Tosmah
By: Walter Lazary /// March 2024 /// 6,490 Words
It was 1942 and legalized betting on horse racing had been on hiatus in New Jersey for nearly half a century, ever since anti-gambling legislation forced Long Branch racetrack to close its doors in 1894. Eugene Mori, a lovable and immensely popular promoter with controlling interests in Tanforan Racetrack in California and Hialeah race track in Florida, set out to change this with the completion of his beautiful Garden State Park four miles from Camden and about five miles from Philadelphia. This effectively brought racing back to the state, a movement supported by a group led by Armory Haskell and Philip Iselin in 1946 when they re-opened Monmouth Park, which was originally established in 1870.
The people of New Jersey loved the sport and often had to travel to either New York or Philadelphia to watch the races and bet on them. Garden State Park changed all this by building a fan-friendly environment. Thirty-five trees surrounded the paddock, and in a grassy adjacent lot, fifty tables with umbrellas made it convenient to eat your lunch while you watched the horses being saddled. The combined seating capacity in the grandstand and clubhouse was 11,500, with a thirty-inch walkway in front of each seat so people didn’t have to stand when someone wanted by. And if you wanted to eat your lunch in comfort, the dining room terrace above the clubhouse seated 1,000, with many of the tables overlooking the racetrack.
Needless to say, Garden State Park flourished right from the get-go, as 30,000 avid fans came out on opening day. Mr. Mori got caught up in the excitement and became so enamored with the thought of owning horses that he eventually decided to run racetracks and breed and race a few horses of his own as well.
Flash forward to 1955, and the excellent filly Cosmah, who, though bred by Henry Knight, was purchased by Mr. Mori and was winning races for him under his name or that of his East End Stable. Cosmah was extremely well bred, having been sired by Cosmic Bomb, a stallion that had the ability to win quality races going both short or long, as evidenced by his victories in the six-furlong Arlington Futurity when he defeated the eventual Kentucky Derby winner Jet Pilot, and the thirteen-furlong Lawrence Realization over Phalanx, the 1947 three-year-old champion colt who had already won the Belmont Stakes and would soon win the two-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup.
Cosmah’s dam, Almahmoud, a daughter of Mahmoud, made her even more attractive. Almahmoud was a special mare that would eventually have a profound effect on the bright future of racing when she was bred to Native Dancer and produced Natalma, the dam of Northern Dancer. Before this became fact, however, Cosmah was purchased by Mr. Mori and was having a good, though not great, year on the track, winning the Astarita Stakes through disqualification and the Gardenia Trial Stakes, while finishing second in the Gardenia and third in the Frizette.
When Cosmah’s career was over, Mr. Mori bred her to the 1958 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Tim Tam, but instead of keeping her foal, he sold her, or at least that is just one of several versions that circulated when it came to determining just how her new owner, Anthony Imbesi, who operated Briardale Farm, acquired her. In fact, no one really paid much attention to the sale until the filly, who was named Tosmah, began to win races. Then people became curious about how much money was involved, with some versions indicating that Mori had given Tosmah to Imbesi, while others stated that the filly was “on” loan, and still others saying that when Mori gave her up, a string was attached.
Raleigh Burroughs, in his 1963 volume of “American Race Horses,” wrote: “The noted turf journalist, Joe Hirsch, quoted Imbesi as saying that he had purchased Tosmah and two other yearlings from his good friend, Gene Mori, of Garden State Park and Hialeah after several veteran Turfmen had turned down the same package.” Mr. Imbesi did not reveal the price as he said it was nobody’s business but Mr. Mori’s and his.
Later, distinguished Turf columnist Teddy Cox published an interview in which Mori stated: “Call it a weak moment or whatever you want, but I gave the weanling to my friend, Tony Imbesi. He asked me to put a price on the weanling, but I had no idea what she was worth. I told him to take her, and sometime later, when she showed what she was worth, he could use his own judgment. That still stands. We never arrived at a figure. He owns the filly, lock, stock, and barrel, but up to now, not a penny has changed hands.”
