John Henry: Steel Driving Champion© Greg Melikov
Apr 18, 2000
"Do you know a story about a horse that was old who wanted to win a major race that he would actually bite the other horses and when he finished in second place in a tight race he actually went to the winners circle?" asked Bill Bales of San Mateo, Calif.
Yes, I answered. The old war horse is John Henry, who resides at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. At age 25 he remains as grumpy as ever, says his groom, Tammy Siters. Almost as cantankerous as a young colt when he would tear buckets and tubs off the wall of his stall and stomp them flat.
It earned him his name after the "steel driving man" in the folk song.
An article in the archives of The Turf Online (http://www.theturfonline.com) describes in part what happened in 1983: ". . . as an 8-year-old, John bounced back [after an injury plagued '82] with a victory in the American
Handicap at Arlington Park, then missed by a neck in the Arlington Million. Someone forgot to tell John that he had lost [to Tolomeo], and he promptly took himself into the winner's circle. It took quite a few people to drag him out, biting and kicking! He won the race in 1981 and '84."
The nose victory over The Bart in '81 is immortalized in bronze -- both horses battling to the wire -- at the top of the paddock at the new Arlington International Race Course, which reopens this year.
"As a foal, John Henry was remembered as small, ugly, and foul tempered," Siters writes. "He also had a conformation defect called 'back at the knee' or 'calf kneed.' He sold (at Keeneland) for only a $1,100 bid. As he grew, his knee looked worse and worse and his disposition followed suit." He was gelded with the hope it would calm him down a bit.
But his racing prowess grew and grew. The son of Old Bob Bowers won 39 races (30 on grass and 9 on dirt) and at least one stakes every year of the eight he raced. He is the only horse to win the Arlington Million and the Santa Anita Handicap twice. As a 9-year-old, he won five graded stakes at
five different tracks.
He won seven Eclipse awards from 1980 through '84, including Champion Turf Male four times and Horse of the Year twice, capturing both honors after his last year of racing.
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