1989 Breeders' Cup Classic - Sunday Silence + Pre & Post Race

Sunday Silence grittily held off a desperate late charge by Easy Goer to win the $3 million Breeders' Cup Classic by a neck today at Gulfstream Park.

The tight finish of this fourth meeting between the decade's greatest racing rivals brought a crowd of more than 50,000 to a roar and settled the sport's major titles. Sunday Silence, who had beaten Easy Goer in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness before Easy Goer trounced him in the Belmont Stakes, is assured of being voted thoroughbred racing's Horse of the Year.

Emotions ran high long after the official sign was posted. For Sunday Silence's backers and handlers, this was a long-awaited day of vindication. After the Belmont, their colt had been widely dismissed as only second-best despite holding a 2-1 edge in the rivalry.

For Easy Goer's many fans, who made him the 1-2 betting favorite today, the result was flabbergasting. They found some excuses for him, but were devastated to see their colt emerge from this season as merely the second-best 3-year-old instead of being acclaimed as the champion of the decade.

It was small consolation for Easy Goer's connections, the Ogden Phipps family and the trainer Shug McGaughey, that they won two of the six earlier Cup races today, with Rhythm in the Juvenile and Dancing Spree in the Sprint.

Sunday Silence, a 3-year-old son of Halo and the Understanding mare Wishing Well, paid $6 for $2 to win as the second choice in the Classic betting and ran the mile and a quarter in 2:00 1/5 under Chris McCarron, who was riding him for the first time. Sunday Silence is owned by Arthur Hancock 3d, Ernest Gaillard and Charlie Whittingham, and trained by Whittingham.

''He's a great horse,'' Whittingham said, ''and he's far from done racing.''

Blushing John finished a length behind the top two in third, with Present Value 9 3/4 lengths back in fourth in a field of eight.

Sunday Silence earned $1.35 million in victory and has now banked $4.6 million, the third-highest total in racing history, while winning 8 of 12 career starts. Easy Goer also passed the $4 million threshold in defeat while losing for just the fifth time in 17 career starts. Neither colt has ever finished anywhere but first or second.

http://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/05/spo...