A year later, after a tremendous season in which Tosmah won her first seven races before finishing second in her eighth start, the transaction was finally completed. The amount was never made public though it was widely believed to be in the six-figure range. What was even more important, at least for the sport, is the fact that Mr. Mori encouraged Mr. Embesi to invest in it. In 1963, Embesi owned fifteen well-bred broodmares, and by the late nineteen sixties, he had increased his band to thirty-four mares and employed four stallions at his Briardale Thoroughbred Farm in New Jersey.
Of all Mr. Embesi’s horses, there was one that really got his blood flowing, and that was Tosmah. She was a special sort who was all business on the race track, a dynamic filly that won sixteen stakes and was voted the champion filly at ages two and three and was also voted the champion handicap mare as a three-year-old. And the honors didn’t stop there. In 1984, she was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, an honor that, in a roundabout way, also honored Mr. Mori as his name will forever be enshrined in the Hall of Fame as her breeder.
1963
In 1963, when it was time to leave the farm and begin her career as a racehorse, Tosmah was given to veteran trainer Joseph “Monk” Mergler. Mergler’s last stakes winner came when he trained the mare Adroit to win the Black Helen Handicap for Mrs. Heighe at Hialeah in 1946. Sixteen years later, in 1962, while operating on a small scale, he won ten races and $50,170, though that would change the following year when he increased his win total to twenty-two and earned $181,868.
Mergler had a reputation for being a patient trainer and one who knew when to press all the right buttons. He would never run a horse if he felt that it wasn’t ready, and he took his time with Tosmah. No one knew what this filly would be like – if she would be stakes quality or maybe an allowance type – but they would soon find out.
Tosmah debuted on July 26, 1963, at Monmouth Park in a five-and-one-half furlong Maiden Special Weight (MSW). Sent off as the 3-2 favorite and ridden by jockey Sam Boulmetis, the future Hall of Famer who would ride her throughout the year, Tosmah wired a nice field and romped to a three-and-one-half length victory in 1:05 4/5. The field had some quality as the second-place finisher, Lovejoy, would finish second to Windsor Lady in the Demoiselle Stakes on December 4th at Aqueduct; and third-place finisher Isaduchess would have a good career that would see her win five stakes, including the 1964 Pageant Handicap over My Card, and the 1965 Modesty Handicap over Tuzana.
Feeling confident after that initial win, Mergler then took Tosmah to Atlantic City where she would compete in a couple of allowance races and then, if she was good enough, try stakes company. The first of these was a six-furlong dash on August 8th, and Tosmah, who was bet down to 4-5, was once again an easy winner, this time running in second place a half-length off the lead after the first quarter mile, then exploding away from the pack as she opened up a four-length lead at the half, a margin she maintained to the end. Finishing second was Cadabra, while Really Trying was third in 1:11 4/5.
Returning to the track after nineteen days rest, Tosmah made her third start of the year at Garden State Park in another six-furlong allowance, this one for non-winners of two. The competition was moderate, and off as the odds-on 4-5 favorite, Tosmah coasted to an easy five-length win, widening her margin throughout in what was described simply as a paid workout. The time was 1:10 4/5, with First Orbit finishing second and Wendy’s Watch third.
Up until now, interest in Tosmah was minimal, but her performance in her next race, the six-furlong Mermaid Stakes at Atlantic City, changed that. The papers hadn’t printed a word about her yet, but racing fans knew all about her, and when she entered the gate, she was the odds-on 2-5 favorite. And to be fair, most of her competitors that day were low on class, several of which she had already raced against and defeated, though there was one stakes winner.
Redpoll, a daughter of the English-bred sire Rasper II, had won the five-and-one-half-furlong New Jersey Futurity at Monmouth Park in July, but in her last start, the six-furlong Sorority at Monmouth Park, she showed early speed and then faded back to finish sixth to Castle Forbes and Petite Rouge. These two were among the best two-year-old fillies racing that year and were the type that many thought was a cut above Tosmah, at least before the Mermaid Stakes.
