It was 50 years ago a thoroughbred colt named Carry Back exploded on the national racing scene, a home-bred campaigned by Jack and Katherine Price of Shaker Heights. Crowned the "people's champion" by folks along the rail, Carry Back came within a whisker in 1961 of bringing home the fabled Triple Crown to the Price's 50-acre Dorchester Farms in Kirtland.
View full sizeKatherine Price of Shaker Heights leads her horse Carry Back from the winner’s circle at Churchill Downs after winning the Kentucky Derby in 1961. Price owned the horse with her husband, Jack Price. Jockey Johnny Sellers rode Carry Back to victory in the first leg of the Triple Crown.CLEVELAND, Ohio — Fifty years ago, a thoroughbred colt named Carry Back exploded on the national racing scene, a homebred campaigned by Jack and Katherine Price of Shaker Heights.
Crowned the "people's champion" by folks along the rail, Carry Back came within a whisker in 1961 of bringing home the fabled Triple Crown to the Prices' 50-acre Dorchester Farms in Kirtland.
Just as Seabiscuit raised the communal spirit of America during the Great Depression almost 30 years before, Carry Back captured the affection of blue-collar racing fans across the county.
He was the perfect equine hero for books and, perhaps, a hit movie, too. There were so many story lines, from smiling Jack Price's early interest in bookmaking and owning horses after graduating from Central High School in Cleveland in 1924; to his success in the family tool-and-die business in the 1940s; and his surprising ability years later to train and race the most famous race horse in America.
And there was Triple Crown success, something Seabiscuit never attained.
In the early 1940s, Price and his brothers bought Winslow Manufacturing Co. in Cleveland, producing World War II goods no one else seemed able to build.
A brash young man, Price worked hard and relished every minute he could spend with his horses or at Thistledown and Randall Park in the golden days of local racing.
Price disdained the traditions of thoroughbred racing, and especially the mantra of breeding the best to the best and hoping for the best.
View full sizeSherluck races across the finish line well in front to win the Belmont Stakes at New York's Belmont Park on June 3, 1961. Carry Back is far back, closest to the rail on the right. He finished sixth.The gracious Katherine Price, an ideal buffer for her husband, was listed as Carry Back's breeder and owner. It was her husband, though, who was the guiding force behind the four-legged racing star.
Taking a chance
In the early 1950s, Price sold his share of the family business to his brothers so he could concentrate on his small racing stable and take a stab at horse breeding. He was quick to tell people he was in the racing game for the money. If a horse didn't boost his bankroll, Price would find one that did.
But Price had a soft spot in his heart. When a horseman couldn't pay a bill for boarding a mare at Dorchester Farms Price forgave the $150 boarding bill, and gave the owner $150 more to buy the cantankerous mare, Joppy.
The only blue blood flowing in Joppy's veins was from a paternal grandsire, Blenheim II, an English racing star. Joppy showed no promise, with a couple of place finishes in seven starts, career earnings of $325, and a penchant for refusing to leave the Thistledown starting gate.
That was enough for Thistledown officials to banish Joppy from racing and fulfill her destiny as a broodmare.
Price shipped Joppy and two other broodmares to his new Dorchester Farm in Ocala, Fla. There would be a stop in Maryland to hook up with Saggy, an inexpensive stallion. Saggy had credentials, with English stakes winners in his family tree. The stud fee was $750. Price negotiated that down to three breedings for $400 each, and his mares arrived in Florida ready to give birth in a few months.
Saggy's claims to fame included defeating Triple Crown winner Citation in the Aberdeen Stakes at Maryland's Havre de Grace Racetrack, and posting a world mark of 51.4 seconds in a 4 1/2-furlong race.
But the match of Saggy and Joppy wouldn't turn a single head at the horse sales. The yearling Carry Back -- named for an accounting term -- didn't stand out from the crowd.
Carry Back's lack of respect could be attributed to a slowness to mature or a lack of size and noticeable speed when the 2-year-old made his debut. Carry Back's nondescript breeding was definitely not a selling point.
Seabiscuit's grandpa was the fabled Man O' War, his father the promising but ill-tempered Hard Tack. Carry Back's mom and dad were Joppy and Saggy. Rarely have two humdrum race horses combined to produce such a stakes star.
"Carry Back wasn't much to look at as a 2-year-old," said Streetsboro's Tony Rini, a longtime jockey who trains a string of thoroughbreds at Thistledown. Rini, who was a 20-year-old apprentice jockey in 1960, worked Carry Back for Price at New Jersey's Garden State Park and was offered the chance to become Carry Back's jockey.
Rini turned Carry Back down in favor of a more promising horse, Beautiful AM.
"Who knew?" said Rini.
