DVD - The STORY of WHIRLAWAY: Racing's 5th TRIPLE CROWN WINNER ... 1941

On DVD or VHS: The Story of WHIRLAWAY...Racing's 5th TRIPLE CROWN WINNER....1941

The famed Calumet Farm was largely known as a successful harness racing breeding and racing operation which produced 1931 Hambletonian winner CALUMET BUTLER. That changed when Warren Wright took over after the passing of his father, William. The younger Wright understood that there was more fame and financial gain to be found in thoroughbred racing and in the Kentucky Derby in particular.

He turned the farm into a thoroughbred operation and set about to create the type of talented, well-bred horses that could win the Kentucky Derby. Initially, he failed to get the job done, finishing fourth in 1935 with NELLIE FLAG and eighth in 1938 with BULL LEA. He knew he needed to find someone who could get him over the hump and the person best suited to do that was trainer Ben Jones.

Impressed with the work Jones did with 1938 Derby winner LAWRIN, Wright hired him. The next piece of what would develop into a racing dynasty fell into place when WHIRLAWAY was born, also in 1938. Impeccably bred, wonderfully talented, WHIRLAWAY, Jones knew, could develop into the type of superstar Wright had dreamt of owning.

One problem - he was a bit of a rogue and his penchant for bearing out and his erratic behavior would cost him victory in his last two preps before the Derby, the Blue Grass and Derby Trial. Once again, Wright chose the best he could find. Jockey Wendell Eads was fired, replaced by Eddie Arcaro.

With Arcaro aboard, WHIRLAWAY won the Kentucky Derby by eight lengths, but his true brilliance was better displayed in the Preakness, run, then, just a week later. He walked out of the gate and was soon so far behind that he was nowhere to be found on the screen as the leaders moved down the backstretch. Suddenly, he jumps into the picture and starts running by horses so fast that it looks like one of those poorly choreographed races they do in movies, where a horse is running so rapidly it makes the competitors look as if they are standing still. He passed the entire field in a matter of maybe a quarter-mile and then gallops through the stretch all by himself.

"His victory in the Preakness was the most incredible performance I have seen in my many years," said the legendary jockey George Woolf, who, three years earlier, rode SEABISCUIT. "Ten lengths behind and he wins. He is a thoroughbred genius with an incredible burst of speed."

With just three challengers facing him in the Belmont, the final leg of the Triple Crown was anti-climatic. He won by 2-1/2 lengths.

Much of this documentary deals with the times. By 1942, when WHIRLAWAY was set to embark on his 4-year-old campaign, the U.S. was fully involved in World War II. Hoping to break SEABISCUIT's mark for most career earnings, WHIRLAWAY had been shipped to Santa Anita to prepare for the Santa Anita Handicap. But the race was not run that year because of the war and because Santa Anita was used as an internment camp for Japanese Americans.

In an attempt to keep their sport going, racing leaders rallied behind the war effort and sold war bonds at major races. WHIRLAWAY became the most visible flag bearer for the bond effort and, running 22 times that year, helped raise almost $5 million. That only added to his stature as a national hero.

He ran only twice in 1943 and was retired after bowing a tendon in a race at WashingtonPark. In 1950, he was purchased by French interests and was sent to stud at a farm in Normandy. He died in 1953 and was buried near the same beaches in Normandy where so many troops had died during the D-Day invasion. Considering he had done his own part to win World War II, it was fitting final resting place.

The documentary, inspired by the 1995 book, "Here Comes Whirlaway!", provides an interesting look at a very different era in this country and at this country's racetracks. Horses simply had a far greater pull on the American public then and they were certainly tougher than today's coddled breed. In a 44-day span between the Blue Grass and the Belmont, WHIRLAWAY ran six times. Back then, most trainers wouldn't dare lay their horses off the four weeks in between the Preakness and Belmont, so WHIRLAWAY won an allowance race in between. His consistency, his durability, his talent, his ability to raise money for the war effort and his penchant for charging to the lead after seemingly being hopelessly behind, combined to make WHIRLAWAY a special horse in the hearts of Americans.

We don't get WHIRLAWAYS any more. We get lightly campaigned horses who aren't bred to run a mile and a quarter and can't hold up to the rigors of schedules not one tenth as imposing as the one WHIRLAWAY was put through. We get horses who, even if they achieve some status, are whisked off to the breeding shed before they hit four. Watching this WHIRLAWAY documentary will make you long for the good 'ole days.



60 Minutes.

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