SHUVEE STILL A MARVEL

Hall of Famer retired with highest earnings ever for a filly or mare

Shuvee could go a mile or two miles. She could beat colts or fillies. She was durable. She set records. Simply put, she was the total package and one of the most accomplished fillies or mares of the 20th century.

The 44th running of the Shuvee Stakes was recently contested at Saratoga Race Course in honor of the popular chestnut who won 15 major stakes in her career from 1968 through 1971. Shuvee was impeccably bred. Her sire, Nashua, was the 1955 Horse of the Year and a Hall of Famer, while Shuvee’s dam, Levee, won the Beldame and Coaching

Club American Oaks. Levee was by Hill Prince, another Hall of Famer.

Shuvee was built like a stallion, standing 16.1 hands, and weighing more than 1,100 pounds. Her massive size proved to be problematic early in her career while she developed into her frame and learned to train and race. Bred in Virginia by Whitney Stone and campaigned by his wife, Anne Minor Stone, Shuvee was trained by Willard C. “Mike” Freeman.

The results took time. Shuvee struggled early on, losing her first seven races as a 2-year-old in 1968 before she began to figure things out. Her breakthrough performance was a victory that October in the Frizette Stakes at Belmont

Park in which she defeated top filly Gallant Bloom (a future Hall of Famer). Shuvee then upset Process Shot in the Selima Stakes at Laurel Park.

Shuvee became a force to be reckoned with as a 3-year-old, winning the Filly Triple Crown: the Acorn, Mother Goose, and Coaching Club American Oaks. She also won the Cotillion Handicap, Alabama Stakes, and Ladies Handicap in 1969. Shuvee’s fourlength victory in the Alabama was described by the New York Times as “an artistic performance” that added to “a distinctive list of accomplishments.”

Shuvee, however, was arguably at her best during her 1970 and 1971 victories in the Jockey Club

Gold Cup against males at two miles. No other filly or mare has ever won the race. In Shuvee’s second Gold Cup victory, she drew off to win by seven lengths from Paraje, with Loud, the 1970 Travers Stakes winner, third.

“The crowd of 42,041 roundly applauded Shuvee after her fine accomplishment, which was achieved in the excellent time of 3:20 ,” reported the Times. “The track and national record for the distance is 3:19 posted by Kelso in taking the 1964 renewal of the race.”

Hall of Fame jockey Jorge Velasquez, who rode Shuvee in the 1971 Gold Cup, said the race was simply an exhibition of the horse’s brilliance.