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Hall of Fame - Braveheart

Original article written by Nathan Klein posted 3 years 2 weeks ago

Eric Nalbone has had many great moments in his career. Winning almost every major race imaginable but he has also had some very unfortunate moments that no trainer should have to go through. In year 16 he would run his Louisville Derby winner Saga in the Desert World Cup. In that race, the mighty black horse would win the race by a record margin of 3 1/2 lengths. Right after the wire the Derby and now World Cup champ broke down on the track. Luckily Saga would survive to be a prolific sire but his racing career was over.

He'd have quite a few derby horses after Saga but his next major star would no doubt be in year 20. When a chestnut homebred by Eric would run in the Derby, his name was Braveheart. Braveheart was a homebred having Queen's Derby winner Oak Park as his sire and his dam was the legendary broodmare Mirror who was also the dam of Saga. His 2-year-old season would be a rough experimental year for Braveheart. He started with a 3rd in his first start before breaking his maiden next time out. But after that, he gave his worst performance to date finishing 5th in the Ellis Park Juvenile. But he would finally show off what he was made of in his final start that year. When he snuck through on the rail to take the grade 1 Two-Year-Old Marathon.

At the age of 3, he was a new horse veering to the outside in the Grade 3 Tremendous Stakes and running away to win the race by 7 3/4 lengths. With such a destructive performance he went back into grade 1 company where only 4 other horses dared to challenge him. The race again was barely a race at all as with one move to the outside he was gone and won the race by 5 1/2 lengths. Now came his biggest challenge, the Lousiville Derby. Could he replicate what his half brother Saga had done and win the derby? He would be facing off against the toughest 3-year-olds in the world. But his main trouble would be the Steward's Cup Juvenile winner Desert Nomad who was hot off his win in the grade 1 New York New York Stakes.

They all began to load into the gate ready for the 20th running of the Louisville Derby. The race was on with many horses jostling for the early lead. Hammer would take the lead early but the pressure from fellow speed horse Revenge got to him and he quickly lost it. Revenge would have the lead but in the far turn Live Strong and Braveheart would go to the lead. In the stretch, Braveheart would get the lead out fighting Live Strong and begin to open up as Live Strong faded. Desert Nomad and The Right To Dream would both close late for second and third but it was too late, Braveheart was going to win the derby. He crossed the line a length in front of Desert Nomad and had set a new stakes record of 1:58.95.

Eric had a second Lousiville Derby champ with the same broodmare. But right after he crossed the wire the jockey heard a crack. The horse started galloping weirdly and began to lift his head. He was pulled up just 100 yards after the finish line. The jockey quickly dismounted and held the horse's foreleg until he was loaded into the van. Braveheart was shipped off to New York where he was given surgery to help his fractured foreleg heal. It would take till the end of the SIM year for him to be able to race again. Eric initially did consider racing him at age 4 but only a few days after his injury the final choice was made. Braveheart would not race again and start his career as a stud once he finished recovering. After his long rest, he quickly began becoming an influential sire. He also was able to win North American Champion 3-year-old that year. He would go on to produce many champions including Hall of Famer Adventure and North American Champion Older Female Valiantly. But at the age of 11, he would be pensioned and go into full retirement. He would be in full retirement for a strong 10 years and die peacefully at the age of 21. 18 SIM years later the red horse would be honored with an induction in the SIM racing hall of fame where he joins his half brother Saga.


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