Steve Thurston (2021)
2020 inductee Mark Casse tells the story of winning the Canada Sovereign award because "Todd Pletcher doesn't run much in Canada." Pletcher, seated at center in the grey suit, laughed and clapped with others.
The Hall of Fame induction started on a theme of ritual and rites of passage today as race horse owners, jockeys, trainers and about 350 fans who love the sport gathered to celebrate the best in racing for the first time since 2019.
Held at the Fasig-Tipton Sales Pavilion across East Ave from the Oklahoma Track in Saratoga Springs, the event inducted the classes of 2020 and 2021, with many new and longtime hall-of-famers on hand.
“Rituals remind us of the importance of what we do,” longtime track announcer and emcee for the event, Tom Durkin, told those gathered. “Racing is important, and, if not important, humans would not have been engaged in it for years and years.”
Luminaries and their handlers from the sport spoke of years of dedication and hard work, of the camaraderie and competition.
Class of 2020 trainer Mark Casse, humble and overwhelmed to the point of tears at times, still told funny stories. He had a chance of winning a Sovereign Award in Canada. When he told his son that he was a contender, his son wondered if he had a shot. Casse said yes, he thought so.
His son agreed, since “Todd Pletcher doesn’t run much in Canada.”
Pletcher, a 2021 inductee, laughed and clapped with others in the front row just feet from Casse.
According to Equibase, Casse, with a career as a trainer dating to 1979, has over 3,000 wins and almost $191 million in earnings. Todd Pletcher has over 5,000 wins and earnings of $410 million since 1996.
Reynolds Bell, accepting a 2020 Pillar of the Turf award for his mother Alice Headley Chandler, said his mother loved everything about farm living and raising horses, from riding the horses to harvesting crops.
She started the famed Mill Ridge Farm on 286 acres in the 1960s when women had not yet been inducted into the Hall of Fame. (To be clear: owners are still not inducted to the Hall of Fame proper but win “Pillar of the Turf” awards; however, the first woman—jockey Julie Krone—was not inducted until 2000.)
“She loved it all,” Bell said, adding later that she would have been very happy with last year’s Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, an anti-doping and medication control program.
“Take care of the horse, and the horse will take care of you,” Bell recalled. “We heard that often, growing up.”
2020 inductees:
- Tom Bowling (Historic Review Horse)
- J. Keen Daingerfield, Jr. (Pillar of the Turf)
- George D. Widener, Jr. (Pillar of the Turf)
- Alice Headley Chandler (Pillar of the Turf)
- Darrel McHargue (History Review Jockey)
- Wise Dan (Contemporary Horse)
- Mark E. Casse (Contemporary Trainer)
2021 Inductees:
- Jack Fisher (Steeplechase Trainer)
- American Pharoah (Contemporary Horse)
- Todd A. Pletcher (Contemporary Trainer)
Steve Thurston (2021)
Hall-of-Fame recipients on hand at this year's ceremony included jockeys and trainers from Javier Castellano to Gary Stevens to Nick Zito and Janet Elliot.