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Hall of Fame - Jet Ski
Original article written by Dan Gordon posted 14 years 0 weeks agoAs a newbie, I'm fascinated with the history of the SIM and the horses that dominated in the early days. In real life, you can easily get news stories talking about the exploits of Man o' War, Omaha, War Admiral, Citation, Seabiscuit, etc. but the stories on the SIM are just as interesting once you unearth them. In that regard, I was fascinated by Jet Ski. After all, he is one of only FOUR Triple Crown Champions in the 25 seasons of the SIM. And he is still prominent in the breeding lines as a champion.
Let's start with Jet Ski's breeding, the Canoe/Kayak cross. Ara Davies, the owner and breeder of Jet Ski explains how she arrived at this cross, "This was the first Rain Dancer inbreeding I came up with. I liked to give Rain Dancer's offspring names that started with C and had to do with water. Kayak (C,K, whatever) had already been named when I bred Canoe. I was working out a C water name for him, came up with Canoe, and Em and I immediately began discussion how hilariously funny it would be to breed them together and name their baby Jet-Ski. From that point it became the plan. No matter how Canoe had turned out as a racehorse, he would have been bred to Kayak to produce a horse named Jet-Ski. Canoe's breakdown just meant we got to have Jet earlier than planned!" Ara is eluding to the fact that Canoe only raced one time as he was vanned off immediately after winning his only race.
Jet Ski started his illustrious career in Year 13 by winning in a stakes race, The Serena Slew Stakes, in his first start. "In the old SIM, horses regularly raced in stakes in their first starts. Horses often won races just due to class and not because of ability at that distance. Atlas, for example, won a 5f race (or something like that) at the beginning of his 2yo year. That wouldn't happen anymore in the new SIM", Ara explained. "As for why a stakes specifically, his mom had won the SC Juvie Fillies, his oldest brother had been undefeated through his previous two seasons, and his other brother had only lost once and had just won the Two Year Old Marathon so signs pointed towards some talent for Jet."
Jet Ski remained undefeated right up until the Triple Crown. It made me wonder why Jet Ski did not run in the Steward's Cup Juvenile as a Two year old. "I actually had to ask Em why I didn't run him in the Juvie. She said "because you are Ara" which is probably the correct reason. I imagine it was actually because I wanted to run him in the Two Year Old Marathon and I thought it would set him up better for the Derby in terms of rest. Note that Conduit didn't run in the Juvie either so skipping the SC wasn't exactly a new thing for me."
Fast forward to the Louisville Derby as a Three Year Old. Jet Ski was now 5-for-5 coming off a 5 1/2 length romp in the Fountain of Youth. But there was strong competition at the time. "I felt pretty good about him. There were three really nice undefeated horses going in - Jet, Accolade, and Prefamageps - but I felt (or was hoping!) that Jet's excellent family would put him on top. I can hardly complain about two sons of one of my stallions finishing 1-2 in all the TC races. The LI Classic was a nailbiter. I was CERTAIN he was going to lose and didn't believe Em when she told me he won! Also she really drew out the telling me, she was mean.:(" Jet Ski had beaten Accolade by 1 1/2 lengths in the Derby, by a nose in the Baltimore Crown and a head in the Classic. The paralells to Affirmed and Alydar are astounding (except for the fact that those two weren't half brothers). Jet Ski then won the Super Derby convincingly bringing him to a perfect 9-for-9 heading into the Steward's Cup Classic which he lost by 1 1/2 lengths to Storm A Fortress.
Ara explains what happened next, "Actually I didn't even remember he didn't win the Classic so I guess it must not have crushed me too much. :) Really the loss as a 3yo wasn't all that shocking. It was to be expected that he was pretty tired by that point, even with the break he got that year, and the horse he lost to was the year's undefeated Champion Older Male so it was definitely a fair loss. The loss as a 4yo was more disappointing since he finished third, but hey he was a Triple Crown winner, how much can I complain?
His loss in the Dubai World Cup, however, actually made me happy, NOT because I wanted directly wanted him to lose, but because I wanted Atlas to win. :)" That quote sums up the only three losses of Jet Ski's career, the two Steward's Cup Classics (Accolades finally beat Jet Ski in the Year 14 Classic but it was Prefamageps who beat them both) and the Dubai World Cup. Since Ara owned Atlas who won the latter race, she was nonplussed about that loss. The final tally for Jet Ski - 12 wins in 15 starts and $6,865,000 in total earnings.
As far as Jet Ski's success as a sire, Jet Ski's progeny have almost $30 million in earnings with a whopping $156,073 average earnings per horse, 68% winners/runners rate and 16.3% stakes race winners/runners rate. Impressive indeed. Among his great progeny are Chart, Colorado, King of the Desert, Fighter Jet and Soldadera. Ara continues, "He has turned out to be such a nice sire and I'm really excited by his multisurface abilities. Assuming you're asking about current racers, I'm pretty hopeful about Colorado's son Mammoth. He's been running nice speed figures and has good works and he's one of my London Derby hopefuls for the year. Who knows, maybe I'll even let him have a crack at the English Triple Crown. I also had a two year old by Colorado, Spindletop, get the "wow" comment but unfortunately I'll have to wait a while for the available races to get long enough for her!" Jet Ski was finally retired and pensioned in March of this year after suffering from declining fertility. He is now 16 and enjoying retirement on Ara's farm.
While I had Ara, I wanted to know who the NEXT Jet Ski is for her, "I'd have to say Banner. Not only was she European Horse of the Year (and a filly!) but she produced Hall of Famer Atlas and eight other millionaires, including English Triple Crown winner Everest and this year's European Horse of the Year Trafalgar. She is a pretty neat mare."
As an aside, Ara's name for the horse isn't Jet Ski. "I always type Jet-Ski with a hyphen. I *wanted* him to have a hyphen in his name but the SIM doesn't allow it. I meant it to be a tribute to the great Sea-Bird. So ignore how the SIM spells his name; it is Jet-Ski. :)" However you spell it, he is now in the Hall of Fame as one of the greatest horses in SIM history, a tribute that was greatly earned and Ara Davies deserves incredible "accolades" for making it happen. I sense that this will be a common theme as long as Hall of Fame Trainer Ara Davies is in the game. To show how Ara likes to give back, one doesn't have to think too hard. For example, Ara gave 100,000 SIM dollars randomly on Steward's Cup Day to newbies or anybody else on the chat who had a low balance - kind of like celebrities donating to Darfur or helping the homeless. As one of the lucky recipients of those rewards, I hope to be writing again about another Hall of Fame horse of Ara's.