The track was sloppy when Tosmah broke from the gate, and if there were doubts about her ability to handle the off-going, about three seconds into the race, they were gone. Breaking from the outside, she stayed out in the center of the track and flew over it as she played with Redpoll for the first quarter of a mile. Then, she decided she had enough of playing games and exploded away from the over-matched filly while drawing off to win by ten lengths in 1:12 3/5. Finishing second was My Card, a half-sister to the 1952 Horse of the Year One Count. And My Card wasn’t exactly a slouch either as later that year she would win the important Selima Stakes at Laurel.
With the media suddenly interested, both Sam Boulmetis and Joseph Mergler were peppered with questions. Jockey Sam Boulmetis was thoroughly impressed and when interviewed, said: “I wish all my mounts were like her.”
Mergler added, “I think the patience we showed with her has added to her success. She hasn’t any ailments to speak of and no shin trouble. She trained ‘big’ from the beginning, and when she made her first start, she didn’t leave any doubt in my mind.”
With Tosmah’s first stakes victory on her resume, it was time to move on to New York and face the best two-year-old fillies currently racing in the east. Her first start was September 25th at Aqueduct in the second division of the seven-furlong Astarita Stakes, a race many were using as a prep for the Frizette Stakes a week and a half later. This one would be her toughest race to date with her main competition expected to come from Sari’s Song, Hasty Matelda, and the Phipps-Wheatley Stable entry of Beautiful Day and Title Seeker.
Sari’s Song had already won six races and three stakes in a busy year that began on the West Coast and then saw her move east to Chicago. Breaking her maiden in a three-furlong baby race at Santa Anita in January, which she won in a swift 32 4/5 seconds, the daughter of Spy Song – Sari Omar came right back to win a five-furlong allowance sprint at Hollywood Park in 58 3/5, and next out won a second five-furlong allowance in 57 3/5. She then won the five-and-one-half-furlong Hollywood Lassie Stakes over Sweet and Fleet in 1:04 before moving on to Arlington Park.
The fans in Chicago embraced the filly and sent her off as the 2-1 favorite in the Majorette Stakes, in which she finished second by a half-length to 7-1 shot Bride of Note. Not to be discouraged, twelve days later, she made amends by winning the six-furlong Princess Pat Stakes at even-money over Ye-Cats in 1:11 1/5. But it was Sari Song’s effort in her next race that pushed her near the top of her division. The rich Arlington-Washington-Lassie and its $186,505 purse was one of the most prestigious races for two-year-old fillies in America. Bet down to 4-5 favoritism, Sari’s Song, who was ridden by Bill Shoemaker, dominated and drew off to a six-length victory over Ye-Kat and Castle Forbes. She was now coming into the Astarita off a third-place finish as the 2-5 favorite to Miss Cavendish in a six-furlong allowance race at Aqueduct on a sloppy track on September 17th.
Hasty Matelda, a daughter of Hasty Road and out of the mare Matelda, was owned by Meadow Stable, the owners of 1950 Horse of the Year, Hill Prince, and eventually Secretariat and Riva Ridge. The future dam of multiple stakes winner Gay Matelda, Hasty Matelda was a filly that had loads of promise but unfortunately couldn’t convert that promise into wins. After finishing second in her opener, an MSW at Aqueduct in July, she then ran second to Gallatia in the Schuylerville Stakes at Saratoga in August. She followed that with a third-place finish in the Spinaway Stakes to Petit Rouge but was subsequently moved up to second when Gallatia was disqualified. Still a maiden, Hasty Matelda finally broke through when she won the Matron Stakes over Baraka and Beautiful Day, with Petit Rouge finishing fourth, a race that made many consider her a threat in the Astarita.
The Wheatley Stable’s Beautiful Day was a daughter of Bold Ruler and was out of champion Misty Morn, a blue-hen mare that would eventually produce two-year-old colt champions Bold Lad and Successor, as well as four-time stakes winner Sunrise Flight. Though she finished third to Hasty Matelda in the Matron, she was considered the stronger half of the entry after having won the National Stallion Stakes (filly division) at Aqueduct by twelve lengths.
