Racing Legends
Hialeah Park will always be known as the thoroughbred race course where champions made history.
Collectively over the years, champion horses helped crown Hialeah Park the Jewel of Thoroughbred Racing. Horses who won at Hialeah often took their show on the road, winning major stakes races all across the country. A victory in Hialeah's Flamingo Stakes often meant you were a major player for that year's Kentucky Derby. A win in the Widener Handicap stamped you as a force to be reckoned with in the battle for Horse of the Year.
Over the years, Hialeah Park has witnessed some of the most historic moments in the world of racing, celebrating victory and triumph year after year. The list of champions who raced at Hialeah Park includes numerous horses elected to the Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame.
Past Owners
The visionaries who shaped Hialeah Park across a century of racing history.
James H. Bright
Joseph E. Widener
John C. Clark
Eugene E. Mori
John W. Galbreath
John J. Brunetti Sr.
Champions of Hialeah
The horses who raced through our turnstiles and into the history books.
War Admiral
Triple Crown Winner, 1937
Known best for his famed match race with Seabiscuit, this regally bred son of the great Man O' War was hardly a slouch. Owned and bred by Samuel Riddle, War Admiral began his racing career with a distinct distaste for the starting gate. Delaying the start of the 1937 Kentucky Derby for more than 8 minutes, “The Admiral” was worth the wait, as he defeated 19 others to win that race in emphatic fashion. He had to work harder in the Preakness just two weeks later but was up to the task, winning narrowly. In the Belmont Stakes, “The Mighty Atom” caused as much of a ruckus before the start of the race as he did once the race began, slicing his heel but winning anyway to become one of only 11 horses to capture racing's coveted Triple Crown. The following year, War Admiral carried a hefty 130 pounds to victory in the 1938 Widener Handicap here at Hialeah Park and went on the famed match race with Seabiscuit later that season.
Citation
Flamingo Stakes & Triple Crown Winner, 1948
There were few stars in horse racing in the 1940's to rival Citation. Bred and owned by Calumet Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, dominant in racing for over a decade, Citation was the first horse to win a million dollars. “He was the best horse I ever saw,” said trainer Horace A. “Jimmy” Jones. After winning the Flamingo Stakes at Hialeah Park in 1948, Citation's regular jockey, Al Snider, drowned off the Florida coast in a fishing accident, and trainer Jones replaced him with Eddie Arcaro. By the end of the 1948 season, Citation had a career record of 27 wins and two seconds in 29 starts, and that same year he went on to win the Triple Crown. Ranked the 3rd greatest Thoroughbred race horse of the 20th Century, Citation was elected to the Racing Hall of Fame in 1959. He died at age 25 on August 8, 1970. In his honor, a statue of Citation stands on the grounds of Hialeah Park.
Nashua
Preakness & Belmont Stakes Winner, 1955
Nashua's athletic ability and prowess as a racehorse was evident early in his career. Trained by the legendary “Sunny” Jim Fitzsimmons, Nashua won the Flamingo Stakes at Hialeah Park in 1955. Owned by William Woodward, Nashua also became a silent figure in one of the great social scandals of the century when Woodward was fatally shot by his wife. Nashua was eventually sold at a sealed-bid auction as the most expensive horse of the times. Winner of the Preakness and Belmont Stakes in 1955, Nashua enjoyed a long stud career, siring 77 stakes winners including champion Shuvee, and remained a fan favorite in Kentucky until his death at the age of 30.
Bold Ruler
Preakness Stakes Winner, 1957
A champion by the age of three, Bold Ruler was a standout runner and sire. Bred and owned by Mrs. Henry Carnegie Phipps, Bold Ruler was born at Claiborne Farm near Paris, Kentucky. A series of illnesses and injuries plagued him for most of his career, yet he won his first five races as the leading two-year-old of 1956. In 1957 he won the Flamingo Stakes in track-record time at Hialeah Park, and, also trained by “Sunny” Jim Fitzsimmons, went on to win the Preakness Stakes with jockey Eddie Arcaro. Diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in 1970, Bold Ruler was euthanized on July 12, 1971 and buried in the Claiborne Farm cemetery with other great champions, having sired 82 stakes winners.
Carry Back
Kentucky Derby & Preakness Stakes Winner, 1961
Hard work often pays off at the race track. Such was the case with Carry Back, a Maryland-bred stallion without a fancy pedigree, sired by “Saggy” out of “Joppy.” Shipped to Florida, Carry Back scored victories in the Flamingo Stakes and the Florida Derby in 1961. That same year, despite drawing post position 14, Carry Back went to the Kentucky Derby as the odds-on favorite under jockey John Sellers and won the race by three-quarters of a length in a time of 2:04. He backed up that success with a victory in the Preakness, but struggled in the Belmont, losing by nearly 15 lengths. Carry Back entered stud duty in Ocala in 1963 and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1975.
Northern Dancer
Kentucky Derby & Preakness Stakes Winner, 1964
Northern Dancer will always be remembered as a Canadian-bred who won both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in 1964, though his prowess as a stallion and extraordinary career in the breeding shed made him a legend in his own right. Owned by Canadian industrialist E.P. Taylor, Northern Dancer swept the Triple Crown prep races with victories in the Flamingo Stakes, Florida Derby and Blue Grass Stakes. Sent off as the second choice in the 1964 Kentucky Derby, the colt prevailed by a neck under jockey Bill Hartack, winning in then-record time. Two weeks later he won the Preakness, and back home he won the Queen's Plate by seven and a half lengths. As a stallion, his stud fee soared to one million dollars at age 20, and he sired 146 stakes winners before being euthanized in 1990.
Seattle Slew
Flamingo Stakes & Triple Crown Winner, 1977
Seattle Slew entered the 1977 Triple Crown campaign undefeated, and remains the only horse to win the Triple Crown while unbeaten in the 20th century. Purchased at the 1975 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July yearling sale for $17,500, “Slew” won the Flamingo Stakes at Hialeah Park in 1977 before sweeping the Triple Crown under trainer Billy Turner. He was named Horse of the Year, won Eclipse Awards as best three-year-old in 1977 and best older male in 1979, and was elected to the Racing Hall of Fame in 1981. He retired in 1979 with 14 wins in 17 starts and earnings over $1.2 million. His son A.P. Indy sold for a then-record $2.9 million as a yearling in 1990.
Spectacular Bid
Kentucky Derby & Preakness Stakes Winner, 1979
As the 1970s came to a close, “The Bid” wasn't the most handsome or best-bred horse, but he could do almost anything on the racetrack. A $37,000 yearling purchase, Spectacular Bid broke seven track records and won 26 of 30 career starts, racing at 15 different tracks in nine states. He won the Hutcheson Stakes, Florida Derby, Flamingo Stakes and Blue Grass Stakes before cruising to victory in the 1979 Kentucky Derby and Preakness. A loose safety pin in his stall led to a hoof infection that cost him a shot at the Triple Crown in the Belmont, but he went on to a champion career at age four before retiring to Claiborne Farm in 1981.