A detailed examination of horse racing’s annals reveals certain equines whose careers were impacted by unfortunate timing.
This was the destiny of gifted runners such as Sham and Alydar, who ultimately played secondary roles to Triple Crown winners Secretariat and Affirmed.
Among these, one finds Easy Goer.
Easy Goer distinguished himself as a premier thoroughbred competing during the 1980s. Achieving champion status at two years old, his career from 1988 to 1990 saw him secure 14 wins from 20 races. His notable victories encompassed the 1989 Belmont Stakes and Travers Stakes, alongside later-season successes against more seasoned competitors in the Whitney Handicap, Woodward Handicap, and Jockey Club Gold Cup. Upon his retirement, his total prize money reached $4,873,770, ranking as the fourth highest in racing history at that point. He was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 1997.
Throughout his celebrated career, only five horses managed to cross the finish line before him; however, one particular adversary prevented Easy Goer from joining the elite group of racing’s absolute legends. Despite his numerous achievements on the track, he remained overshadowed by Sunday Silence, who bested him in three out of their four critical encounters during the 1989 season.
According to trainer Shug McGaughey, as quoted in news articles about Easy Goer’s retirement, “It’s truly unfortunate he couldn’t display his peak performance when it mattered most. Nonetheless, his extensive accomplishments cannot be overlooked; he achieved more than some of those already in the Hall of Fame.”
Bred by his owner, Easy Goer appeared destined for eminence from his inception. He was, coincidentally, the progeny of Alydar, who famously placed second to Affirmed in all three races of the 1978 Triple Crown. His mother, Relaxing, had been named the champion older female in 1981.
Ogden Phipps, from a family with a distinguished and extensive history in horse racing, was both his owner and breeder. He received training from McGaughey, who would later be recognized as a Hall of Famer.
His racing career began with promising signs, despite a narrow defeat by a nose in a maiden race on August 1, 1988, at Belmont Park. On that occasion, he was the 8-5 favorite, a status he maintained in 19 out of his 20 races.
The thoroughbred, based in New York, quickly overcame that initial disappointment by achieving four consecutive victories, culminating in wins at the Grade 1 Cowdin and Champagne Stakes.
His two-year-old campaign concluded with a less than ideal result, as he secured second place in the year’s most prestigious and lucrative contest. Struggling on a heavy track at Churchill Downs, he was runner-up to Is It True in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile—a horse he had previously defeated on three occasions. This loss foreshadowed subsequent frustrations in the upcoming year.
Despite this particular defeat, he was still designated the leading two-year-old male for that year and was widely anticipated to be the victor in the Kentucky Derby.
The initial months of 1989 did little to shift this outlook. Easy Goer commenced his three-year-old season by claiming the Swale Stakes at Gulfstream Park with an 8 ¾ length margin. Upon his return to New York, he further solidified his standing as an overwhelming favorite for both the Kentucky Derby and a potential Triple Crown sweep, winning the Gotham Stakes by 13 lengths and the Wood Memorial Invitational Stakes by three lengths.
On the inaugural Saturday of May 1989, Easy Goer, ridden by jockey Pat Day, entered the starting gate as part of a 4-5 favored entry alongside his stablemate Awe Inspiring. However, the anticipated victory in the “Run for the Roses,” which had seemed almost certain, eluded him. Confronted again with a rain-soaked track at Churchill Downs, Easy Goer’s peak acceleration came too late, resulting in a finish 2 ½ lengths behind Sunday Silence, the Santa Anita Derby victor.
Their next encounter occurred at the Preakness Stakes. A dry racing surface and a newly acquired reverence for Sunday Silence’s capabilities fostered a strong conviction that Day and Easy Goer would avoid underestimating their rival and would successfully retaliate for the Derby loss.
Gamblers were convinced, making Easy Goer an even stronger favorite in the 1989 Preakness (3-5) than he had been in the Derby, while the Kentucky Derby victor was priced at 2-1 and largely discounted.
Ultimately, the Preakness proved to be the most extensively discussed and analyzed—and indeed, thrilling—of the four contests between the two horses.
Having waited too long in the Derby, Day adopted an assertive strategy from the outset of the Preakness. Following a fifth-place position behind the trailing Sunday Silence, Day urged Easy Goer forward on the initial bend, and the Phipps entry advanced forcefully on the backstretch. He then overtook Sunday Silence before the last turn, setting his sights on the leader, Houston. Halfway through the turn, Easy Goer momentarily held a slight advantage. This lead, however, was fleeting. Jockey Pat Valenzuela maneuvered Sunday Silence wide around the two horses in front, and by the quarter pole, the Derby champion held a narrow lead.
From that point to the finish, Sunday Silence and Easy Goer embarked on an incredibly dramatic stretch battle, one of the most memorable in Triple Crown lore. Demonstrating exceptional quality and resolve, Easy Goer managed to gain a slight lead at the eighth pole. Yet, within the concluding sixteenth of a mile, Sunday Silence ultimately prevailed, crossing the finish line a nose in front.
