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Native Diver
He never won a national championship. He lost more races than he won. And he never won outside the state of California; in fact, he only started once outside the state. But few horses -- and, for that matter, few humans -- have ever appealed to California racing fans like a near-black, sickle-hocked fireball named Native Diver. A free-wheeling front runner with the speed of a top sprinter and the stamina to go America’s classic distance of a mile and a quarter, the Diver won the hearts of fans and broke the hearts of horses foolish enough to go head to head with him at one and the same time. Native Diver hardly seemed destined for greatness. His sire, Imbros, had blazing speed, setting a world record for one and one-sixteenth miles in the 1954 Californian Stakes and another for seven furlongs in the 1954 Malibu Sequet Stakes, but was far from a top-class sire. As for the Diver’s dam, Fleet Diver, the best that could be said for her was that she was the mount on which Hall of Fame jockey Johnny Longden reached the 4,000-win mark. Other than that, the daughter of champion handicap male Devil Diver and the good stakes filly Our Fleet was merely a cheap claimer, running for a tag of $3,500 when she was acquired by Mr. and Mrs. L. K. Shapiro in January 1954 as a prospective broodmare. Fleet Diver did nothing to redeem the investment her first two years in the paddocks, coming up barren in 1955 and 1956. Things looked a bit better in 1957, when she produced the El Drag gelding Salvager, who ran second in the Man o’ War Handicap at three and ended up winning eighteen of 130 starts. She was not covered that year, so 1958 marked the third of four years that she did not produce a foal for the Shapiros. But the next year she struck gold, producing Native Diver. Fleet Diver would produce five more foals despite frequent barrenness, but she would never again scale the heights she had reached with her second son. Native Diver displayed an extremely fractious temperament even as a youngster, injuring his back as a yearling through his impetuous behavior. For the rest of his life, he would run with his head held unusually high to accommodate the injury, a posture that made him all the flashier. But at the time, it merely demonstrated how unmanageable the colt was. He also showed evidence that he was suffering interference in his hind-leg action due to the positioning of his testicles, and the horse was gelded in the hopes of both relieving him from pain caused by the interference and calming him down somewhat. The operation may have made him trainable, but it certainly did not make him quiet. Although trainer Buster Millerick later remembered him as a kindly animal around the barn, on the track racegoers watched the gelding as much for his antics before and after a race as for the race itself. Whether it was indulging in a little playful capering or stopping short in the post parade to pose for the crowd, one never knew what the Diver might do next. A stakes winner every year he raced, Native Diver showed blazing speed right from the start, and he seemed to get better with every year. Six must have been his lucky number, for he set or equaled six track records for distances ranging from six to nine furlongs, carried 130 pounds or more to win six times, and became only the second horse to win stakes races at all six of California’s major racetracks (Santa Anita, Hollywood, Del Mar, Golden Gate, Bay Meadows, and Tanforan -- the last-named now defunct). The Diver did not make his first start until September 27, 1961, at Bay Meadows. Shooting straight to the front, he blitzed a field of maidens by seven and a half lengths, took a six-furlong overnight by ten, and then stepped up to stakes company in the El Camino Handicap, another six-furlong event. The track came up muddy, but Native Diver didn’t seem to notice and won by nearly seven lengths. He was unable to make the transition when asked to stretch his speed over more than six furlongs, however, and he finished the year being regarded as just another promising sprinter. Native Diver indeed proved a good sprinter as a three-year-old, setting a new track record of 1:08-2/5 at Bay Meadows while winning the six-furlong Hillsdale Handicap. But he was beginning to show some evidence that he might be more than just a six-furlong speedball by the end of the season, winning over as much as one and one-sixteenth miles. His major victories included the Malibu Stakes and the Debonair Stakes, and his form was good enough for the Daily Racing Form to award him a weighting of 121 pounds on its Free Handicap at the end of the year. Continuing to show improved maturity, Native Diver won five stakes