Our unmissable series continues with the Preakness Stakes winner who belied his humble Californian-bred origins to become a champion
The state of California is able to boast of one of the world’s largest economies. There are no fewer than nine national parks found among its mountains, deserts, and along its 840 miles of ocean coastline.
Hollywood has created a mythology through an industry rivaled only by the historic success of the state’s many sporting franchises, from USC and UCLA to the Dodgers, Lakers, and Golden State Warriors.
Racehorses though? Eh, not so much. The list of great Thoroughbreds produced in California can be listed on less than two hands, led by Swaps, Native Diver, and Tiznow. But room always must be made for the little black colt from the Santa Ynez Valley, the son of a banished stallion and a dirt-cheap mare who humbled the best of his generation.
Snow Chief was not much to look at, until you looked closer. He was a dark brown colt who could pass for black, decorated only by a perfectly centered spot of white high on his forehead, suggesting the shape of a melted marshmallow.
At 15.3 hands, his proportions were ideal, suited to the demands of speed over a route of ground and enhanced by a shoulder swing that gave him a stride that belied his dimensions.
Humble heritage
Putting all his advantages to good use, while ignoring his humble heritage, Snow Chief amassed $3.3 million in earnings for a camera-ready pair of owners and a trainer who had made a career of mining gold from simple gravel. Over a career of 24 races, he reached the pinnacle of the sport not once but twice, attaining both Classic and championship status as a genuine people’s hero.
Snow Chief’s story begins with his sire, Reflected Glory, whose name suggested his shooting star career. In early March 1967, Whitney Tower of Sports Illustrated proclaimed Reflected Glory the leading three-year-old in the East, based on consecutive victories in the Bahamas Stakes and Everglades Stakes at Hialeah for Hirsch and Ethel Jacobs.
He was a son of the young Tom Fool stallion Jester, out of Lysistrata, a foal of 1941, and could boast an older half-brother, Isle Of Greece, who won the 1966 San Fernando Stakes at Santa Anita and finished second in Bold Bidder’s track record-setting Strub Stakes at a mile and a quarter.
Tower’s pronouncement came before either Damascus or Dr. Fager had made their first starts of the ’67 season, so he can be forgiven for jumping the gun. Still, Reflected Glory made the writer look even better by coming from last of 11 in the subsequent Flamingo Stakes to defeat runner-up In Reality by 2¼ lengths.
The bubble burst in the Florida Derby, however, when Reflected Glory finished seventh and emerged from the race with sore shins. He raced a few times later that year without success and then was retired to stud.
Shy breeder
After serving two years in Kentucky, the stallion was declared a shy breeder, a rap that did not discourage Dr. James Buell, a California veterinarian.
Buell owned Rancho Jonata, a sprawling horse farm located hard by Highway 101 near the central coastal town that bore his family name. Before Snow Chief came along, Buellton was best known for the landmark Anderson’s Pea Soup Restaurant. Reflected Glory began breeding mares there in 1971 and immediately put a lie to accusations of a quiet libido.
From his first crop of 13 foals he got the filly Hot n Nasty, who was purchased by Dan Lasater. She won the 1974 Hollywood Lassie Stakes and then gave Ruffian her toughest test as a two-year-old in the Sorority Stakes at Monmouth Park.
Major winners like Summer Siren (La Canada Stakes), Justa Reflection (La Troienne), and A Kiss for Luck (Vanity Handicap) followed. But for the most part the sons and daughters of Reflected Glory populated the lesser realms of the racing universe.
That changed in the early spring of 1982 when Carl Grinstead, a Rancho Jonata client and retired electrical engineer, ponied up the $2,000 it cost to breed his maiden mare Miss Snowflake to Reflected Glory.
Miss Snowflake was a daughter of the Argentine stallion Snow Sporting, winner of the Strub Stakes and Gulfstream Park Handicap. She had survived a youthful training accident to win one of five starts for Grinstead at Agua Caliente Racetrack, but brought nothing to the mating in the way of pedigree other than her distant relationship to Golden Apple, the dam of Jester, through the influential broodmare Fairy Gold.
Miss Snowflake gave birth to her Reflected Glory colt on March 17, 1983, one of 47,236 North American foals registered that year. As correct as he was, small but feisty, no one in their wildest dreams could have predicted that the foal – christened Snow Chief – would turn out to be the only one of those 47,236 foals to win G1 races at ages two, three, and four.
In the spring of 1984, Grinstead sold half-interest in a draft of his horses to Ben Rochelle, a former vaudeville dancer who had done well in California real estate. The yearling Snow Chief was included in the package.
