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Hall of Fame - Lucrezia Borgia
Original article written by Scott Eiland posted 13 years 2 weeks agoWhat do you say about the horse that made your career?
What do you say about the gorgeous dark bay filly who, for the too-short seasons she was racing, captured the imaginations of a new generation of trainers?
What do you say about a horse so popular that her very popularity spawned heated debates and evoked passions across the “industry?”
Lucrezia Borgia made the Hall of Fame as one of the first of her kind; a horse bred by the elusive and mysterious International Stud, purchased and trained by a player out of the “new breed” who came onto the scene after the SIM’s infamous hiatus. Stud bred Borgia, the 1997 Breeders’ Cup Turf runner up, to Azamour, the Irish multimillionaire stallion by Night Shift out of Azmara. She was put up for sale in Year 18 with several other high profile horses like Canonbury Tower, Lorenzo De Medici, and Entangled, and as a result flew under the radar.
Scott Eiland, then a virtual unknown, purchased Lucrezia Borgia as a two year old for the paltry sum of $10,000 at the International Stud auction. The rumblings began almost immediately; $10000 was a small sum even then for an “auction horse.” Scott immediately nicknamed her “Lucy,” and waited patiently for the right time to start her.
Lucrezia’s first start was at a mile at London Gallops Racetrack, where she defeated Canonbury Tower and ten other challengers. Buoyed by the “easily” running line and, perhaps not knowing any better, her trainer promptly entered her in the Grade 2 Robin Tan Stakes four weeks later. She won again. Two weeks later she faced stiffer competition in the Miss Grillo Stakes and held off Darkest Secret to make it three for three at a mile to start her career.
The Stewards Cup added five new races in Year 18, including the Stewards Cup Juvenile Turf for two year old fillies at a mile. Facing a stacked field, Lucrezia Borgia beat Christmas Eve and Five Islands to finish off a perfect two year old season, and a star was born.
Lucy kept right on winning as her sophomore year opened in Europe. A five-length win in the Premio Andreina-again at a mile-started the year right, and she followed this with an impressive win in the English One Thousand Guineas over Angels Gather. That’s six races at one mile, and six wins. The funny part? She’d never run a race at eight furlongs again.
Her next race was the Epsom Oaks, the prestigious 12-furlong turf race and one of the most anticipated races every year in Great Britain. The five-horse field included Christmas Eve and International Stud-bred Entangled, but Lucy was equal to the task, beating Christmas Eve by a lenth and a half. She followed that by prevailing again, two weeks later, in the Irish Oaks, winning a squeaker over Entangled, barely getting her nose over the line in time. The Epsom-Irish double was achieved!
Lucy was riding high. She was eight-for-eight in her career at that point. Her trainer pointed to the Steward’s Cup Filly and Mare Turf under the twin spires of Louisville Downs. What he didn’t know was how to properly get her ready. Five weeks off was considered too long a break between races, and this was before workouts and low-strain exercises were available. So, opting for the aggressive route, Lucrezia entered the Tropical Oaks in south Florida for a Stewards Cup prep. She won, handily, but it was just too much to ask her to race again two weeks later. Laughterintherain, Taian, and Can’t Live in Fear were all better than Lucy on Stewards Cup night, and one of the most exciting winning streaks in racing history was over. SIMMY voters still voted for her so overwhelmingly that she won the European Horse of The Year in Year 19.
Undaunted, Lucy rebounded to finish a game second place finish to Everest in the Desert Turf Classic the following year. Then she won two stakes races before the one race that fans still remember.
The Year 20 Stewards Cup Filly and Mare turf would be where Lucrezia Borgia would end her career. It set up an epic duel with Is Wanting Enough, the powerful black filly who had only lost once in her four year career to that point. (Ironically, the horse that beat Is Wanting Enough? Everest. Everest was awesome.) In this epic duel, Lucy lost a head bob in a thrilling duel to the finish, a near-miss that her owner only thinks about once or twice a day now.
Following the heartbreaking defeat, Lucy retired with a record of 15:12-2-0, winning $2,372,500 on the track. In the shed, she gave birth to nine foals, four of whom have already gone on to be stakes winners. Her famous son Vincero Borgia won over a million dollars on the track as a miler and is standing in California. Her daughter Isabella Borgia won four stakes races in her career and subsequently foaled Rodolphus, an exciting four year old turf router. Her daughters I Love Lucy and Missing My Girl (sadly, her last foal) look to be forces in the turf division for years to come.
But Lucrezia Borgia’s greatest impact isn’t even going to be in her foals. Lucy is memorable because she made a new generation of trainers realize that the superstar horse is possible, and it can happen sooner than you think. Veterans-even the smartest ones- sometimes have incorrect valuation methods, sometimes an underperforming mare can throw a graded stakes winner, and sometimes, through dumb luck, a hall of fame career is born.
“One day you may find yourself swallowed up in the dream” is the welcome/warning that greets every new trainer as he or she first enters the game. That statement never was truer as it was with Lucrezia Borgia, the gorgeous dark bay filly racing under royal blue silks who changed the game forever.