As much fun as they have in the dirt races of the Breeders’ Cup, American owners and trainers must get tired of being knocked around by a variety of Europeans on the grass. The Breeders’ Cup Turf has been an especially dry hole for domestic runners, who ran true to recent history in the 2020 renewal at Keeneland on November 7 when the best the U.S. team could do was Channel Maker’s third-place finish to Tarnawa and Magical.
It’s been ever thus. Since 2000, when Kalanisi won the Turf for the Aga Khan, European horses, fillies and mares have won 17 versions of the Turf (recall there were two winners in 2003 when Ireland’s High Chaparral finished in a dead-heat with the California-trained Johar).
Europeans also managed ten seconds and ten thirds in this century, leaving enough tempting crumbs for the domestics to keep coming back to the Turf for more abuse.
To date, however, only three American trainers in this century have had what could be generously defined as consistent success in the Turf. Chad Brown won the race with Bricks And Mortar in 2019 and hit the board with three others. Richard Mandella, who celebrated that 2003 dead-heat with Johar, had two seconds and a third in recent years. Then there is Graham Motion, who won the Turf in 2004 with Better Talk Now and again in 2014 with Main Sequence.
To be perfectly accurate, Motion is a naturalized American trainer, since he was born in Cambridge, England, and spent his formative years in Newmarket before the family moved to Virginia. After apprenticeships with Jonathan Sheppard, Jonathan Pease and Bernie Bond, Motion hung out his own shingle in 1993. In addition to Kentucky Derby and Dubai World Cup winner Animal Kingdom, he prepared both of his Turf winners at the Fair Hill Training Center in northern Maryland, and he sees no mystery in their success being the exception to the European rule.
“I don’t think it’s that complicated,” Motion said. “When I go to Royal Ascot, I’m not likely to try and take them on at a mile and a half. Wesley Ward will take his 2-year-olds there, however, and that’s very clever, because that’s our game, not theirs. Even going over there with Animal Kingdom to run a mile and a quarter, I was reluctant, because you’re taking them on at their own game. And because most horses travel well these days, they bring their game quite successfully over here.”
In the past, home-grown American turf horses like Round Table, John Henry, Manila, Kitten’s Joy and English Channel established respectable reputations over a route of ground and took on a variety of Europeans at their own game.
One of the best was Fort Marcy, a foal of 1964, who was bred and raced for the American financier and philanthropist, Paul Mellon.
Rough customer
Fort Marcy got his name from a U.S. Army fortress built in 1862 on a Virginia hilltop that served as a tactical vantage point for Union troops defending nearby Washington DC, during the Civil War. The fort itself was named for Captain Randolph Barnes Marcy, chief-of-staff to General George McClellan and author of the popular guidebook, The Prairie Traveler.
Fort Marcy’s sire, Amerigo, was a rough customer. According to historian William H P Robertson, Amerigo came to the States from his native England with a reputation as “an arrant rogue, a thief, a horse so temperamentally unsatisfactory as to be practically worthless for racing purposes”.
Trainer Harris Brown got to the bottom of Amerigo by running him as often as possible, on both dirt and turf. In early 1960, he came within a nose and a head of winning the Santa Anita Handicap, and then 12 days later won the San Juan Capistrano by a nose. That’s three miles of real estate between the two.
Amerigo was a gorgeous chestnut with three stockings and a stylish star. His son, on the other hand, was not a looker. Charles Hatton, of the Daily Racing Form, described Fort Marcy as “a coarse, vulgar looking brute at three” who struggled through the allowance ranks well into 1967. This explains why Mellon put him through a paddock sale at Belmont Park, but then bought him back for $77,000, which was good luck for an owner who didn’t need any.
Fresh start
Elliott Burch gave a maturing Fort Marcy a fresh start in stakes competition on the grass, and by the end of 1967 all the cylinders were firing when he defeated fellow 3-year-old Damascus, who was already assured of Horse of the Year, by a nose in the Washington DC International.
Over the ensuing four seasons, Fort Marcy roamed the continent, winning major grass events in Florida, New Jersey, Maryland, New York, Illinois, and California. He lost as many as he won, but not by much, and if you beat him you knew you were in a battle.
Fort Marcy’s hallmark 1970 campaign began quietly in the East then shifted West for the narrowest possible losses in the San Juan Capistrano and Century Handicaps. There followed wins at Pimlico and Belmont, another near miss in California, and then a banner fall during which Fort Marcy won the United Nations by five and the Man o’ War by a measured length and three-quarters over Travers winner Loud.
By then, Jorge Velasquez had become Fort Marcy’s regular companion. Their 1970 record through the Man o’ War read 4-4-1 in nine stakes on the grass. Velasquez, though just 23 at the time, knew he was onto something special.
“He was definitely one of the best grass horses I ever rode,” said Velasquez, looking back on a Hall of Fame career that included turf champions Hawaii and Bowl Game. “I remember winning a race with him going a mile on the dirt once at Aqueduct, and he was a completely different horse. When he switched from the dirt to the grass, it was like going from driving a Datsun to a Cadillac. And in those days, I bought a new Cadillac every year.”
