Sports fans know all about the "Curse of the Billy Goat." It was placed on the Chicago Cubs when longtime fan Billy Sanis was asked to remove his pet goat from Wrigley Field during the 1945 World Series. The curse came to a screeching halt when the Cubs finally won the World Series in 2016.
But what about the "Curse of Apollo?" It now stands at 136 years-- the oldest curse in American sports. Not since 1882 has a horse won the Kentucky Derby not having raced at age two.
Since 1937, sixty-one horses have entered the Kentucky Derby without a race at two. Their record, a collective "0 for 61." Bodemeister came the closest to ending the famed Apollo famed streak in the 2012 Derby. The Bob Baffert trainee tried to wire the field, opening a clear lead at the top of the stretch, only to be worn down by I'll Have Another in the final sixteenth of a mile.
For decades Derby prospects raced 10 or 12 times before stepping foot on the Churchill Downs track. That's long gone. While the maturity gained racing as a 2-year old can be pivotal in overcoming the rigors of the ten-furlong Derby, changes in breeding and training have made competing as a juvenile less important. Bred for speed at the expense of stamina, trainers have adapted by spacing their horses' races out more widely. The trend was launched around a decade ago when Big Brown won the world's most famous race off just three career starts.
Brilliant colts Justify and Magnum Moon head to Louisville both undefeated and both looking to sack the "Curse of Apollo."
“It is what it is,” said Todd Pletcher, trainer of Magnum Moon. “I think trends with the winners in terms of days between races and number of preps have been changing the last 10-15 years, so it’s only a matter of time before this one changes, too. With two of the top choices this year, we’ll certainly be testing the curse.”
As much a test of endurance as speed and heart, in recent years lack of seasoning has humbled elite talents such as Dortmond, Verrazano and Curlin, the 2007-2008 Horse of the Year. They've faltered because the pace is so quick, the race is so grueling and the distance longer than anything they've encountered. Colts will be running at them early and challenging them late.
Two top contenders for 2018, Bolt d'Oro and Good Magic will have a total number of career starts at the Kentucky Derby of six and five, respectively. Justify and Magnum Moon will be testing the Apollo Curse with just three and four lifetime starts, respectively. The duo is playing catch up to their more battle-tested foes. Putting an end to it will not be easy, but it will happen. Is 2018 the year?
So, Who Was Apollo?
Want a reference point of just how long it has been since a Kentucky Derby winner did not make any starts as a 2-year-old, yet triumphed in America’s most famous horse race? The U. S. had just 38 states, not 50.
In the spring of 1882, Runnymede was the fastest 3-year-old in America. The Kentucky Derby was only in its eighth year and was nowhere near the spectacle it is today on the American sports calendar. Meriwether Lewis Clark, the founder of the Louisville Jockey Club and the builder of Churchill Downs, conceived the idea for the race, promoting it as an equine Mardi Gras. Clark cajoled Runnymede's owners, brothers Phil and Mike Dwyer, to ship their prize possession west. The New York City meatpacking millionaires and notorious gamblers agreed as long as they could bring along their own Manhattan bookmakers.
An ordinary looking chestnut gelding, owner/trainer Green B. Morris purchased Apollo in the spring of 1881, as an unraced two-year-old. On a rainy Derby day, the bookmakers made Runnymede the 4-5 favorite. Apollo wasn't given much of a chance since the colt hadn’t started racing until a few months earlier, winning purses in Little Rock, Memphis, and New Orleans. Bookies offered Apollo at anywhere from 10-1 to 82-1.
An estimated 15,000 fans turned up to watch as Runnymede settled just off the frontrunners and with 400 yards to go in the mile-and-a-half race, the favorite snatched the lead. As for Apollo, his African-American jockey Babe Hurd was weaving the colt between a string of tiring horses. Two hundred yards from the wire, Apollo drew nose-to-nose with Runnymede, then dug in through the mud to post a victory by a half a length. The purse was $1,500, roughly $35,000 today.
Apollo won 24 times in 55 career starts. He banked a total of $21,680 in career earnings. After suffering a career-ending injury, Apollo became a riding horse in Charleston, S.C. where he died at age eight in 1887.