Of all the horses that have made their mark at Saratoga Race Course | BloodHorse.com Track Profile">Saratoga Race Course over the course of the racetrack's 150-plus years of horse racing, one horse became synonymous with the historic upstate New York venue more than any other.
That horse was Fourstardave, "The Sultan of Saratoga." The track will host its annual tribute to Fourstardave in the form of his namesake, the Aug. 2 Fourstardave Stakes (G1T).
For a period of nearly a decade starting in 1987, the blue-collar turf gelding took to the track at Saratoga every summer and won at least one race at the Spa every year for a streak of eight consecutive years. During that time, his celebrity grew each year until he reached living legend status. Crowds packed the track whenever he ran, and the masses followed his every move like paparazzi descending upon celebrities on the red carpet.
Have there been better horses to race at Saratoga these many years? Sure, but no horse ever captured the imagination of Saratoga's on-track fans more than Fourstardave. He showed up every year and always delivered at least one crowd-pleasing win from 1987 to 1994.
Fourstardave's career ended in 1995 with a lifetime record of exactly 100 starts with 21 wins, 18 seconds, and 16 thirds and earnings of more than $1.6 million. Nine of his lifetime victories came at Saratoga, with six stakes wins, including back-to-back wins in 1990-91 in the Daryl's Joy Stakes (G3T), the race that NYRA in 1995 renamed the Fourstardave. The race was held in his honor for the first time the following season and has since been upgraded to grade 1 status.
Fourstardave was bred and owned in part by Richard Bomze, a native New Yorker who was known for being the publisher of the American Turf Monthly horse racing magazine and the American Turf Club weekly fit and ready horses to watch newsletter, and the Sports Reporter, a sports betting handicapping tip sheet more commonly known as "The Blue Sheet."
Bomze bought Fourstardave's dam (mother), Broadway Joan, for $2,500 and she went on not only to produce Fourstardave but also his full brother Fourstars Allstar, another stakes-winning millionaire who became the first United States-trained horse to win a European classic when he won the Irish Two Thousand Guineas (G1) in 1991. Bomze was voted the New York Thoroughbred Breeders outstanding breeder three times and later became the president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association in 1999.
Fourstardave's legacy lives on in several ways to this day, mainly because of Bomze's legacy which Fourstardave helped build. First and foremost, there's the race, the Fourstardave Stakes. There is also a "street" in Saratoga named Fourstardave Way. It's actually less of a street and more of a driveway off Lincoln Avenue that leads into the famous backyard of Siro's Restaurant, where throngs of thirsty racing fans enter to keep the party going after a day at the races. Go get your picture taken next to the street sign and then go to Siro's and raise a glass to Saratoga's favorite New York-bred turf gelding.
Fourstardave's legacy also lives on through the American Turf Club weekly fit and ready horses to watch newsletter, which is the final remnant of Bomze's venerable old racing publishing business that still exists to this day. The magazine had a 72-year history from 1946 until 2018. Bomze passed away at age 2014 at age 76. His old friends Allen and Lobat Hakim from Long Island took over publishing duties after his death and have valiantly maintained the newsletter for horse racing fans ever since.
The final, and perhaps most meaningful, way Fourstardave's legacy lives on is with the Belmont Park Child Care Association, of which Bomze was a founding member in December 1998. The Belmont Child Care Association under board chairman Michael Dubb later opened Anna House, which has since continually expanded and been recognized as the horse racing industry's leading backstretch child care provider and early childhood education center.
So, when the field of grade 1 turf horses enters the starting gate Aug. 2 for the Fourstardave Stakes, take a moment to reflect on how the race got its name and how Fourstardave made his mark on Saratoga Race Course and beyond.
