- Dancer's Image
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Dancer's Image Sire Native Dancer Grandsire Polynesian Dam Noors Image Damsire Noor Sex Stallion Foaled 1965 Country United States Colour Gray Breeder Ryemeadow Farms Owner Peter Fuller Trainer Lou Cavalaris, Jr. Record 24: 12-5-1 Earnings $236,636 Major wins Clarendon Stakes (1967)
Grey Stakes (1967)
Vandal Stakes (1967)
Maryland Futurity Stakes (1967)
Wood Memorial Stakes (1968)
Kentucky Derby (1968)Horse (Equus ferus caballus) Last updated on May 18, 2010 Dancer's Image (1965–1992) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who is the only winner in the history of the Kentucky Derby to have been disqualified. Owned and bred by businessman Peter Fuller, the son of former Massachusetts Governor Alvan T. Fuller, the colt was trained by Lou Cavalaris, Jr. and ridden in the Derby by jockey Bobby Ussery.
Racing history
At age two, Dancer's Image won graded stakes races in Maryland and at Woodbine Racetrack in Ontario, Canada. At age three, in the lead up to the 1968 U.S. Triple Crown races, he won several more races including the important Grade I Wood Memorial Stakes. However, for the Kentucky Derby he was a second choice among bettors to Calumet Farm's Florida Derby and Blue Grass Stakes winner, Forward Pass. [1] Plagued by sore ankles, on the Sunday prior to the Derby, the handlers of Dancer's Image had a veterinarian give him a phenylbutazone tablet, a pain killer commonly used to relieve inflammation of the joints which was legal at many race tracks in the United States but not at Churchill Downs. However, it was still a legitimate practice as the medication would dissipate from the horse's system during the six days before the Derby. Phenylbutazone is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug and in 2010 is one of the most commonly used medications in horse racing. [2] By 1986, Phenylbutazone was so commonly used that in the 1986 Kentucky Derby, thirteen of the sixteen horses entered were running on the pain-killer. [3] Forty years after the disqualification, owner Peter Fuller still believes he was a victim of a set up, due to his being a wealthy civil rights sympathizer from Boston who offended the Kentucky racing aristocracy by donating Dancer's $62,000 prize for a previous victory to Coretta Scott King two days after her husband's murder.[4]
1968 Kentucky Derby
Dancer's Image won the 1968 Kentucky Derby but was disqualified to last after traces of phenylbutazone were discovered in the mandatory post-race urinalysis. Second place finisher Forward Pass was declared the winner. The controversy filled the sporting news of every media outlet in North America and was the cover story for Sports Illustrated magazine who referred to it as the sports story of the year. Owner Peter Fuller and the horse's handlers believed someone else may have been motivated to give the colt another dose of the drug and filed an appeal of the disqualification.
The Kentucky State Racing Commission examined the matter and ordered distribution of the purse with first money to Forward Pass. However, owner Peter Fuller took legal action and in December of 1970 a Kentucky Court awarded first-place money to Dancer's Image.[5] That decision was overturned on appeal in April 1972, by Kentucky's highest court in Kentucky State Racing Comm'n v. Fuller, 481 S.W. 2d 298 (Ky. 1972).
As at 2008, the Churchill Downs media guide for the Derby includes the official chart showing Dancer's Image as the winner. [6] Controversy and speculation still surround the incident even today and the New York Times [7] calls the ruling the "most controversial decision in all of Triple Crown racing."
Dancer's Image ran in the 1968 Preakness Stakes, finishing third to Forward Pass. Unfortunately, he was disqualified again and set back to eighth place, this time for bumping the horse Martins Jig. Continued ankle problems resulted in Dancer's Image being retired after the race and was syndicated and sent to stand at stud at the Maryland division of Windfields Farm. [8] Eventually his owners sold the colt and in 1974 he was sent to breeders in Ireland then in 1979 to Haras du Quesnay at Deauville, France owned by renowned breeder Alec Head. [9] Dancer's Image was later sent to stand at stud in Japan, where he died at age 27 on December 26, 1992. [10]
References
- ^ 1968 official Kentucky Derby chart
- ^ Fox News - May 3, 2008
- ^ Lexington Herald-Leader - May 4, 1986 article titled "FIRST TWO HORSES ONLY ONES DRUG FREE"
- ^ Boston Globe article about the 40th Anniversary of the Race
- ^ New York Times - December 12, 1970 article titled "Kentucky Court Awards First-Place Money in 68 Derby to Dancer's Image"
- ^ Fox News - May 3, 2008
- ^ About.com, a part of The New York Times Company May 28, 2009
- ^ Milwaukee Journal - July 10, 1968
- ^ Los Angeles Times - May 1, 1988
- ^ Lexington Herald-Leader - December 30, 1992
Categories:- 1965 racehorse births
- 1992 racehorse deaths
- Thoroughbred racehorses
- Racehorses bred in Maryland
- Racehorses trained in the United States
- American racehorses
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