On This Date....

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The best way to sum up Foolish Pleasure's 3-year-old debut is to place it in the category of "What If They Held a Race and No One Came?" For whatever reason, the Pari-Mutuel Division of the Board of Business Regulation ordered that the $7,600 betless allowance race not be included in the Hialeah program. Instead, it was run in virtual secrecy about an hour before the first race in front of a smattering of fans. Even worse was that the fans watching didn't know whom they were watching until hearing the call of the race.

Foolish Pleasure, the unbeaten champion 2-year-old male of the previous year, won as expected under Jacinto Vasquez, beating Ambassador's Image by 4 1/4 lengths, with Circle Home in third in the three-horse field. The time, 1:21 2/5 for the seven furlongs, was two-fifths of a second off the track record. It was victory No. 8 for J.L. Greer's colt by What a Pleasure.

Trained by LeRoy Jolley, Foolish Pleasure ended up winning the Kentucky Derby (gr. I) and ran second in the Preakness (gr. I) and Belmont (gr. I) Stakes.

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