Dancer's Image
Encyclopedia
Dancer's Image was an American
Thoroughbred
racehorse
who is the only winner in the history of the Kentucky Derby
to have been disqualified. Owned and bred by businessman Peter Fuller, the son of former Massachusetts Governor
Alvan T. Fuller
, the colt was trained
by Lou Cavalaris, Jr. and ridden in the Derby by jockey
Bobby Ussery
.
s in Maryland
and at Woodbine Racetrack
in Ontario
, Canada
. At age three, in the lead up to the 1968 U.S. Triple Crown
races, he won several more races including the important Grade I Wood Memorial Stakes
. However, for the Kentucky Derby he was a second choice among bettors to Calumet Farm's
Florida Derby
and Blue Grass Stakes
winner, Forward Pass
. Plagued by sore ankles, on the Sunday prior to the Derby, the handlers of Dancer's Image had a veterinarian
give him a phenylbutazone
tablet, a pain killer commonly used to relieve inflammation of the joints which was legal at many race tracks in the United States but not at Churchill Downs
. However, it was still a legitimate practice as the medication would dissipate from the horse's system during the six days before the Derby. Phenylbutazone is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug and in 2010 is one of the most commonly used medications in horse racing. By 1986, Phenylbutazone was so commonly used that in the 1986 Kentucky Derby, thirteen of the sixteen horses entered were running on the pain-killer.
Forty years after the disqualification, owner Peter Fuller still believes he was a victim of a set up, due to his being a wealthy civil rights sympathizer from Boston
who offended the Kentucky racing aristocracy by donating Dancer's $62,000 prize for a previous victory to Coretta Scott King
two days after her husband's murder.
. Second place finisher Forward Pass was declared the winner. The controversy filled the sporting news of every media outlet in North America
and was the cover story for Sports Illustrated
magazine who referred to it as the sports story of the year. Owner Peter Fuller and the horse's handlers believed someone else may have been motivated to give the colt another dose of the drug and filed an appeal of the disqualification.
The Kentucky State Racing Commission examined the matter and ordered distribution of the purse with first money to Forward Pass. However, owner Peter Fuller took legal action and in December of 1970 a Kentucky Court awarded first-place money to Dancer's Image. That decision was overturned on appeal in April 1972, by Kentucky's highest court in Kentucky State Racing Comm'n v. Fuller, 481 S.W. 2d 298 (Ky. 1972).
As at 2008, the Churchill Downs media guide for the Derby includes the official chart showing Dancer's Image as the winner. Controversy and speculation still surround the incident even today and the New York Times calls the ruling the "most controversial decision in all of Triple Crown racing."
Dancer's Image ran in the 1968 Preakness Stakes
, finishing third to Forward Pass. Unfortunately, he was disqualified again and set back to eighth place, this time for bumping the horse Martins Jig. Continued ankle problems resulted in Dancer's Image being retired after the race and was syndicated and sent to stand at stud at the Maryland
division of Windfields Farm
. Eventually his owners sold the colt and in 1974 he was sent to breeders in Ireland
then in 1979 to Haras du Quesnay
at Deauville
, France
owned by renowned breeder
Alec Head
. Dancer's Image was later sent to stand at stud in Japan
, where he died at age 27 on December 26, 1992.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Thoroughbred
Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...
racehorse
Horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
who is the only winner in the history of the Kentucky Derby
Kentucky Derby
The Kentucky Derby is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses, held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is one and a quarter mile at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry...
to have been disqualified. Owned and bred by businessman Peter Fuller, the son of former Massachusetts Governor
Governor of Massachusetts
The Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the executive magistrate of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. The current governor is Democrat Deval Patrick.-Constitutional role:...
Alvan T. Fuller
Alvan T. Fuller
Alvan Tufts Fuller was a United States Representative from Massachusetts. He became one of the wealthiest men in America, with an automobile dealership which in 1920 was recognized as "the world's most successful auto dealership." He was elected a member of the Massachusetts House of...
