Chinook Pass (horse)

Won Washington Stallion Stakes (colts and geldings) (USA, 5.5FD, Longacres)
Won Stripling Stakes (USA, 6FD, Longacres)

1982:

Won Palos Verdes Handicap (USA, 6FD, Santa Anita; equaled track record 1:07-3/5)
Won Meteor Handicap (USA, 5FT, Hollywood; equaled course record :56 flat)
Won Governor's Handicap (USA, 6.5FD, Longacres)
Won Speed Handicap (USA, 6FD, Longacres)
2nd Longacres Mile Handicap (USA-G2, 8FD, Longacres)
2nd Orange Coast Handicap (USA, 6FD, Los Alamitos)
2nd Puget Sound Handicap (USA, 8.5FD, LGA)
3rd National Sprint Championship Stakes (USA, 6FD, Hollywood)
Set a new world record at Longacres of :55-1/5 for 5FD in the Longacres Owners Handicap (a non-blacktype race)
Equaled the Longacres track record of 1:02-2/5 for 5.5FD in an allowance race

1983:

Won Longacres Mile Handicap (USA-G2, 8FD, Longacres)
Won San Simeon Handicap (USA-L, 6.5FD, Santa Anita)
Won Bing Crosby Handicap (USA-L, 6FD, Del Mar)
Won Potrero Grande Handicap (USA-L, 6.5FD, Santa Anita)
Won Sierra Madre Handicap (USA, 6.5FD, Santa Anita)

Honors

Washington Racing Hall of Fame (2003)
Eclipse Award, American champion sprinter (1983)
Washington-bred Horse of the Century (2000)
Washington-bred Horse of the Year (1982, 1983)
Washington-bred champion 3-year-old male (1982)
Washington-bred champion older male (1983)
Washington-bred champion sprinter (1982, 1983)

Assessments

Rated at 120 pounds on the Daily Racing Form's Free Handicap for American male sprinters of 1982, 3 pounds below highweighted Engine One. (American champion sprinter Gold Beauty was weighted at 125 pounds on the Free Handicap for American female sprinters.)

Highweighted at 126 pounds on the Daily Racing Form’s Free Handicap for American male sprinters of 1983, 4 pounds above second-rated A Phenomenon.

As an individual

A long-bodied, muscular dark bay or brown gelding whose legs appeared rather short for his height, Chinook Pass had an excellent shoulder and a long, sloping pelvis. He handled fast, sloppy and turf surfaces with equal aplomb. He was sidelined from racing after injuring a splint bone while winning the 1983 Longacres Mile Handicap by 6 lengths, and a possible match later on with a Quarter Horse was derailed by a tendon injury suffered during a December training gallop. In spite of further attempts at rehabilitation, he never raced again. Highly strung as a youngster, he matured into an intelligent, friendly horse who seemed to enjoy the attention he got during his many public appearances.

Connections

Foaled in Washington, Chinook Pass was bred and owned by Ed Purvis’s Hi Yu Stables (a name taken from the Chinook language, meaning “much,” “plenty,” or “abundance”) and was raised and trained at Dewaine Moore’s Rainer Stables near Enumclaw, Washington. He was trained by Bud Kiokstad (a member of the Washington Racing Hall of Fame) for all but his last five races, which were overseen by Laurie Anderson. He was ridden by Laffit Pincay Jr. for all but the first start of his championship season. He died on June 1, 2010, at the Maple Valley, Washington, farm of Jill Hallin, who had been the gelding’s caretaker since 1988.

Pedigree notes

Sired by the Native Dancer horse Native Born (whose dam was two-time American champion Next Move), Chinook Pass is inbred 5x5 to the great broodmare Plucky Liege, herself a filly of considerable speed. He is out of Yu Turn, a daughter of Turn-to who was unplaced in her two starts. Yu Turn is a half sister to All Out (by Full Out), dam of restricted stakes winners Ankles (by Raise a Man) and All Smarts (by Smart Style), and to Bid Boldly (by Bold Bidder), third dam of Grade 3 winner Saintly Look.

