Before 1998, only a handful of horses where able to win a Breeders' Cup race in back to back years. Prestonwood Farm & Wallstreet Racing Stable's Da Hoss (Gone West) had won the 1996 Mile at Woodbine and had participated in the 1995 Sprint. Injuries forced him to skip the 1997 Mile which was won by Spinning World (Nureyev) who Da Hoss had defeated the previous year.
Da Hoss was ready to run in the 1998 edition at Churchill Downs and had only one race in-between the races at Colonial. He was would be facing a nice field that included the 1997 BC Juvenile winner and Horse of the Year Favorite Trick (Phone Trick), Europe's superstar Desert Prince (IRE) (Green Desert), 1995 Arlington Million winner Labeeb (GB) (Lear Fan) who was coming off a win in the Woodbine Mile, as well as Among Men (Zilzal) who was being ridden by Gary Stevens who rode Da Hoss in his 96 win.
Now being ridded by John Velazquez, Da Hoss was for most of the race sitting around sixth. In the stretch, it looked like that San Francisco Mile winner Hawksley Hill (IRE) (Rahy) came from 14th to duel with Da Hoss. The former briefly got the lead, but the latter was able to come back to win his second Mile win. Labeeb finished third.
Replay:
This gave more meaning to his trainer Michael Dickerson's nickname "The Mad Genius". Da Hoss now lives at Kentucky Horse Park in their Hall of Champions with 95 Classic winner Cigar, 03 and 04 Classic participant Funny Cide, 94 Classic participant Go For Gin.
(Notes: Also in the race was Cape Cross (IRE) whose daughter Ouija Board (GB) would follow in Da Hoss' footsteps in winning non-consecutive BC races (F/M Turf), Dickerson would go onto train Tapit who is the sire of Juvenile (male and female) winners Hansen and Stardom Bound.)
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