, the colt was trained
Horse trainer
In horse racing, a trainer prepares a horse for races, with responsibility for exercising it, getting it race-ready and determining which races it should enter...
by Lou Cavalaris, Jr. and ridden in the Derby by jockey
Jockey
A jockey is an athlete who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing.-Etymology:...
Bobby Ussery
Bobby Ussery
Robert Nelson "Bobby" Ussery is a retired American thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame jockey. His first race as a professional jockey came at Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans on November 22, 1951 where he rode Reticule to victory in the Thanksgiving Handicap. By the end of the decade...
.
Racing history
At age two, Dancer's Image won graded stakes raceGraded stakes race
A graded stakes race is a term applied since 1973 by the American Graded Stakes Committee of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association to thoroughbred horse races in the United States and Canada to describe races that derive their name from the stake, or entry fee, owners must pay...
s in Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
and at Woodbine Racetrack
Woodbine Racetrack
Woodbine Racetrack is a Canadian racetrack for Thoroughbred horse races located at 555 Rexdale Blvd. in the city of Toronto, Ontario. It is the only horseracing track in North America which stages, or is capable of staging, thoroughbred and standardbred horseracing programs on the same day...
in Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. At age three, in the lead up to the 1968 U.S. Triple Crown
Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing
The Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing consists of three races for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses. Winning all three of these Thoroughbred horse races is considered the greatest accomplishment of a Thoroughbred racehorse...
races, he won several more races including the important Grade I Wood Memorial Stakes
Wood Memorial Stakes
The Wood Memorial Stakes is an American flat Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds held annually at Aqueduct Racetrack in Jamaica, New York. It is currently a Grade I race run over a distance of 9 furlongs on dirt....
. However, for the Kentucky Derby he was a second choice among bettors to Calumet Farm's
Calumet Farm
Calumet Farm is a Thoroughbred breeding and training farm established in 1924 in Lexington, Kentucky, United States by William Monroe Wright, founding owner of the Calumet Baking Powder Company. Calumet is located in the heart of Lexington's blue grass country, the finest horse breeding region in...
Florida Derby
Florida Derby
The Florida Derby is an American Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-old horses held annually at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida on the Saturday closest to the end of March or the first of April. Added to the racing schedule in 1952, the Grade 1 race is run at 1⅛ miles on the dirt...
and Blue Grass Stakes
Blue Grass Stakes
The Toyota Blue Grass Stakes, currently sponsored by the Toyota Motor Corporation, is an American Grade 1 horse race for 3-year-old Thoroughbreds held annually in mid April at Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington, Kentucky....
winner, Forward Pass
Forward Pass (horse)
Forward Pass was an American Thoroughbred Champion racehorse who is the only horse in the history of the Kentucky Derby to have been declared the winner as the result of a disqualification....
. Plagued by sore ankles, on the Sunday prior to the Derby, the handlers of Dancer's Image had a veterinarian
Veterinarian
A veterinary physician, colloquially called a vet, shortened from veterinarian or veterinary surgeon , is a professional who treats disease, disorder and injury in animals....
give him a phenylbutazone
Phenylbutazone
Phenylbutazone, often referred to as bute, is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug for the short-term treatment of pain and fever in animals. In the United States, it is no longer approved for human use.-In humans:...
tablet, a pain killer commonly used to relieve inflammation of the joints which was legal at many race tracks in the United States but not at Churchill Downs
Churchill Downs
Churchill Downs, located in Central Avenue in south Louisville, Kentucky, United States, is a Thoroughbred racetrack most famous for hosting the Kentucky Derby annually. It officially opened in 1875, and held the first Kentucky Derby and the first Kentucky Oaks in the same year. Churchill Downs...
. However, it was still a legitimate practice as the medication would dissipate from the horse's system during the six days before the Derby. Phenylbutazone is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug and in 2010 is one of the most commonly used medications in horse racing. By 1986, Phenylbutazone was so commonly used that in the 1986 Kentucky Derby, thirteen of the sixteen horses entered were running on the pain-killer.
