Da Hoss (USA)
January 18, 1992 – January 2, 2022
Gone West (USA) x Jolly Saint (IRE), by Welsh Saint (GB)
Family 16-c
January 18, 1992 – January 2, 2022
Gone West (USA) x Jolly Saint (IRE), by Welsh Saint (GB)
Family 16-c
A brilliant runner at his best, Da Hoss was as fragile as he was brilliant, and it took a masterful training job by the “Mad Genius,” Michael Dickinson, to bring him up to the 1996 Breeders’ Cup Mile (CAN-G1) in condition to run the best race of his life. What happened in 1998 went beyond masterful to the stuff of racing legend. Unable to start in all of 1997 and most of 1998 due to one physical setback after another, Da Hoss entered the starting gate for the 1998 mile having won only one start in all that time, an October 11 allowance race at Colonial Downs. Refusing to surrender during a punishing stretch drive, he thrust his nose in front of Hawksley Hill at the wire, causing race caller Tom Durkin to exclaim, “Oh, my! This is the greatest comeback since Lazarus!” It was the gelding’s swan song; 14 months after his second Breeders’ Cup triumph, attempts to rehabilitate him for another comeback ended due to further injuries and he was sent to the Kentucky Horse Park for a long and well-deserved retirement.
Race record
20 starts, 12 wins, 5 seconds, 2 thirds, US$1,931,558
1994:
1995:
1996:
1998:
As an individual
A bay gelding standing 16 hands, Da Hoss was athletic, attractive, and beautifully balanced but suffered an infection in one foot that chewed away part of the coffin bone, this while he was still a foal; he later became arthritic in multiple joints and had fragile tendons to boot. He was so eager and willing to run that he would sometimes hurt himself by doing more than was asked of him. In retirement, he was sweet-natured and affectionate.
Connections
Foaled in Kentucky, Da Hoss was bred by Fares Farm. A US$6,000 purchase from the 1993 Keeneland September yearling sale (a price influenced by the fact that he had already developed bone spurs in his hocks), he began his career racing for the partnership of trainer Kevin Eikleberry and Wall Street Racing. Prestonwood Farm bought an 85 percent interest in Da Hoss after the gelding’s third start and sent Da Hoss to the barn of Michael Dickinson, in whose care he remained throughout his racing career. The gelding was ridden to his 1996 Breeders’ Cup Mile win by Gary Stevens and to his 1998 Mile win by John Velazquez. Da Hoss became a resident of the Hall of Champions at the Kentucky Horse Park in January 2000 and remained there until his euthanization due to the infirmities of old age on January 2, 2022.
Pedigree notes
Da Hoss is outcrossed through five generations. He is a half brother to Da River Hoss (by River Special), dam of English Group 3 winner River Proud (by Proud Citizen).
Jolly Saint (by 1970 Cork and Orrery Stakes winner Welsh Saint), the dam of Da Hoss, won the 1984 C. L. Weld Park Stakes (IRE-G3) and the 1985 Boiling Springs Handicap (USA-G3). She is a half sister to multiple Italian listed stakes winner Camille Bloch (by Home Guard) and to Twin Island (by Standaan), dam of 1995 Prix Morny Piaget (FR-G1) winner Tagula (by Taufan). The sisters’ dam Jolly Widow is by 1967 English Horse of the Year Busted out of Veuve Joyeuse, a daughter of 1962 Prix d’Harcourt winner Vienna.
Books and media
Fun facts
Last updated: January 12, 2022
Race record
20 starts, 12 wins, 5 seconds, 2 thirds, US$1,931,558
1994:
- Won ATBA Sales Stakes (Colts & Geldings) (USA-R, 6FD, Turf Paradise)
1995:
- Won Del Mar Derby Invitational (USA-G2, 9FT, Del Mar)
- Won Jersey Derby (USA-G2, 8.5FT, Garden State)
- Won Best Turn Stakes (USA-G3, 6FD, Aqueduct)
- 2nd Illinois Derby (USA-G2, 9FD, Sportsman’s Park)
- 2nd Swaps Stakes (USA-G2, 9FD, Hollywood)
- 2nd Gotham Stakes (USA-G2, 8FD, Aqueduct)
- 2nd Pegasus Handicap (USA-G2, 8.5FD, The Meadowlands)
- 3rd Crown Royal Hollywood Derby (USA-G1, 9FT, Hollywood)
1996:
- Won Breeders' Cup Mile (USA-G1, 8FT, Woodbine)
- Won Fourstardave Stakes (USA-G3, 8.5FT, Saratoga)
- Won Pennsylvania Governor's Cup Handicap (USA-L, 8.5FT, Penn National)
- 2nd Kelso Handicap (USA-G3, 8FT, Belmont)
- 3rd Poker Handicap (USA-G3, 8FT, Belmont)
1998:
- Won Breeders' Cup Mile (USA-G1, 8FT, Churchill Downs)
As an individual
A bay gelding standing 16 hands, Da Hoss was athletic, attractive, and beautifully balanced but suffered an infection in one foot that chewed away part of the coffin bone, this while he was still a foal; he later became arthritic in multiple joints and had fragile tendons to boot. He was so eager and willing to run that he would sometimes hurt himself by doing more than was asked of him. In retirement, he was sweet-natured and affectionate.
