TOM FOOL – Undisputed American Champion Race Horse of 1953
Print size 17″ X 22″, Image Size 11″ X 14″
This print has been in storage since 1967 and has slight discolorations around the print border which does not distract from the beauty of the print and would be easily covered up when matted and framed.
It was his Second championship. As a two-year-old in 1951, he was named the season’s outstanding juvenile.
During 1953, the handsome son of Menow-Gaga won all 10 of his starts. Included in his victories was the famed New York handicap trio – the Metropolitan, Suburban and Brooklyn. It was a feat accomplished by only one other horse in turf history – Whisk Broom II in 11913.
In earning the year’s championship, Tom Fool won $256,355 for John Hay Whitney and his sister, Mrs. Charles Shipman Payson, co-owners of Greentree. It brought his lifetime earnings to $570,165. In all he won 21 of 30 starts. He was worse than third only once.
Being in the handicap ranks, Tom Fool not only had to outrun his opposition, but also had to spot them great gobs of weight as well. He carried 136 pounds in the Brooklyn, 135 in the Carter, 130 in the Metropolitan and 128 in the Suburban.
After his tremendous Brooklyn victory, his opposition dwindled to such an extent that in his final four trips to the post there was no betting and the events were termed “exhibitions.”
He won the Wilson and Whitney Stakes at Saratoga easily, the Sysonby by three lengths from Alerted and Grecian Queen, and the Pimlico Special by eight. In the latter, his final appearance of the season, he set a track record of 1:55 4/5 for 1 3/16 miles despite being under wraps all the way.
The Sysonby was expected to be meeting ground of Tom Fool with Native Dancer. The prospect to be a meeting ground of Tom Fool with Native Dancer. The prospect had stirred the imagination of the entire sports world. But a bruised foot late in the summer, sidelined the big grey owned by Alfred Vanderbilt and the meeting never came about.
Tom Fool was retired after his Pimlico Special victory and entered stud in the spring of 1954 at Greentree Farm near Lexington, Ky.