Famous pieces of advice. It would probably be impossible research to find out if anyone other than Marilyn Johnson, author of 'This Book is Overdue,' a love tome on libraries and librarians, ever uttered sage advice about going to a library. I do have it in one of these posts, left as a comment, the advice that was given by Ms. Johnson: "You don't have to leave the house to consult a librarian. Call your local library's reference desk." Not quite a sound bite you could put on a T-shirt, but sound advice nonetheless.
First off, I never even knew there was a library at Lexington, Kentucky, Keeneland Library that was devoted to horse racing. I was pointed there by the Daily Racing Form when I made an inquiry about the racing career of Career Lady, a famous mare (at least to me) who started in and won more Starter Handicap races than most modern thoroughbreds have lifetime starts. She was the Kelso of the claiming ranks.
Career Lady had come to mind when I was reflecting back on Dr. Fager's career and the era when weight was assigned to stop a train: try and level the playing field when a thoroughbred was beating all comers by assigning increasing amounts of weight in order to bring everyone's ability to parity.
A staff member at the Keeneland Library, Betsy Baxter, took my interest in Career Lady and finding some of her charts, to the races, so to speak. And did she ever run with it.
Over a two day back and forth with emails and further clues, I was first able to point Ms. Baxter to Career Lady's best year of racing, 1968, and zero in on some of her Starter Handicap races where she carried prodigious weight and won.
A Starter Handicap race, and they are still on the card today, as well as Starter Allowance races, shielded the entrant from being claimed by anyone. In the case of the handicap race, the weights are assigned by the racing secretary based on who passes the entry box. In the case of Starter Allowance race, the weights are assigned by a statement of conditions written into the eligibility language of the race. All Starter races still shield the horse from being claimed.
I can truly say, in the old days, these Starter races were great opportunities to bring the war horses together, the horses who had won multiple times, generally at low levels, and rate them, handicap them, just like they were a Stakes horse. Trainers loved the races because their entrants were shielded from the prospect of the claim. It also allowed them some latitude in finessing the racing secretary's weight assignments by perhaps trying their hardest the next time, when the weights might be more favorable following a loss, and the odds greater.
In that era, the only exotic bet was the Daily Double. In 1968, the exacta bet was not offered, and certainly not the triple. My friend who does remember Career Lady, reminded me that the mares would race in a Starter Handicap race on a Friday, and the males, or mixed, on a Saturday, usually the last race on the card.
You could get some wild spreads on top and bottom weights. Generally, it was wise not to ever consider betting on a horse who was in one of these type of races for the first time. First time meant they had never been assigned weight, and therefore giving weight, to opponents based on perceived ability. You didn't know their baseline against the competition.
Results varied. They were often some hefty prices paid on winners in this getaway race. If you were good at reading a trainer's mind and were in a psychic connection with the horse, you might hit one of these nice prices.
The first email coming back from Keeneland Library was Career Lady's overall record. A scanned copy came through, looking like it was from the American Racing Manual. OMG! as some would say now. Career Lady ran 27 times in 1968, and had been in five straight Starter Handicap races at Aqueduct by April 13, winning two and placing second in the other three. Two of these five races were restricted to fillies and mares, and the other three were open company. At that point, the highest weight she carried was 123 pounds. She must have slept with her saddle on.
(She started racing in 1965, and finished with an overall record of 80 starts; 20 firsts, 16 seconds, and 10 third place finishes. She made $92,555 overall, with $60,090 of it coming in 1968. She made considerably more in 1968 than I did. 1969 was her last year of racing, with 5 starts, no wins, one second, one third; $2,000 in earnings.)
If you're averaging April being the fourth month, into five starts, you'd have the wrong denominator. In those days, the first day of racing was generally right after the first week in March. March 8th, or thereabouts, comes to mind. There was no year round racing, and there was no inner, winterized surface. Aqueduct then had two turf courses, just like Belmont, and even held jump races.
A few more clues to Ms. Baxter and she was concentrating on the latter part of 1968, since I started going to the races for the first time on Belmont Day, June 8, 1968.
Pay dirt. Four charts from October and December of 1968. Three at Belmont, one at Aqueduct.
Ms. Baxter volunteered to mail the charts, since the paper would translate better than scanning. Yes you can. Wonderful! Highweights Career Lady ran with in the later part of the year? 136, 135, 134, 130.
In this packet of four charts, Career Lady has run four times, winning once, finishing second once, and then off the board the other two times. The worst of the off-the-board finishes was December 7, at Aqueduct, when she finished seventh in a race against males, carrying 130 pounds. The extreme lightweight in the race won, Mike V., carrying a barely perceptible 107 pounds with Carlos Barrera.
The winning race of this four race packet is the above chart where she carried 134 pounds against her own gender, fillies and mares, winning by one and a quarter lengths with Jorge Velasquez riding. A testament to good weight assignments by the racing secretary in trying to level the playing field with weights, is the evidence that four of the five starters were within that one and a quarter lengths, with the second place horse a nose apart from the third place horse, who was also a nose apart from the fourth place horse.
Career Lady came before far more famous fillies and mares. Ruffian, Winning Colors, Rachel Alexandra, Zenyatta. Even the half-sister to Dr. Fager, the great Ta Wee, (Beautiful Girl, in Sioux)who was no weight carrying slouch herself, toting 142 pounds in winning the Interborough Handicap and beating males.
In the 1960s era, an office working woman, particularly a young woman, would be referred to as a "Career Girl." The 1963 sensational, grisly murders of two young women, roommates, in their Manhattan apartment, was dubbed the 'Career Girl" murders. "Career girl" had connotations of husband-seeking women trying to get by in a man's world. 'Mad Men' would have portrayed the era.
So before those other famous fillies and mares, and before McSorley's Ale House was forced to allow women to be served their "drink 'em two-at-time ales," and before Ivy League schools admitted women, Career Lady made a name for herself.
The only Hall of Fame she is in is my personal one.
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