Juvenile Champ Trivia: Ask and Ye Shall Receive…

[Wandering Eyes]

A TDN column published Sunday referenced the racing oddity of the two most recent North American champion 2-year-old colts both losing separate races within two hours of each other on June 7 at Saratoga Race Course.

'TDN Rising Star' Fierceness (City of Light), the 2023 juvenile male Eclipse Award champ, ran second as the 3-4 favorite in the GI Metropolitan Handicap. 'Rising Star' Citizen Bull (Into Mischief), the 2024 divisional champ, was fourth at 9-2 odds in the GI Woody Stephens Stakes.

T.D. Thornton asked, “Has this ever happened on the same card? TDN would welcome input from someone with access to a more robust database (or a better memory) than me.”

It took less than 24 hours before a reader provided a detailed answer.

Brianne Sharp, the data analytics manager for Godolphin, wrote in a Monday email to TDN that, “My (well, Godolphin's) database goes back to 1992, and since then, the only time other than this past Saturday that two previous Eclipse champion 2-year-old males have run on the same card was Nov. 6, 1993, at Santa Anita when Gilded Time and Fly So Free ran third and ninth, respectively, in the [GI] Breeders' Cup Sprint.”

Sharp further noted that, “Prior to 1992, we only have top three finishers in black type races, but that limited dataset shows three prior times that two 2-year-old champs ran on the same card, all were in the same race.”

Those other instances (again, only based on data that shows top-three finishers) were:

Oct. 6, 1979, Affirmed (first) over Spectacular Bid (second) in the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup.

Sept. 16, 1978, Seattle Slew (first) over Affirmed (second) in the GI Marlboro Cup Invitational Handicap.

Sept. 15, 1973, Secretariat (first) over Riva Ridge (second) in the Marlboro Cup.

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