Continentalvictory--A Racing Career In Review

I had intended this week to do something in this column on a current racing event, such as Angus Hall’s 1:54 4-5 world record at Colonial Downs in a Breeders Crown elimination. But as I watched the sale of Continentalvictory for $760,000, I thought it might be useful to use the space this week for a recap of the mare’s brilliant career, along with an overview of her rather interesting pedigree.

Continentalvictory was bred by Brittany Farms, and offered as a part of their 1994 yearling consignment to the Kentucky Standardbred Selected Yearling Sale. She was but one of a standout group of yearlings that Brittany Farms offered that fall, for in the same class were three other horses that would eventually be entered in the 1996 Hambletonian, since Hambletonian open division entrants Act Of Grace, Mr Vic and Pietro Pan were all members of Brittany’s 1994 yearling group.

Continentalvictory was a member of Valley Victory’s third crop, following the success of the first two crops which produced Hambletonian winner Victory Dream and a host of talented, young trotters. She was sold for $100,000 to trainer Ronnie Gurfein, acting as agent for a group of owners. She was a lovely, black filly with tremendous natural ability, and a ton of class. She was outdone at the sale, ironically, by her stablemate Act Of Grace, who brought a bid of $125,000 from prominent owner Robert Suslow on the advice of Hall of Fame trainer Stanley Dancer.

SHE BLOSSOMED ON THE GRAND CIRCUIT AT TWO

Continentalvictory was not an immediate racing star, as it took her a few starts to get unwound at two. But when she came west for the Grand Circuit features on the dirt tracks, she found a home. She took important stakes victories at Springfield in the Review; at Hoosier Park in the Kentucky Standardbred Stake, and at Sportsman’s Park in the American-National. At Lexington, she won both of the companion stakes for her age, gait and class, the Bluegrass and International Stallion Stakes, and then stormed on to win the Breeders Crown at Garden State Park in a near world record 1:55 3-5.

By the end of her two-year-old season, it was apparent that Continentalvictory was more than just a prominent stakes-winning filly. She was special. At three, she returned to the races, winning a New Jersey Sire Stakes preliminary and final. Prior to the Hambletonian, she dropped the final of the Beacon Course to arch-rivals Lindy Lane and Act Of Grace. On Hambletonian day, the black filly trotted the fastest two heats in Hambo history, blistering the Meadowlands in 1:52 1-5 in the opening heat, and turning back Lindy Lane and Running Sea in the 1:52 4-5 final, in a resolute show of class and ability.

WHAT WILL BE THE JUDGMENT OF HISTORIANS?

This was the last two-heat Hambletonian, and it seems somehow fitting that a trotter of her ability and renown would win the final two-heat Hambletonian. For many, this writer included, consider Continentalvictory the finest trotter in history. It is impossible to objectively measure her against the overall $5 million career of Peace Corps, or the recent exploits of Moni Maker (who was a member of the same foal crop) or the past careers of Mack Lobell, Nevele Pride, or any of the other stars of the modern era. I have seen all of the champion trotters in this sport since Speedy Scot in 1963, and Continentalvictory is, without doubt, the finest race horse of them all. I believe that had she raced on, she would have owned every record and earnings mark known to the breed. Her speed alone would set her apart from most of that group, of which only Peace Corps is even close. Her unflagging courage was what endeared her to me the most. She was easily the best-gaited, most gifted and most determined trotter I have ever seen. Her Hambletonian victory was a tour de force from which there is no other conclusion to reach. It was, at the time, the best race I had ever seen a trotter go. Then, she outdid herself in the World Trotting Derby, winning a three-heat marathon against Lindy Lane, Kramer Boy and Running Sea in the greatest single performance by a trotter in the history of the breed.

In the first heat, driver Bill O’Donnell, up behind Lindy Lane, parked the speedy mare to a :53 3-5 opening half, only to see her trot by him in the final half, and then just get beat by the late-charging Kramer Boy. In the second heat, the champion filly responded with a stakes record 1:52 3-5 mile, complete with a final quarter in the :27 second vicinity. She repeated that final fraction in the third heat raceoff with Kramer Boy in a totally unbelievable showing of courage and speed. Continentalvictory would have been excused if she had quit that day after the punishment she took in the first heat, but great champions like her do not go away quietly. She came roaring back in the second heat, and then again in the third, under very extreme conditions, and showed her true colors. She simply refused to lose.

VICTORY WAS COSTLY

The victory in the World Trotting Derby, as great as it was, was a costly one, for the mare was never the same again. She started again at Lexington that fall, but was not herself, and although she was entered in the Kentucky Futurity, where it was hoped that she would become the first filly of any breed to win the Triple Crown, she had to be scratched, and never raced again. She was trained again at four, during 1997, but could not return to the races. Continentalvictory retired with earnings of $1.6 million, including a record for fillies of more than $1.1 million at three. She was named trotter of the year, and then Horse of the Year. Her Yonkers Trot win was in 1:56 2-5h (only CR Kay Suzie has ever trotted Yonkers any faster.) Bred to 1997 Hambletonian winner and Horse of the Year Malabar Man, Continentalvictory walked into the sales ring with the eyes of the harness racing world on her once again.