Connections
Foaled in Kentucky, Da Hoss was bred by Fares Farm. A US$6,000 purchase from the 1993 Keeneland September yearling sale (a price influenced by the fact that he had already developed bone spurs in his hocks), he began his career racing for the partnership of trainer Kevin Eikleberry and Wall Street Racing. Prestonwood Farm bought an 85 percent interest in Da Hoss after the gelding’s third start and sent Da Hoss to the barn of Michael Dickinson, in whose care he remained throughout his racing career. The gelding was ridden to his 1996 Breeders’ Cup Mile win by Gary Stevens and to his 1998 Mile win by John Velazquez. Da Hoss became a resident of the Hall of Champions at the Kentucky Horse Park in January 2000 and remained there until his euthanization due to the infirmities of old age on January 2, 2022.
Pedigree notes
Da Hoss is outcrossed through five generations. He is a half brother to Da River Hoss (by River Special), dam of English Group 3 winner River Proud (by Proud Citizen).
Jolly Saint (by 1970 Cork and Orrery Stakes winner Welsh Saint), the dam of Da Hoss, won the 1984 C. L. Weld Park Stakes (IRE-G3) and the 1985 Boiling Springs Handicap (USA-G3). She is a half sister to multiple Italian listed stakes winner Camille Bloch (by Home Guard) and to Twin Island (by Standaan), dam of 1995 Prix Morny Piaget (FR-G1) winner Tagula (by Taufan). The sisters’ dam Jolly Widow is by 1967 English Horse of the Year Busted out of Veuve Joyeuse, a daughter of 1962 Prix d’Harcourt winner Vienna.
Books and media
- Footage of Da Hoss’s victories in the 1996 and 1998 editions of the Breeders’ Cup Mile can be accessed through the Breeders’ Cup Hall of Champions (https://www.breederscup.com/history-tradition/hall-champions/da-hoss).
- Da Hoss is the subject of an upcoming book by Rick Capone, to be published through the University Press of Kentucky.
Fun facts
- Da Hoss’s yearling purchase price of US$6,000 made him the lowest-priced yearling by Gone West sold at public auction in 1993.
- Da Hoss’s time of 1:07-1/5 in the ATBA Sales Stakes was an all-time record for 6 furlongs on dirt by a 2-year-old.
- Prestonwood Farms owners Jack, Art, and J. R. Preston bought their majority interest in Da Hoss in spite of the fact that two different veterinarians had given the horse failing grades on physicals.
- Da Hoss is the only horse to have won two editions of the Breeders’ Cup Mile in non-consecutive seasons and was the first horse to win any given Breeders’ Cup event in non-consecutive seasons, a feat not duplicated until Ouija Board won the Filly and Mare Turf in 2004 and 2006. He was also the first gelding to win two Breeders’ Cup races.
- Da Hoss’s constant companion, “Boomer” (officially “Business is Boomin,” a 1989 gelding by the Secretariat son Businessisbusiness) was himself the subject of a remarkable comeback story written by Dickinson. Talented but too soft-boned to withstand training over a dirt surface without injuring himself, Boomer spent five years to the day on the sidelines before starting a three-race winning streak at Garden State, Monmouth, and Laurel, winning a claiming race and two allowances. Two starts later, he went lame again, got a 10-month layoff, and then won another three consecutive races, this time at Delaware Park. Because Da Hoss was so attached to Boomer (who was the dominant horse of the pair), Dickinson would not risk Boomer for a claiming tag after that first comeback win.
- Da Hoss became the namesake for a stakes race at Colonial Downs.
Last updated: January 12, 2022