Pillars, 'Prize' Take Their Places in the Hall of Fame

This year's class of inductees to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame may have been light on contemporary stars, but the ceremony more than made up for that by highlighting the history of Thoroughbred racing, choosing 12 Pillars of the Turf and two historic review inductees, with the spotlight on families that have made significant contributions to the sport.

With Kenny Rice acting as master of ceremonies, the event was also the launch of a $20 million capital campaign by the museum to fund an interactive exhibit for the Hall of Fame. It is to include a 360-degree screen that will educate visitors about foals, horse racing, fans, media, trainers, owners, breeders, and jockeys, and the traditional plaques for each inductee would include touchscreens allowing visitors to delve deeper into the stories of each entrant. The museum also plans to develop historical material to be available to license by other tracks.  

Introduced by John Hendrickson, the president of the museum, the project is expected to be complete by 2020. He and his wife, Marylou Whitney, kicked off the campaign with a $1 million donation.  

Working with Donna Lawrence Productions, the project was created by a committee comprising Barbara Banke, Robert Clay, Debbie Oxley, G.D. Hieronymus, Penelope Miller, and Price Bell.

The plaque for the lone contemporary inductee this year, Heavenly Prize, was accepted by Shug McGaughey, who trained the filly to seven grade 1 wins and earnings of more than $1.8 million. The champion 3-year-old filly of 1994 was owned and bred by Ogden Phipps, and McGaughey highlighted the father-son rivalry between Heavenly Prize and Inside Information (a 2017 inductee), owned and bred by Ogden Mills "Dinny" Phipps.

He recalled a September day in 1993 at Belmont Park, when a maiden race for 2-year-old fillies was split into two divisions. Heavenly Prize won one, Inside Information the other.

Two years later, they ran as an odds-on favorite entry in the Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) at Belmont Park. Inside Information cruised by 13 1/2 lengths, and it was Heavenly Prize that chased her home.  

"I remember Mr. Phipps' comment," recalled McGaughey. "'The wrong horse won.' I'm quite sure he was kidding because he had a smile on his face when he said it."

With Marylou Whitney sitting in the front row, three members of the Whitney family became Pillars of the Turf: William Collins Whitney, credited with saving Saratoga Race Course from financial ruin when he purchased it with partners in 1902; his son Harry Payne Whitney; and his son Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, Marylou's late husband.

Though W.C. Whitney was involved in the sport for only a short time, his induction video characterized his "imprint" on Thoroughbred racing as "arguably as significant as any in the history of the American turf."  

Marylou Whitney accepted the plaque for C.V. Whitney, while Leverett Miller, his nephew, accepted on behalf of the other family members.   

"I am so grateful," he said, "to this amazing Museum and Hall of Fame, and to all those who contributed in making it great."

The 12 Pillars represented horse racing from across the country. While the Whitneys were based in New York, along with fellow inductees John Morrissey and August Belmont I, Elias J. "Lucky" Baldwin and Dr. Charles H. Strub were instrumental in establishing racing in California. Three Kentucky families were represented by Hal Price Headley, Arthur B. Hancock Sr., and John W. Galbreath, with direct descendants speaking movingly about their relatives' contributions to the sport in which they are still involved.  

"My goodness," said Headley Bell, managing partner of Mill Ridge Farm. "What a day. All of you and your families, celebrating a lifetime of work—that's something."

Accepting for Hal Price Headley, Bell spoke of his grandfather's legacy that lives on through the foundation mare Alcibiades and the racetrack that he helped establish.

"He was passionate about sharing the horse and that experience with fans," said Bell, "and there's no better example of that than what we see at Keeneland. It's a beacon of something at the highest level."  

Two other grandsons took to the podium to honor their grandfathers: John Phillips, accepting for his grandfather John W. Galbreath, and Arthur Hancock III for Arthur Hancock Sr.

Hancock III related the fairly inauspicious beginnings of his family's involvement in Thoroughbred racing.

"Granddaddy got married in 1908, and his wife inherited 1,300 acres in Bourbon County in 1909," he said. "He was running a farm in Virginia and he was fixing the farm in Kentucky, and in 1910 they outlawed racing in New York, which was the center of everything."

Speaking without notes and peppering his speech with funny anecdotes, Hancock III told a tale of perseverance in the face of national and international obstacles, perseverance that resulted in the establishment of Claiborne Farm.

In the induction of John W. Galbreath, the racing worlds of Kentucky and New York were brought together: in 1963, Galbreath's horse Chateaugay won at Aqueduct Racetrack because Belmont Park, following the renovation of Aqueduct, was itself under construction. And Galbreath himself, a developer, was involved with both of those projects.  

"He loved people, he loved horses, he loved his farm," said Phillips of his grandfather. "He would be humbled and honored by this, but he'd also be tickled."  

For the first time this year, a woman was inducted as a Pillar of the Turf, the fourth woman to be honored by the Hall of Fame.  

Said Kate Tweedy, daughter of inductee Penny Chenery, "It's especially a great honor for her to be the first woman Pillar of the Turf, as she was in many cases the first woman (to do something in this industry). She's joining a number of eminent people--racetrack founders, industry innovators, breeders. This is a group she would have really loved and felt at home with."

Inducted by the Historic Review Committee were trainer William Lakeland and the horse Preakness, who called by one Turf writer before his debut, according to his induction video, "half-trained and fat as an ox." Apparently oblivious to the criticism, Preakness won the two-mile race by two lengths and finished first or second in 30 of his 39 races.

The ceremony's final inductee was 90-year-old Cot Campbell, who received two standing ovations and predictably, appropriately, brought down the house.

Standing at the microphone, he said, "Yesterday, there were 12 Pillars of the Turf. Today, there are 24...and the only one alive is me."

As laughter subsided, he added, "You may not be very interested, but I am. I'm the only one that can change that statistic and I don't intend to. Hope springs eternal in this industry, and I'm going to have fun for as long as I can."

Campbell seemed to be having a lot of fun at the ceremony, praising his wife, Anne; his Dogwood Stables partners; Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, which has largely replaced Dogwood as Campbell has gone into semi-retirement; and of course the horses.

Bringing to mind the title of his book Memoirs of a Longshot, he recalled his father's short-lived venture in Thoroughbred racing, a two-year experiment that resulted in his "going broke," and the multiple people who advised him against getting involved with horses.

"I am," he declared, "the poster child for the idea that energy and enthusiasm can overcome stupidity and bad judgment.

"This is a mighty big day for this boy."