REVERENCE FOR A REAL CHAMPION

During the morning of her sale, I watched any number of people come by the mare’s stall in the huge Harrisburg complex which houses the horses during the week of the sale. There was a kind of quiet reverence as these star-struck fans peered into the stall of such a great mare. During her inspection by buyers, there was much anticipation of her upcoming sale, with people coming by, whispering outloud, "Gee, that’s Continentalvictory. Isn’t she gorgeous?" Any number said it was an honor just to be in her presence, and indeed they were right. When she walked into the sales ring, the atmosphere was the most electric I have ever felt at any horse sale, and I have seen and sold thousands of horses at public auction.

The final sale price of $760,000 was a lot of money, but missed the overall record for a broodmare at auction of $800,000 held by Winky’s Gill when that world champion mare was sold at Tattersalls in 1986 as a part of the estate sale of Thomas Moberg. Winky’s Gill was in foal to Super Bowl at the time, and her yearling colt Supergill had just sold earlier in the same week for $500,000, still tied as the record for a trotting yearling at auction.

Continentalvictory is a foal of 1993, and her dam, Intercontinental, was ten years old the spring that Continentalvictory was foaled. Intercontinental had no record, winning a mere $20 in an abbreviated racing career. But Intercontinental was a very good-looking filly, having sold for $95,000 herself as a yearling in 1984. She was bred by Castleton Farm and sold to the celebrated breeder Bill Shehan. Shehan later sold the mare to George Segal as a part of a package of mares acquired from Shehan when he bought Shehan’s farm, renaming it Brittany Farms.

THE SEVENTH FOAL OF HER DAM

Continentalvictory is the seventh foal of her dam. Intercontinental’s first foal was the good Prakas filly Atlantic 2,1:58 2-5, a winner of more than $87,000 on the Grand Circuit at two before she was exported. Her next foal of note was the fast LV Glory Bound 3,1:57 2-5, a son of Speedy Somolli now exported. Then came the first foal by Valley Victory, and that was the 1:54.2 record pacer Time Power, and then Greatest Victory 3,1:57, another colt by Valley Victory. Intercontinental also had non-record foals by Prakas and Royal Prestige before Continentalvictory came along.

The dam of Continentalvictory is a mare by Chiola Hanover 3,1:57.4, a son of Hickory Smoke wo was Trotter of the Year in North America in 1979, winning nearly $700,000 at two and three, with 21 wins at the very top levels of the game. Chiola Hanover was the most successful racing son of his sire, the 1957 Hambletonian winner Hickory Smoke, and won the Yonkers Trot, the Dexter Cup, the Colonial and the Transylvania. He was also second to Legend Hanover in the 1979 Hambletonian, and second to Classical Way in the Kentucky Futurity. I have never felt that a broodmare sire was an overly important part of any breeding equation, since many prominent horses are out of fairly non-descript broodmare sires. This is but another good case in point in that on-going discussion.

What is important is that Continentalvictory hails from a very strong lineage of trotting females. Her second dam, Pert Flirt is by Noble Victory and is a full sister to Victorious Leah 3,T1:58 1-5 (dam of Camp David 3,1:59.4h) and a half-sister to Colonial winner Keystone Triton 3,1:59.2; $496,250 and Dr. Guillotine 3,1:56 1-5; $216,937. The third dam is the well-known Tosca 3,2:10 4-5h, a daughter of Speedster who is a three-quarter sister to the exported Elaine Rodney 3,1:58 3-5, winner of more than $600,000 including the 1960 Kentucky Futurity. In Europe, she became the dam of the top sire Abido. This is also the immediate family of 1984 Horse of the Year Fancy Crown 3,1:53 4-5; $911,695 since she and Continentalvictory each have Honor Bright as their fourth dams.

Honor Bright 4,T2:00 3-5, is a mare who won 29 races in her own career, and then established her own family of prominent trotters. Honor Bright’s family has produced many household names, such as Homesick 2,1:58 3-5; Breeders Crown winner Conifer; the very-fast stakes winner Lucious Almahurst 3, 1:54 3-5 and the millionaire international star Incredible DJ. Honor Bright is the common denominator in all of these successful horses.

AN EXAMPLE OF INTENSE LINEBREEDING

Continentalvictory is a mare who is intensely linebred to many of our most important trotters. She is 4 x 3 to Noble Victory; 5 x 3 to the half-brothers Hickory Smoke and Hickory Pride; and is 5 x 5 x 4 x 5 to Star’s Pride. Bred to Malabar Man, a horse also linebred to Star’s Pride, will produce a foal with a greater concentration of Star’s Pride blood than any trotter who possibly ever lived.

To oversimplify what occurred in the breeding of this great mare, the pedigree matches a sire (Valley Victory ) with a proven track record of producing great fillies with a fine family full of prominent females. Is it any wonder that such a great filly sprang from such a mating?