The Astarita Stakes field was formidable and classy, but that didn’t stop the crowd of more than 26,000 from sending Tosmah off as the 7-5 favorite in what many considered to be the toughest of the two divisions. In the end, the crowd was rewarded for its faith in her.
Everyone watched as Tosmah left the gate in the long seven-furlong sprint, a confident filly who was all business as she battled Gallatia through the opening quarter in 22 seconds. At this point the two fillies came together and bumped, and then, much as she did in the Mermaid Stakes, Tosmah simply took over from there. At the finish line, she was an easy winner by five lengths over Beautiful Day, which came from far back, with 10-1 shot Teo Pepi finishing third.
It was an easy, no-doubt-about-it victory, and a sprinkling of applause came down from the grandstand when Sam Boulmetis brought Tosmah back to the grandstand to have her picture taken. Boulmetis then dismounted and was in the process of removing his saddle when the unthinkable happened. The inquiry sign started blinking, and a claim of foul was lodged against Tosmah by Milo Valenzuela, the jockey on Gallatia. After a short wait while the stewards examined the film, the claim was disallowed, the reason given that yes, Tosmah did come in a bit, but it was only slightly, and the real culprit was Gallatia, which came out and solidly bumped her.
It was a great victory, and when the times of the two races were compared it made people realize just how much better she was in her division than first division winner Petite Rouge was in hers. The first division splits were :22 2/5, :45, 1:10 1/5 and 1:23 3/5 in a race in which Petite Rouge won in a driving finish over Castle Forbes. Tosmah’s splits were :22, :44 2/5, 1:09 1/5 and 1:23, which was just a tick slower than the 1962 Frizette and Mermaid Stakes winner Pam’s Ego took to win a seven-furlong overnight handicap two races before.
With his filly as good and probably even better than any two-year-old filly racing in America, Anthony Imbesi was ecstatic, and so was Joe Mergler, a man who had conditioned horses for twenty-seven years. “She has made me young again,” he said happily. And if he was happy after Tosmah won the Astarita, he would be over the moon after her next race.
The $70,000 added Frizette Stakes, annually one of the top races for two-year-old fillies in New York and on the East Coast, was a one-mile test set to be run on October 5th. Not having been nominated, it would cost owner Anthony Imbesi $5,000 to supplement Tosmah into the race, which he had no problem doing. The competition was tough, but most of these she had met before, including Hasty Matelda and Beautiful Day. Also going postward were Petite Rouge and Castle Forbes, a Wheatley Stable filly that was supplemented and would run coupled with Beautiful Day.
Castle Forbes had already made eleven starts that year and had won four of them, including the Sorority Stakes at Monmouth Park over Petite Rouge. The daughter of Tulyar had also won two allowance races and in her last start, the first division of the Astarita, she had gained the lead midway in the stretch only to be caught and passed by Petite Rouge twenty yards from the wire.
Petite Rouge was a daughter of the Irish stallion, Ballydam, the sire of the 1960 Preakness winner Bally Ache. Her dam was the Bolero mare Shy Dancer, a good producer who was the dam of Champagne Charlie, an eventual winner of the 1973 Swift Stakes, and Shy Dawn, which would win several stakes including the Vagrancy Handicap and would eventually foal Opening Verse, a winner of the 1991 Breeders’ Cup Mile and $1.6M. Petite Rouge had already won five of her ten career starts, including a maiden victory at Suffolk Downs, an allowance at Rockingham, and a pair of six-furlong stakes at Saratoga, those being the Adirondack over Magna Mater and the Spinaway over Hasty Matelda, Gallatia, Bold Queen and Beautiful Day. Her come-from-behind win in the Astarita was a strong indicator that she wouldn’t have trouble with the one-mile distance, and she went off at 6-1.
