Back in My Day: Hotodaychilitomaro

Original article written by The Steward posted 11 years 1 week ago

Hotodaychilitomaro. A clever, amusing name, although not one of a champion, surely?

Old trainer Cassandra Coleman, who took out her license in Year 1, had a thing for Bonapartiste mares. Nowadays that would be akin to saying you had a thing for ?? mares. He was so bad that he gave Hall of Fame mare Fiji possibly her worst foal ever (and she had 8 millionaires). He had 6 fillies before he went gracefully to oblivion, and at one point or another Cassandra owned all 6 of them.

She also had a thing for Chilito, which was slightly better in that eventually he went on to have 3 nice horses, but at the time was akin to taking a look at newly standing stallions, finding one that had 2 bad runners (and no others), and say, YES! That's my guy! So basically, this was a completely whacky kind of cross.

However, the mating of 1 1/8 mile grass mare Pleasure Party, by the 1 1/2 mile grass stallion Bonapartiste, to 6 furlong dirt horse in Chilito, resulted in one of the first "milers" of the SIM, Hotodaychilitomaro. There wasn't such a thing as a miler, but that's where he was best. Thus, he mostly excelled going 1 1/16 miles.

Hotodaychilitomaro ran 7 times as a juvenile, which sounds about right for now but the year was only 8 weeks long. It made sense then that he was pretty much ruined as a sophomore, but he had a great juvenile season. "Chili" debuted with a win in a four-furlong maiden over a popular colt named Bo Tanith, then won the Bashford Manor Stakes over One in a Million, who went on to earn over $3.4 million. He ran fifth in a hotly contested edition of the Twin Spires Stakes, missing to The Natural, Brunchlunchdehere and One in a Million but defeating $500k+ earner Eventofalifetime.

After running second in the Futurity Stakes, missing narrowly again to One in a Million, Hotodaychilitomaro tried grass, given that his pedigree pointed towards it. He ran a huge race in the Commitisize Stakes, but missed to the brilliant Punishment, who won the Two Year Old Turf Triple that year. That was the only time "Chili" ran on the grass, but I wish he'd given it a few more tries.

He prepped for the Steward's Cup with a second place behind future Long Island Classic winner Rivalry in the Champagne, getting the best of One in a Million for only the second time. Then it was on the Steward's Cup Juvenile, and one of the strangest editions of that race ever run.

While Rivalry and The Natural sat out the Juvenile, it still drew together a nice field in favored One in a Million and Memorex Victory, the future Baltimore Crown winner who Coleman also campaigned. It also had Altair, the Oceanside Futurity winner who went on to win a million dollars on the grass, and Colourfast, who would be competitive on the Derby trail the next year and win the Desert Duty Free in Year 6. Instead of any of them, the exacta went Hotodaychilitomaro at long odds over Inside Joke at even longer odds. The latter had never won a stakes race and was making only his third start. If this had been now, in the Year 30's, the world would have been stunned.

Hotodaychilitomaro never won again. He ran second to the filly Freebie's Girl in the Lone Star Derby, then 10th in Louisville. He ran 8th in the Baltimore Crown and 4th in the Long Island Classic, then his excessive race schedule caught up with him and he was injured and retired. He sired only 25 foals, and none of them had a real chance, as they were nearly all homebreds from a subpar batch of mares. Only 8 went on to win.

For some reason, this guy always stands out to me as one of my favorites. He had a goofy name, he was hardly any good but still managed to win one of the biggest races of the year, and I remember exactly where I was (my grandmother's house on Cape Cod) when I first got the email request that he'd been bred (I had to hand input the foals back then!) His pedigree hasn't lived on, but that whopping win in the Juvenile always will.

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