Y – #8 – Susan’s Girl – horseracing20thcentury99.com

Top Ten Fillies & Mares Twentieth Century

#8

Susan's Girl

(1971 - 1975)

Susan’s Girl was the best son or daughter of the 1964 Belmont and Travers Stakes winner Quadrangle. This ultra tough mare won 24 stake races in her Hall of Fame career.

Photo: Thoroughbred Times Collection - Keeneland Library

PEDIGREE

Bay Filly

OWNER

Fred Hooper

TRAINER

J.R. Fenstermaker (6 others)

BREEDER

Fred Hooper Jr.

Some Facts

Susan’s Girl was born in 1969. She was bred by Fred W. Hooper Jr. in Florida and was owned and raced by his father, Fred W. Hooper, who owned the 1945 Kentucky Derby winner, Hoop Jr.
Susan’s Girl was by Quadrangle, a son of Cohoes, and was out of Tap Day. Quadrangle had an outstanding three-year-old campaign in 1964, winning the Wood Memorial over Mister Brick and Roman Brother; the Belmont Stakes over Roman Brother and Northern Dancer; the Dwyer over Malicious and Roman Brother; The Travers Stakes over Knightly Manner and Roman Brother; and the 13F Lawrence Realization over Roman Brother and Knightly Manner. Competing against older horses, he finished second in the Met Mile (to Olden Times) and third in both the Woodward (to Gun Bow and Kelso) and the Jockey Club Gold Cup (to Kelso and Roman Brother). Despite his excellent record, he finished third to Northern Dancer and Roman Brother in voting for the top three-year-old colt and was assigned 127 pounds in the DRF – Morning Telegraph Free Handicap, one pound less than Northern Dancer.
Quadrangle also produced the 1979 champion two-year-old filly Smart Angle, which won four grade ones: the Frizette, Selima, Spinaway, and the Matron.
Susan’s Girl’s dam was Quaze, who was by the Argentinian stallion Quibu. Quaze, who won just four of her 19 starts, finished second in the 1960 Kentucky Oaks to Make Sail, with 1961 filly champion Airman’s Guide finishing third. Two of her daughters would eventually win the Kentucky Oaks, one of which was Susan’s Girl in 1972. Two years later, Quaze Quilt, by Specialmante, also won it.
Susan’s Girl was a big filly, measuring 16 hands and ½ inch at her withers when she was three and weighing 1,150 pounds. She broke her maiden in her third start at Aqueduct in 1971. She would race through to the completion of the 1975 season, but in 1974 she chipped a bone in February and was laid up for nine months, not returning until she won a seven-furlong allowance race at Churchill Downs on October 30.
This daughter of Quadrangle is the only filly to be voted three-year-old champion and the older champion mare twice in the twentieth century. This feat has since been accomplished by Royal Delta (2013) and Beholder (2016).
Though most of Susan’s Girl’s races were on dirt, 58, she did race five times on turf and won one of them, the 1975 Long Beach Handicap. In three others, the 1972 Princess, the 1973 Long Beach Handicap, and the 1975 Wilshire Handicap, she finished second by a head in each.
Susan’s Girl set her only track record when she won the mile and three-sixteenths Matchmaker Stakes on turf at Garden State in 1975 in 1:54 1/5. The most weight she ever carried was 130 pounds in the mile and one-eighth Long Beach Handicap on turf in 1973 at Hollywood Park, a race she lost in a head bob. In her previous start, the mile and one-quarter Santa Barbara Handicap, she carried 129 pounds and won the race by four and one-half lengths in 2:03 3/5.
The grading system was implemented at the beginning of the 1973 racing season. Susan’s Girl began her career in 1971 and finished it in 1975. She is credited with eight grade one wins from 1973 on. At least three of the eleven stakes she won before the grading system, the Acorn, Gazelle, and the Beldame, would become grade-one races in 1973. The Kentucky Oaks was rated a grade two but eventually upgraded to grade one.
Susan’s Girl’s longest winning streak was seven, all stakes. The streak began in 1971 and ended in 1972, those races being the Villager, Pasadena, Santa Ynez, Santa Susana, La Troienne, Kentucky Oaks, and the Acorn.
She was the first filly or mare to earn one million dollars in America and retired with earnings of $1,251,667.
At stud, Susan’s Girl’s best offspring was Copelan, named after the doctor who operated to remove the bone chips in her leg. Copelan, by Tri Jet, was bred and owned by Mr. Hooper. The colt won five stakes in 1982 when he was a two-year-old: G1 Champagne, G1 Belmont Futurity, G1 Hopeful, G2 Sanford Memorial, and the Hollywood Prevue (7F in 1:21 2/5). Despite his record, Roving Boy was voted the two-year-old champion.
Susan’s Girl died on October 18, 1988, at the age of nineteen.