Some early success
While topnotch 2-year-olds are raced carefully and sparingly, Carry Back made a whopping 21 starts as a freshman, a couple of them in $2,500 claiming races.
Price told the New York Times he set out to race Carry Back early and often as a 2-year-old, "wanting to get as much out of Carry Back as possible before he faded." Price believed Carry Back to be a sprinter, but told the Times that Carry Back thrived on work and the longer the distances, the better he got.
Sporting the blue and silver colors of Dorchester Farm, Carry Back posted five wins -- taking two big New York stakes races and New Jersey's ultra-rich $172,782 Garden State -- to earn a hefty $286,299. That would be almost $2 million today.
For Carry Back's 3-year-old season, Price matched the horse with tall, lanky jockey Johnny Sellers, and sparks flew. Sellers had a gift for taking his young sophomore star's come-from-behind efforts and turning them into victories.
The 3-year-old season started with a stumble, Carry Back finishing fourth in the seven-furlong Bahamas Stakes. The colt righted himself with three wins in a row, including the Everglades and Flamingo stakes. After a third in the Fountain of Youth, Carry Back won the Florida Derby. In his last prep for the Kentucky Derby, Carry Back came up short, unable to catch Globemaster in the Wood Memorial.
In the 1961 Derby, Sellers, who died last July, dazzled thoroughbred racing by riding Carry Back to victory. It wasn't so much that Carry Back won the Run for the Roses. It was how he did it against the best 3-year-olds in the nation.
Carry Back had already unleashed amazing stretch drives to deflate powerhouse performers, prompting Churchill Downs bettors to make him the favorite in the Kentucky Derby. When Carry Back broke in 11th place and trailed the leaders by 16 lengths in the backstretch, a win seemed unlikely.
Sellers pushed Carry Back to the outside in the final turn, taking aim at the five horses in front of him. Carry Back roared past the tiring early leader, Globemaster, and set his sights on Crozier. The two were locked in a duel to the final 1/16-mile, where Carry Back began to pull away for a 3/4-length victory.
The Kentucky Derby was on national television in 1961, cementing Carry Back's celebrity.
Price wasn't a gracious winner. He was quoted going into the Preakness two weeks later that after watching the top 3-year-olds race in the Kentucky Derby, "either Carry Back is a great horse, or everything else is a bum."
The fans came to expect the big closing effort and Carry Back gave it to them again in the Preakness. Sellers was more careful, keeping Carry Back a bit closer to the early leaders, and it paid off with a win over Globemaster in the stretch.
Triple Crown in sight
With Triple Crown fever setting in, "the people's champion" and Price were ready for the 1 1/2-mile Belmont Stakes in June. The longest of the Triple Crown races, the Belmont Stakes at New York's Belmont Park was designed for Carry Back's style of running. The fans made him the 2-5 favorite.
But Carry Back hit a front ankle during the race, a stinging injury that took the usual fire out of him. He faded to seventh in the nine-horse field. Sherluck, a 65-1 shot that Carry Back had easily beaten in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, slammed the door on the Triple Crown.
Price wasn't about to give what he called his "four-legged money machine" much of a rest. The swelling in Carry Back's ankle quickly went down, and he was soon back at the races. Carry Back would make six more starts in 1961, winning a trio of stakes races before being named the country's top 3-year-old.
Carry Back raced as a 4-year-old, with Hall of Fame jockey Johnny "Gentleman John" Rotz in the saddle instead of Sellers.
They won the Metropolitan Mile, Whitney Stakes, Monmouth Handicap and the Trenton Handicap for the second time. Carry Back defeated the mighty Kelso twice that year, and became the first thoroughbred to win more than $1 million.
Price decided to retire Carry Back to stud, but brought him to the races in August 1963, giving the hometown fans a thrill by racing him in the Cleveland area for the first time in the $34,150 Buckeye Handicap at Randall Park. Rotz was aboard, and said Carry Back was ready to race but too anxious in the starting gate, losing to Gushing Wind, winner of the 1962 Ohio Derby and Buckeye Handicap.
Carry Back won his last race, the Trenton Handicap at Garden State Park in 1963, before returning to stud in Kentucky. He boosted his career earnings to $1,241,164, fourth on the all-time list at the time. He would soon stand at Price's Florida farm, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1975.
The gallant stallion was a favorite, even in retirement. Fans would send Carry Back cards and flowers on his April birthday every year until he died at 25 in 1983.
Price had attended every Kentucky Derby after Carry Back's win until illness forced him to miss the 1995 event. Price died shortly after of congestive heart failure at age 87.
Cleveland horse racing legends, Price and Carry Back are still fondly remembered, a half-century later.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: degan@plaind.com, 216-999-5158
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/horseracing/index.ssf/2011/06/carry_back_carried_cleveland_o.html
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