Y – #3 – Twilight Tear – horseracing20thcentury99.com

Top Ten Fillies & Mares Twentieth Century

#3

Twilight Tear

(1943 - 1945)

Twilight Tear in the winner’s circle after winning the 1944 Acorn Stakes at Belmont Park over Whirlabout with Conn McCreary riding.

Photo: Morgan Collection - Keeneland Library

PEDIGREE

Bay Filly

OWNER

Calumet Farm

TRAINER

Ben Jones

BREEDER

Calumet Farm

Some Facts

Twilight Tear was from Bull Lea’s first full crop in 1941, which also included future Horse of the Year Armed for Calumet Farm and the outstanding filly, Durazna, who was bred and owned by Darnell Coombs.
In a year when there were no real standouts in the two-year-old filly division, the chore of picking a divisional champion had narrowed down to two, Twilight Tear and Durazna. Twilight Tear won both her starts at Washington Park, including the rich Arlington Lassie. After losing a MSW to Twilight Tear in her second start, Durazna won two minor stakes, the Washington Juvenile and the Prairie Stakes, both over colts, and defeated colts again in the Hawthorne Juvenile at Hawthorne Park and the Breeders’ Futurity at Churchill Downs. The two fillies would share the championship, with Twilight Tear supported by Turf and Sport Digest, while the Daily Racing Form chose Durazna.
A mark of consistency, Twilight Tear won eleven stakes in her career, with four of them against colts, and she never lost two races in a row.
Beginning on March 10th, 1944, and running through to July 22^nd, this marvelous three-year-old won eleven consecutive races, including seven stakes.
On November 1st, 1944, Twilight Tear won the mile and three-sixteenths Pimlico Special by six lengths over Devil Diver in a three-horse race. Devil Diver was named America’s handicap champion that year and went into the race with fifteen stakes victories to its credit. Twilight Tear was the first filly to run in the Special and her time equaled Seabiscuit’s 1:56 3/5 when he won the first edition of the race, which was his famous match race against War Admiral.
Twilight Tear set one track record in her career. It was in the 1944 Skokie Handicap at Washington Park against males, and she ran the seven-furlongs in 1:22 3/5 while carrying 121 pounds.
A three-year-old in 1944, Twilight Tear defeated that year’s Kentucky Derby winner, Pensive, by six and one-half lengths in the mile and one-quarter Classic at Washington Park. It was her second consecutive win over the Derby winner, coming after she defeated him by a length and a quarter in an allowance race.
Twilight Tear was a big filly and was not intimidated by the boys. Compared to the Derby winner and stablemate Pensive, she was 16 hands at the withers compared to Pensive’s 15.3; had a girth of 73 inches and a chest which was 18 inches wide compared to Pensive’s 71 inches and 16; was 7 feet, 2 inches long compared to 6 feet 9 ½ inches for the Derby winner; and weighed 1,075 pounds to Pensive’s 1,050.
Ben Jones, the father of Jimmy Jones and the trainer of several top stars, including the 1941 Triple Crown winner Whirlaway, said that Twilight Tear was the best horse he ever trained (he never trained Citation, as his son Jimmy did).
In the Maryland Handicap on October 21st, 1944, Twilight Tear was assigned 130 pounds, with the next highest weight 112 pounds. The track for the ten-furlong race became very muddy, and the game filly, after leading through the opening quarter, found the weight differential too much and faded to finish fourth, the only time in her first 23 races that she missed the top three. In her final race, and only start in 1945, she bled and was pulled up. Following the race, she was retired.
Twilight Tear was highly successful as a broodmare. Bred to Blenheim II, she produced the outstanding filly A Gleam in 1949. In 1952, she was bred to Alibhai and produced the top handicap horse Bardstown, which won 13 stakes despite not beginning its career until it was four because of bone chips in its ankle.
Twilight Tear won 14 of 17 starts at three and earned $167,555, a record for three-year-old fillies. When she was named the 1944 Horse of the Year, it was the first time a filly or mare had been honored in 29 years since Regret in 1915.