Requiem For A Champion
by Dan Liebman
from BREEDERS' CUP SOUVENIR MAGAZINE, November 8, 1997
Chief's Crown won the first Breeders' Cup race ever run, the 1984 Juvenile, and was a successful sire before his passing this spring
Horses win, horses lose. Horses break track records, horses break down. Some are all heart, others spit out the bit when challenged. Highs and lows. That is the horse business.
But on the same day?
For Dan Rosenberg, manager of Robert and Blythe Clay's Three Chimneys Farm near Midway, Ky, that day was April 29, 1997. On the day that Three Chimneys had a celebration for guests and media to honor the 20th anniversary of Seattle Slew's Triple Crown sweep, another stallion at Three Chimneys, Chief's Crown, died.
"The highs and lows, right on top of each other," Rosenberg recalled. "It was one of the most intense days of my life."
Next year, Rosenberg himself will celebrate a 20-year anniversary, marking his length of employment at picturesque Three Chimneys. He is still waiting - and may be for a long time - for another horse to step on the property that he comes as close to as he was to Chief's Crown.
"Not just me, but everyone that was ever around him, he was one of their favorites," Rosenberg said. "He was maybe the smartest horse I've ever been around."
When Chief's Crown died, so did a bit of Breeders' Cup history.
At 11:15 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on November 10, 1984, Chief's Crown sprang from the starting gate at Hollywood Park: as part of the first-ever Breeders' Cup field. Just over 96 seconds later, Chief's Crown became the first Breeders' Cup race winner when he captured the $1 million Breeders'Cup Juvenile.
Chief's Crown's victory that day over future rivals Tank's Prospect and Spend a Buck sealed his Eclipse Award as the year's top 2-year-old colt. The Breeders' Cup's goal of crowning champions had been realized.
Chief's Crown was the first of more than 125 stakes winners sired by Danzig. He was bred by Carl Rosen, who died in August of 1983. The colt was named after the family patriarch, who was known as The Chief. On the inaugural Breeders' Cup Day, Chief's Crown raced for the Rosen family's Star Crown Stable, which was managed by Rosen's son, Andrew.
Two weeks before the Breeders' Cup, and just prior to the Norfolk Stakes at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting, the Rosen family sold 50 percent of Chief's Crown to Three Chimneys, which syndicated its 20 shares for $500,000 each, giving Chief's Crown a book value of $20 million.
Besides racing, Carl Rosen had an interest in many sports, among them baseball, golf and tennis. Rosen had named Chief's Crown's second dam Chris Evert because he had recently signed the tennis star to a contract promoting a line of his sportswear
At the time of his death, Carl Rosen was the head of Puritan Fashions, which was later purchased by Calvin Klein. Andrew Rosen became president of a division of Calvin Klein.
The equine Chris Evert won four of five starts as a 2-year-old. At age 3, she swept New York's prestigious, three-race series for fillies the Acorn Stakes, Mother Goose Stakes and Coaching Club American Oaks.
But it is on the West Coast, over the same track where Chief's Crown won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, where Chris Evert is best remembered. Carl Rosen and Aaron Jones, the owner of Miss Musket, each put up $100,000 for a match race. Hollywood Park added another $150,000 to the pot. With $350,000 on the line, Chris Evert showed where Chief's Crown got his determination from. She won that day by 50 lengths.
"Brilliance is wonderful in a horse," Rosenberg said. "Let's face it, you don't see many brilliant horses in your life. But, the try, the determination, that is what I will remember about Chief's Crown."
In 1985, the first stall in the Three Chimneys stallion barn was filled by Slew o' Gold, who crossed the wire third in the inaugural Breeders' Cup Classic. A year later, Chief's Crown joined the roster Rosenberg remembers that time vividly, especially the first day Chief's Crown was led to the breeding shed.
"The first time they cover a mare, it can be both frustrating and amusing," hosenberg said. "They just don't know what to do."
Well, some of them don't.
"The first time Chief's Crown walked in to breed a test mare, from the moment he walked in until the moment he walked out was no more than 60 seconds," Rosenberg said.
It is not surprising that Chief's Crown was the consummate professional in the breeding shed. After all, he was the same way on the racetrack From his first start to his last, and the 19 in between, Chief's Crown tried hard every step of every race. it is the quality that endeared him to so many.
"He was unique, a superb horse," his trainer, Roger Laurin, said one early September day after returning from a round of golf near his summer home in Saratoga Springs, N Y. "But, though he had great racing ability, the thing I remember most is his attitude. He was very easy to train, was always very willing.
"When he lost, it wasn't for a lack of effort," Laurin continued. "Never once did he not give his best effort. Never once."
It is for that very reason that Chief's Crown is one of only three horses in history to lose all three Triple Crown races while being favored in all three. After all, who but a gritty, honest trier could the public continue to show wagering confidence in after a loss?
Champion 2-year-old, winner of all three starts at age 3, and off an easy victory in Keeneland's Blue Grass Stakes, it was a no brainer that Chief's Crown would be favored in the 1985 Kentucky Derby.
Unfortunately for hun, and the rest of the field, Eternal Prince broke poorly, leaving Spend a Buck as the lone speed. Ten furlongs later, Spend a Buck had his garland of roses, Stephan's Odyssey was second, and 6-5 favorite Chief's Crown was third.
Two weeks later, the public was almost right, sending Chief's Crown off at even money against 10 rivals in the Preakness Stakes. Clear at the eighth pole, it looked like Chief's Crown's turn, but Tank's Prospect wore him down in the final strides. The final time of 1:53 2/5 for the 1 3/16 miles bested Pimlico's track record by one-fifth of a second.
Three times Chief's Crown ran on an off track, three times he lost. One of those races was the muddy Belmont Stakes, when Chief's Crown became one of the victims of the Woody Stephens era.
Stephens trained five straight winners of the Belmont, and in 1985, he ran one-two with the entry of Creme Fraiche and Stephan's Odyssey. Chief's Crown, the 2-1 favorite, was third.
Chief's Crown had made six starts thus far that year, at six different tracks, and he was far from done. Shipped to Saratoga, he tried the turf for the first time - finishing fourth - before capturing the East Coast's big summer event, the Travers Stakes.
Yes, he was favored that day, too.
Chief's Crown later won that year's Marlhoro Cup Invitational Handicap, and retired having won 12-of-21 starts and $2,191,168.
Chief's Crown is buried near the Three Chimneys stallion barn, alongside Nodouble and Time for a Change. It is also at Three Chimneys that Roger Laurin, now retired from training, has his 1997 crop of two foals, a weanling filly and colt, both by Chief's Crown.
Laurin, the son of Hall of liame trainer Lucien Laurin - who trained the great Triple Crown winner Secretariat - also has one horse in training, a 2-year-old colt by, you guessed it, Chief's Crown.
"He was one of the most special horses I was fortunate to be around," Laurin said. "He was really a unique horse - great racing ability, great attitude, so sound. When you passed him, you knew you had passed a real racehorse."