In a complete reversal from the Derby, Day faced considerable criticism subsequent to the Preakness for initiating Easy Goer’s move prematurely. Nevertheless, no amount of retrospective questioning could alter the undeniable truth: in a year where a Triple Crown victory appeared genuinely achievable, it was Sunday Silence—not Easy Goer—who stood at the precipice of enduring racing renown.
Uncharacteristically—and uniquely—Easy Goer entered the Belmont Stakes as the less favored competitor. However, in an performance that would have surely pleased his sire, he delivered the best race of his career, thwarting Sunday Silence’s pursuit of racing’s ultimate honor. Competing on his home turf in New York for the Belmont Stakes, Easy Goer lived up to his illustrious pedigree, securing his most dominant win against Sunday Silence. He swept past the Triple Crown contender mid-way around the final turn, achieving a decisive 8-length victory as the 8-5 second favorite in the betting, and was celebrated as “New York’s Easy Goer” during track announcer Marshall Cassidy’s commentary in the closing stages of the race.
The Belmont Stakes largely reinstated the prestige Easy Goer had relinquished in the initial two segments of the Triple Crown. His subsequent races further cemented the belief that his Kentucky Derby and Preakness performances were merely minor setbacks, and that Easy Goer would emerge as the preeminent three-year-old by the conclusion of the year.
He subsequently achieved victories in the Whitney Handicap, Travers Stakes, Woodward Handicap, and Jockey Club Gold Cup.
This laid the groundwork for their ultimate confrontation, as Easy Goer and Sunday Silence faced each other in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Gulfstream Park. Analogous to the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, Easy Goer began the race as the favorite; his 1-2 odds were even shorter than those for the initial Triple Crown races.
The title of Horse of the Year hung in the balance, and yet again, fortune seemed to conspire against Easy Goer. Sunday Silence leveraged his exceptional speed to surge ahead of Easy Goer as both horses advanced towards the front-runners on the last turn. Subsequently, after seizing the lead in the culminating furlong, Sunday Silence successfully fended off a powerful, late surge from a rapidly closing Easy Goer, winning by a neck in a contest track announcer Tom Durkin famously called “a racing epic.”
Following the Breeders’ Cup, Easy Goer resumed racing at age four, triumphing in an overnight stakes event at Belmont Park for his 1990 season opener. He then placed third in the Metropolitan Handicap, carrying seven more pounds than Criminal Type, the eventual 1990 Horse of the Year, and an additional 14 pounds compared to Housebuster, recognized as the champion sprinter in both 1990 and 1991. On July 4, Easy Goer recovered his winning form, capturing the Suburban Handicap by 3 ¾ lengths.
Arlington Park attempted to orchestrate a fifth direct confrontation between Sunday Silence and Easy Goer, proposing a $1 million prize in the Arlington Challenge Cup contingent on both horses participating.
However, this event never materialized.
A bone fragment was identified in Easy Goer’s right foreleg, leading to his retirement in mid-July of 1990.
“I am profoundly let down,” McGaughey conveyed to The New York Times when declaring the retirement. “I would have appreciated another opportunity to compete against Sunday Silence. I believe Easy Goer performed at his peak against him only in the Belmont, and I felt he had returned stronger than ever this season.”
Mirroring his sire, Easy Goer appeared poised to surpass his track competitor in his stud career. Yet, in 1994, with his initial progeny barely two years old, Easy Goer tragically succumbed to a heart attack at the premature age of eight.
Eventually, as a lasting testament, one of his offspring, Will’s Way, would go on to win both the Whitney and Travers Stakes. This served as a conclusive indication that despite Easy Goer’s undeniable excellence, a vast potential remained unfulfilled, both within his racing career and beyond it.
Information: This article first appeared in 2018 and has since been revised.
Fun Facts
- Across Easy Goer’s twenty career starts, merely five competitors finished ahead of him: Sunday Silence, Criminal Type, Housebuster, Is It True, and Lorenzoni. Sunday Silence and Criminal Type both earned the title of Horse of the Year, while Housebuster was celebrated as a champion sprinter on two occasions.
- Upon his retirement in 1990, his total career prize money of $4,873,770 was surpassed only by Alysheba, John Henry, and Sunday Silence.
- Easy Goer holds the distinction of being the most recent three-year-old to triumph in the Grade 1 Whitney Stakes at Saratoga.
- Easy Goer was the preferred choice of bettors in 19 out of his 20 outings. In the 1989 Belmont Stakes, he was the secondary favorite, behind Sunday Silence.
- His performance in the Gotham Stakes, clocking 1:32 2/5, established a new track record and was acknowledged as the quickest mile ever achieved by a three-year-old.
- His 2:26 finish represents the joint second-fastest time in Belmont Stakes history. Only Secretariat, in 1973, recorded a quicker time. A.P. Indy also achieved a 2:26 time in 1992.
- He was defeated in the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile by Is It True, a horse he had overcome in their three prior encounters.
- Within BloodHorse’s compilation of the leading racehorses of the 20th century, Easy Goer was positioned 34th.
- Easy Goer gained entry into the Racing Hall of Fame in 1997.
