Graustark (horse)

Racing at age two in 1965, Graustark competed in three races - including the Arch Ward Handicap, which he won by six lengths on a very muddy track - but an injury (shin splints) sidelined him for the rest of the year. Although he won all three of his races by wide margins, he did not compete enough to be seriously considered for the Eclipse Award for Outstanding 2-Year-Old Male Horse. Buckpasser, who won the award based on his nine wins in eleven races, went into the 1966 racing season as the early favorite for the Kentucky Derby.

In early 1966, Graustark came back from his injury after five months of recuperation. Ridden by jockey Braulio Baeza (who was also Buckpasser's jockey), he made his three-year-old debut with a win in the Grenada Purse at Hialeah Park. He then began winning race after race and was soon talked about as being a serious rival to Buckpasser. At the time, Baeza considered Graustark to be the best horse he had ever ridden. He was touted as a superhorse who was likely to win the Triple Crown, thus ending the drought since Citation's win. The anticipated showdown between Buckpasser and Graustark at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May never happened after Buckpasser suffered a quarter crack injury and missed the U.S. Triple Crown races. Graustark then became the heavy favorite for the Derby. However, after winning seven straight races, he sustained a career-ending coffin bone break while in the lead in the Blue Grass Stakes. Racing on a very muddy track, he was in front by six lengths in the back stretch but lost by a nose to Abe's Hope (who nearly beat Buckpasser in the Flamingo Stakes). Prior to the last race, a safety pin was found stuck in Graustark's frog/hoof, but after icing he was declared fit to run.[1]