Catching Up With Victory Gallop

Belmont Stakes winner Victory Gallop raced as a 4-year-old and has a successful stud career in Turkey. (Photo courtesy of The Jockey Club of Turkey)
A $25,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase in 1996, Victory Gallop may be best known as the horse who denied Real Quiet a Triple Crown win but he was much more than that on the track and as a stallion.
Victory Gallop came into the Triple Crown series with four wins in seven starts, including two Triple Crown prep races. He was second to Real Quiet in both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, losing to him by a combined 2 ¾ lengths in the race. But at Belmont Park, trainer Elliott Walden had Victory Gallop ready to roll.
Taking over the lead in the middle of the far turn and pulling away in the stretch, it looked like Real Quiet would become the first Triple Crown winner in 20 years. But in the final furlong, Victory Quiet was rolling behind him and spoiled the Triple Crown bid in a head bob, winning the Belmont Stakes by a nose.
1998 BELMONT STAKES

Video courtesy of the New York Racing Association
“We felt we had to let Real Quiet make his move, and weather the storm,” Walden told the New York Times after the race. “Don't try to go with him. He has such a tremendous burst, but let him go ahead and exert that energy and then see if we can come pick up the pieces late. That's exactly how it worked out.”
While he had finally beat that rival, during the summer Victory Gallop ran into another one who would add a few seconds to his record.
Coronado’s Quest had been on the Kentucky Derby trail and won both the Grade 3 Nashua and Grade 2 Remsen as a 2-year-old. In 1998, he won the Wood Memorial as a 3-year-old but had skipped all of the Triple Crown races, instead winning the Grade 2 Riva Ridge Stakes on the Belmont Stakes undercard. The two met in the Grade 1 Haskell Stakes, Victory Gallop’s first race after the Belmont, and Coronado’s Quest was able to get the better of him by 1 ¼ lengths.
From there, they met up again in the Travers Stakes and while Victory Gallop made up most of the distance in the previous loss, Coronado’s Quest won by a nose. While nether won their last match-up, the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Victory Gallop did finish in front of Coronado’s Quest this time. In one of the best editions of the Classic, Victory Gallop finished in a photo finish one length behind the winning Awesome Again in fourth while Coronado’s Quest was one length behind Victory Gallop in fifth.
While Victory Gallop continued racing the next year, he didn’t meet up with either rival again. Coronado’s Quest retired at the end of 1998 while Real Quiet targeted different races the following year.
Victory Gallop may have been in even better form as a 4-year-old than the previous year.
He returned to the races for the first time after the Breeders’ Cup in a March allowance at Gulfstream where he easily beat a five-horse field that included two graded stakes winners and one other graded stakes-placed horse. That win was enough to solidify a trip to Dubai for the 1999 Dubai World Cup in search of a third victory for the United States in the race.
Like nearly every other race in his career Victory Gallop wasn’t far from the win but came out on the wrong end this time, finishing third by 1 ½ lengths behind Almutawakel. The flight and race didn’t take a lot out of him though with Victory Gallop returning less than three months later in the Grade 2 Stephen Foster.
It was an easy return for the horse, who made jockey Jerry Bailey’s job easy by letting him put in a hand ride. Victory Gallop won by five lengths to take his record to eight wins in 16 starts.
He returned to the site of his Travers loss for the Whitney next out beat Behrens by a nose with third-place Catienus 12 lengths back. But only a few weeks later, Victory Gallop was retired after it was found that he tore a suspensory.
Victory Gallop retired with nine wins in 17 starts for $3,505,895 in earnings. He was named champion older horse at the end of the year but was edged out by dual-classic winner Charismatic in Horse of the Year voting.
Victory Gallop was retired to his owners’ Prestonwood Farm in Kentucky (later renamed WinStar Farm when it was sold) for the 2000 breeding season.
Victory Gallop had 86 foals born in that first crop with Victory U.S.A. headlining their achievements when she won the Grade 2 Stonerside Beaumont Stakes in 2004. Other foals from his first seven years at stud include Grade 1 winner Jaycito and Grade 1 winner Prince Will I Am in addition to multiple other graded stakes winners.
At the end of 2008, Victory Gallop moved to Turkey after the country’s jockey club approached WinStar Farm about buying the stallion.
VICTORY GALLOP IN TURKEY

“Victory Gallop was considered for his bloodline to vary the bloodlines in Turkey,” said a representative of The Jockey Club of Turkey. “The bloodline he has from his sire and especially from his mare (compliments) the Turkey (bloodlines) as well as it does with the USA and Ireland.”
Victory Gallop has made a big impact in Turkey and was the leading sire in 2015 and has been among the leading sires in Turkey since his first crop hit the track. His first 21 2-year-olds in the country won 22 races to rank him fourth in that category in 2012. In 2013, he finished seventh on Turkey’s general sires list and was third in 2014 before being named leading general sire last year. Overall, Victory Gallop has had 25 Group wins between 13 horses with Hot Chocolate winning five Group races between 2015 and 2016 and Ildir Beyi winning the Turkey Guineas Trial last year as well.
Every year since moving to Turkey, Victory Gallop has had a limited book of anywhere from 70 to 120 mares accepted into his book. He’s been full or nearly full every year with the stallion receiving 250 nominations after it was announced he will have a book of 100 mares this year.
“Victory Gallop stood first in Karacabey and then in Izmit Stud by turns every year since 2008, the year when he was purchased. Since he came to Turkey, it has been announced that Victory Gallop would have 70 to 120 coverings within the covering season and it has nearly worked with full capacity,” he said. “The pregnancy rate for the mares he has covered is around 80 percent. This year, the number of coverings that Victory Gallop will make was announced as 100 and he received 250 nominations. However, since this number is over the limit, the 100 lucky mares will be chosen by draw. Since he brought a variety in the bloodlines, he gave an excitement to the breeders and with his offspring adapted to the racing he revived the racing sector as well.”
Victory Gallop turned 21 this year and Canbolat says the well-mannered stallion is doing well and well-liked by the barn staff. Victory Gallop is standing at Izmit Stud this year and currently leads the standings in 2016 with his foals winning 51 races as of April 12.