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Marriage
Bred by C. T. Grayson, the handsome, blaze-faced light golden chestnut who would be named Marriage sold at auction as a two-year-old of 1938 for $5300 but could win only one small race in ten starts and did not improve at three. Away from the races throughout his four-year-old season, he returned to the track at five as a gelding – obviously with no great expectations, for he made his first start of the season in a $1000 claimer, won, and was claimed. He made his next start in a $1,400 claimer, won again, and was claimed by Hirsch Jacobs, a master at spotting potential in the claiming ranks. Marriage won six straight races for Jacobs but then went on a four-race losing streak and was entered in the Long Island Claiming Stakes. It was a rare lapse in judgment for the normally astute Jacobs, who was said to have bitterly regretted risking the horse. He certainly had reason for regret, for Marriage won and was claimed by R. A. Coward for $5,000. For the remainder of his career, Marriage was co-owned by Coward and C. L. Dupuy. Coward had once been a successful furniture dealer in Dallas, Texas. But he started dabbling in horse racing, and fell so much in love with the sport that he gave up his furniture business to become a “gyp” trainer – that is, a trainer who travels from tack to track, generally with only a small string of horses. He had developed a reputation of being a cagey horseman on the New England circuit and, like Hirsch, had an eye for a horse that could improve. Unlike Hirsch, he never risked Marriage in a claimer. Instead, he took Marriage to California, where the horse won the Marchbank Handicap at 1-1/8 miles. That concluded Marriage’s five-year-old season with twelve wins from nineteen starts, including two stakes victories. Marriage had made a great improvement at five in rising from the lowest level of claiming races to a stakes performer. But Coward was nothing if not ambitious for the handsome gelding, and was pointing the horse towards the Santa Anita Handicap when the southern California race meetings were cancelled thanks to wartime conditions. Perhaps it was as well, for Marriage was a light-framed horse who could not be trained heavily and generally took some time to come back to his best form after a break. Taken to Oaklawn Park and then Jamaica, he turned in losing efforts at both tracks before winning his first race of the season, a $3,500 overnight handicap. Although Marriage needed time to find his best form, once he did so, he showed a consistency rare in the handicap ranks then or now. In his next start, the Grey Lag Handicap, he caught a muddy track (which he favored) and defeated the top stayer Market Wise by three lengths, albeit while getting sixteen pounds. He then ran second by a head in the Inaugural Handicap at Detroit and won an overnight race over the good stakes horse Best Seller the following week. Turf racing was a new innovation in the United States in 1942, but Marriage took to it like an old pro, winning the Grasslands Handicap at Chicago in new American record time of 2:02-4/5 for 1-1/4 miles on turf. Back on the dirt, he next won a mile overnight race as a tuneup for the Washington Park Handicap, in which he would face the year‘s champion three-year-old, Alsab. In what was probably the finest effort of his career, he won, defeating Alsab by a length, though in fairness to Alsab it must be pointed out that he was both conceding weight and only just coming back into form off a layoff. Nonetheless, it was a huge victory for a former $1,000 claimer. From there, Marriage went to Belmont Park, where he set a track record of 1:48-1/5 for 1-1/8 miles in a handicap. After that, he appeared to go off form and registered several losing efforts before being given a rest. Marriage made his last start of 1942 on December 12 and his first start of 1943 in February 22, when he appeared at the Fair Grounds. He ran like a “short” horse in that first race and tired at the finish, causing the bettors to dismiss him at odds of 37-1 for his next start, the New Orleans Handicap. They should have known better. Although the field contained such handicap stars as Requested, Riverland, Mioland, and Rounders, Marriage not only won but equaled the Fair Grounds track record for nine furlongs. The race was no fluke, for Marriage defeated Mioland again in March in the American Handicap, when he stood off a hard stretch drive to win by a nose. He then ran second to Devil Diver in the Carter and Metropolitan handicaps, ran third in the Stars and Stripes Handicap, and won the Arlington Handicap. His only other stakes win that year was in the Des Plaines Handicap, but he placed in the Washington Park and Excelsior handicaps, and his earnings of $86,875 led the handicap division. At eight, Marriage won his second consecutive New Orleans Handicap, a feat that later earned him induction into the Fair Grounds Hall of Fame. He also won the Coral Gables Handicap and ran third in the Tropical Park Handicap. However, he went off form later in the year and was never able to win another stakes, though he raced through the age of ten. The former $1,000 claimer retired having won thirty-five of ninety-nine races for winnings of $216,090. © 2005 by Avalyn Hunter |