With a crowd of over 44,000 emitting a loud cheer when the gates opened, Wheatley Stable’s Bold Queen got out fast from her ten post and was in front for all of six jumps before Tosmah, who was close to the rail, exploded past her and into the lead. The track was fast and was favoring speed, and Boulmetis took advantage of it and had Tosmah on top by a length-and-a-half after the opening quarter timed in :22 2/5 seconds. This was shaping up to be a tactical race, and when Tosmah increased her lead to two and a half lengths as she zipped past the half-mile pole in :44 4/5, Bill Winfrey was feeling good because his three fillies occupied the next three positions with Bold Queen in second, Beautiful Day running under a hold in third, and the stretch running Castle Forbes having moved into fourth. As they moved around the far turn, Tosmah found a little more and increased her lead to three lengths at the top of the stretch while both Castle Forbes and Beautiful Day had moved up alongside Bold Queen so that the three Wheatley fillies were now three abreast.
Turning into the stretch, with the first three-quarters timed in 1:09 1/5, Tosmah continued to pour it on and approached the eighth pole with a four-length lead. It didn’t seem to matter what the Wheatley Stable trio tried because in this race Tosmah was just that much better, though after opening up by four lengths at the eighth pole, she tired noticeably and crossed the line a diminishing length in front of Beautiful Day, which hung on for second by a head over Castle Forbes. The time was 1:36.
“I clucked at her at about the three-sixteenths pole,” Sam Boulmetis said afterward. “Then I hit her at the sixteenth pole, but I could feel her tail pin-wheeling, so I put the stick right away.” (Pin-wheeling is usually a sign that a horse is tiring or that it is going as fast as it can and has no more to give.)
Bill Shoemaker wasn’t totally impressed with Tosmah and felt that the further they went, the greater the chance that Beautiful Day would pass her. “If it had been a little further or around two turns, I think we would have got her,” he said.
Regardless of the criticism or the fact that she slowed in the stretch, at this point, there was now no longer any doubt who the best two-year-old filly in North America was. Tosmah had met and defeated all the good ones on the East Coast, and if she had finished her year after her win in the Frizette, she would no doubt have earned the championship. But this was a good filly, and she was sound. Anthony Imbesi was connected to New Jersey and wanted to give something back to the state and win a big race there. And it just so happened that there was a big race coming up on October 26th at Garden State Park, the rich Gardenia Stakes, and that was the goal. To get his filly ready for the Gardenia, Mergler decided to enter her in the Gardenia Trial, a one-mile, two-turn race on October 18th.
Once again, the main competition was expected to come from the Wheatley Stable entry of Beautiful Day and Castle Forbes. Many would say that the two were slightly behind Tosmah, but they were also improving. There were others that Tosmah had yet to face including Blue Norther, a western invader that had won the Junior Miss Stakes at Del Mar, and Miss Cavendish, an improving daughter of Cavan that had won back-to-back allowance races at Aqueduct.
No matter the competition, the public was in love with Tosmah, and she was sent off as the hot 1-2 favorite with the entry of Castle Forbes and Beautiful Day, the second favorite at a lofty 5-1. And when Tosmah took a four-length lead after a half-mile in 45 2/5 seconds, and the competition seemed to be having a hard time just trying to keep up with her, no doubt the question for many was not if she would win the race, but how much she would win it by.
But not everyone felt this way. It was clearly evident that she was truly gifted at the shorter distances, and though she had won the one-mile Frizette in an excellent time of 1:36, the simple fact was that her seemingly insurmountable four-length lead at the eighth pole shrunk down to just a nervous length at the wire and Boulmetis had to really get into her late to ensure the victory.
And now, in the Gardenia Trial, after consuming a lot of energy while opening up a big lead early, she had little energy left to keep her in the lead. The crowd, once boisterous as they pictured an easy victory, was now numb as Blue Norther, which had been second throughout, began to close and that early four-length lead had gradually been narrowed down to two lengths at the three-quarter pole.
