Remembering two-time Whitney winner Commentator

Of all the outstanding horses owner Tracy Farmer and trainer Nick Zito campaigned together in the early to mid-2000s – millionaires Albert the Great, Sun King and Sir Shackleton readily come to mind – there is one horse that stands apart. His name was Commentator.

From the time he hit the racetrack in the summer of 2004, Commentator’s speed, spirit and success made him both a barn and fan favorite. Nowhere was that more apparent than at Saratoga Race Course, where the New York-bred gelding gained a following as he etched his name into history. Commentator ranks with Hall of Famers Discovery and Kelso as the only horses to win the prestigious Grade 1 Whitney more than once.

Saturday’s 98th running of the summer staple marks 20 years since his first victory, one he would repeat three years later at age 7 to become the race’s second-oldest winner. Kelso was 8 when he won his third Whitney in 1965.

“To be with horses like Kelso and Discovery, that puts him in a class like nobody else,” Zito said. “If he’d have won it a third time, he’d have marched right into the Hall of Fame.”

Farmer purchased Commentator for $135,000 as a yearling in the summer of 2002 but didn’t get to see the chestnut son of Distorted Humor bred by Michael Martinez run until midway through his 3-year-old season. The wait proved to be more than worthwhile, as Commentator reeled off five consecutive wins to start his career. A 10 1/2-length romp over fellow New York-breds in his unveiling, covering seven furlongs in 1:23.63 at Saratoga despite being bumped at the start, was a harbinger of things to come for Commentator. A perfect debut season included the about seven-furlong Perryville at Keeneland, where his winning time of 1:25.19 was a stakes record.

Commentator’s 4-year-old campaign got off to a rough start when he finished seventh as the second choice in the Grade 3 Hal’s Hope in early January at Gulfstream Park. He didn’t race again until late June, winning a Belmont Park allowance that put him on track for a start in the Whitney.

“Commentator was all business. His workouts could tell you everything,” Zito said. “I can tell you his last workout before the Whitney was absolutely sensational, both years that he won. He was telling us, ‘I’m ready to go.’”

When race day came, a clear, 83-degree summer afternoon, Commentator showed just how ready. He broke running from the gate under Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens and blazed through early fractions of 23.56 and 46.41 seconds, opening up a 5 1/2-length lead after running six furlongs in 1:09.76. Saint Liam, who would go on to win the Grade 1 Woodward and Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic, both at Belmont Park, and be named Horse of the Year, chased the pace throughout, closing the gap to 1 1/2 lengths leaving the far turn.

With the length of the stretch ahead, Hall of Fame jockey Edgar Prado and Saint Liam set their sights on Commentator and uncorked a steady drive to narrow the advantage with every stride.

“My horse caught another gear, and I thought I was going to catch him,” Prado told reporters after the race.

Though he still trailed by more than one length with less than a sixteenth of a mile to run, Saint Liam closed with a flourish outside of Commentator and looked as if he would catch the stubborn leader but Commentator was resolute to the wire and did not yield, prevailing by a neck in a time of 1:48.33 for 1 1/8 miles.

“It was a battle, but Commentator really dug in deep,” Stevens told reporters.

“He was such a good horse. He wasn’t that much of a longshot that day, either,” Zito said of Commentator, who returned $8.40 as co-second choice at 7-2 with stablemate Sir Shackleton. “I’m watching the race, and I kept jumping up and down because I didn’t want Saint Liam to get in front of him. He wouldn’t give up. It was wonderful.”

Just two days following the Whitney, then 57-year-old Zito was rewarded with the ultimate honor – induction into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame, which had been announced over Memorial Day weekend.

“That was cool,” Zito said. “What a way to go into the Hall of Fame, to have Commentator win that race.”

The win was also particularly gratifying for Farmer, who on Christmas Eve 2004 was on a cruise ship in the Caribbean with his wife, Carol, to help late socialite Marylou Whitney celebrate her birthday. When it came time to hang a star on the Christmas wish tree, Farmer shared with Whitney his foremost desire.

“I told Marylou that my dream was for her to someday hand me the Whitney trophy, but I thought the odds of that happening with Commentator was enormous,” he told the New York Times in the days following the race.

Twenty years removed, the result is no less significant.

“It’s very special. The Whitney, as we all know, it’s not easy to win and it’s such an important race,” Farmer said. “We try to get back there every year, but it’s a hard go.”

