Carry Back (USA)
April 16, 1958 – March 24, 1983
Saggy (USA) x Joppy (USA), by Star Blen (USA)
Family 24
April 16, 1958 – March 24, 1983
Saggy (USA) x Joppy (USA), by Star Blen (USA)
Family 24
By a moderate sprinter with a US$400 stud fee out of a non-winning mare valued at US$300 or less, Carry Back was bred to run in cheap claiming races. Instead, he became a champion. His dramatic come-from-behind runs made him a great crowd favorite as well, and his affable owner-trainer-breeder Jack Price tried to accommodate his fans whenever possible. Like many horses who outrun indifferent pedigrees, Carry Back was not nearly as good a sire as he was a racehorse.
Race record
62 starts, 21 wins, 11 seconds, 11 thirds, US$1,241,165
1960:
1961:
1962:
1963:
Honors
Assessments
Carry Back was rated #83 among the top 100 American racehorses of the 20th century by a panel of experts assembled by The Blood-Horse (Thoroughbred Champions, Eclipse Press, 7th printing, 2005).
Rated at 122 pounds on the Experimental Free Handicap for American juveniles of 1960, 4 pounds below champion Hail to Reason.
Highweighted at 126 pounds on the Daily Racing Form's Free Handicap for American 3yos of 1961, 1 pound above second-rated Sherluck.
Rated at 128 pounds on the Daily Racing Form's Free Handicap for American older males of 1962, 3 pounds below Horse of the Year Kelso and second in the division.
Rated at 125 pounds on the Daily Racing Form's Free Handicap for American older males of 1963, 11 pounds below Horse of the Year Kelso but tied for fourth in the division with Ridan.
As an individual
A rather lengthy brown horse, Carry Back stood a shade over 16 hands at maturity. He was a well-balanced individual described by Charles Hatton of the Daily Racing Form as “a stout, rough, tough little horse,” though artist Richard Stone Reeves found him light-boned and light-bodied. Carry Back had well-made withers, short cannons, good length from hip to hock and was generally correct. His topline was smoothly made and attractive. He could handle any footing and was at his most effective at 8 to 10 furlongs. He was resolute and determined on the track. His action was efficient but more quick and agile than long-striding. He suffered an ankle injury while running seventh in the Belmont Stakes. Around the barn and paddock, he could have a mind of his own but was not vicious and generally had good manners. He did not care for lead ponies and tended to show studdish behavior when escorted by one. He enjoyed marshmallows as treats.
As a stallion
According to Jockey Club records, Carry Back sired 194 winners (66.9%) and 10 stakes winners (3.4%) from 290 named foals. He did not get anything approaching his own class, a failing that Jack Price attributed partly to his own failure to exercise any selectivity with regard to the stallion's mates. His best runner was 1970 Spinster Stakes winner Taken Aback.
Notable progeny
Taken Aback (USA)
Connections
Carry Back was foaled in Florida. He was bred, owned and trained by Jack Price, who raced the horse in the name of his wife Katherine. He stood at Price's Dorchester Farm through the 1982 breeding season. Following his stud career, he was pensioned at his birthplace, Ocala Stud, where he was euthanized in 1983 after developing cancer. His remains now rest within the grounds of the Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs.
Pedigree notes
Carry Back is inbred 5x5 to Chaucer. His dam, Joppy, produced nothing else of any importance; her sire Star Blen was an otherwise undistinguised son of Blenheim II, and her dam Miss Fairfax (by Teddy Beau, a son of Teddy who managed only one win from 33 starts) was likewise indifferent. Carry Back's third dam, Bellicent (by Sir Gallahad III), is a half sister to stakes winner Whizz James (by St. James) and to Torobang (by Toro), dam of stakes winner Whang Bang (by Better Bet). The female line traces back to the great mare Firenze, a member of the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame.
Books and media
Fun facts
Photo credit
Photographer unknown. From the private collection of Dale Wyatt; used by permission.
