BH 100: Equipoise

This feature originally appeared in the August 13, 2016 issue of BloodHorse.

A handwritten note left on the desk of Whitney Farm’s secretary on May 1, 1928, matter-of-factly announced the birth of one of the many Whitney foals: “Swinging, foaled May 1st 1:00 a.m., ch. colt, by Pennant, narrow & irregular stripe, near hind pastern partly white, medium size, straight & strong.”

Thus arrived Equipoise, one of the most celebrated Thoroughbred racehorses of the first half of the 20th century. Dubbed “The Chocolate Soldier” by racing fans and the media for the color of his coat when wet and for the military precision of his racing efforts, the Whitney color-bearer, by the time his racing career had ended in 1934, ranked only behind the legendary Man o’ War in popularity, a popularity that lasted into the 21st century when Equipoise was ranked #21 on The Blood-Horse’s Top 100 Racehorses of the 20th Century.

Equipoise was bred by Harry Payne Whitney, a son of the noted business mogul W.C. Whitney, whose sporting interests had revitalized historic Saratoga Race Course and whose love of Thoroughbreds spurred the acquisition of a band of outstanding broodmares. His untimely death in 1904 prevented him from enjoying the fruits of his acumen.

The sporting mantle and the bulk of the elder Whitney’s bloodstock enterprise fell upon the shoulders of his eldest son. It was a cloak H.P. wore with style.

Using the nucleus of broodmares gathered by his father, he forged a dynasty in American racing that year after year produced one high-class runner after another, but he also died young, not living to enjoy the heights of success of the best horse he ever bred, Equipoise.

In the fall of Equipoise’s championship juvenile season, Whitney died, leaving his son C.V. Whitney to assume, albeit reluctantly, the family’s sporting tradition. Equipoise and the Pimlico Futurity changed that reluctance.

Raymond “Sonny” Workman, Equipoise’s regular jockey, was aboard that wet, cold day in Maryland, and in the Pimlico stands the horse’s new owner sat huddled in an overcoat, watching the proceedings. Reminiscing in a letter five years after the race’s running, Workman recalls Whitney’s pivotal sporting moment this way: “I believe the Pimlico Futurity to be (Equipoise’s) greatest race as a 2-year-old. In this race he was practically left at the post, at least twelve lengths last going into the first turn. I nor no one else imagined that he had a chance. At about the half-mile pole I recognized Twenty Grand about a length to a length and a half in front of me and realizing that he was one of the horses to beat in the race, I was given new hope. The mud was flying and I could vision no chance of driving through near the rail, so I had to circle on the outside. Twenty Grand, by the way, got through on the inside. Equipoise, Twenty Grand, and Mate finished three heads on the post in what I believe was one of the greatest races ever run by a 2-year-old. The entire trip was a shower of mud and I am convinced that Equipoise was unable to see what was in front of him—the supreme courage and those never-say-die tactics which were to be so often exemplified throughout his career made the victory his. When he was returned to the stable, Mr. Hopkins discovered that he had lost THREE plates during the race.”

In the expanse of the Pimlico stands, shivering against the cold and damp, the new owner sat, watching. Rapt in the drama unfolding before him and exhilarated with the thrill of winning, Whitney transformed doubt to desire. Equipoise’s gallant victory became the crucible for the family’s racing tradition to go forth.

Despite niggling physical problems that plagued him throughout the remainder of his career and a kidney ailment that nearly killed him, “Ekke,” as he was familiarly known around the barn, was a paragon of the breed. By the time of his retirement in 1934, he had earned recognition as Horse of the Year twice and champion older male for three consecutive years. He set a world record for a mile at Arlington Park and amassed $338,610 in earnings, having won 29 of 51 starts while placing 14 times.

After only a few years as a Whitney stallion, 10-year-old Equipoise died in 1938, and The Blood-Horse documented the momentousness of this loss by making it the cover story for the Aug. 13 issue. In addition to the obituary, then-editor Joe Estes reserved the opening page of editorial for Equipoise’s passing, stating, “As always when a great horse passes away in the midst of a splendid career, a universal grief was stirred last week by the unexpected death of Equipoise. Next to Man o’ War he was the horse most often asked for and most often visited among the thousands of Thoroughbreds in Kentucky. As much as any horse of his day he symbolized for his admirers the fleetness, the strength of heart, the unfailing courage which are the highest virtues of his race.”

Estes also inserted a more personal reaction to Equipoise’s death: “The writer of these lines, no extravagantly sentimental soul, was in Saratoga last week when the news of Equipoise’s death was brought to him, and he was obliged to blink a few times to hide the true state of his feelings. And all those to whom he spoke of Equipoise either held their peace through fear of revealing too much of their own state of mind or uttered some remark proceeding from the conviction that something precious nd irreplaceable had suddenly disappeared.”

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