Farmer and Zito made it back to the Whitney winner’s circle in 2008, when Commentator again jumped out to an early lead with Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez aboard and never looked back in scoring a front-running 4 3/4-length triumph over 10 rivals, once again as the second betting choice.

Although the field lacked a Horse of the Year, among the vanquished group were multiple Grade 1 winner Student Council, who ran second, and fellow millionaire A.P. Arrow; 2007 Grade 1 Travers runner-up Grasshopper, who finished third; multiple graded-stakes winner Notional and beaten favorite Solar Flare.

“When he was in rare form, no one could catch him. He was the fastest horse I’ve ever seen. He was just something else. He had natural talent that was unbelievable,” Farmer said. “He was everything you’d ever want in a horse. He’s one of the finest horses I’ve ever had. He was a great individual. His record really speaks for itself.”

Commentator would make a third straight Whitney appearance in 2009, finishing a respectable third behind 18-1 longshot Bullsbay, beaten a total of three lengths in what turned out to be his career finale. Overall he won 14 of 24 races, including eight stakes, and more than $2 million in purses.

A few weeks following the Whitney, Commentator was honored with the first running of the Commentator Stakes. To the delight of his many admirers, he galloped onto the track to lead the post parade, then was presented with a peppermint Key to the City of Saratoga Springs in the winner’s circle.

His stakes race lives on, most recently held in June on New York-Bred Showcase Day during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival. In October 2009, the Farmers donated Commentator to Old Friends in Georgetown, Ky. to begin his retirement. Six years later, he was relocated to Old Friends at Cabin Creek in Greenfield Center, N.Y. – just 10 miles from the site of his greatest, history-making Whitney victories – to live out his remaining days.

“I think we operated twice on him. He had a screw in his shin. He got to be older and the Farmers, they’re great people. Wonderful people, both of them. We just said, ‘Let’s retire him.’ He was sound. When he was at Old Friends, he used to run up and down there like crazy. He had a good life,” Zito said. “It was sad when he left the barn. We were happy where he went; obviously he went to a great place, but we were sad to see him go.

“He was tough. He had a mind of his own. Most good horses say, ‘I’m the star of the show, not you.’ That’s how good horses look at it. They know,” he added. “I was talking to [fellow Hall of Fame trainer] Bob Baffert about it, about how horses know how good they are. You can just tell. They’re just different. That’s what makes them great.”

Over the years both Farmer and Zito were among the many visitors who traveled to Old Friends to see Commentator – lovingly known as ‘Tator’ by farm workers – whose personality never waned and whose popularity continued to grow.

“We went out and saw him at Old Friends. He had people in love with him up until the last minute,” Farmer said. “He had a large amount of visitors, it wasn’t just me. He had his own fan club.”

Commentator passed away June 27 at Old Friends at Cabin Creek due to complications from Potomac horse fever. He was 24 years old.

“He was well loved and we’ll miss him forever,” Old Friends at Cabin Creek Manager Joann Pepper said. “He was a champion through and through and was very brave.”

Commentator still holds the track record at Belmont Park of 1:27.44 for 7 1/2 furlongs on the main track, set Sept. 24, 2004, in his third career start. His other graded-stakes win came in the 2008 Grade 2 Richter Scale Sprint Handicap, now contested as the Gulfstream Park Sprint. That fall, he captured the final running of the historic Massachusetts Handicap at Suffolk Downs in a 14-length command performance.

“Consistency makes them great, and there he was – 14-for-24. That says it all,” Zito said. “Tremendous horse. I told my help, you’ve got to have a horse like Commentator to keep you going. The everyday racing isn’t going to do it. And that kept us going. That’s what you’ve got to have. You’ve got to have that one good horse.”

Zito’s Hall of Fame resume includes all three Triple Crown races, two each in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes and one in the Preakness; two Breeders’ Cup winners and a pair of Eclipse Award champions. Both his Belmont wins denied Triple Crown bids – Birdstone over Smarty Jones in 2004 and Da’ Tara over Big Brown in 2008 – and Louis Quatorze’s 1996 Preakness triumph ended late Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas’ streak of six consecutive Triple Crown race victories.

Still, as Zito closes in on 2,100 career victories, Commentator and the Whitney remain a constant source of pride. Each of his two wins put him in rarified air with Beyer Speed Figures of 123 in 2005 and 120 in 2008.

“The Whitney is the Whitney. The Whitney is special,” he said. “I’ve had so many great ones. We’re still doing it, still working at it. I’ll take the next Commentator to come along.”