Once upon a time, a horse named Arrogate made a name for himself by winning consecutive prestigious stakes races.
But wait a second. “A long time ago?” Isn’t it a full decade ago when Arrogate was at the height of his powers, winning prestigious events like the 2016 Breeder’s Cup Classic and the 2017 Pegasus World Cup?
Yes, that’s right, but once upon a time there was another racehorse named Arrogate. Today he’s little more than a historical footnote, overshadowed by the latest and greatest Arrogate, but in the 1950s this earlier horse equally proudly bore the Arrogate name and also etched its famous jockey into history.
Like his modern counterpart, the original Arrogate, born in 1951, was based in California. But unlike today’s globetrotting superstars whose careers spanned 11 races, the old Arrogate was a tough warhorse who raced 83 times in seven seasons, winning 20 races and earning $226,545 in prize money.
There was another big difference between the two Arrogates: the 21st century Arrogate clearly despised Del Mar, ending his career with losses in prestigious stakes races in his final three starts at Del Mar. The same could not be said for the original Arrogate, who reveled in the seaside oval races and won the Del Mar Handicap twice in a row.
As a 2-year-old in the 1950s, Arrogate raced for the well-known team of Calumet Farm and trainer Jimmy Jones, winning two minor stakes races before being culled from Calumet Race Course.
As a result, the colt achieved the majority of its success for Dick and Grigoryan, with Reggie Cornell (a two-time leading trainer at Del Mar) training the Goya II colt.
Arrogate was a slow grower and did not really come to prominence until his four-year-old season, but his subsequent successes were worth the wait: Arrogate’s first indication of improvement came in the 1955 San Diego Handicap at Del Mar, where he finished second by a nose to Trigonometry in a track-record time of 1 minute 41 1/5 seconds for the 1 1/16 miles.
This effort was the perfect preparation for Arrogate’s first attempt at the Del Mar Handicap, then run over 1 1/8 miles on dirt. Attending a near-record crowd of 22,486, the race saw the name Arrogate become associated with elite racehorse talent for the first time.
Arrogate and Hall of Fame jockey Johnny Longden had to go all out to win against a strong field of competitors, with the pace set by Bobby Brocato, who would go on to win the Santa Anita Handicap in 1956. When Arrogate pulled alongside Bobby Brocato with a quarter mile to go, the two talented stakes winners engaged in a heated battle all the way to the finish line.
“Just before the finish line, the horses nodded their heads in opposite directions,” Maurice Bernard wrote in the Sept. 6, 1955, edition of the San Francisco Examiner, “and it was clear that the nod would decide the outcome. And it did. And Arrogate’s nose was there at the exact moment.”
Arrogate’s fast final time of 1 minute 47 2/5 seconds tied the track record, was a highlight for Labor Day fans who bid $1,527,500 on the holiday race and set a Del Mar record, but that wasn’t the end of Arrogate’s triumph. A year later, he would play a key role in an even more spectacular victory.
As Labor Day 1956 approached, Johnny Longden was on the verge of breaking the world record. With 4,868 wins, Longden was just two wins behind the current world record holder, Sir Gordon Richards of Great Britain. A big performance at Del Mar would make the record his own.
This time the crowd was huge, with 21,945 fans. Once again the betting record was broken, with $1,536,600 being taken out at the betting window. Longden did his part, winning two races early on the card to tie Richards’ record. Then it was time to start the Del Mar Handicap, where Longden teamed with Arrogate to make history.
Arrogate had to give it his all again in a dramatic final stretch when Honey’s Alibi, a 4-year-old fresh from his San Diego Handicap victory, pushed the defending Del Mar Handicap winner to the limit.
But Arrogate seemed to sense the importance of the occasion, and he pushed past his limits and somehow – somehow – crossed the line in first place, doggedly lowering the track record to 1 minute 47 seconds flat.
The Del Mar Handicap was a career-defining victory for both horse and jockey: Arrogate became the first horse to win the Del Mar Handicap two years in a row and remained the only racer to achieve that feat for more than half a century, while Longden brought the title of the world’s winningest jockey to the United States and, fittingly, did so while wearing Grigorian’s red, white and blue silk jersey.
“immediately [Longden] “He was surrounded by the winner’s circle,” the Arizona Daily Star reported in its Sept. 4, 1956 issue, “including his wife, his family, his 2-year-old granddaughter … track officials and even rival jockeys.”
Perhaps the original Arrogate never achieved the same financial success as the highly-touted Arrogate, the 2016-17 champions, but that didn’t stop “The Other Arrogate” from making history in its own way.
