Onion, Big Red remembered for Saratoga shocker
Then in the claiming ranks, his final start months off, Onion returned to Saratoga Race Course in 1977 four years after one of racing’s five-star upsets.
Saturday, Aug. 4, 1973, Onion beat Triple Crown winner Secretariat in the Whitney Stakes. Yes, you read it right.
It might have been one race too many for Big Red in the year that he set track records in all three spring classics, famously winning the Belmont Stakes in June by 31 lengths. Bold Ruler’s greatest runner redeemed himself in the fall winning the Marlboro Cup against stablemate Riva Ridge and adding the grass championship to his second Horse of the Year crown and the male 3-year-old title.
Onion did not start again until May 1975 and soon beat around East Coast tracks, some long since shuttered.
On Aug. 26, 1977, he finished fifth in a claiming race at Saratoga over the track that he once shocked the racing world. If you’re wondering, Onion has no Oaklawn races on his record.
Third Martini’s son is one of two Allen Jerkens trainees to beat Secretariat, a claim no other trainer can make; Prove Out prevailed in the fall.
For such feats, Jerkens became known as the Giant Killer and Saratoga renamed the Grade 1 King’s Bishop, for 3-yearold sprinters, in his memory.
Onion’s victory and Secretariat’s defeat in 1973 no doubt will come up on this Whitney Saturday, an annual showcase in upstate New York. The 12-race card includes three Grade 1s among five stakes — the Whitney included along with the Test (3-year-old fillies) and the Caesars Saratoga Derby Invitational (turfers).
The day’s strongest Oaklawn connection comes in the Saratoga Derby with Hall of Fame trainer Wayne Lukas moving Quality Road’s son to grass after the colt won twice on dirt.
Last seen when sixth in the Grade 3 Ohio Derby, Ethereal Road won the Sir Barton on the Preakness undercard May 21 after scratching from the Kentucky Derby on the eve of the race. The latter move let Rich Strike enter the Derby, after which he wore a blanket of roses as 80-1 winner.
In his fourth start and second at Oaklawn, Ethereal Road won Jan. 29 on the Grade 3 Southwest undercard then finished second to 75-1 winner Un Ojo in the Grade 2 Rebel Feb. 26. Two dull races in graded stakes at Keeneland came next before Aaron Sones’ colt got it right at Pimlico in the Sir Barton.
Set in at 15-1 with Luis Saez aboard, Ethereal Road will need every edge from outside post 11 going 1 3/16 miles. Annapolis, one of Todd Pletcher’s three in the race, is the early 5-2 choice under Irad Ortiz Jr.
Pletcher holds a strong hand in the nine-furlong Whitney with 6-5 pick Life Is Good, an Eclipse Award finalist last year with a Grade 1 victory and more than $2 million earned at age 4, and Happy Saver. The main threat comes from Bill Mott-trained 4-year-old Olympiad, 5-for-5 this year and last seen taking the Grade 2 Stephen Foster July 2 at Churchill Downs.
Leading off Saratoga’s big three is the seven-furlong Test at 4:07 p.m. CDT, followed by the Whitney at 4:43 p.m. and the Saratoga Derby at 5:20 p.m.
Out west, Hot Springsowned Shedaresthedevil seeks her fourth Grade 1 victory with a Clement L. Hirsch repeat. Staton Flurry’s 5-year-old mare won the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis at Churchill Downs after failing to repeat in the track’s Grade 1 La Troienne in early May.
With Florent Geroux riding for trainer Brad Cox under 121 pounds, Shedaresthedevil (from post five) is an early 8-5 favorite over 5-2 Private Mission (post four), trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert. Post time for the mile-and-sixteenth Hirsch is 8:04 p.m. CDT.