Look Back: Shuvee Completes a Filly Triple Crown

Image: 
Description: 

Photo: NYRA Photo
Shuvee wins the 1969 Coaching Club American Oaks, completing a Filly Triple Crown

In conjunction with Tom Hall's Throwback Thursday features in BloodHorse Daily, BloodHorse.com each Thursday will present corresponding race stories from the pages of the magazine. This week is a recap of the 1969 Coaching Club American Oaks won by future Racing Hall of Famer Shuvee written by William H. Rudy. The story carried the headline "Shuvee's Present and Future," and subhead "Homebred star raced by Mr. and Mrs. Whitney Stone captures Triple Crown for Fillies, and can keep going."

Big, powerfully muscled Shuvee, daughter of champions Nashua and Levee, won New York's Triple Crown for Fillies by taking the $100,000-added Coaching Club American Oaks. All she had to overcome was luck.

One of the 101 ways, or 1,001 ways, in which the best horse can be beaten developed right at the start when Shuvee broke in a tangle, almost went down, and then clipped the heels of a filly beside her.

Jesse Davidson, a onetime "king of the half-milers" who has made the most of his big chance to handle a champion, straightened out Shuvee quickly and for the remainder of the 1 1/4 miles had as easy a ride as has been seen this year in New York. 

"She just does everything so easily," said trainer Willard C. (Mike) Freeman with some wonderment in his voice after the Oaks. "She is just a tremendous filly."

Shuvee, which had won the one-mile Acorn by three-quarters of a length and the 1 1/8-mile Mother Goose by 2 1/2 lengths, scored in the Oaks by three lengths. In each of the races, Canadian Walter L. Kitchen's Hail to Patsy was second, a hard-trying, dogged second, easily best of the others and with no chance of getting the winner. Hail to Patsy came along in the wrong year.

Mr. and Mrs. Whitney Stone, who bred Shuvee at their Morven Stud in Virginia, confessed to being nervous about their filly's chances of becoming the second star to sweep the three races. 

"That Hail to Patsy bothers me," Mrs. Stone said. "I knew I wasn't going to be able to sleep a wink last night. Whitney said he wasn't going to be able to sleep. So two minutes after he was in bed, he was snoring away peacefully. I lay awake thinking of all the terrible things that could happen to her."

The thing that almost did happen was not immediately spotted by the Stones or by most of the crowd of 41,010 because the start of a 1 1/4-mile race at big Belmont Park is at the head of a chute far out where the main track intersects the training track. What they did see could not have been very frightening either to the Stones or Shuvee's backers who had made her 3-10 and created the first sizeable minus pool ($16,055.72) of the New York season.

Davidson rode the filly confidently, as well he might once they were out of the momentary trouble.

Restless Tornado, although breaking last in the field of seven, immediately opened a lead of six lengths or more, with Polly Piper second, a length or so ahead of Secret Verdict. Back of the first three came The Garden Club, holding the rail, with Shuvee just outside her. Davidson kept the favorite well out all the way down the long chute and backstretch, taking no chances of any more heel-clipping.

Only Hail to Patsy and Scarlet Larkspur were far out of it during this stage as the five leaders held their positions until the far turn was reached. Shuvee then responded when Davidson chirped to her and began to move around the others, going four wide on the turn.

As Restless Tornado surrendered her six-length bulge, four leaders were almost abreast when they rounded into the stretch and Secret Verdict momentarily reached the lead. That was a short-lived lead. Shuvee was moving so much the fastest of all that she soon was in front.

Hail to Patsy, meanwhile, was making her move even farther out from the rail. At about the eighth pole, Davidson rapped Shuvee to keep her mind on her business and she easily maintained her margin. Secret Verdict was third, 1 1/2 lengths back of Hail to Patsy, with Polly Piper fourth.

"My filly closed fast, but Shuvee closed faster," said Dave Kassen, who rode Hail to Patsy. "When I made a move at her in the stretch, she just pulled away. I never got any closer to her. The winner is a great filly."

Kassen has had the same view of her in all three races.

The quarters were run in :23 4/5, :22 3/5, :24 1/5, :26, and :26 3/5 for 10 furlongs in 2:03 1/5. Shuvee, of course, ran her last quarter in considerably faster time, making up about five lengths on the leader and not being extended while doing it.

Dark Mirage, which last year had become the first filly to sweep the three races, turned in faster times and won by greater margins, but she was a phenomenon. Shuvee appears to run just as fast as she has to.

With her $77,756 victory, Shuvee now has won $173,061 in the three Triple Crown races, and overall a total of $388,147. She also has settled Stone's mind on what to do with their yearling colt by Native Dancer—Levee. He had been on the fence after the Acorn, but he will keep him. The Morven consignment to Saratoga is not apt to have more of Levee's get. 

As for Shuvee's full sister, a weanling down on the farm, Mrs. Stone disclosed that she had jaundice and had been given a transfusion. 

"The transfusion was from Bowl of Flowers, so she's got good blood in her," Mrs. Stone said. 

Bowl of Flowers, one of the Stones' 13 broodmares, was an Acorn and CCA Oaks winner in 1961, but was upset by Fun-loving in the Mother Goose.

A leading commercial breeder, sizing up Shuvee after the Oaks, estimated her value would have to be reckoned two ways.

"A commercial breeder, looking at it coldly, would go to at least $750,000 for her," he said, "but if you were buying her for the fun of racing her and owning such a filly, she could bring any price. There are big races ahead and she can run all next year. There is nothing I can see to beat her."

Freeman, noting that Shuvee was big and strong and had run only four times this year, said he was thinking of the Delaware Oaks next, but did not rule out the Monmouth Oaks. "And then, of course, Saratoga," he added.

Mrs. Stone, thinking of what might happen to Shuvee, said: "Somewhere, I imagine, she'll meet Process Shot and Gallant Bloom."

The three were ranked even on the Experimental Free Handicap. Process Shot is four for four in stakes this year. Strangely, she was not named for the Triple Crown races. Gallant Bloom, set back by a curb, has won the Liberty Belle from older fillies and mares in her only start.

It could be there will be a momentous meeting somewhere along the way, but the others had better be as much improved as 3-year-olds as Shuvee is.