When Tosmah turned into the stretch, her once confident fans were on their feet imploring her to go on as Blue Norther was making a big run. By the eighth pole, the lead was just a half-length, and with a sixteenth to go the unthinkable……..Blue Norther stuck her head in front. Tosmah’s fans were in shock. Their filly, which all through her career had dominated, was now about to be dominated……..or was she?
There is one thing to be fast, but it is quite another to have class, though the astute handicapper should never allow the two to be mixed and certainly never allow fast to be more important than class. That is why claimers might set track records, some of which a horse of greater class might not be able to achieve, but when the fast claimer runs against the horse with greater class, the one with greater class almost always wins.
There can be no doubt that Tosmah was fast, but there could also be no doubt that she had an abundance of class. And as she struggled in the stretch against an upstart Blue Norther, with Sammy Boulmetis imploring her to go on, she pulled out her will to win from deep inside and answered him. Really struggling, she suddenly dug in and lunged forward just as the wire was speeding towards her and won the race by a head.
When Sam Boulmetis brought Tosmah back to the winner’s enclosure to be unsaddled, her bead was bowed, and she was breathing hard. She had won this race on class alone, and this wasn’t to say that Blue Norther didn’t have an abundance of class either. In 1964, the daughter of Windy City would win all five of her starts, which included the Santa Susana and Ashland Stakes and the Kentucky Oaks, after which she was retired because of a bone chip in her knee. Her quality validated even more the quality of Tosmah, a trait that would resonate with racing fans throughout her career.
Later, Boulmetis said, “She really showed she has gameness as well as speed.” He was right, of course, because she was fast, but in the end, it was her class that encouraged her to find more and gut it out.
The Gardenia Stakes
With the one-mile Gardenia Trial now history, there was a question that needed to be answered – can Tosmah get the additional sixteenth of a mile and win the Gardenia Stakes? If she had maintained her large early lead in the Trial to the end, no doubt a lot of owners and trainers would have bypassed the race and looked for something easier. But now, when they saw that she was actually mortal after all, their confidence suddenly rose, and a big field of fifteen would go postward.
The field for the Gardenia Stakes and its $168,460 purse was more like a large crowd. Fifteen fillies would leave the starting gate including two that were supplemented. There was the Wheatley Stale triple entry of Beautiful Day, Castle Forbes, and Bold Consort, and the two-horse entry of Blue Norther and Petite Cricket. Miss Cavendish was supplemented in (as was Castle Forbes) at a cost of $5,000, and Petite Rouge was back trying to find her early-season magic. The others were all over-matched, no doubt not entered for the $101,000 first place money or even the second place money of $33,700. For most, their target was third place, which was worth $16,800, and even the $8,400 fourth place money, which in those days was more than they could ever earn in an allowance race.
Tosmah went off as the 8-5 favorite in a race where weight wouldn’t be a factor as all would carry 119 pounds. And in a scenario where practically everyone expected her to explode out of the gate and open up a large early lead, this time they were shocked when she broke ninth and didn’t appear to be in any hurry as she managed to move her way up to be fifth after the first quarter mile.
The early leader was Blue Norther, and she was in a three-way battle with Ye-Kats and Is Ours, who had three lengths on Busy Jill with Tosmah just a head further back. After the opening quarter in a realistic :23 1/5 seconds, Boulmetis couldn’t restrain his filly any longer. Tosmah, perhaps angry at being behind fillies instead of in front of them, was pulling hard and the jockey decided to let her go. The result was a sudden surge forward which saw her stick her neck in front of Blue Norther at the half in :46 3/5 seconds. Blue Norther then dug in and the two continued to go at it into the far turn with the third quarter timed in :24 3/5 seconds, at which point Blue Norther, who was on the inside, moved back into the lead.
Turning into the stretch you might say that the real racing, complete with bumping, was about to begin. Tosmah was clearly taxed and was beginning to back up while Miss Cavendish, who was eleventh after the first quarter, and Castle Forbes eighth, were both making big moves. By the eighth pole, Tosmah was done, and her fans painfully realized that not only would she fail to win the biggest race of her two-year-old career, but she wouldn’t even make the board. Blue Norther had beaten her down, but now she was in a dog fight of her own.