Without prompting, Velasquez brought up Fort Marcy’s performance in the 1970 Washington DC International as perhaps their finest hour. Little wonder. At $150,000, with $100,000 to the winner, the Veterans Day feature was the richest grass race offered that year in North America.
From the creation of the race in 1952, by Laurel Racecourse president John D Shapiro, International fields were every bit as star-studded as those that have gathered for the Breeders’ Cup Turf. In a way, they were even more exclusive, since the starting berths were by coveted invitation only, and the selection committee had the known racing world from which to choose.
The group of ten that gathered half a century ago for the 19th running of the International was typically deep. Fiddle Isle, who gave Fort Marcy fits in California, was the other U.S. representative. Shapiro could not get the two top European stars – Nijinsky and Sassafras – but he attracted most of the next bests, including Lorenzaccio, who defeated Triple Crown winner Nijinsky in the Champion Stakes at Ascot; Beaugency, the Prix Hocquart winner who was second to Lorenzaccio in the Prix Foy; and Bucuco, the Italian star who suffered a rare defeat when second to Beaugency in the Gran Premio di Milano.
Also accepting Laurel’s invitation was Canadian darling Fanfreluche, winner of the Alabama Stakes; German star Cortez, winner of the Preis von Europa; and Miss Dan, the 3-year-old French filly who finished a rousing third in the Arc de Triomphe behind Sassafras and Nijinsky. In the name of maintaining goodwill in the Western Hemisphere, there also were representatives from Venezuela (Senador) and Uruguay (Sol de Noche).
Delayed flight drama
A stormy November softened the Laurel ground, lending some comfort to the Europeans but guaranteeing no advantage over Fort Marcy, who never needed to carry his track when he traveled. As it turned out, the real challenge was getting his jockey there on time.
“When I got to the airport that day in New York, it started snowing so hard that I thought they were going to cancel the flight,” Velazquez began. “They didn’t cancel, but it was delayed, and delayed, and delayed for a few hours. I called the track to tell them what was happening, and the clerk of scales said he would wait as long as possible.
“Finally we took off, and I got there,” Velasquez continued. “But when my cab got to the track, the horses were already in the paddock, with their saddles on and Vince Bracciale there ready to ride Fort Marcy.”
Clearly a place-holder while officials sweated out the arrival of Velasquez, Bracciale was an apprentice at the time who had won his first race just two months before. But still, if that cab had missed a few stoplights …
“I ran into the jocks room and changed as fast as I could, then ran to the paddock,” Velasquez said. “I said to Vince, ‘I’m sorry, man, I’m here.’ He took off the colors and gave them to me right there in the paddock.”
Last great hurrah
After that, the race itself was in jeopardy of being anticlimactic, but Fort Marcy gave the holiday fans a good show. Beaugency never handled the ground and was eased by Freddy Head. Bill Shoemaker had his hands full keeping the big, turf-pounding Fiddle Isle from losing his balance. Lorenzaccio and Lester Piggott stayed with Fanfreluche and Ron Turcotte for the first mile, at which point they both were passed by the nimble Fort Marcy.
“I got a good position early, running fourth or fifth,” Velasquez recalled. “Then, turning for home, he was in high gear. He just went by them and won as he pleased.”
The white-faced Miss Dan gave valiant pursuit, but at the merciful end of 12 tiring furlongs in 2:42⅘ , it was Fort Marcy by a length over the filly and Alfred Gibert, while Bacuco galloped past exhausted horses to finish third, five lengths behind Miss Dan.
Fort Marcy’s victory in the 1970 International was only his fifth of the season from 13 starts. Those five all were important stakes – including the United Nations and the Bowling Green – in which the gelding usually carried topweight.
Stir in four other significant stakes placings and career earnings that crested $1 million, and the case was convincing enough to bestow Horse of the Year honors upon Fort Marcy by the voters of Daily Racing Form. Unfortunately, the representatives of the Thoroughbred Racing Associations chose Preakness and Woodward Stakes winner Personality as their Horse of the Year (he was 8-for-18 on the season), a split that satisfied no one. The result of the family squabble was the creation of the unified Eclipse Awards in 1971.
The 1970 International was Fort Marcy’s last great hurrah. His 1971 campaign was pockmarked by another cluster of near misses and a disqualification from an otherwise easy win in the Dixie Handicap. After 75 starts, 21 wins, and earnings of $1.1 million, Fort Marcy was retired to a life of leisure at his owner’s Virginia farm and died there in August of 1991. Seven years later he joined Velasquez in the Thoroughbred racing Hall of Fame.
Velasquez, obviously, never forgot Fort Marcy’s International, the race he nearly missed. Asked if he offered young Bracciale a token of consolation for his part in the drama, the rider demurred.
“It was my mount,” Velasquez said. “But after that, any time Vince came to New York to ride, if he ever needed anything, I was there for him.”