Both men were in their 70s, and when they enjoyed their first major success together, with Sari’s Dreamer on the 1984 Mervyn LeRoy Handicap at Hollywood Park, they were quickly dubbed the ‘Sunshine Boys’, after the play and movie of the same name.
Their trainer was Mel Stute (right), born on an Indiana dairy farm, who by his late 50s had become a California institution through such significant stakes winners as First Balcony, Telly’s Pop, Commissary, Double Discount, and Stancharry – all of them modestly bred or bought.
Avid gambler
Stute was also an avid gambler with a reputation of running his horses often when they were right and never wasting a race.
Snow Chief commenced his career on June 19, 1985, in a five-furlong race at Hollywood Park against nine fellow Cal-breds. To that point, he had been stabled with Grinstead’s horses at Agua Caliente, just across the Mexican border from San Diego, under the care of trainer Wilfredo Martinez. Gary Stute, Mel’s son and chief assistant at the time, remembers the day well.
“Carl didn’t van him up from Caliente until the last minute,” Stute said. “So we actually had to break him out of the gate on the morning of the race, because he wasn’t okayed yet to run at Hollywood Park.”
Held at odds of 2-1, Snow Chief won by 2½ lengths like a good thing under Rafael Meza, pressing or making the pace all the way.
Eleven days later, in an overnight stakes event, Snow Chief tried open company but was squeezed at the start. After trailing by as much at 17 lengths, according to the official chart, the little colt cut the margin in half by the end of the 5½ furlongs but could still do no better than finish sixth.
Snow Chief got the next month off back at Caliente with the Grinstead string to nurse a minor case of sore shins, then reemerged at Del Mar on Sept. 4 to win the Rancho Santa Fe Stakes for California two-year-olds.
Encouraged by what he saw, Mel Stute recommended running the colt one week later in the Del Mar Futurity. Grinstead and Rochelle gambled on their trainer’s word and paid a $10,000 late fee to run. Snow Chief did his part by finishing a solid third to Tasso, subsequent winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and the filly Arewehavingfunyet, winner of the Del Mar Debutante. Third-place was worth $28,500.
The Futurity on Del Mar’s closing day marked the first collaboration between Snow Chief and Alex Solis. Freshly turned 21, the native of Panama had arrived in California in July 1985 bearing a sterling record from South Florida, where he was among the leaders at Gulfstream Park, Hialeah, and Calder Race Course.
Solis in the mix
When Meza stuck with De Anza Stakes winner Bolger Magic for the Futurity, the mount on Snow Chief popped open, and agent Vince DeGregory was quick to put Solis in the mix.
“Bob Meldahl had Meza’s book at the time,” said DeGregory, who at age 93 has been in the game longer than any living agent. “He told me he couldn’t ride Snow Chief in the Futurity, and I’d been wanting to get on him. I kept my mouth shut just in case some other agent was listening.
“That night I run into Gary Stute at the Del Mar Cafe, not far from the track,” DeGregory said. “He goes, ‘Hey, Vince. Loan me a hundred. I’ll pay you back tomorrow.’ I give him the hundred, and I tell him don’t worry about paying me back. Just try to get me on Snow Chief.”
From such small dramas, history is made. Beginning with the Del Mar Futurity, Solis rode Snow Chief in 14 straight races.
“The first time I rode him, right away I noticed he was very green and looking around,” said Solis, a winner of more than 5,000 races during his Hall of Fame career. “I talked to Mel about it and told him I thought if we put blinkers on his it would help him to focus better. Thank God he listened to me.”
The trainer might have listened, but it was not until Snow Chief’s sixth race under Solis that Stute added a set of Grinstead’s pink blinkers. The result was an overpowering victory in the $1,172,000 Hollywood Futurity at a mile, 6½ lengths clear of the promising colts Electric Blue and Ferdinand.
In addition to the Hollywood Futurity, Snow Chief and Solis won the G1 Norfolk Stakes at Santa Anita and earned placings in three minor stakes in 1985 – which meant the 1986 season dawned with Snow Chief at the head of the West Coast class of three-year-olds.
Championship campaign
There followed a campaign rarely seen from a California-based colt aiming for the Classics. Snow Chief commenced the season with a routine score in the California Breeders Championship at seven furlongs, then traveled to Bay Meadows to win the El Camino Real Derby at a mile and a sixteenth.
At the end of February, Snow Chief boarded a plane bound for Gulfstream Park and the Florida Derby, where a field of 16 was entered for the nine furlongs.
