Y – #2 – Busher – horseracing20thcentury99.com

Top Ten Fillies & Mares Twentieth Century

#2

Busher

(1944 - 1947)

The 1944 Champion Two-Year-Old Filly Champion Busher in the winner’s circle after winning the Adirondack Handicap with Eddie Arcaro riding. The daughter of War Admiral x Baby League won five of her seven starts that year including three stakes.

Photo: Morgan Collection - Keeneland Library

PEDIGREE

Ch Filly

OWNER

E.R. Bradley/L.B. Mayor

TRAINER

J. Smith/G. Odom

BREEDER

Idle Hour Stock Farm

Some Facts

Busher was a striking chestnut that stood 16 hands tall at her withers. She was from the second crop of 1937 Triple Crown winner War Admiral, Man o’ War’s greatest son. There were no similarities between father and daughter as War Admiral, whose coat was a drab brown, stood just 15.3 hands tall, his small size inherited from his mother Brushup, who measured less than 15 hands.
After a successful championship season in 1944, Busher was sold to movie mogul Louis B. Mayer. As a two-year-old, she was trained by Jimmy Smith. With the change of ownership, George Odom took over her training duties for her three-year-old season. She would also have a new jockey as Johnny Longden would ride her in twelve of her final thirteen career starts.
Through much of the summer, there had been talk of a match race between Gallorette and Busher. Gallorette, lightly raced at two, was a dominating three-year-old filly on the east coast, having won the Acorn, Pimlico Oaks, and the Delaware Oaks while finishing second against colts in the Wood Memorial to Jeep, and the Dwyer by a nose to Wildlife. When Gallorette won the 9.5-furlong Empire Stakes over the Belmont winner Pavot, her herculean effort, coupled with Busher’s easy win in the Arlington Handicap, created interest in a match race. Busher’s owner, motion picture mogul Louis B. Mayor, was all for it, but Gallorette’s owner, William Brann, passed, preferring to send her against Colts, this time in the Jersey Handicap on August 25^th. Washington Park management was keen on a match race and put up a purse of $25,000 for a dual between Busher and champion filly Durazna, with the winner taking all, and both owners accepted. The distance was one mile, and with 16,000 in attendance, Busher, the 1-2 favorite, once again took her place as the best of her sex, at least in the west. It was a grueling race with the two game fillies running head-and-head for the first three-quarters of a mile in which there were three lead changes. It took until the eighth pole before Busher finally put Durazna away as she bulled her way clear and went on to post a three-quarter length victory.
Five days later, on September 3^rd, Busher won a race that cemented her title as the three-year-old champion filly and put her in line for the Horse of the Year. It was the ten-furlong Washington Park Handicap against older horses. This was a prestigious race, and a record crowd of 45,000, which broke the previous mark of 41,705, sent Busher off as the 7-5 favorite in the field of thirteen, while Durazna, who gained little respect after her game effort in the match race, was sent off at 17-1. The Calumet Farm entry of future Horse of the Year Armed and the hard-hitting Pot o’ Luck was the second choice at 3-1. The race was typical for Busher, who broke mid-pack and settled in third place after the opening quarter, three lengths behind Durazna. Ridden confidently by Johnny Longden, Busher took a three-length lead after six furlongs and held off a hard-charging Armed to win by a length and a half in 2:01 4/5, a track record.
Busher’s 1945 campaign was exceptional. She won ten of her thirteen starts, with two second-place finishes, and earned $273,7354. Her combined two and three-year-old earnings of $334,035 broke Top Flight’s previous record for fillies. She did not face the very best in the Handicap division, hard hitters like Devil Diver, Stymie, Bolingbroke, and Apache. Still, she easily handled future Horse of the Year Armed, who defeated a top field that included Stymie, First Fiddle, Gallorette, and the 1945 Preakness winner Polynesian and Belmont winner Pot o’ Luck in the Pimlico Special.
In 1945, Busher faced three-year-old males four times. She won two and finished second in the other two by a half-length and a head. She faced older females four times, including the match race against Durazna, and won three of them with a third-place finish in the Beverly Stakes to Durazna. She also faced older males twice and easily defeated them each time.
In 1956, in a poll conducted among members of the American Trainers Association at Delaware Park, Gallorette was voted the greatest mare of the first half of the twentieth century. Twilight Tear was second, and Busher sixth.
After being out of racing for all of 1946, Busher returned to competition in January 1947 in an allowance race for four-year-olds and up. She finished off the board (5^th), only the second time in her career she missed the top three. A calcium filing was discovered in one of her legs when she was being cooled out after the race, and she was retired.
Busher is best described as a fantastic filly whose three-year-old campaign was one of the best for her age and sex. She never lost two races in a row in her twenty-one career starts.