Last updated: May 25, 2024
Race record
62 starts, 21 wins, 11 seconds, 11 thirds, US$1,241,165
1960:
- Won Garden State Stakes (USA, 8.5FD, Garden State)
- Won Cowdin Stakes (USA, 7FD, Belmont)
- Won Remsen Stakes (USA, 8FD, Aqueduct)
- 2nd Christiana Stakes (USA, 5.5FD, Delaware)
- 2nd Dover Stakes (USA, 5.5FD, Delaware)
- 2nd Florida Breeders' Stakes (USA, 3FD, Hialeah)
- 3rd Sapling Stakes (USA, 6FD, Monmouth)
- 3rd Great American Stakes (USA, 5.5FD, Aqueduct)
- 3rd Tyro Stakes (USA, 5.5FD, Monmouth)
1961:
- Won Kentucky Derby (USA, 10FD, Churchill Downs)
- Won Preakness Stakes (USA, 9.5FD, Pimlico)
- Won Flamingo Stakes (USA, 9FD, Hialeah)
- Won Florida Derby (USA, 9FD, Gulfstream Park)
- Won Trenton Handicap (USA, 10.0, Garden State)
- Won Jerome Handicap (USA, 8FD, Belmont)
- Won Everglades Stakes (USA, 9FD, Hialeah)
- 2nd Wood Memorial (USA, 9FD, Aqueduct)
- 3rd Woodward Stakes (USA, 10FD, Belmont)
- 3rd Lawrence Realization (USA, 13FD, Belmont)
- 3rd Fountain of Youth Stakes (USA, 8.5FD, Gulfstream Park)
1962:
- Won Metropolitan Handicap (USA, 8FD, Aqueduct; equaled track record 1:33-3/5)
- Won Monmouth Handicap (USA, 10FD, Monmouth; new track record 2:00-2/5)
- Won Whitney Stakes (USA, 9FD, Saratoga)
- 2nd Widener Handicap (USA, 10FD, Hialeah)
- 2nd Trenton Handicap (USA, 10FD, Garden State)
- 2nd Grey Lag Handicap (USA, 9FD, Aqueduct)
- 2nd Seminole Handicap (USA, 9FD, Hialeah)
- 2nd Palm Beach Handicap (USA, 7FD, Hialeah)
- 3rd Washington D. C. International Stakes (USA, 12FT, Laurel)
- 3rd Gulfstream Park Handicap (USA, 10FD, Gulfstream Park)
- 3rd New Orleans Handicap (USA, 9FD, Fair Grounds)
1963:
- Won Trenton Handicap (USA, 10FD, Garden State)
- 2nd Buckeye Handicap (USA, 9FD, Randall Park)
- 3rd United Nations Handicap (USA, 9.5FT, Atlantic City)
Honors
- National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame (inducted in 1975)
- Monmouth Park Hall of Champions
- American champion 3-year-old male (1961)
Assessments
Carry Back was rated #83 among the top 100 American racehorses of the 20th century by a panel of experts assembled by The Blood-Horse (Thoroughbred Champions, Eclipse Press, 7th printing, 2005).
Rated at 122 pounds on the Experimental Free Handicap for American juveniles of 1960, 4 pounds below champion Hail to Reason.
Highweighted at 126 pounds on the Daily Racing Form's Free Handicap for American 3yos of 1961, 1 pound above second-rated Sherluck.
Rated at 128 pounds on the Daily Racing Form's Free Handicap for American older males of 1962, 3 pounds below Horse of the Year Kelso and second in the division.
Rated at 125 pounds on the Daily Racing Form's Free Handicap for American older males of 1963, 11 pounds below Horse of the Year Kelso but tied for fourth in the division with Ridan.
As an individual
A rather lengthy brown horse, Carry Back stood a shade over 16 hands at maturity. He was a well-balanced individual described by Charles Hatton of the Daily Racing Form as “a stout, rough, tough little horse,” though artist Richard Stone Reeves found him light-boned and light-bodied. Carry Back had well-made withers, short cannons, good length from hip to hock and was generally correct. His topline was smoothly made and attractive. He could handle any footing and was at his most effective at 8 to 10 furlongs. He was resolute and determined on the track. His action was efficient but more quick and agile than long-striding. He suffered an ankle injury while running seventh in the Belmont Stakes. Around the barn and paddock, he could have a mind of his own but was not vicious and generally had good manners. He did not care for lead ponies and tended to show studdish behavior when escorted by one. He enjoyed marshmallows as treats.