As they moved closer to the finish line, Blue Norther was now a length and a half in front, but others were coming. It was Castle Forbes that caught up to her first, but when she got within half a length of the lead, Blue Norther suddenly veered to her right, forcing her to bump into Petite Rouge, who was making a charge between horses and forcing her out which caused a fast-closing Miss Cavendish to steady.
It was a rousing finish, one of the best that year, and when they crossed the wire, it was Castle Forbes who got her head in front as she just got by Blue Norther, who was a nose better than Miss Cavendish, while Petite Rouge was another head back in fourth place. Then the judges had their hands full as they tried to sort out the finish. Larry Adams on Miss Cavendish claimed foul against both Castle Forbes and Petite Rouge, but the claims were disallowed, and the results stood.
After the race, a despondent Sammy Boulmetis tried to defend his filly. “When the gate opened I wasn’t ready,” he said with a sour expression. “And when she broke she almost went down. After that, she pulled hard, and I had no choice but to let her go. She used up a lot of energy and came up empty when it mattered most.”
Finishing out of the money in the biggest race in her career was a tough pill to swallow for Anthony Imbesi and Joseph Megler, but Tosmah still had a great season, winning seven of her eight starts and $121,188. She would later be voted the two-year-old champion filly by both the Thoroughbred Digest and Daily Racing Form. Castle Forbes, no doubt because of her victory in the Gardenia, was voted champion filly by the Thoroughbred Racing Association. As for Tommy Trotter’s Experimental Free Handicap? They were weighted as the two best fillies, both assigned 115 pounds which was one more than Blue Norther.
Aftermath
Tosmah would continue to race for three more years. In 1964 she had a fantastic year and one in which she would prove that she wasn’t distance challenged after all as she won two of her three races at nine furlongs, and the one that she lost, the Vineland Handicap, was by a head. She also took on males three times and won two of them while finishing second in the other, and she defeated older fillies and mares five of the six times she faced them with her lone loss by a head.
The year started off on a dismal note as Tosmah finished fourth by a length and a half to Grey Sibling in a six-furlong allowance race at Garden State on April 25th, a race in which she battled hard, head-and-head early in a prolonged duel before fading at the end. Deciding to stay away from Kentucky and the Oaks, Mergler kept her at Garden State for two more starts, the first of which, the six-furlong Betsy Ross Stakes, she lost by a half-length to Nilene Wonder.
Unable to win in her first two starts and now sporting a three-race losing streak after winning her first seven starts, Tosmah’s career suddenly took off, and she won her next four races, three of them in stakes and all of them at six furlongs. In her third start at Garden State, the Colonial Handicap against older mares, she was an easy winner in 1:10 1/5; then she moved up to Monmouth Park and defeated Red Poll in an allowance race by ten lengths in 1:09 1/5. That was a prep for the Miss Woodford Stakes the following week, which she won by four and one-half lengths in 1:10 2/5. She then left Monmouth Park and traveled over to Aqueduct, where she was a two-length winner of the Liberty Belle Handicap in 1:10 1/5 with Affectionately, who would be voted the champion sprinter in 1965, finishing dead last.
There was no question that Tosmah and Blue Norther were the two leading three-year-old fillies in the country as Blue Norther had won all five of her starts including the Santa Susana at Santa Anita, the six-furlong Ashland at Keeneland in 1:09 flat, and the Kentucky Oaks, after which she was injured and was retired.
In order to remain a challenger with Blue Norther for the top three-year-old filly honors, Merger took Tosmah to Arlington Park to take on the boys. In her first start, the seven-furlong Warren Wright Handicap, she finished second in a gritty effort, beaten a length and a quarter by Cap Size. Two weeks later, she rebounded with a tremendous victory in the one-mile Arlington Classic, beating Lt. Stevens by two and one-half lengths in 1:36 1/5 with favored Roman Brother, who had finished second to Quadrangle in the Belmont Stakes, finishing fourth. One week after that she took on older mares in the nine-furlong Matron Handicap and won it by a diminishing half-length over the classy five-year-old mare Old Hat in 1:49 2/5.