Favored at 3-2, Snow Chief led them on a futile chase to win by a length and three-quarters. Badger Land, who’d been second at Bay Meadows, was second again.
“That was very special,” Solis said. “When I left Florida, there were a few guys who said, ‘You probably won’t make it in California. You’ll be back in a few months.’ Well, I came back – with Snow Chief to win the Florida Derby!”
Vivid memories
Forty years later, Solis (right) retains nothing but vivid memories. “He was just a very strong horse who loved to run and loved to train,” he said. “You would take him out in the morning and he could work five-eighths in :58, three-quarters in 1:12.
“Even if you wanted him to go easy, he’d still go fast, but still in hand. He was like one of those smart kids who always knew what he wanted.”
One month after the Florida Derby, Snow Chief was back home and in full flower to win the Santa Anita Derby by six lengths. Ferdinand, a son of Nijinsky still a work in progress for Charlie Whittingham, finished a deceptive third over a speed-favoring track. Whittingham made immediate plans to join fellow Californian Stute at Churchill Downs, but it was the Snow Chief entourage that became the darlings of the Louisville scene.
“Going into the Derby, I thought he couldn’t lose,” recalled Gary Stute. “He was sound, everything couldn’t have been going better.”
As the week progressed, however, smiles began to fade. “Snow Chief didn’t work that great in Kentucky,” Solis said. “You could feel him struggle. He would run with his head low, and the track was cuppy. He had a hard time getting a hold of it. After that, we just didn’t know.”
Since Snow Chief was the kind of colt who never told a lie, his poor Derby performance should not have been a surprise. He never saw the lead, although he did work his way up to third with a half-mile to run. But that was that.
“When we got to the three-eighths pole he completely gave up,” Solis said. “After that I just left him alone. There was no use pushing him.” His official placing was 11th, geared down and nearly 20 lengths behind his victorious California rival, Ferdinand.
Peerless at Pimlico
Mel Stute was disappointed, but not discouraged. The trainer, who died in 2020 at 93, credited Whittingham for urging him to try again in the Preakness Stakes, two weeks hence. As friendly gestures go, it certainly backfired. Snow Chief took to the Pimlico surface as if he had sprung from its red soil and won the middle jewel of the Triple Crown by four galloping lengths. Ferdinand finished second.
“After the way he ran in the Derby, I almost wasn’t going to go,” Gary Stute said. “But Albert Barrera, Laz’s son, told me I’d better get back there, because my dad’s horse was going to win.
“So I flew in that morning, and that turned out to be the best day of my life. To have him run that bad in the Derby and come back to win the Preakness was the greatest feeling ever.”
The Preakness was Snow Chief’s 13th race in just over eight months, but if he was winded, no one noticed. Nine days later, the plucky Californian colt turned up at Garden State Park for the Jersey Derby and its $1m purse.
With his low, reaching stride in full display, he led all the way around to finish the mile and a quarter two lengths in front of Mogambo. The $600,000 winner’s share padded Snow Chief’s bankroll as the all-time leading earner among Cal-breds.
“My dad had a lot of good horses, but Snow Chief was by far the best he ever had,” Gary Stute said. “He wasn’t very big, not very tall. But he was a good-looking horse, and never had a real problem until he ran against Melair at Hollywood Park, when she kicked his ass and he came out of it bad.”
Surgery and a long rest
The date was July 5, 1986. Melair was a buzzsaw of a filly bred and raced by a pair of retired schoolteachers. She shaded 1:33 for the one-turn mile in the Silver Screen Handicap, humbling a field of colts, while Snow Chief checked in a distant third. Five days later, after an easy gallop, a fracture was found in his right knee. Surgery and a long rest followed.
As the days of 1986 ticked down, Snow Chief was gearing up for a return to competition in the seven-furlong Malibu Stakes, the opening day feature at Santa Anita on Dec. 26. Solis had been working his colt, and all signs glowing green.
On Dec. 15, Solis was booked to ride all nine races at Hollywood Park, on a program topped by the Hollywood Futurity. He won a race early on the card and was unplaced aboard a longshot in the Futurity, then went postward in the final race looking forward to a few days off and some Christmas shopping for his family. Then his mount fell, and all bets were off.
The horse escaped injury, but the jockey did not. It hurt, yes, but not as much as losing a chance to ride Snow Chief.
“I was very sad,” Solis said. “I’d lost one of my best friends. But I had a broken leg and a broken wrist, and it was gonna take some time to heal. With a horse like him, you don’t want to lose him – and it’s hard to get them back. There were more than a few people making phone calls to get the mount.”
