National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Class of 2024
Joel Rosario, Gun Runner and Justify among others
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » Nine new members were elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. The class of 2024 is comprised of jockey Joel Rosario and racehorses Gun Runner (KY) and Justify (KY) in the contemporary category; jockey Abe Hawkins and racehorses Aristides (KY) and Lecomte (KY) have been selected by the Pre-1900 Historic Review Committee; and Harry F. Guggenheim, Clement L. Hirsch, and Joe Hirsch were chosen by the Pillars of the Turf Committee. Rosario, Gun Runner, and Justify were all elected in their first year of eligibility.
The 2024 Hall of Fame class will be enshrined on Friday, Aug. 2, at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion in Saratoga Springs at 10:30 a.m. The ceremony will be broadcast live on the Museum website at www.racingmuseum.org. The event is open to the public and free to attend.
Rosario, 39, a native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, has won 3,604 races (through April 20) and ranks No. 4 alltime in North American purse earnings with $318,313,804 in a career that began in 2003. The Eclipse Award winner for Outstanding Jockey in 2021, Rosario won the 2013 Kentucky Derby with Orb and the Belmont Stakes with Tonalist (2014) and Sir Winston (2019).
He has won 15 Breeders’ Cup
races, including the Classic with champion Accelerate (2018) and Horse of the Year Knicks Go (2021). Rosario has ranked among the top 10 in North American earnings 15 times, including topping the list in 2021 with a career-best $32,956,215. He has also ranked in the top 10 in wins five times.
A chestnut colt bred in Kentucky by Besilu Stables, Gun Runner (Candy Ride—Quiet Giant, by Giant’s Causeway) won the Eclipse Awards for Horse of the Year and Champion Older Male in 2017. Racing 2015 through 2018, Gun Runner compiled a record of 12-3-2 from 19 starts and earnings of $15,988,500, the second-highest total of any North American-based horse (behind Hall of Famer Arrogate).
A chestnut colt bred in Kentucky by John D. Gunther, Justify (Scat Daddy— Stage Magic, by Ghostzapper) became America’s thirteenth Triple Crown winner and was voted the Eclipse Award winner for Horse of the Year and Champion 3-Year-Old Male in 2018. He crossed the finish line first in all six of his career starts, spanning 111 days from his debut on Feb. 18, 2018, through his Belmont Stakes coronation on June 9.
Note: Justify’s record of six wins from six starts and earnings of $3,798,000 is subject to change pending an ongoing appeals process related to his disqualification in the 2018 Santa Anita Derby.
Abe Hawkins (the location and date of his birth is unknown) earned nicknames including “The Black Prince,” “The Dark Sage of Louisiana,” and “The Slayer of Lexington” for his prowess as a jockey in the pre-and post-Civil War years. Arguably the most celebrated rider in America before Isaac Murphy and the first black athlete to gain national prominence, Hawkins is remembered foremost for his victory aboard Lecomte vs. Lexington at the Metairie Course in New Orleans on April 1, 1854. That day, Hawkins piloted Lecomte to a record 7:26 for four miles to hand Lexington the lone defeat in his Hall of Fame career.
Bred in Kentucky by his owner, H. P. McGrath, Aristides (Leamington— Sarong, by Lexington), a chestnut colt foaled in 1872, won the inaugural Kentucky Derby in 1875. Trained by Hall of Famer Ansel Williamson, Aristides, a week before the Derby, finished out of the money in the Phoenix Hotel Stakes (won by Hall of Famer Ten Broeck).
He came back in the Derby before a crowd of 10,000 to defeat Volcano by a length, with Ten Broeck fifth. His time of 2:37¾ was the fastest ever to that date by a 3-year-old for 1½ miles.
Bred in Kentucky by Gen. Thomas Jefferson Wells, Lecomte (by Boston—Reel, by Glencoe), a chestnut colt foaled in 1850, made his debut at the Metairie Course in New Orleans on April 5, 1853, in a 2-year-old sweepstakes at mile heats. Although he was a foal of 1850, Lecomte was still considered a 2-year-old.
Southern rules that were in effect before the Civil War designated the ages of horses as calculated from May 1. Lecomte won both mile heats, including 1:45½ in the second heat, then the fastest race in America.
Harry F. Guggenheim, born in New Jersey in 1890, developed a passion for racing after graduating from Cambridge University. He became a significant figure in the sport as an owner, breeder, and industry leader.
Under the name Cain Hoy Stable, Guggenheim won 540 races as an owner with purse earnings of $6.2 million. He also bred the winners of 1,230 races (those horses earned $8.7 million).
Cain Hoy campaigned 1953 Kentucky Derby winner Dark Star (a $6,500 purchase and the only horse to defeat Native Dancer), champion Bald Eagle (back-to-back winner of the Washington, D.C., International), and Hall of Fame member Ack Ack (who raced for Buddy Fogelson and wife Greer Garson after Guggenheim’s death and was Horse of the Year in 1971).
Clement L. Hirsch was born in 1914 in St. Louis. Hirsch purchased his first racehorse in 1947. During his more than 50 years as an owner, Hirsch employed only two trainers. He first hired Robert H. “Red” McDaniel, then Warren Stute, who remained with him for more than 40 years.
A member of The Jockey Club, Hirsch was successful with several horses imported from South America, including the colt Figonero, who won the 1969 Hollywood Gold Cup and set a world record for 1 miles in winning the Del Mar Handicap. He was successful with the filly Magical Maiden, who won the 1991 Hollywood Starlet and the 1992 Las Virgenes Stakes. In 1993, Magical Maiden won the Chula Vista Handicap at Del Mar, a race that track officials later renamed the Clement L. Hirsch Handicap.
Born in New York City in 1928, Joe Hirsch enjoyed a prolific journalism career that carried him from the eras of Citation and Native Dancer to the dawn of the 21st century. Hirsch spent 49 years at the Daily Racing Form (1954 through 2003) and became one of racing’s most visible and impactful figures. Hirsch became the Form’s executive columnist in 1974 and held that title until his retirement.
An author of five books and the founder and first president of the National Turf Writers Association in 1959, Hirsch’s signature work occurred each spring as he chronicled the quest for the American classics in his “Derby Doings” for the Form but beyond that, the entire racing world was included in his writing. He was instrumental in creating the Arlington Million in 1981, a midsummer classic for older runners that reached out to the best stables of Europe.
Likewise, Hirsch was there at the dawn of the Japan Cup, the Breeders’ Cup, and the Dubai World Cup, stamping each event with the imprimatur of his formidable reputation.