Yu Turn and her sisters are out of unplaced Iyearn (by 1960 Wood Memorial Stakes winner Francis S.), a half sister to 1965 Atlantic City Handicap winner Indoctrinate (by Intent) and multiple Canadian stakes winner I Recall (by Prince John). The last-named mare is the dam of stakes winner Grass Eater (by Hard Rock Man) and the second dam of Jukin, the champion imported 3-year-old of 1992 in the Dominican Republic. Iyearn is also a half sister to Intrical (by Blue Prince), dam of multiple stakes winner Gimli (by Raise a Cup), and to Imthere (by Intentionally) dam of multiple stakes winner Andrew Feeney (by Sunrise Flight).

Iyearn is out of the stakes-placed Brookfield mare I Salute, whose full sister In My Day is the second dam of 1972 Sanford Stakes winner Cohasset Tribe. Produced from the winning Heliopolis mare I Declare (a half sister to the good stakes winner Alex Barth, by Chance Play), I Salute is also a half sister to juvenile stakes winner Do Declare (by Prince John).

Books and media

Chinook Pass is one of the retired Thoroughbreds profiled in photographs and essays in Barbara Livingston’s Old Friends: Visits With My Favorite Thoroughbreds (2002, The Blood-Horse, Inc.).
Links to John Loftus’s series of articles on Chinook Pass and his connections, as well as articles by Tim Hopp and Monica Bretherton, can be found at the Washington Racing Hall of Fame (http://www.wtboa.com/WaTbStats/HallofFame.htm). Excepting the article by Bretherton, which was initially published in 2009 on her blog “Horsebytes,” these articles were originally published in Washington Thoroughbred.
Emerald Downs’s short film on Chinook Pass can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ouwvIjyxx8.

Fun facts:

In geography, the Chinook Pass is a pass through the Cascade Mountains of Washington. It provides the east entrance to Mount Rainier National Park and is the path for State Road 410 between the towns of Enumclaw and Naches, a section designated as the Chinook Scenic Byway. It is usually closed due to heavy snow from November to mid-May.
Chinook Pass was completely unimpressive as a foal; in fact, Dewaine Moore recalled him as being “the dog of the bunch” while the youngster was being raised at Rainier Stables. According to Moore, he became much more energetic and determined to be in front of any horses he was around after being gelded as a 2-year-old.
While riding Chinook Pass in the Longacres Owners Handicap, jockey Jody Davidson caught a glimpse of the timer on the tote board and realized that the world record was in reach. As Davidson recalled in an interview with John Loftus, “I hit him three times. He broke the record, and when we got to the winner’s circle the trainer fired me.”
Jill Hallin became Chinook Pass’s caretaker after becoming acquainted with the champion when she was the farm manager at Donida Farm. Chinook Pass had been sent to Donida for therapy on their Aqua-Tred (an equine treadmill immersed in water) in hopes that he could make a racing comeback, and while this dream did not come to pass, Hallin formed a bond with the gelding and asked to be allowed to care for him when it became apparent that he would race no more. She trained Chinook Pass in dressage (a discipline they both enjoyed until Chinook Pass was 28) and made many public appearances with him.
During much of his retirement, Chinook Pass had a series of companion goats with which he shared space and feed.
Chinook Pass made his final racetrack appearance in 2008, when he was honored at Emerald Downs on the 25th anniversary of his victory in the Longacres Mile. (Run as the Budweiser Mile at Yakima Meadows in 1993-1995 after Longacres closed in September 1992, the race moved to Emerald Downs following that track’s opening in 1996 and resumed its former name.)
In Thoroughbred Times’s obituary for Chinook Pass (published June 3, 2010), National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame jockey Laffit Pincay Jr. is quoted as saying, “Affirmed was the best horse I ever rode, but Chinook Pass was the fastest.” Pincay has often been quoted elsewhere as stating that, “Chinook Pass was the fastest horse I ever rode and the fastest horse I ever saw.”
Chinook Pass was 31 years. 1 month, and 4 days old when he died, making him the longest-lived Eclipse Award winner up to that time. His record was later surpassed by the great steeplechaser Flatterer, a four-time Eclipse Award winner who (because of the Northern Hemisphere universal birthday on January 1) was officially 35 when he died and lived to the actual age of 34 years, 10 months, and 19 days.
Chinook Pass is the namesake for a sprint stakes race at Emerald Downs.

Last updated: March 30, 2022