Book seven in the Thoroughbred Legends series from Eclipse Press is about the amazing gray Thoroughbred who won all but one of his twenty-two starts from age two to four. His lone loss--and it was a big one--came in the 1953 Kentucky Derby to 25-1 longshot Dark Star.Imagine the consequences if Native Dancer would have won: he would have shattered Citation's record for consecutive wins (sixteen); and he probably would have been voted Thoroughbred of the Century over Man O'War, who also lost a single race.
Author Eva Jolene Boyd develops several theories as to why Native Dancer lost the Derby:
--He was bumped near the start, and his jockey Eric Guerin lost his cool. He tried to take his mount up the inside, where he was blocked and forced to take up twice. If Native Dancer had taken his usual route up the outside, he would have kept out of trouble and won the Derby.
--Another rider deliberately blocked Native Dancer. This is jockey, Eric Guerin's theory.
--Native Dancer followed a rather peculiar race route to the Derby, and his trainer, Bill Winfrey didn't have the big gray colt 100% fit. There may be a grain of truth to this theory. Almost 35 years after the race, Winfrey admitted to a writer: "I didn't have him fit."
--The bad ankles theory. This seemed to be favored by certain members of the press.
--The hat on the bed theory. When trainer, Bill Winfrey entered his Lexington hotel room a few days before the Derby, he discovered that one of the reporters had left his hat on the bed--very bad gris-gris for superstitious Thoroughbred trainers.
Take your choice of theory as to why the Gray Ghost lost the big one, but be sure to read this book. The author covers Native Dancer's career both on the race course and at stud. In both careers, he performed superlatively well.
