Ack Ack (horse)
Ack Ack (February 24, 1966 - November 7, 1990) was an American Thoroughbred Hall of Fame racehorse. He raced with success at age two to four, scoring wins in the important 1969 Withers Stakes and Arlington Classic. In 1971 at age five, Ack Ack blossomed into the year's most dominant horse. Conditioned by Charlie Whittingham, he won seven straight graded stakes races on both dirt and grass courses at a variety of distances. His performances earned him United States Horse of the Year honors.
Owned by Harry F. Guggenheim's Cain Hoy Stable, Ack Ack was sold by the executors of his estate following Guggenheim's death in January 1971. The horse won the San Carlos Handicap less than a week before Guggenheim died. New owner E. E. "Buddy" Fogelson husband of actress Greer Garson, bought Ack Ack for $500,000. In 1971, Ack Ack won seven of eight races and finished second in the other start. He won his final race, the Hollywood Gold Cup, in which he carried 134 pounds. At the end of the year, Ack Ack was retired to stand at stud at his birthplace of Claiborne Farm near Paris, Kentucky, where he sired 40 stakes winners, including champion sire Broad Brush and Youth, the 1976 American Champion Male Turf Horse, that won a combined four Grade/Group 1 races in France, Canada, and the United States.
In 1999, The Blood Horse, Inc., selected Ack Ack as one of the top 100 racehorses of the 20th century.
References
- 1966 racehorse births
- 1990 racehorse deaths
- Thoroughbred racehorses
- Racehorses bred in Kentucky
- Racehorses trained in the United States
- American racehorses
- American Grade 1 Stakes winners
- Eclipse Award winners
- American Thoroughbred Horse of the Year
- United States Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame inductees
- Individual male horses
- Thoroughbred family 9-h
- Chefs-de-Race