Arcangelo paddock schooling before his start in the Belmont Stakes. (Walter Wlodarczyk)
The Horses
By Maribeth Kalinich
UPDATED 10/16/2024 4:15 PM EDT
A wise woman told me that champions are not made. The propensity for a horse to be a champion comes from its breeding. And the nurturing it gets from its mamma in the field.
By the time that horse is a yearling and leaves its mamma its personality is developed just like a human child. Now it will be a human’s responsibility to develop this equine creature into a racehorse. And keep this highly intelligent Thoroughbred mentally occupied and challenged. (Whomever invented the Jolly Ball should get an award)
When that horse with the innate talent lands with the right human magic can happen.
Fate made it possible for two horses to fulfill their destinies as champions.
This is Thanksgiving and Arcangelo’s journey to the Travers winner’s circle.
THE HORSES
Both aptly named but from different beginnings, Thanksgiving was thankful to be alive after a lightning strike at Max Hirsch’s barn left him on the ground unconscious.
His mere survival and subsequent success would facilitate two women’s groundbreaking accomplishments.
Thanksgiving was a smallish bay, average in appearance, no specific marking. What he lacked in looks he made up in heart and his competitiveness that equated to speed.
Arcangelo became the ‘chief angel’ who guided his lesser-known team from the Keeneland Sales in Kentucky to triumph in New York in two of the biggest races in North America.
Arcangelo was small and underdeveloped especially in his hind end. He needed time to mature. He needed to grow into himself, physically and mentally. As Jon Ebbert said, he was a project.
But both horses were solid runners who loved their jobs and had patient and intelligent owners and trainers.
Thanksgiving was bred in Maryland by William M. Elder; he was the son of Bud Lerner out of Inchcape Belle who was by Inchcape with both top and bottom having heavy doses of Bend Or and a smattering of Domino.
Elder sold him as a yearling to Anne Corning
Thanksgiving joined the Corning stable in 1937 at age two, breaking his maiden in just his second start with Max Hirsch as his conditioner. He won the Tuxedo Purse at Empire City a month later before Hirsch moved on to Saratoga for their August meet.
On July 27th, Max Hirsch was eating lunch in his kitchen near his backside barn when he felt something strike his foot. When he looked up, he saw that the chef was lying on the floor, knocked out by a bolt of lightning that had struck the barn area. Hirsch rushed over to see that the bolt had killed a filly, skipped a couple of stalls, and then hit Thanksgiving, who was out cold for several hours afterward.
The colt made a full recovery, going on to compete in the Hopeful Stakes a month later, but did not win another race in 1937.
In his 3-year-old year Thanksgiving had also won the Constitution Handicap, Huron Handicap Sarnac Handicap, was second in the Withers, American Legion Handicap, and third in the Yankee Handicap, Governor’s Handicap and Butler Handicap.
With five starts in his 4-year-old campaign, Thanksgiving won the Philadelphia Handicap, Excelsior Handicap, was second in the Suburban Handicap and Merchants’ and Citizens’ Handicap and third in the Yorktown Handicap.
But Thanksgiving’s finishes belied his performances.
Thanksgiving had run third in the Yankee Handicap at Suffolk Downs, but at a speed that equaled the track record, which was broken by the winner of the race, Cravat.
In the Empire City Handicap Thanksgiving raced against the accomplished Stagehand placing second by a half-length but both horses broke the track record.
Against older horses in the Butler, Thanksgiving would beat all other 3-year-olds in the race but lose by a length to 5-year-old Esposa. Again, the top three finishers all broke the previous track record.
At Saratoga in late July, Thanksgiving would again race against older horses in the American Legion. The winner, 4-year-old Airflame, broke a track record that had stood for 18 years. Thanksgiving, who finished a head bob behind, would break the record as well.
Two weeks after his Travers victory Thanksgiving won the Huron Handicap, his final win of his sophomore season.
In his 4-year-old campaign Thanksgiving would win the 1939 Philadelphia Handicap and Excelsior Handicap.
Anne Corning’s colt placed second in the Suburban and Merchants’ and Citizens’ Handicaps and finish third in the Yorktown to round out his final year on the track.
With a career record of a stalwart 32 starts, Thanksgiving retired with eight wins, five seconds and four thirds earning $60,080, much of that in stakes.
Mrs. Corning retired her Travers winner to stud in 1940 at her farm.
Thanksgiving was part of the Corning consignment that sold at Belmont Park in May 1943 following the deaths of the Parker and Anne Cornings the same year.
Purchased by Philip Godfrey for $1,700, as a stallion at Godfrey’s farm Thanksgiving would go on to sire several offspring in the 1940s. Thanksgiving had made his way to Michigan in by the late 1950s to the Holiday Farm and continued siring foals through 1958.
