A man never at a loss for words, master of ceremonies Tom Durkin kept it simple Aug. 6 as he opened the 2021 induction ceremony for the National Racing Museum Hall of Fame in the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
"All I can say is, 'Welcome back.'"
This year's ceremony did double duty, honoring both 2020 and 2021 inductees, as last year's induction was postponed as a result of the restriction on large gatherings because of the coronavirus pandemic.
During the course of the two-hour ceremony, three horses, three Pillars of the Turf, and three trainers were inducted into a Hall of Fame that looks very different from the one previous honorees joined.
Following a renovation estimated to cost $20 million, the Museum and Hall of Fame reopened in September 2020, offering visitors an interactive experience rather than the static plaques that formerly detailed inductees' accomplishments. This year's ceremony featured a promotional video that highlighted the new user-initiated exploration in which visitors can select the name of a trainer, jockey, or horse and access accomplishments and race video on demand.
The 2020 induction class comprises racehorses Wise Dan and Tom Bowling, jockey Darrel McHargue, trainer Mark Casse, and Pillars of the Turf selections Alice Headley Chandler, J. Keene Daingerfield Jr., and George D. Widener Jr. The 2021 induction class comprises the 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah and trainers Todd Pletcher and Jack Fisher.
One might think that the induction of the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years would have been the standout moment of the morning, but owners Aron Yagoda and Mike Repole stole the show, introducing Casse and Pletcher, respectively.
Yagoda recalled meeting Casse at the 1999 OBS April under tack show, when the trainer said to him, "I want to talk to you after the breeze show."
"I panicked," said Yagoda. "I thought, 'What did I do to upset this guy?'"
That meeting resulted in a decades-long relationship, culminating in Casse's request Yagoda introduce him.
As he had predicted in comments prior to the ceremony, Casse had barely begun speaking when he choked up, soldiering on until he began to talk about his parents, when he had to ask his wife Tina to take over for him.
Casse's father Norman had been a trainer, and the young Casse's passion for horse racing began early. When his parents decided to divorce, Casse's mother was planning to move back to Indiana from Florida, taking Mark with her.
"My dad said that he'd make sure that I'd get the Racing Form every day, and that he'd take me to the races every chance he could," Mark Casse wrote and Tina Casse read. "I asked my mom a simple question that would change the course of my life.
'Mom, do you truly love me?' She replied, 'With all my heart.' I then said, 'Mom, if you truly love me, you'll let me stay with Dad.'
"I knew that had to have killed her, but she granted me the truest sign of love by allowing me to stay on the farm. Who knows where I'd be today without her sacrifice?"
Recovering his composure, Casse went on to relate a conversation with his son Colby, who was 10 or 11 at the time, about his nomination for a Sovereign Award.
"Colby asked me, 'Do you think you have a chance (to win), Dad?' I said, 'Well, I think we have a pretty good chance, yeah.'
"He said, 'Yeah, Todd Pletcher doesn't run much in Canada,'" eliciting uproarious laughter from the audience, including Pletcher himself, sitting in the front row just in front of Casse, awaiting his own introduction and induction.
Repole and Pletcher teamed up in 2009 in a relationship that Repole characterized as "client to partner to friend to brother." Firing off one-liners at bullet-drill speed, he said that he'd gotten tired of sitting at racetracks and watching Pletcher's horses beat his, adding, "If you can't beat him, join him."
Lauding Pletcher as a father, husband, trainer, and stallion-maker, he pointed to the scratch of Uncle Mo from the 2011 Kentucky Derby as an exemplar of their relationship.
"We were more worried about each other than we were worried about ourselves," he said. "We know how much it meant to each other."
After accepting the blue jacket that is the symbol of Hall of Fame membership, Pletcher looked around the crowded pavilion and said, "So many of these guys were my heroes, role models, mentors, competitors. Jerry Bailey won my first race. Jose Santos lost my first race."
Absent from the ceremony and Saratoga for the first time in recent memory was the man credited by Pletcher for his success, fellow Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas.
"After I went out on my own, the most common question I'd get was, 'What is the one thing you learned working for Wayne Lukas?'" Pletcher said. "And the answer has evolved over the years … the answer is, there's not one thing. It's everything. Everything matters. Everyone matters. Every horse matters. Every owner matters."
He continued, "Not only do I consider him the greatest trainer of all time, but it was an all-star cast of assistant trainers as well. To learn from them—I feel like no one has been more influential in how I try to conduct my business than Wayne's son Jeff. Jeff was a detail-oriented person, he was driven, he was motivated, he was a skilled horseman. He had the unique ability to make those around him better, and there's no doubt in my mind that if he hadn't had a tragic accident, Jeff would have been inducted into the Hall of Fame years ago."
In 1993, Jeff Lukas suffered major physical and neurological injuries when Tabasco Cat, a Lukas trainee, got loose and ran into him. Lukas died in 2016.
Speaking on behalf of the horse he bred and bought back, Ahmed Zayat recalled the moments that stand out to him from American Pharoah's historic campaign.
"The voice of Larry (Collmus) saying, 'The waiting is finally over and American Pharoah is finally the one,'" said Zayat of the Belmont Stakes call that nailed the Triple Crown. "Looking at that crowd, that pure elation, that sight will always be in my heart."
He also recalled the morning that a reported 15,000 people turned up to see American Pharoah on a morning gallop, days before he was upset in the Travers Stakes.
Trainer Charlie LoPresti accepted the honor for Wise Dan on behalf of the Fink family; the two-time Horse of the Year was owned and bred by Morton Fink, who died in 2019.
"Wise Dan touched the hearts of a lot of people," said LoPresti. "My only regret is that Mr. Fink isn’t here to accept this, because he was so proud of this horse. He told me a number of times that Wise Dan was the only thing keeping him alive. He was a very sick man, and I think Wise Dan added a couple of years to his life. I thank him for the opportunity to have a horse like that."
The ceremony also acknowledged the Hall of Fame members who have recently died: jockeys Tommy Walsh, John Rotz, and Sam Boulmetis, and trainer Gary Jones.
