crops all of the extra priceless. Earlier than most cancers claimed Daring Ruler in 1971 and Hancock the next yr, the star stallion would produce yet another crop, with one identify rising above the remainder: Wajima.

His dam, Iskra, had already foaled a star in Naskra, who received or positioned in a number of stakes just like the Everglades and Belmont Stakes plus the Lexington and Suburban Handicaps. Coated by Daring Ruler in 1970, she foaled a bay colt with two white socks on Could 8, 1972. A yr later and simply weeks after Secretariat’s Triple Crown, Iskra’s yearling colt would undergo the gross sales ring at Keeneland’s July Sale, with Irish bloodstock agent Tom Copper opening the bidding at an astounding $500,000. Representing Yoshida amongst different house owners, Lexington bloodstock agent James Scully raised the bidding to $600,000 with no different bidders, hammering down at a document value for a yearling in 1973. That enormous price ticket got here with even bigger expectations as different high-priced yearlings tended to fizzle on the racetrack.

Scully put collectively a partnership for his document buy, East-West Steady, which included Louisiana doctor James Welch; an Ohio pharmaceutical and plastic producer named Harold Snyder; and Yoshida, who had began his funding within the sport within the mid-Nineteen Sixties. Yoshida’s Shadai Stallion Station would later carry Sunday Silence to Japan, a choice which helped make his breeding program some of the dominant in that nation. He instructed naming the colt for star sumo wrestler Hiroshi Wajima, who had achieved sumo’s highest standing of Yokozuna that yr.  

The newly christened Wajima joined coach Stephen DiMauro’s secure in New York however would have a delayed begin to his profession due to bucked shins. As a 2-year-old, he began solely 4 instances, profitable his debut at Belmont Park in late September. He adopted that with a second win in an allowance, however his two stakes tries in 1974 included a second within the Laurel Futurity; that race’s winner, L’Enjoleur, would win the 1975 Queen’s Plate and the Prince of Wales Stakes, two-thirds of the Canadian Triple Crown.

Wajima began his 3-year-old season on an inauspicious observe, ending fifth within the Bahamas Stakes at Hialeah Park. He got here out of the race with a leg damage, which saved him off the monitor till mid-June. He due to this fact missed the 1975 Triple Crown season, however returned to type with two allowance wins at Belmont Park. Wajima then returned to stakes firm, with seconds within the Saranac Stakes and the Dwyer Handicap. The Daring Ruler colt was again within the winner’s circle along with his win within the Marylander Handicap at Bowie, the primary of what would change into a torrent of notable stakes wins, elevating his stature inside the 3-year-old male division.

After his Marylander win, Wajima eked out a neck win within the Grade 1 Monmouth Invitational Handicap earlier than heading to Saratoga and the Travers Stakes. Additionally supposed for the Travers was Kentucky Derby winner Silly Pleasure, organising a confrontation between the upstart Wajima and the colt who had been the star of the yr’s Triple Crown season. Coach Leroy Jolley scratched Silly Pleasure after the colt skilled poorly main as much as the Midsummer Derby, leaving Wajima to face solely 4 others. The 1¼-mile race was a crowning second for the son of Daring Ruler, his profitable margin 10 lengths. He then met the Derby winner within the Governor Stakes at Belmont Park and received by a head earlier than occurring to the Marlboro Cup Invitational lower than two weeks later.

The sphere for the Grade 1 Marlboro Cup included not solely Silly Pleasure but additionally Belmont Stakes winner Avatar and Forego, 1974 Horse of the Yr and a future Corridor of Famer. Carrying 119 kilos to Forego’s 129, Wajima battled the older horse down the stretch, unwilling to provide an inch as they approached the wire. On the end, the 3-year-old had crushed Forego by only a head. Within the Grade 1 Woodward Stakes, Forego turned the tables on Wajima, profitable by 1¾ lengths. A month later, the son of Daring Ruler tried the two-mile Jockey Membership Gold Cup however was second once more, a neck behind 5-year-old upset winner Group Plan.

Because the colt was syndicated by Spendthrift Farm for $7.2 million, the East-West Steady companions opted to retire Wajima on the finish of his 3-year-old season. Collectively along with his $822,816 in purse cash, the colt had crushed the percentages stacked towards him as a record-priced yearling, overcoming the pattern of poor returns for such giant investments, as he logged 9 wins in 14 begins, together with 4 Grade 1 wins. As a stallion, Wajima sired 26 stakes winners, together with 1984 Queen’s Plate winner Key to the Moon and a number of stakes winner Excitable Girl. In 1987, Wajima moved to Stone Farm, the place he lived out the remainder of his days.

These three stars had names impressed by people, however every have been each bit an instance of the most effective that an equine athlete may be. Every gave performances that made them champions in an period stacked with legends, ones who might have overshadowed them, and now we’ve got an opportunity to rejoice their achieved careers as soon as once more.