Armed

Armed (USA) 1941 Brown Gelding   Bull Lea (USA) x Armful (USA), by Chance Shot (USA)

Armed was probably the unlikeliest member of Calumet Farm’s parade of champions, which began in 1934 with the juvenile filly championship of Nellie Flag and ended in 1979 when Davona Dale won the title of champion three-year-old filly. In between, Calumet was home to such luminaries as Whirlaway, Twilight Tear, Coaltown, Wistful, Two Lea, Bewitch, Real Delight, Tim Tam, and, of course, the immortal Citation. It is a tribute to Armed’s ability that Calumet trainer Horace “Jimmy” Jones (son, assistant, and later successor to Calumet’s famed trainer Ben A. Jones) ranked Armed as the second-best horse ever raced by Calumet, behind only Citation.

At the time of his birth in May of 1941, Armed was the son of two relatively unknown parents who later achieved excellent reputations. His sire, Bull Lea, was a good but not top-drawer racehorse who won the 1938 Blue Grass Stakes and 1939 Widener Handicap. Although Bull Lea was by 1943 American leading sire *Bull Dog out of the excellent broodmare Rose Leaves (dam of five stakes winners all told including the fine stayer Espino), he was not highly thought of as a stallion prospect and initially stood for a moderate stud fee of $500. He soon proved that he had been undervalued by getting the co-champion juvenile fillies Twilight Tear (who followed up in 1944 by being named Horse of the Year) and Durazna -- as well as Armed -- in his first crop, and later led the American general sire list five times.

The dam of Armed, Armful, was a daughter of the 1927 Belmont Stakes winner Chance Shot but was much less distinguished than Bull Lea as a runner, winning only two minor races in thirty-seven tries. Her first foal, Hada Star (by Hadagal), was stakes-placed as a two-year-old in 1940 but did not improve on that form in later years and ended up running out a long career in the claiming ranks. Her second, the filly Galful (a full sister to Hada Star) did not improve on her brother’s record, and by that time, Calumet owner Warren Wright was ready to sell Armful. He later had reason to be grateful he did not succeed in finding a buyer. Armed was Armful’s third foal, and her later produce included the juvenile stakes winners Re-Armed, Lap Full, and Armera.

In retrospect, Armed’s pedigree indicated that he had every right to be a good horse. As a youngster, however, Armed showed no intentions of becoming a racehorse. A studdish colt with his mind far more on dominating those around him than on running, he routinely bit and kicked at his handlers. He was well on his way to becoming completely untrainable when he finally made up Jimmy Jones’ mind by developing a habit of kicking the hay out of the pitchfork as his groom came in to feed him. At that point, Jones had had enough; he had Armed sent back to the farm and gelded, then turned him out for several months to let him grow up (since he was a decidedly small youngster) and settle down. As part of his rehabilitation, Armed even wound up being used as a lead pony for the stable’s other two-year-olds. Apparently, Armed got the message, though he never entirely reformed and still liked to make a show of aggression. In later years, he would routinely greet Jones at the stall door with ears pinned and teeth bared, but once the door was opened, he would quietly submit to the trainer’s handling.

Armed finally returned to training late in his two-year-old season and made his first start at Hialeah in February of 1944, winning by eight lengths. This promising beginning was followed by a three-length win in another Hialeah race four days later, but Armed won only one more race in his remaining five starts, all overnight races, and had to be given time off due to ankle trouble.

World War II was still raging, and in support of the war effort, racing was shut down from January 3, 1945, through the German surrender on May 8 of the same year. Armed’s vacation went a little longer than that as he remained away from the races until June 2. He lost that first start, but he made up for lost time by going on a six-race winning streak that culminated with an eight-length win in a division of the Sheridan Handicap.

After the Sheridan, Armed ran second in four straight stakes races including the Washington Park Handicap (won by eventual Horse of the Year Busher) and the True North Handicap under 135 pounds. He then concluded his campaign with four consecutive wins: the Washington Handicap at Laurel; two overnight races; and, saving the best for last, a four-length victory in the Pimlico Special, in which he defeated 1945 Preakness Stakes winner Polynesian, 1945 champion handicap male Stymie, and the good stakes filly Gallorette, who would go on to be named champion handicap mare in 1946.

The tough gelding was even better at five, when he won the first of his two titles as champion handicap male. He opened the year with two overnight victories, then lost to Concordian in the McLennan Handicap while trying to concede the winner twelve pounds. Weights for the Widener Handicap had been established prior to the McLennan, so Armed went into the Widener having to give the horse that had just beaten him nineteen pounds (128 to 109) – and promptly reversed the form to win from Concordian by nearly five lengths. The Calumet runner next took both halves of Tropical Park’s Double Event Stakes, setting a new track record of 1:48-3/5 for nine furlongs in the first half and equaling his own track record in the second.

Having concluded the early racing season as the undisputed king of Florida, Armed next headed north, taking the Philadelphia Handicap under 129 pounds and the Dixie Handicap at Pimlico under 130 pounds. His next race, the Suburban Handicap, was one of his best; again topweighted at 130 pounds, Armed won by four lengths with handicap stars Stymie (123 pounds), First Fiddle (122 pounds), and Fighting Step (118 pounds) all well beaten.

Armed next went to Chicago, where he got a rude reception with three straight losses to lightly weighted opponents. But he rebounded to win the Sheridan Handicap, Whirlaway Stakes, and Washington Park Handicap, carrying topweight of 130 pounds in each and setting a new ten-furlong track record of 2:01 in the last-named event. He then shipped to Narragansett Park but ran third behind the speedy Lucky Draw in the Narragansett Special. His training was lackluster, and although it was only September, Ben and Jimmy Jones jointly decided Armed was going off form and sent him to the farm for freshening for the rest of 1946. Armed finished his campaign having won nine stakes races and placed in six more but was denied Horse of the Year honors in favor of Assault, winner of the 1946 Triple Crown and five other stakes events.

