Personal Ensign: Thoroughbred Legend

Traditionally’s dam Personal Ensign achieved ‘legend’ status in the USA. Undefeated in 13 starts, 8 at Gp 1 level, Champion USA filly 1987, Champion USA mare 1988, American Broodmare Of The Year 1996. Personal Ensign was enshrined in the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Racing in Saratoga Springs, NY, in her first year of eligibility, 1993.

Personal Ensign began her racecareer winning a maiden by 13 lengths. While preparing for the Gr.1 Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies, she broke her leg in two places. Five screws required insertion to keep the bone intact. To return from an injury that would have ended the career of most racehorses signifies the great character and determination Personal Ensign displayed throughout her career. Her ‘great will’ combined with her exceptional talent set the scene for some of America’s greatest moments on the racetrack.

Bill Heller author of Personal Ensign: Thoroughbred Legend had this to say of Personal Ensign.

'Undefeated' is a unique accomplishment on any horse’s resume. It means overcoming poor racing luck or poor trips or days when you were not at your best.

No filly or mare ever overcame a potential career-ending injury to continue and complete a perfect record as Personal Ensign did. Just as Secretariat’s defining moment came in the 1973 Belmont Stakes — when his 31-length, world record victory stamped his greatness for all time — Personal Ensign’s defining moment was the final sixteenth of a mile in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff against Kentucky Derby heroine Winning Colors. Getting up in time to win the final race of her career ensured Personal Ensign’s greatness would also be remembered forever.

Author Ron Hale takes us through his own experience in witnessing Personal Ensigns ‘defining moment.’

The Phipps owned filly came to Churchill Downs with seven Grade I wins under her belt and 12 wins in 12 lifetime starts. She had a chance to become the first American Thoroughbred champion in 80 years to retire undefeated. (Hall of Fame member Colin was the last in 1907-1908.)

There were nine horses in the fifth running of the Breeders' Cup Distaff in 1988. Only three were given any chance of victory: Personal Ensign (2-5 on the morning line); Eugene Klein's Kentucky Derby heroine Winning Colors (3-to-1 entry with Classic Crown); and Arthur Hancock's Goodbye Halo (5-to-1).

Personal Ensign was 1-to-2 when the starter pressed the button. As expected, Winning Colors did what she liked best -- set the pace as she did successfully six months earlier at Churchill Downs in the most famous of all American races. When the race was over, Winning Color's trainer D. Wayne Lukas would say that his filly ran the best race of her career in the Distaff.

Loping along in front, Winning Colors was loving the sloppy track on that dark, damp, cold Louisville day. Personal Ensign, disliking the track, appeared out of the race. Her rider, Randy Romero, told the late historian Jim Bolus that Personal Ensign 'wasn't handling the track that day -- she just couldn't get a hold of it.'

As the field turned into the stretch, Winning Colors was skimming the rail far in front. The largest crowd to ever witness a Breeders' Cup began to search for the black-and-red silks of the undefeated filly. She looked hopelessly out of it as she came wide into the stretch. Romero got her to switch leads and she began her relentless pursuit of the frontrunner. Suddenly in mid-stretch, Goodbye Halo veered out from heavy whipping and Personal Ensign was forced to alter course.

By now, with only 110 yards to go, Personal Ensign was running out of room and time. As Perry Lefko wrote in 'The Greatest Show on Turf' (DRF Press, 1996), 'it would require an effort for the ages' for Personal Ensign to get up.

In a race reminiscent of the great Forego's unbelievable come-from-behind win under 137 pounds over Honest Pleasure 12 years earlier in the Marlboro Cup (Gr I), the undefeated filly was not about to suffer her lone loss. Digging down deep and finding the strength and courage that is the hallmark of the Thoroughbred, Personal Ensign used every inch of the 1,234-1/2 foot Churchill Downs' stretch to get up in the final jump.

Those of us who stood on the old wooden planks of Churchill Downs' third floor boxes will never forget that moment in time. Personally, it was one of the few times in all my years of following this sport that I would have to fight back tears of joy. I remember immediately walking down the few steps to the main center walkway and pacing up and down waiting for the photo sign to come down. I was certain she had won. That's not why I was pacing. I was pacing because I was hyperventilating. I had a lump in my throat the size of a golf ball. And I was trying to keep those around me from seeing the tears.

The long history of Thoroughbred racing in America is dotted here and there with those defining moments which ensure that the sport -- in whatever form -- will go on forever as long as there are people who remember. The finish of that 6th race at Churchill Downs on November 5, 1988 was one of those rare moments.  Author Ron Hale 

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