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Tom Fool by Carey Warner Quite likely one of the greatest handicap sprinters of the twentieth century, Tom Fool was bred by Duval A. Headley. Born in 1949, Tom Fool was the son of the great sprinter, Menow, who was himself a world record setting stakes winner (at 6 1/2 furlongs). It should have come as no surprise that Tom Fool would blaze through his first season on the track at two with five wins and two seconds in seven starts. That year, he chalked up wins in such notoriously respected races as the Sanford, Grand Union, and The Futurity and was named 1951's Champion 2-Year-Old Colt. All indications at the conclusion of his 2-year-old season pointed towards Tom Fool's likely appearance for the spring classics in 1952, the Triple Crown races. Following his second place finish in the Wood Memorial as trainer John Gaver readied him for the Run for the Roses, it was discovered that Tom Fool was running a fever and suffered a cough; during the nine weeks it took for the colt to recover, Tom Fool missed the illustrious Triple Crown series. Even with 1952 having been a difficult, challenging year for the bay colt, he still managed to wrack up 6 wins in 13 starts, five seconds and one third, finishing unplaced only once in a season plagued by minor misfortune. At three, Tom Fool had won the Grey Lag, Empire City, and Jerome Handicap, and was ending the year in awesome form, suggesting to all that he would be formidable force to be reckoned with at age four. And, true to the very nature of Tom Fool, he didn't let anyone down. In 1953, at four, Tom Fool would be undefeated in 10 races. He won at distances ranging from 5-1/2 furlongs to 1-1/4 miles, hauling weights up to 136 pounds like it was nobody's business. In April, Tom Fool easily won the Sation Handicap at 128 pounds, then followed that up with a win by 1-3/4 lengths in the six furlong Joe Palmer Handicap under 130 lbs. Five days later, Tom Fool traveled from Belmont Park to New York where he began his quest for the Handicap Triple Crown. He defeated Royal Vale in the Metropolitan by a half- length, carrying 130. Just one week later, Tom Fool met Royal Vale again in the race of his life at the Suburban. The post time odds were: Tom Fool: 2.05-to-1, Royal Vale: 2.20-to-1, One Count and Kiss Me Kate were both at 2.30-to-1. As the stands watched on the edge of their seats, Tom Fool ran like he was demon possessed in what would be the fastest Suburban in the long history of the race (2:00 3/5, excluding the widely disputed and eventually discredited time Whisk Broom II set in 1913 of 2:00 flat), putting Royal Vale away at the wire by a nose. Just before the final leg of the Handicap Triple Crown, the Brooklyn Handicap, Tom Fool won the Carter Handicap at seven furlongs under 135 pounds. Despite his hefty assignment of 136 pounds in the Brooklyn, Tom Fool was challenged only by four horses, and this would set a precedence for the fearsome prospect of running against this phenomenal horse later in the season. Towards the end of the season, no horse dared challenge this awesome sprinter's reputation. In the Brooklyn, the next highest weight was only 110 pounds. "The Greentree Ace" won, eased up at the wire for a victory gallop for his fans, and became only the second horse in thoroughbred racing history to win the New York Handicap Triple Crown, second only to Whisk Broom II some forty years earlier. As the summer drew to an easy close for the stately bay, the weight- for-age events were closing fast. Due to his widely known success, none of the year's other big runners would step up to challenge him, and his final four races of the year were betless exhibition races. He won the Wilson Stakes and Whitney Stakes at Saratoga, the Sysonby at Belmont, and finally the Pimlico Special, which he won by eight lengths. In all four races, he was the uncontested star. The Sysonby was supposed to have been the much anticipated meeting between Tom Fool and Native Dancer, but sadly, Native Dancer reinjured himself and the great match race never took place. Tom Fool ended his 10 race winning streak and his career on a winning note that year by retiring after the Pimlico Special. The horse who "came in like a lion" went out like the lion he was, concluding the 1953 racing season as the named Champion Handicap Male, Champion Sprinter, and Horse of the Year that year. Tom Fool was inducted into the National Racing Hall of Fame in 1960, and Native Dancer, the only horse who might have been able to rival the great Tom Fool, was inducted into the Hall of Fame three years later in 1963. Hall of Fame jockey Ted Atkinson, who rode many of Thoroughbred history's greatest horses, considered Tom Fool to have been the best mount of his career. Tom Fool's legacy of success did not stop, though, after he retired; he went on to become an outstanding sire. He sired 275 foals, 36 of them stakes winners (roughly 13%), including Kentucky Derby winner and champion TIM TAM. More importantly, though, Tom Fool accomplished something that very few horses as great he have done: he sired another great legend, one who may have even been greater than himself, the almighty Horse of the Year, BUCKPASSER. Others of Tom Fool's foals include stakes winners BATTER UP, BEBOPPER, CAP AND BELLS, DINNER PARTNER, DUNCE CAP II, EVILONE, FOOLISH ONE, JESTER, KITTEN, MON ANGE, MRS. PETERKIN, NO FOOLING, SILLY SEASON, TOMPION, VENETIAN JESTER, SALTVILLE, and many others. Tom Fool, to this day, still graces and influences the lineage of some of the world's finest runners... a genuine and honest legend of a courageous, athletic gentleman who lives on in the veins of such current-day greats as Kentucky Derby Winners GRINDSTONE and UNBRIDLED, both of whom are linecrossed (inbred) to Tom Fool. HOTY/sire A.P. INDY, G1/sire CURE THE BLUES, HOTY/sire FAVORITE TRICK, MCH/sire SLEW O' GOLD, MG1/sire SUMMER SQUALL, and countless others are also found to be distant descendents of Tom Fool. Pedigree:
(female family # 3) Breeder: Duval A. Headley Owner: Greentree Stables, owned by John Hay Whitney and Mrs. C.S. Payson Trainer: John Gaver Racing Record:
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