Classic Memory, Classic Champion
Black Tie Affair, the 1991 Breeders’ Cup Classic Champion
The late Eva Cassidy once sang, "Who knows where the time goes?" Have 20 years really come and gone since Black Tie Affair's stirring, gate to wire triumph in the 1991 (G-1) Breeders' Cup Classic?
In the summer of 2010, a large crowd gathered at Old Friends Equine in Georgetown, Kentucky to celebrate the memory of the recently departed champion. The attendees were reminded once again of the signature masterpiece of his '91 Horse of the Year campaign by a race video which played near his grave.
“In the end, he exhibited the same class he did when he won the Breeders’ Cup Classic,” said Old Friends founder Michael Blowen, who cared for the champion during his final 11 months. “He was the best in every way.”
He was blue collar. A horse of the people. The pride of the Midwest.
He was ours.
And our pride was never more illuminated than that frigid November day at Churchill Downs when he faced many of the greatest racehorses in the world.
The five-year-old gray entered the $3 million Classic off five consecutive front-running wins in graded stakes. Lying in wait, however, was the most daunting field of contenders he would face in what would be a 45-race career. From Kentucky Derby champions Strike the Gold and Unbridled to Preakness victor Summer Squall and the formidable Twilight Agenda and Festin, the race promised a thrilling world championship.
Pat Day was Black Tie’s regular rider and exercised him during the week leading up to the race, but chose Summer Squall as his Classic horse instead. “Black Tie Affair was a rock solid horse,” said Day. “I chose Summer Squall over him because I thought Summer Squall was the better of the two. It didn’t turn out that way.”
Enter Jerry Bailey. The 34-year-old jockey was riding a wave of momentum, having commandeered Hansel to Preakness and Belmont stakes victories. After 17 years of riding, Bailey suddenly had his choice of horses to ride in major stakes and he chose the thoroughbred from the Midwest.
In the days leading up to the race, Black Tie Affair’s trainer, 65-year-old Ernie Poulos, stood outside a stall at Churchill Downs and espoused the chances of his entry to all who would listen. The former semi-pro football player was supremely confident and perhaps a little annoyed at critics who charged Black Tie Affair had yet to beat any horse of note.
“There was a bias,” remembers trainer and Ernie’s widow
Dee Poulos.
“Here was this blue collar horse coming down to
Louisville to run in the Breeders’ Cup Classic and they didn’t want
to give him any credit.”
Black Tie Affair’s final approach towards the gate beneath the shadows of the Twin Spires that late afternoon on Nov. 2 was the culmination of 14,000 miles traveled in 1991, which took the silks of owner Jeff Sullivan to six different states. The Classic distance of 1-¼ miles was a far cry from the previous two years when he competed in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G-I), finishing 8th in 1989 and 3rd in 1990.
A sprinter throughout the early part of his career, Ernie Poulos and assistant trainer Charlie Bettis were concerned after Black Tie Affair had been knocked around in both running’s of the Sprint and as a result, the horse had stretched out in races since Nov. 1990. Speed would be a factor in the Classic. When Farma Way dropped out due to injury, Twilight Agenda was left to compete with Black Tie Affair for the early lead.
As post time arrived, Black Tie Affair’s groom and best friend Ruben Mata stood silently waiting. “I followed him everywhere. To two Breeders’ Cups in past years and in my mind, I never thought I’d be lucky again,” says Mata. “But then we came to Churchill Downs.”
When the gates opened, Twilight Agenda stumbled and Bailey immediately moved to the rail and seized control. “It was the biggest smile on my face you could imagine when the gates opened and Twilight Agenda didn’t get away too quick,” remembers Bailey.
Black Tie Affair completed the first quarter mile in the lead with a comfortable 24-1/5 and maintained a 1-1/2 length advantage after a half mile run in 48 2/5. Star of Gdansk, Fly So Free, and Twilight Agenda all mounted challenges during the remainder of the race, however, Jerry Bailey had too much horse underneath him as the field approached the stretch. “It was over at that point,” says Bailey. “It was all Black Tie Affair and not much me.”
When the duo crossed the finish line with a 1-¼ length gate-to-wire triumph, Dee Poulos glanced to her side. “I looked over at Ernie and his knees gave way due to the sheer joy of it and he had to take a seat.”
The horse of the Midwest had done it and the winds of pride breezed through the backstretch barns of Arlington, Hawthorne and Sportsman’s.
After the Breeders’ Cup came Eclipse Awards for Horse of the Year and Champion Older Male, and a retirement from racing. A stud career followed and took the son of Miswaki to Kentucky, followed by Japan and back to West Virginia. He was pensioned at Old Friends in July 2009 and died one year later after battling the effects of laminitis.
Dee Poulos still looks back fondly. "I had nineteen years of keeping track of the horse and knowing I could see him whenever I could. He truly was the horse of a lifetime."
Nineteen Breeders’ Cups have come and gone in the blink of an eye. The 2011 World Championships (Nov. 4 and 5) will once again return to Churchill Downs and new champions will be crowned. Legends and heroes, however, only come around every so often.
“People from all over love to tell me where they were when he won the Classic,” Dee explains. “That is important to them.”
Important to racing fans in the heartland as well.
