Z – #7 – Spectacular Bid – horseracing20thcentury99.com

Top Ten Horses Overall Twentieth Century

#7

Spectacular Bid

(1978 - 1980)

Spectacular Bid won the 1979 Marlboro Inv. over the Travers Stakes winner General Assembly at Belmont Park with Bill Shoemaker up. The time for the nine furlongs was 1:46 3/5, “Bid’s” third fastest at the distance.

Photo: Milton Toby

PEDIGREE

G H (USA) 1976

OWNER

Hawksworth Farm

TRAINER

Grover "Buddy" Delp

BREEDER

Mmes. Jason & Gilmore

Some Facts

Spectacular Bid was born on February 17, 1976, in Kentucky. Bred by Miss Madelyn Jason and her mother, Mrs. William Gilmore, he was sold at the 1977 Keeneland September yearling sale for $37,000 to Harry and Teresa Meyerhoff, the owners of Hawksworth Farm.
Spectacular Bid’s dam was Spectacular, a grey daughter of Promised Land out of the To Market mare Stop on Red, whose best race was a second-place finish in the My Fair Lady Stakes. Of her four offspring, Spectacular Bid was the only one to win a stake race.
When Spectacular Bid was a young colt, his color was what they call a very dark battleship grey. As he grew older, his color lightened to the point that his coat was snow-white in his senior years.
During his career, Spectacular Bid won fourteen grade-one races. His first two stake races when he was a two-year-old were listed – the Tyro Stakes, in which he finished fourth to Groton High, and the Dover Stakes, when he finished second to Strike Your Colors, a colt he defeated by three lengths when he broke his maiden. The Bid then rebounded and won the G3 World’s Playground Stakes by fifteen lengths and would not lose another stake race until the Belmont Stakes (twelve consecutive stakes victories).
Spectacular Bid was the betting favorite in twenty-five of his thirty races, including the 1980 Woodward, a non-betting walkover. He won all eight starts when bet down to five cents on the dollar: the listed Hutcheson, G1 Florida Derby, G1 Flamingo, G1 Blue Grass, an allowance race, G2 San Fernando, G1 Californian, and the G3 Washington Park Handicap.
In his spectacular four-year-old season in 1980, Spectacular Bid became the fourth horse out of five in total to win the Strub Series, a three-race series that included the seven-furlong Malibu, nine-furlong San Fernando Stakes, and the ten-furlong Charles H. Strub Stakes. The other winners of this series were Round Table in 1958, Hillsdale in 1959, Ancient Title in 1974, and Precisionist in 1985. All five were inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
In a classic matchup to determine the 1979 Horse of the Year, Spectacular Bid met Affirmed in the twelve-furlong Jockey Club Gold Cup. The Bid came up three-quarters of a length short, and Affirmed went on to be named Horse of the Year. Spectacular Bid was named Horse of the Year in 1980.
In 1980, Spectacular Bid had what I consider one of the three greatest four-year-old seasons ever in North American horse racing, joining two other great horses, Dr. Fager and Tom Fool. That year (1980), the Bid won all nine of his starts: the seven-furlong G2 Malibu (126 pounds) timed in 1:20; the nine-furlong G2 San Fernando (126 pounds) timed in 1:48; ten-furlong G1 Strub Stakes (126 pounds) timed in 1:57 4/5; ten-furlong G1 Santa Anita Handicap (130 pounds) timed in 2:00 3/5; 8.5-furlong G2 Mervyn LeRoy Handicap (132 pounds) timed in 1:40 2/5; the nine-furlong G1 Californian (130 pounds) timed in 1:45 4/5; the nine-furlong G3 Washington Park Handicap (130 pounds timed in 1:46 1/5; the nine-furlong G1 A.L. Haskell (132 pounds) timed in 1:48; and the ten-furlong G1 Woodward (126 pounds), which he won in a walkover and yet still ran the distance in a credible 2:02 2/5. The Bid’s combined margin of victory for the eight races in which he had competition (not counting the walkover) was 37 ¾ lengths. His combined odds for those same eight races in which he set five track records and the ten-furlong world record totaled 1.35.
Except for two races, the Champagne and Young America Stakes, both of which Spectacular Bid won with Jorge Velasquez riding, young Robbie Franklin rode him in all his early races up to the Belmont Stakes. After needlessly pushing hard for the early lead in the Belmont, Spectacular Bid then opened up a three-length lead before tiring and finishing third to Coastal in what was Franklin’s final ride on the colt. He was promptly replaced by Willie Shoemaker, who rode Spectacular Bid in the final thirteen starts in his illustrious career. Spectacular Bid won twelve of those starts and finished second in the twelve-furlong Jockey Club Gold Cup to Affirmed.
Plans were for Spectacular Bid to run in the 1980 Marlboro Cup, a race he won in 1979 while carrying 124 pounds. Buddy Delp, his trainer, declared him when he was assigned 136 pounds. Plans were also in place for The Bid to run in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, but he injured an ankle before the race and was subsequently retired.
In his career, Spectacular Bid set six track records and equaled one: 5.5F at Pimlico timed in 1:04; 7F at Santa Anita in 1:20; 8.5F at Delaware in 1:41 3/5; 8.5F at Laurel in 1:41 3/5; 9F at Hollywood Park in 1:45 4/5; 9F at Arlington Park in 1:46 1/5; 10F at the Meadowlands in 2:01 1/5; and 10F at Santa Anita in 1:57 4/5, which is also a world record that still stands.
Spectacular Bid was syndicated for a record $22 million and stood at Claiborne Farm in Kentucky. In 1991, he was moved to Miller Farms in New York State. He was not overly successful at stud though he did sire forty-seven stake winners from 253 registered foals (19%). None of his progeny was a champion.
In the book “The Century of Champions,” which is based on Time Form Ratings, Spectacular Bid was rated the third-best horse in North America in the twentieth century behind Secretariat and Citation. He was considered the ninth-best globally behind Sea-Bird, Secretariat, Ribot, Brigadier Gerard, Citation, Hyperion, Tudor Minstrel, and Mill Reef.
When rating all the great horses that he had ridden in his long and illustrious career, jockey Bill Shoemaker, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, said that Spectacular Bid was the best horse he had ever ridden.
After retiring, Spectacular Bid was sent to stud at Claiborne Farm, which is where Secretariat was also sent to stud. Secretariat’s paddock at Claiborne Farm bordered three other stallions: Drone, Sir Ivor, and Spectacular Bid. Secretariat did not pay much attention to Drone or Sir Ivor, but he and Spectacular Bid became friendly and occasionally raced each other along the fence line between their paddocks.
Spectacular Bid’s trainer, Grover “Buddy” Delp, made the famous statement: “Spectacular Bid is the greatest horse to ever look through a bridle.” Some believed him, while others didn’t. In any event, the Bid did win four Eclipse awards: top two-year-old colt in 1978, top three-year-old colt in 1979, top handicap horse in 1980, and Horse of the Year in 1980. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1982.
Spectacular Bid died from a heart attack on June 9, 2003. He was buried at Miller Farms.