Top Ten Turf Males Twentieth Century
#8
Fort Marcy
(1966 - 1971)
Fort Marcy was voted American Champion Turf Horse three times and Champion Handicap Horse once. In 1970 he shared the coveted Horse of the Year title with Personality.
Photo: Jim Raftery/Turfotos
PEDIGREE
Bay G
OWNER
Rokeby Stable
TRAINER
Elliott Burch
BREEDER
Paul Mellon
Some Facts
- Fort Marcy was born on April 2, 1965, at Rokeby Farm in Upperville, Virginia. Bred by Paul Mellon, he raced in the colors of Mellon’s Rokeby Stable, which over the years also campaigned another Hall of Fame member, Arts and Letters, Kentucky Derby and Travers Stakes winner Sea Hero, Belmont and Travers Stakes winner Quadrangle, 1972 three-year-old champion Key to the Mint, and the 1971 turf champion Run the Gantlet. Overseas, Mellon campaigned Mill Reef, rated the eighth best horse in the world in the twentieth century by John Randall and Tony Morris in their book, A Century of Champions. Mr. Mellon is the only owner to win the Kentucky Derby, Epson Derby, and the Arc de la Triomphe.
- Bred for turf, Fort Marcy was sired by Amerigo, who also sired multiple stakes winners Politely and Amerigo Lady. A seven-time stakes winner, Amerigo finished second in stake races to top horses Sword Dancer, Hillsdale, Bald Eagle, Bardstown, and Vertex.
- Fort Marcy’s dam was the unraced Key Bridge, a Reine-de-Course mare who also produced champion Key to the Mint (by Graustark), stake winner Key to the Kingdom (by Bold Ruler), and Key to Content (by Forli), which won the 1981 United Nations Handicap.
- Fort Marcy made forty-nine of his seventy-five career starts on turf in his six-year career. He won eighteen of them while winning only three times on dirt, his first in a MSW and the other two in allowance races.
- He made his first twelve career starts on dirt and managed just a MSW win before he was switched to turf. His first race on turf was a disastrous ninth-place finish in which he was defeated by thirteen lengths. After a second-place finish on turf to Royal Malabar, he was switched back to dirt for his next three starts and failed to win. Switched back to turf once again, he won an allowance race by three lengths, then after a sixth-place finish in his first stake race, a division of the Spring Handicap at Monmouth, he went on to win four straight stakes: Nashua, Tidal, Bernard Baruch, and the B. Lindheimer.
- When Fort Marcy was a three-year-old, he raced nineteen times and had just three wins. He was then offered for sale at a Belmont Park paddock sale, but when his reserve couldn’t be met, he was repurchased for $77,000. Two days later, he won his first stake race, the second division of the Long Branch Handicap, over Malabar. It was the first of four consecutive stakes victories.
- Sixteen of Fort Marcy’s turf victories were in stakes races, among them the Washington D.C. International (twice), Man o’ War, Hollywood Park Invitational Handicap, and the United Nations Handicap.
- In the 1970 Bowling Green Handicap, Fort Marcy’s stablemate, 1969 Horse of the Year Arts and Letters, was scheduled to make his turf debut but was forced to pass when he suffered a career-ending injury. Fort Marcy was then entered and won the Bowling Green by a half-length over Drumtop and set a new Belmont Park track record for 12 furlongs on the turf, 2:26 3/5. This was an important victory in his shared Horse of the Year title.
- Among the top horses Fort Marcy defeated on turf were Fiddle Isle, Quicken Tree, Hawaii, Damascus, Assagai, Handsome Boy, Drumtop, and Tobin Bronze. He set or tied four track records: Arlington Park – 1967 Nashua Handicap 8.5-F (tied) 1:41 1/5; Hollywood Park 1968 Sunset Handicap 12-F in 2:26 3/5; Pimlico – 1970 Dixie Handicap 12-F in 2:27 4/5; and Belmont Park – 1970 Bowling Green Handicap 12-F in 2:26 3/5. In addition, Fort Marcy also bettered an existing track record when finishing second (and fourth once) four times.
- Fort Marcy, voted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1998, won five titles: Male Turf Horse 1967, 1968, 1970; Male Handicap Horse 1970, and Horse of the Year in 1970.
- Fort Marcy’s track record performances in the 1970 Dixie and Bowling Green Handicaps were in consecutive starts. He died in 1991 at Rokeby Farm.
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