As a stallion
According to Jockey Club records, Carry Back sired 194 winners (66.9%) and 10 stakes winners (3.4%) from 290 named foals. He did not get anything approaching his own class, a failing that Jack Price attributed partly to his own failure to exercise any selectivity with regard to the stallion's mates. His best runner was 1970 Spinster Stakes winner Taken Aback.
Notable progeny
Taken Aback (USA)
Connections
Carry Back was foaled in Florida. He was bred, owned and trained by Jack Price, who raced the horse in the name of his wife Katherine. He stood at Price's Dorchester Farm through the 1982 breeding season. Following his stud career, he was pensioned at his birthplace, Ocala Stud, where he was euthanized in 1983 after developing cancer. His remains now rest within the grounds of the Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs.
Pedigree notes
Carry Back is inbred 5x5 to Chaucer. His dam, Joppy, produced nothing else of any importance; her sire Star Blen was an otherwise undistinguised son of Blenheim II, and her dam Miss Fairfax (by Teddy Beau, a son of Teddy who managed only one win from 33 starts) was likewise indifferent. Carry Back's third dam, Bellicent (by Sir Gallahad III), is a half sister to stakes winner Whizz James (by St. James) and to Torobang (by Toro), dam of stakes winner Whang Bang (by Better Bet). The female line traces back to the great mare Firenze, a member of the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame.
Books and media
- Carry Back is profiled in Chapter 9 of Avalyn Hunter's American Classic Pedigrees 1914-2002 (2003, Eclipse Press).
- Carry Back is one of 50 Thoroughbreds profiled in Royal Blood: Fifty Years of Classic Thoroughbreds. Written by racing historian Jim Bolus with illustrations and commentary by noted equine artist Richard Stone Reeves, the book was released by The Blood-Horse, Inc., in 1994.
- "Carry Back: The People's Choice" is the fourth chapter of Jim Bolus's Derby Fever (1995, Pelican Publishing Group).
- Footage of Carry Back’s win in the 1961 Florida Derby can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ70okDfZdE.
Fun facts
- Former U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower and his wife Mamie were in attendance at Belmont when Carry Back made his failed run at the Triple Crown.
- Carry Back stood at stud in Florida between his 4 and 5-year-old campaigns, returning to racing with apparently undiminished zest.
- Carry Back's name came from a term used in tax preparation.
- Carry Back was popularly known as “C.B.” and “The People's Choice.” The latter nickname is inscribed on his burial marker at the Kentucky Derby Museum.
- Carry Back was the first winner of an American Triple Crown race to contest France's greatest all-aged race, the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Sent over for the 1962 edition, Carry Back finished 10th but was beaten less than six lengths. Price blamed the defeat on a "stupid" ride from jockey Scobie Breasley, who had been open in stating that he did not think Carry Back would stay 12 furlongs. While Breasley's ride may have betrayed a lack of confidence in his mount, it is fact that Carry Back never won over more than 10 furlongs and was well beaten in all his attempts at longer distances.
- The Carry Back Stakes was inaugurated at Calder Race Course in 1975. It later moved to Gulfstream Park.
- Saggy, the sire of Carry Back, won six minor stakes races. A paternal grandson of the great Equipoise, he was best known for giving Citation the only defeat of the Triple Crown winner's 1948 campaign in the Chesapeake Trial. (In fairness, the track was muddy and jockey Eddie Arcaro elected not to push Citation to catch Saggy given that Citation had bigger targets coming up.) In the year that Carry Back was conceived, Saggy stood for US$750 at Country Life Farm, Maryland, but Price got a discount to US$400 per mare because he was breeding three mares to the horse.
- Carry Back's dam Joppy not only lost every race she started but ended up being banned from racing for acting up in the starting gate. She was acquired by Price for US$150 in cash plus cancellation of an overdue board bill variously reported as US$115 to US$150.
Photo credit
Photographer unknown. From the private collection of Dale Wyatt; used by permission.
Last updated: May 25, 2024