as a four-year-old, including three at one and one-sixteenth miles. Although he still went for the early lead whenever possible, he was developing the ability to pace himself, an ability enhanced by a change of jockey. Ralph Neves, who had ridden the gelding since his juvenile season, retired in mid-1963, and the Diver’s next partner was Jerry Lambert, who rode him in forty-two races all told. Lambert quickly learned that the best way to ride Native Diver was to take only a very light hold on the reins – just enough to have contact with the horse’s mouth – and otherwise to sit still and let the Diver do his thing. The formula worked, for at five Native Diver won six more stakes and showed enough stamina to run third in the Hollywood Gold Cup at a mile and a quarter. Most racehorses begin to show signs of wear and tear by age six, but Native Diver continued to improve. He won seven stakes races that year, highlighted by two exceptional performances. In the Los Angeles Handicap, he was hooked in the stretch by the high-class sprinter Viking Spirit – a winner of six stakes that year, including the historic Carter Handicap --and dug in to win by a neck in a world record time of 1:20 for the seven furlongs. His other top race was the Hollywood Gold Cup, in which he started an even-money favorite despite persistent doubts about his ability to stay the distance. Starting as the topweight under 124 pounds, Native Diver silenced the doubters by killing off his field with a sizzling six furlongs in 1:08-4/5, then coasting the remaining half-mile to win by five lengths in 2:00-1/5. In his wake were that year’s champion turf male, Hill Rise, and the classy South African import *Colorado King, who had won the Gold Cup the previous year Native Diver’s record was more uneven in 1966. After running tenth in the San Carlos Handicap, he bounced back to win the San Pasqual Handicap and the San Bernardino Handicap, equaling the nine-furlong track record under 130 pounds in the latter. But he could do no better than third in the Santa Anita Handicap and then turned in lackluster efforts in three straight stakes before popping up for a six-length victory in the Inglewood Handicap at Hollywood Park. A month later, he won the Hollywood Gold Cup for the second time, this time carrying 126 pounds and running the distance in 2:00 flat. Other stars had been foaled in 1959 – the tough three-time champion filly Cicada, the Kentucky Derby winner Decidedly, the champion colts Jaipur and Ridan, and the grass champion Mongo -- but they had all long since retired by the time they became eight-year-olds in 1967. Not Native Diver, who scorched his way to six more stakes victories including his third consecutive Hollywood Gold Cup. His record would have been better still if it were not for the fine four-year-old Pretense, who was coming into his full powers that year and defeated the Diver in five of their seven meetings, but in the Gold Cup, Native Diver would not be denied. All alone at the top of the stretch except for *O’Hara (who had lost his rider), Native Diver flew through the lane with nothing more than his own competitive fires driving him and crossed the wire in 1:58-4/5 – the third-fastest ten furlongs ever to that date. Native Diver seemed better than ever, but on September 4 – Labor Day – he made his last start in the Del Mar Handicap. Carrying 130 pounds, he had no real challenge but the clock and beat even that, setting a new track record for the nine furlongs. The only oddity of his performance came after the race, when Lambert had to coax him away from heading for the barn instead of strutting into the winner’s circle in his usual high-headed style. Perhaps the Diver knew something that he could not tell his jockey, for while in transit from Del Mar to Bay Meadows a week later, he developed a violent colic. He was taken to the veterinary clinic at the University of California at Davis, where he fought desperately for life. But he was not to win this final victory; at 7:00 A.M. on the morning of September 13, 1967, Native Diver passed under the last wire. An autopsy following his death revealed a twisted intestine and ruptured stomach. Fittingly, the son of Imbros was buried at Hollywood Park, near the grandstand where the sound of his name had so often shaken the air, and a monument depicting his three Hollywood Gold Cup victories was erected in his memory. Native Diver ended his career with thirty-seven wins, seven seconds, and twelve thirds from eighty-one starts. Twenty-one of his victories were in stakes events, and he became the first California-bred to exceed one million dollars in earnings, accomplishments which earned him election to the Racing Hall of Fame in 1978. © 2005 by Avalyn Hunter |