The mount for the Malibu went to Pat Valenzuela, a regular on Stute horses. Snow Chief returned in good form, but he could not hold off the closing punch of Ferdinand, who was coming back from a long layoff of his own.
Next, Snow Chief made his official four-year-old debut in the Jan. 18 San Fernando Stakes and finished third after a costly stumble at the break, again with Valenzuela aboard.
On Jan. 31, 1987, Snow Chief was among the champions of 1986 honored at the Fairmount Hotel in San Francisco, at the traditional Eclipse Awards dinner, where he was named champion three-year-old male.
Cal-bred champion
With the exception of the steeplechaser Café Prince, Snow Chief was the first Californian-bred Eclipse champion since the awards were established in 1971. He was the first Cal-bred to be voted a national champion of any kind since the turf horse T.V. Lark was recognized in 1961.
On Feb. 8, Snow Chief put a polish on his Eclipse Award in a Strub Stakes for the ages. Challenged by a deeply committed Ferdinand, the little black colt beat the big red colt by a nose at the end of the mile and a quarter.
By then, Solis was back in action, although he had to watch his colt win the Strub from atop a longshot who finished last. As he feared, Valenzuela kept the mount for the subsequent Santa Anita Handicap, also at a mile and a quarter, although the challenge had a different edge.
“Coming back in the Santa Anita Handicap, Charlie put a rabbit in there to go with Snow Chief,” Gary Stute said. “Valenzuela went with him, and Snow Chief paid the price.”
It had to be a frustrating sight for the Snow Chief gang, watching their colt lapped on Whittingham’s free-wheeling Epidaurus through a half-mile in :45⅘.
By comparison, Snow Chief’s first half in the Strub was a full second slower; still a brisk pace by most standards, but well within the colt’s comfort zone. Snow Chief finished fifth, Epidaurus trailed home last, and Ferdinand – for whom the rabbit was cooked – missed by a nose to the eastern invader Broad Brush.
Not long after the Handicap, Carl Grinstead died at 73 after a battle with cancer, having lived long enough to watch his roll of the dice with Reflected Glory and Miss Snowflake hailed as a champion.
Back on the track, Snow Chief was reunited with Solis and headed for points east. His first stop was Florida for the Gulfstream Park Handicap, but he could do no better than third behind local talents Skip Trial and Crème Fraiche.
Grand finale
Three weeks later, Snow Chief turned up in Arkansas for the Oaklawn Handicap, giving away as much as 15 pounds to his six opponents. At the end of the nine furlongs in 1:46⅗, Snow Chief, under 123, held Red Attack and his 112 pounds safe by three-quarters of a length.
“If he would have saved all his talent for one race, that was it,” Solis said. “He was so amazing, and to be honest, I didn’t have much to do. I was just his passenger that day. He made the whole pace and set the track record that still stands. It was like his grand finale.”
Stute gave Snow Chief a brief break before running in the Californian at Hollywood Park. The date was June 7, 1984, close enough to the second anniversary of his debut. Again, he bobbled at the start but quickly caught his stride to chase the accomplished Judge Angelucci on the pace, while giving him eight pounds.
Judge Angelucci kept going to win by a length, while a longshot got up to nip Snow Chief for second. The result was disappointing enough, but not nearly as heartbreaking as the tendon injury detected after the race that ended Snow Chief’s career.
Not surprisingly, there were no offers to stand Snow Chief in Kentucky. He began his stallion career in 1988 at Mira Loma Farm in Riverside County, to the east of Los Angeles.
With nothing much to pass on in terms of pedigree, Snow Chief did well to sire a collection of Californian stakes winners, including the half-million dollar earner College Town for Mel Stute.
Snow Chief bounced around to several other farms, always a popular attraction, but by the late ’90s he was no longer in serious demand.
He ended his days at the opulent Eagle Oak Ranch in Paso Robles owned by Ben and Diane Rochelle. After Ben’s death in 2001, his widow carried on, allowing Snow Chief to cover a few mares while lording over the land.
On May 18, 2010, three days after the running of the 135th Preakness, Snow Chief suffered a fatal cardiac event. He was buried at Eagle Oak, which over the ensuing years was sold and has been transformed into a luxury destination property with equine flair for weddings, reunions, and other special events.
“We also have a group of retired racehorses on the property,” said Eagle Oak’s Ashley Tullius. “Snow Chief’s memorial is right there by one of the main roads. Even though this is no longer a working horse farm, we are very proud of the fact he was here, and always will be.”
• Read all Jay Hovdey's features in his Favorite Racehorses series
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