As the year progressed, Tosmah became even stronger. Now an accomplished filly, she excelled in sprints and races up to nine furlongs and was in the running to not only be the top three-year-old filly, but the top handicap filly or mare as well. The leading older mare was Old Hat who would win nine races that year, but only three of them were in stake races, and Tosmah had already defeated her. With this in mind, Mergler took Tosmah to Aqueduct to run in the one-mile Maskette Stakes, which she won by a whopping six lengths over Old Hat in 1:36 3/5 for her sixth stakes victory that year. Her seventh came eleven days later when she won the nine-furlong Beldame by four lengths over Miss Cavendish and Castle Forbes in 1:49 3/5.
Always with a mandate to support New Jersey racing, Anthony Imbesi wanted “Monk” Mergler to close out Tosmah’s season at Garden State. In the first of three races there, she took on the boys in the six-furlong Quaker Handicap, and after a troubled start in which she was as far back as ninth after the first quarter, she rallied to win it by two and one-half lengths in a track record-tying 1:08 4/5. Just five days later she was out again, this time in the nine-furlong Vineland Handicap. Running on a sloppy track, she led by as much as four lengths but was caught in the final jump by the 1963 Alabama winner, Tona. Her final start was in the mile and one-sixteenth Jersey Belle which she won in front-running style by a length and three quarters in 1:41 4/5, just a fifth of a second off the track record.
In year-end voting, Tosmah was a lock for top three-year-old filly honors, easily distancing herself from Miss Cavendish and Blue Norther. She was also voted the top handicap filly or mare by an even more comfortable margin over Old Hat and Affectionately. In the end, she won ten of her fourteen starts and finished second three times, with nine of her victories in stake races. She earned $305,286.
********
During her first two years racing, Tosmah had won 17 of her 22 starts with twelve of her victories coming in stake races. Having won three year-end awards proclaiming her the best in her division, it would seem that this was the proper time to retire her and see if she could pass her class on to her foals. However, Anthony Imbesi made the decision to keep her in training.
Her first start as a four-year-old was in the seven-furlong Columbiana Handicap at Hialeah on January 27, 1965. Burdened with 128 pounds, the most weight she had carried in her career, she finished sixth, five and one-half lengths behind Old Hat. It turned out that she suffered an injury during the race. She was sidelined until September 9th when she returned to win a seven-furlong allowance race at Garden State Park by nine lengths in 1:22. Looking like she hadn’t missed a beat, she then won the one-mile Maskette at Aqueduct by a nose over Affectionately and Straight Deal, this after carrying 128 pounds and battling Affectionately in a classic head-and-head dual throughout. After that, it could have been the lingering effects from her injury or battling through the toughest race of her career, but she followed those two encouraging efforts by losing three straight stake races: the Beldame at Aqueduct (6th) to What A Treat; The Parkway (5th) at Atlantic City to Juanita; and the Vineland Handicap (3rd) at Garden State Park to Steeple Jill before she closed out the year with a four-length win in a six-furlong allowance race.
Tosmah would race one more year in 1966, and though she found wins hard to come by, she still had an amazing three-race win streak that spring when she won the Barbara Fritchie, John B. Campbell against males, and in the final victory in her illustrious career, the Colonial Handicap at Garden State. She also finished a rousing second by three-quarters of a length to Hedever in the Equipoise Mile which was run in 1:33 1/5, equaling the world record.
In her career, Tosmah made 39 starts and had a 23-6-2 record with sixteen stakes victories and earnings of $612,591. At stud she had four foals with La Guidecca, which won the 1973 New Jersey Futurity against colts, her only offspring to win a stake race.
Tosmah lived to be 31 years old and died in 1992 at Briardale Farm where she was buried. In 1984 she was honored by being inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