Armed had his best season of all at age six, winning eleven of seventeen starts. He opened his campaign with two overnight wins and a win in the McLennan Handicap under 130 pounds, then scored a repeat victory in the Widener Handicap under 129 pounds, setting a track record of 2:01-3/5 for one and one-quarter miles into the bargain. A flight across the country for the Santa Anita Handicap proved abortive – he finished fifth behind the Chilean invader *Olhaverry, though beaten only two and one-half lengths all told – but three weeks later, he won the Gulfstream Park Handicap in track record time of 2:01-2/5 for the mile and a quarter under 129 pounds.

Unfortunately, Armed was kicked by Concordian during that race and suffered a gash in his right rear pastern, forcing him to miss a much-anticipated clash with Assault in the Suburban Handicap. In Armed’s absence, Assault won easily under topweight of 130 pounds, and it is still interesting to speculate on what might have been had these two excellent horses met when both were in top form.

Armed was away from the races for three months. When he returned to the track in Chicago for the six-furlong Domino Handicap, he was greeted with a 132-pound weight assignment and a one-length beating by With Pleasure, who was getting sixteen pounds. With Pleasure got fourteen pounds from Armed for the Equipoise Mile and won by a neck, but could not handle Armed’s track record performance in the Stars and Stripes Handicap although he was getting thirteen pounds from the champion (130 to 117). After Armed defeated champion filly Bridal Flower in the Arlington Handicap, he again hooked With Pleasure in the Sheridan Handicap. Apparently freshened by skipping the Arlingon, With Pleasure defeated Armed by two lengths while in receipt of eight pounds, but that was the last time he was to take the champion’s measure. Armed defeated him by a hard-fought half length in the Whirlaway Stakes, conceding him four pounds (130 to 126) and breaking the nine-furlong track record he himself had set in the Stars and Stripes. In the next meeting between Armed and With Pleasure, Armed gave With Pleasure seven pounds for the Washington Park Handicap and won by three lengths over the excellent California mare Honeymoon, With Pleasure third.

With the score between Armed and With Pleasure evened at three to three, Armed next headed for Belmont, where he prepped for his long-awaited match race with Assault by dropping into a six-furlong overnight race. Unfortunately for Armed, who was getting a tough enough task in being asked to drop back from ten furlongs, he caught a buzzsaw in the form of champion sprinter Polynesian. Polynesian won by two and a half lengths, but the Joneses were not unduly disturbed; Armed had been in the race primarily to sharpen his speed, and that goal was accomplished, defeat or no defeat.

The match race took place on September 27. It was the publicity event of the year, but it was a sad anticlimax as far as actual racing went. Assault was well known to be suffering from splint trouble – so much so that Belmont Park called all bets off on the match – and though he tried gamely, in the end he cracked to finish eight lengths behind Armed. Armed himself had suffered a slight injury during the race, nicking a quarter of one hoof while in the starting gate, but did not seem to be much affected, and the purse for the race pushed him to within easy striking distance of Whirlaway’s world record for lifetime earnings.

Armed got the record in his next race, the Sysonby Mile, and also had the satisfaction of defeating his old foe With Pleasure in their seventh and final meeting. Since their clashes in Chicago, With Pleasure had since come east to take the historic Vosburgh Handicap and was given level weight with Armed for the Sysonby but proved unequal to the task. Armed won by a little over a length and picked up the title of world’s leading money-winning Thoroughbred in October, though he held the title for only sixteen days before being passed by Stymie.

Armed started once more in 1947, finishing third to his stablemate Fervent in the Pimlico Special, but since the purse was winner-take-all, he did not add to his earnings. The Special was unique for Armed in another respect: not only was it the first time since the Santa Anita Handicap that Armed had failed to bring back a check for his effort, but it was the first loss Armed had suffered all season in which he was not conceding weight to his conquerors.

At year’s end, Armed was the season’s leading money winner with $378,325 and was a unanimous choice as champion handicap male, his second consecutive title in the division. The only horse who could have seriously challenged Armed for Horse of the Year honors was champion three-year-old male Phalanx, but Phalanx did not face the older champion during the season, leaving Armed in sole possession of the overall title. Armed became the first gelding to secure the title of Horse of the Year since voting began for championships in 1936 and was the third Calumet runner (following Whirlaway in 1941 and 1942 and Twilight Tear in 1944) to attain racing’s highest honor.

Armed continued racing through the age of nine, but the wear and tear of three tough campaigns had taken a toll on him. Athough he placed in good races at ages seven and eight, he never won another stakes event after age six. He ran his last race at Gulfstream Park in March of 1950 and finally retired with forty-one victories, twenty seconds, and ten thirds from eighty-one starts. He had set or equaled nine track records during his career and was the world’s leading money-winning gelding at the time of his retirement.

Armed was elected to the Racing Hall of Fame in 1943 and died on May 5, 1964, four days past his actual twenty-third birthday. He was buried in Calumet Farm’s famous equine cemetery, not far from the pastures where he had spent his years as a pensioner. Never known for the charisma of a Whirlaway or the magnificent ability of a Citation, he nonetheless impressed his own special quality on those lucky enough to see him race: as Jimmy Jones said of him in later years, “What a dead game racehorse he was!”

© 2005 by Avalyn Hunter