Forty years after the disqualification, owner Peter Fuller still believes he was a victim of a set up, due to his being a wealthy civil rights sympathizer from Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
who offended the Kentucky racing aristocracy by donating Dancer's $62,000 prize for a previous victory to Coretta Scott King
Coretta Scott King
Coretta Scott King was an American author, activist, and civil rights leader. The widow of Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King helped lead the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.Mrs...
two days after her husband's murder.
1968 Kentucky Derby
Dancer's Image won the 1968 Kentucky Derby but was disqualified to last after traces of phenylbutazone were discovered in the mandatory post-race urinalysisUrinalysis
A urinalysis , also known as Routine and Microscopy , is an array of tests performed on urine, and one of the most common methods of medical diagnosis...
. Second place finisher Forward Pass was declared the winner. The controversy filled the sporting news of every media outlet in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and was the cover story for Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
magazine who referred to it as the sports story of the year. Owner Peter Fuller and the horse's handlers believed someone else may have been motivated to give the colt another dose of the drug and filed an appeal of the disqualification.
The Kentucky State Racing Commission examined the matter and ordered distribution of the purse with first money to Forward Pass. However, owner Peter Fuller took legal action and in December of 1970 a Kentucky Court awarded first-place money to Dancer's Image. That decision was overturned on appeal in April 1972, by Kentucky's highest court in Kentucky State Racing Comm'n v. Fuller, 481 S.W. 2d 298 (Ky. 1972).
As at 2008, the Churchill Downs media guide for the Derby includes the official chart showing Dancer's Image as the winner. Controversy and speculation still surround the incident even today and the New York Times calls the ruling the "most controversial decision in all of Triple Crown racing."
Dancer's Image ran in the 1968 Preakness Stakes
Preakness Stakes
The Preakness Stakes is an American flat Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds held on the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a Grade I race run over a distance of 9.5 furlongs on dirt. Colts and geldings carry 126 pounds ; fillies 121 lb...
, finishing third to Forward Pass. Unfortunately, he was disqualified again and set back to eighth place, this time for bumping the horse Martins Jig. Continued ankle problems resulted in Dancer's Image being retired after the race and was syndicated and sent to stand at stud at the Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
division of Windfields Farm
Windfields Farm
Windfields Farm is a six square kilometre thoroughbred horse breeding farm founded by businessman E. P. Taylor in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. The first stable and breeding operation of E. P. Taylor originated with a property near the city of Toronto known as Parkwood Stable when it was owned by...
. Eventually his owners sold the colt and in 1974 he was sent to breeders in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
then in 1979 to Haras du Quesnay
Haras du Quesnay
Haras du Quesnay, known as "Le Quesnay", is a thoroughbred horse breeding farm in France about four miles outside the city of Deauville on 3 km², established in 1907 by wealthy American sportsman William Kissam Vanderbilt. He sold the property to another American horseman, A. Kingsley Macomber,...
at Deauville
Deauville
Deauville is a commune in the Calvados département in the Basse-Normandie region in northwestern France.With its racecourse, harbour, international film festival, marinas, conference centre, villas, Grand Casino and sumptuous hotels, Deauville is regarded as the "queen of the Norman beaches" and...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
owned by renowned breeder
Horse breeding
Horse breeding is reproduction in horses, and particularly the human-directed process of selective breeding of animals, particularly purebred horses of a given breed. Planned matings can be used to produce specifically desired characteristics in domesticated horses...
Alec Head
Alec Head
Alec Head was a prominent French horseman and breeder and the owner of Haras du Quesnay near Deauville. A descendant of the great trainers who founded the English Racing Colony in Chantilly, Oise, Head's grandfather was a jockey-turned-trainer, as was his father William Head who was a very...
. Dancer's Image was later sent to stand at stud in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, where he died at age 27 on December 26, 1992.