Arcangelo
Arcangelo comes from a top caliber family. He is by the late stallion, Arrogate, out of a Tapit mare named Modeling. The unraced Modeling sold for $2.85 million in 2014 at the Keeneland November sale to breeder Don Alberto Corporation.
His sire, the brilliant Arrogate, won seven consecutive races including the Travers and the Breeders’ Cup Classic and two other Grade 1s. He also won the 2016 Eclipse Award for American Champion 3-year-old Male Horse. Named World’s Best Race Horse of 2016, he retired with earnings of over 17 million dollars. In 2019 he stood for $75,000 at Juddmonte Farm in Kentucky.
Arcangelo would start his career Dec. 17, 2022, in Florida at his trainer, Jena Antonucci’s home track Gulfstream Park. Posting a second in his debut under Jose Ortiz at six furlongs, the ridgling bumped up his speed in his next start but hit the board fourth, again under Ortiz.
March 18, 2023, with more speed, Arcangelo broke his maiden by 3-1/2 lengths at a mile but this time he had a change in riders. Javier Castellano enters the story and propels himself into the history books.
Antonucci saw confidence in her colt as did his owner at Blue Rose Farm so off to New York they would go.
Arcangelo would win the Grade 3 Peter Pan at Belmont Park May 13th at 1-1/8 miles by a head over Bishops Bay. The handsome gray was starting to garner a little attention.
Antonucci and Ebbert had decide to skip the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes to let their colt mature after breaking his maiden in March. And their would patience be rewarded.
Next up was the Belmont Stakes June 10th.
Arcangelo would stun the crowd at Belmont as he blew past top 3-year-olds including favorites Forte and National Treasure on his way to collecting the August Belmont Trophy and the win for the first female trainer in a Triple Crown race. He also gave his jockey his second Triple Crown series win of 2023.
In August, the steely gray would transfix fans in the Travers as they wondered if he could follow up his Belmont victory with another win over top-class 3-year-olds.
Facing the winners of the first two legs of the Triple Crown and a deep field of Graded stakes winners, and under a brilliant ride by Javier Castellano, Arcangelo glided into the record books by a one-length victory carrying Antonucci and Ebbert with him.
The current top horse in the Breeders’ Cup Classic rankings, it’s very likely we will see Arcangelo run against the same top horses in November.
If he should win the Classic, it could secure him Eclipse Award Champion 3-year-old honors and perhaps even Horse of the Year.
We might see Arcangelo in a Breeders’ Cup warm up. He just had a work at Saratoga Sept. 12 where he breezed four furlongs in 47.62.
To see Jena Antonucci’s video of Arcangelo’s work on X click here.
In his six starts, Arcangelo has won four and they all came this year. His earnings have reached $1,754,900.
Ebbert and Antonucci make no promises and say it’s up to Arcangelo so if he is willing, we might just see him campaigned as a 4-year-old under the Blue Rose Silks.
Arcangelo is a ridgling so after his racing career can he have a career at stud?
A riddling is a male horse whose testicles have been retained inside its body.
Normally it’s thought because the heat inside the body is too high for sperm to survive therefore an undescended testicle is non-functional.
Most ridglings undergo surgery due to the discomfort of one of the retained testicles.
Two horses who happened to have this surgery were Gray Slewpy and A. P. Indy. In fact, they had the surgery in the same week. A.P. Indy is a son of Seattle Slew, the 1977 Triple Crown champion, and Gray Slewpy is one of his grandsons.
“I might do one or two of those jobs in a year,” said veterinarian Greg Ferraro to the Los Angeles Times in 1992.
“I hadn’t done one like that in a long time and then—boom, boom, I had two of them, A.P. Indy and Gray Slewpy.” Ferraro had removed an undescended testicle from each horse. He estimated that A.P. Indy’s surgery took about 40 minutes.
Ridglings are thought to sire ridglings, and although such horses’ breeding capacities are not known to be limited, ridglings will sometimes give investors and breeders pause when they are considering stallions. Seattle Slew was not a ridgling.
Ridgling status and the removal of one testicle did not preclude A. P. Indy from becoming a prolific and influential sire. He would go on to sire stakes winners and notable sires such as Pulpit, Malibu Moon, Bernardini, Mineshaft, Rags to Riches, Majestic Warrior, Honor Code. Take Charge Indy and Friesan Fire.
As far as Arcangelo, Mark Toothaker, stallion manager for Spendthrift Farm said: “[Being a] ridgling is not an issue if the one testicle is big and healthy which we believe to be the case.”
Upon retirement, Arcangelo will go to Lane’s End Farm to stand stud as announced in October.
Arcangelo will pass on his sire, Arrogate’s legacy and his own amazing history.
Look for Part Five of Barnstormers tomorrow in Past The Wire. To read Part Three click here.
