Santa Anita Derby Winner Silky Sullivan Was Racing's First TV Age Hero
April 1, 2002
By, William F. Reed

"And now here comes Silky Sullivan!" -- Various race-callers

When the track announcer made that announcement during the 1958 Santa Anita Derby (GI), the then-record crowd of 61,123 that showed up for California's main Kentucky Derby (GI) prep race, began to scream and stomp for the big, handsome chestnut who had captured their hearts with his come-from-way-behind running style.

Silky Sullivan was more than just a racehorse. He was a phenomenon, the star of his own TV show and ghost-written newspaper column. He was the "people's horse," a Hollywood matinee idol with a flair for drama and suspense. Just when he seemed hopelessly beaten, he actually had the opposition right where he wanted them.

The Santa Anita Derby was vintage Silky. In the first five furlongs, he fell 28 lengths off the pace. But when jockey Bill Shoemaker rattled his bit - Silky didn't like to get hit with the whip - here he came, flying past horses until he was 3 ½-lengths ahead at the finish line.

"We vow faithfully to write of Silky Sullivan as if he were a horse," the Thoroughbred of California told its readers. "Which, of course, is ridiculous."

In the 44 years since Silky became a cultural icon, the Santa Anita Derby, which will be run on Apr. 6 to determine California's best Kentucky Derby prospect for 2002, has produced 10 Derby winners. Of those, there was a Triple Crown winner (Affirmed in '78), a filly (Winning Colors in '88), four Horses of the Year (Affirmed twice, Ferdinand in '87, Sunday Silence in '89, Charismatic in '99), and two colts who had Triple Crowns snatched away in the final strides of the Belmont Stakes (GI) (Silver Charm in '97 and Real Quiet in '98).

Yet none of them mesmerized the public quite like Silky Sullivan. As a 2-year-old, he drew attention to himself by coming from 27 lengths off-the-pace to win the Golden Gate Futurity. The next year, he came from 40 lengths out of it to lose by a neck to Old Pueblo in the California Breeders' Champion Stakes. In his next start, he came from 41 lengths behind to win a 6 1/2-furlong allowance race.

No wonder co-owner Tom Ross's doctors didn't let him watch Silky's races because of his heart problems. Ross and Phil Klipstein bought Silky for $10,700 in 1956 at Del Mar. The name came from his breeding, by Sullivan out of Lady N Silk.

After the Santa Anita Derby, trainer Reggie Cornell honored a committment to send Silky to Golden Gate Fields, where it rained so hard every day that Cornell wasn't able to train Silky the way he wanted or keep him in top condition. Sent off at the 3-to-10 favorite in a mile allowance race, the overweight Silky was only third, disappointing the record weekday crowd of 19,012. "Silky needed that race real bad," Cornell growled.

Then it was on the Louisville, where the drugstores were selling Silky Sundaes and the bars were offering Irish whisky drinks named after him. The Saturday before the Derby, Cornell entered Silky in the seven-furlong Steppingstone Purse at Churchill Downs. Despite an afternoon rain, a huge crowd turned out to see Silky in the flesh.

Typically, he dropped back by 32 lengths in the early going. When he finally made his run, he began passing horses as if they were standing still. At the end, he was fourth, beaten only 2 1/2 lengths. One clocker had him running the last eighth of a mile in a sizzling :10 2/5 seconds.

"They'll never beat this horse in the Derby," Shoemaker said.

The week before the race, Silky made the covers of Time and Sports Illustrated. An estimated 4,000 fans visited his barn, not counting reporters and photographers. So huge was his popularity that Western Union reported its press file was 40 percent higher than any previous Derby.

On May 3, 1958, the track was muddy for the Derby due to week-long rains. Although Silky didn't much care for the mud, his backers in the crowd of 70,451 bought a record number of $2 win tickets on him. Many planned on keeping them as souvenirs instead of cashing them. At post time, there almost was a tri-favorite. The entry of Jewel's Reward and Ebony Pearl were sent off at 2-1, with Silky and Calumet Farm's Tim Tam tied for second choice at $2.10-to-1.

Soon after starter James Thomson released the field of 14, Silky dropped 32 lengths behind the pace-setting Lincoln Road. But CBS, who had the Derby rights in those days, was ready. For the first time, the network used a split screen, all the better to keep an eye on Silky. Unfortunately for the network and Silky's many fans, the "California Comet" never got going and beat only two horses.

He finished some 20 lengths behind the victorious Tim Tam, who was a half-length better than second-place Lincoln Road. "Never," said racing historian Jim Bolus, "has any horse received so much fanfare and run so poorly."

Silky also got more attention than any 12th-place finisher in Derby history. Besides the split-screen, Fred Caposella, calling the race for CBS, mentioned Silky's name five times and Tim Tam's only once during the first mile and an eighth. At the end, the score was Silky 6, Tim Tam 4.

"All the publicity in the world couldn't have moved Silky up enough to win the Derby," Shoemaker said years later. "Silky wasn't a bad horse, but he wasn't really a good horse, either. He didn't have the class to run with the good horses. In California, he beat some mediocre horses and looked good doing it, but I said then that he couldn't spot a horse like Tim Tam 25 lengths and expect to beat him."

Which, of course, isn't even close to what he told Cornell after the Stepping Stone.

Sent on to the Preakness Stakes (GI), Silky received another warm reception from his fans, but again was disappointing, finishing only eighth. He went back to California, and was retired after his 4-year-old season with 12 victories to show from 27 starts and career earnings of $157,700. As a breeding stallion, Silky also was a dud, producing only four stakes winners.

In retirement, Silky annually was brought to Golden Gate Fields for St. Patrick's Day and to Santa Anita for the Santa Anita Derby. In 1977, he was paraded at both those tracks before dying in November at age 22.

"It was fun while it lasted," said co-owner Ross, whose heart outlasted Silky's by only a month and a half.

In one sense, Silky was a bust, a flash-in-the-pan, a sucker horse. But in another, he was almost as good for racing as Man o' War, Citation, and Secretariat. He was horse racing's first hero of the TV age. He drew big crowds and even attracted the attention of many who previously had little, or no, interest in racing.

He even became a part of American slang. Anytime an athlete, a team, or a politician had to overcome a big deficit to win, they were said to be "doing a Silky Sullivan."

It doesn't appear that this year's Santa Anita Derby will produce another Silky. The likely favorite, Came Home, likes to run on or near the lead. So does Mayakovsky.

That's too bad because fans still love a horse who comes from way out off it to win. Last year, for example, Monarchos was 13th after a half mile, about 18 lengths behind the leader, before uncorking a monster move in the final turn to move into contention and gallop on to record the second fastest winning time in Derby history.

Still, Monarchos never lost contact with his field, the way Silky did as a matter of routine. Once, Shoemaker said Silky got so far behind that he couldn't see the leaders - not because of dirt in his face but because they were so far ahead.

Naturally, Silky got up to win.

Native Kentuckian William F. "Billy" Reed has been a sports writer in various capacities for 42 years and has missed covering the Kentucky Derby a mere two times since 1966. He has been a high-profile sports writer in Kentucky for the Commonwealth's two largest daily newspapers, the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader and was a national columnist for Sports Illustrated, covering among other sports, Thoroughbred horse racing and college basketball. Reed currently pens a column for the Louisville Sports Report, contrbiutes features to the Keeneland program and will be, among varied other assignments, filing Kentucky Derby installments on www.kentuckyderby.com.

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