Easy Goer

Easy Goer
Sire	Alydar
Grandsire	Raise a Native
Dam	Relaxing
Damsire	Buckpasser
Sex	Stallion
Foaled	1986
Country	United States
Colour	Chestnut
Breeder	Ogden Phipps
Owner	Ogden Phipps
Trainer	Claude R. "Shug" McGaughey III
Record	20: 14-5-1
Earnings	$4,873,770
Major wins
Champagne Stakes (1988) Cowdin Stakes (1988) Gotham Stakes (1989) Swale Stakes (1989) Travers Stakes (1989) Belmont Stakes (1989) Jockey Club Gold Cup (1989) Wood Memorial Stakes (1989) Whitney Handicap (1989) Woodward Stakes (1989) Suburban Handicap (1990)
Awards
U.S. Champion 2-Yr-Old Colt (1988)
Honours
National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame (1997) #34 - Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century
Last updated on September 21, 2006

Easy Goer (1986-1994) was an American Champion Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse, famous for beating 1989 Horse of the Year Sunday Silence in the 1989 Belmont Stakes by an astonishing and resounding 8 lengths. The victory deprived Sunday Silence of the Triple Crown. It was also the second fastest Belmont Stakes after Secretariat's. In the Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 Racehorses of the 20th Century, Easy Goer is ranked #34.

Homebred and owned by Ogden Phipps, Easy Goer was a son of Alydar out of the champion mare Relaxing (by Horse of the Year Buckpasser), and was also the Eclipse Award winner for Champion 2-year-old in 1988. Trained by Shug McGaughey and always ridden by Pat Day, the bright chestnut colt with the white star in the middle of his forehead was a long-striding, massive, powerhouse stalker who won 14 of his 20 races, and placed second five times, including three runner-up finishes to arch-rival Sunday Silence. These three races were the Kentucky Derby on a cold muddy day (jockey Pat Day was criticized for racing too defensively, along with Easy Goer not handling the Race Track; also, Easy Goer had previously finished second in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile over a similarly muddy Churchill Downs track), the Preakness, where he lost by a nose in a thrilling stretch duel (jockey Pat Day was criticized for reining Easy Goer's head sideways during the stretch run), and the Breeders' Cup Classic in 1989 where he lost by an extremely fast closing Neck in which Easy Goer was coming off a win at the longer 12 Furlong distance and cutting back to the 10 Furlong distance of the Breeders Cup Classic and going against a very fresh and rested Sunday Silence. Easy Goer was the favorite in each of the 3 races he was defeated by Sunday Silence. Ironically, Easy Goer was not favored in the only race he defeated Sunday Silence, the 1989 Belmont Stakes. The only race he finished worse than second was the 1990 Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park, where he came third behind eventual Horse of the Year Criminal Type and two-time sprint champion Housebuster, while carrying considerably more weight than those two. In Easy Goer's entire career, he was never defeated by more than a 2 and a half length margin, a remarkable feat.

At two, he won the Grade I Cowdin Stakes, the Grade I Champagne Stakes in one of the Fastest Runnings ever, and came in second in the Grade I Breeders' Cup Juvenile. He was named Champion 2-year-old colt and was the early favorite for the Kentucky Derby.

At three he took the Swale Stakes, the Grade II Gotham Stakes (setting the track record of 1:32.2 for eight furlongs and running the fastest mile ever by any three year old thoroughbred in history to this day and almost breaking Dr. Fager's world record for the mile), the Grade I Wood Memorial, the Grade I Belmont Stakes, the Grade I Whitney Stakes, the Grade I Travers Stakes( coming very close to breaking the Track Records in both the Whitney Stakes and Travers Stakes), the Grade I Woodward Stakes, and the Grade I Jockey Club Gold Cup. In the Whitney, Jockey Club Gold Cup, and Woodward, Easy Goer beat older horses, an extremely unusual and remarkable feat. He was one of the last American-trained horses to win two Grade I races at a mile and a half on dirt (Belmont Stakes and Jockey Club Gold Cup). Easy Goer's 1989 three year old season would go down in history as the best year that any thoroughbred can have and not win a Championship Honor at year's end.

At four, he won the Gold Stage Stakes and the Grade I Suburban Handicap. He was third in the Grade I Metropolitan Mile.

Before a leg injury ended his racing days, Easy Goer's brilliant career earned him $4,873,770.

After his retirement from racing, Easy Goer stood stud at the famed Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky. Easy Goer had the ultimate honor of occupying the Number 1 Stall in the Number 1 Barn at Claiborne Farm. This stall was previously occupied by Bold Ruler and Secretariat. Only eight years old, and standing at stud, Easy Goer was turned out for exercise one day, and spent the time bucking and racing around his pasture. It seems, according to Thomas Swerczek, D.V.M., Ph.D. (a veterinary pathologist at the University of Kentucky) in his 1994 postmortem examination of Easy Goer, that the effort caused a sudden, massive allergic reaction. "Typically what happens is that you give a horse penicillin for four or five days and on the sixth day, he may get a mild case of anaphylactic shock," Swerczek said. "If the horse isn't turned out, he'll go right through it all right, but if you turn him out and he gets to running around, he may drop dead from a subtle type of hypertension from a combination of exercise and the reaction from the penicillin. I've even seen horses given a shot of penicillin and loaded onto a van who dropped dead on the van from the combination of stress and the shot. It has nothing to do with the heart per se, but rather a general reaction that causes pooling of blood due to the anaphylaxis."

Like humans, some horses are acutely allergic to bee stings and experience other allergies.

Upon his untimely death, Easy Goer was buried at Claiborne Farm where so many past great Champion Thoroughbreds are buried, including Secretariat,Buckpasser and Bold Ruler.

At stud, he sired three Grade I winners: the colt Will's Way and the fillies Furlough and My Flag. Also Grade 2 winner Composer and the mares Relaxing Rhythm and Smooth Charmer. My Flag, the product of a mating with the legendary mare Personal Ensign is the dam of champion filly Storm Flag Flying. Personal Ensign (1988 Breeders' Cup Distaff), My Flag (1995 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies), and Storm Flag Flying (2002 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies) were the first three-generation consecutive winners of Breeders' Cup races.

Easy Goer is also proving to be a good broodmare sire, with Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and Metropolitan Handicap(Grade I) winner Corinthian, Blue Grass Stakes (Grade I) winner Monba, promising young sire Mull of Kintyre, the Stakes Winners Spring Waltz, Desert Hero, also Easyfromthegitgo, Easy Grades and the aforementioned Storm Flag Flying among his daughter's offspring.

Easy Goer was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1997. Induction into the Hall of Fame is the greatest honor and achievement any Thoroughbred can get.

References

• Easy Goer's pedigree and photo
• Easy Goer's page in the Hall of Fame
• [http://www.hitak.com/home/alydar/easygoer.html
• [http://www.jockeysite.com/stories/easygoer.htm