Pure Racehorse…Recalling Holy Bull

Real Writing on Racing 💯

Jan 14, 2023

While perusing the internet the other day, I came across a series of posts about the great racehorse Holy Bull, made by a friend of the Going in Circles Media group, the ubiquitous Doug Salvatore. Mr. Salvatore is a seasonal jockey agent, part-time gambler, full-time boss of Erie, PA and likely the least politically correct person in the racing sphere. However he has a great sense of history and understanding of the game and his recollections of Holy Bull, (spurred on by the inability to find his lost “glow-in-the-dark” Holy Bull T-shirt) brought back a lot of fond memories of a shooting star that for one glorious racing season, was the fastest (and best) horse in America.

Memories of Holy Bull by Doug Salvatore

Holy Bull was the purest racehorse I've ever seen with my own eyes.

His trainer also claimed that the FBI said he was drugged before the 1994 Kentucky Derby.

A big gunmetal gray colt, The Bull had sparkling early speed and a long stride.

Holy Bull won his career debut at Monmouth Park with a 101 Beyer figure going 5.5 furlongs in August of his freshman season. He tore through his opening quarter in 21.60 and ducked out sharply while drawing off.

The Bull was a gift horse. His owner and breeder, some little old lady, died the morning of that debut race and she left the horse to trainer Jimmy Croll in her will.

Undefeated at age 2, Holy Bull scored an upset over the seemingly invincible Dehere in the Grade 1 Futurity in the mud at Belmont.

The mighty Dehere was the first horse in history to sweep all three 2-year-old stakes races at Saratoga (Sanford, Saratoga Special, and Hopeful) and he captured that sweep with some of the most visually impressive finishes you'll ever see.

At age 3, Holy Bull won the Florida Derby by about six lengths with an eye-popping 115 Beyer figure. That race featured a 14-horse field, with Candy Ride's sire Ride the Rails finishing 2nd. That years eventual Kentucky Derby winner Go For Gin was 4th.

The Bull shipped to Keeneland for the Blue Grass, worked 34-flat the morning before the race, and rolled to victory with a 113 Beyer.

It's on to Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby.

Normally a great AM work horse, Holy Bull worked six-furlongs in a moderate 1:14.60 and the professional clockers hated the workout. The clockers said his gallop-out was bad and they all claimed that several other horses worked much better that morning.

The 8-5 favorite on the morning line, The Bull opened up at 4/1 odds and held at that price until big money for him finally started to roll in from the form handicappers the day of the race.

Normally a great gate horse, Holy Bull broke slow and did not flash his usual brilliant early speed. He only managed to beat two horses in the Derby. It was a sad performance from a genuinely great horse...but, if a speed horse misses the break in the slop, those type of non-efforts can happen. They get a lot of slop kicked in their eyes and they don't fire.

Many months later Jimmy Croll was visited by an FBI agent who questioned him about Holy Bull on Derby week.

Croll told the investigators that a few people (including Charlie Whittingham) said that they saw someone messing with his horse. Croll claimed that Whittingham told him that someone got to his horse and "gave him something" -- but Croll didn't worry about. He told Whittingham that the horse has more fans than the Pope and people show up uninvited at his stall and give him candy all the time.

The FBI agent told Croll that the horse was given Halcion tablets by someone who worked for Veterinarian Alex Harthill. The DEA eventually filed charges against Harthill for illegally possessing over 4,000 tablets of Halcion.

Was Holy Bull really drugged the week of the Derby? Who knows.

But, just 3 weeks later, the Bull was entered against top older horses in the Met Mile at Belmont. He won in sensational fashion with a 136 Equibase and 122 Beyer Figure. By comparison, Flightline's career highest Equibase fig is just 128.

Holy Bull's final two starts of the year came in the Travers and Woodward -- and they were two of the greatest performances I've ever seen in my life.

In his Travers win, he was pushed early by a Lukas rabbit sprinter who was entered to force a hot-pace for Preakness & Belmont Stakes winner Tabasco Cat.

The rabbit actually benefited one-dimensional stretch running closer Concern the most. He got the pace setup of a lifetime and closed 20-lengths to confront Holy Bull at the 1/8th Pole, but the Bull refused to let him by. It was one of the all-time greatest performances -- and the effort only looked better when Concern went on to win that years Breeders Cup Classic with Tabasco Cat finishing 2nd.

Holy Bull's final start of the season came in the Woodward where he completely demolished an extremely deep field of top older horses.

There were three legitimately great horses during my teenage years. Holy Bull, Cigar, and Skip Away. Holy Bull was unquestionably the most brilliant and had the most precocity of the trio.

Skip Away was a tough-as-nails grinder with a very high knee action. He didn't get real good until the spring of his 3 year old season. Meanwhile, Cigar flopped on the grass, as his first trainer Alex Hassinger tried to make him a turf horse.

Skip Away was actually my favorite horse of the three -- I LOVED HIM -- but Holy Bull was the purest freak.

The first horse I ever loved was Easy Goer, he was an off-the-pace horse who could make 3-different moves in a race but he came off the bridle at times. Easy Goer shuffled himself back to last in the Whitney, he appeared to stall out on the turn against Sunday Silence in the Classic. He ran in spots in the Kentucky Derby. Was off-the-bridle for most of the Juvenile.

Holy Bull was the stylistic reverse of Easy Goer -- The Bull was a front-runner with a very long and powerful stride. He would just go fast early and he could roll along like a freight train.

I'm writing this long ass post about Holy Bull now because I had a T-Shirt of his forever and I'm all bummed out now that I can't find it. It was a cartoon of a raging Holy Bull with a glow-in-the-dark Halo encircling his head.

I loved that t-shirt, and I have no idea where my wife put it. I was going to put it in Vito's room (Doug’s son). She's got a bunch of Dinosaur stuff in there. If he's going to learn about animals from Jurassic Park, he might as well as learn about Holy Bull.

Doug Recalls The 1994 Woodward Stakes

This was the day that Holy Bull proved that he could rate.

The previous years Champion Older Male was the speedy California colt Bertrando.

During his Championship season of 1993, Bertrando was trained by the legendary Bobby Frankel.

He made his final start for Frankel finishing 2nd in the '93 Breeders' Cup Classic to a European based 99/1 shot named Arcangues who got an all-time masterful ride from Jerry Bailey to win.

After the Classic, Bertrando's owner 505 Farms wanted him to be a stallion and a racehorse simultaneously. He was to stay in training and keep racing, but he would occasionally be shuttled back to the farm to cover broodmares.

Bobby Frankel hated this idea so much -- that when he couldn't talk the 505 Farms people out of it-- he angrily told them:

"Come get your horse, because I am not training him and I am not training another horse for you either."

505 Farms searched around for the best assistant they could get -- and they found a guy named John Shirreffs.

John Shirreffs had literally not been listed as a trainer in over a decade and he only had about 8 training wins in his entire career. He had been working as an assistant for a top claiming outfit and was very well respected.

But here was Shiffeffs getting his first horse to train in a decade, and that horse was reigning and defending Champion, Bertrando.

The 1994 Woodward was a LOADED field -- and Holy Bull and jockey Mike Smith were certain to hook-up with the speedy Californian Bertrando.

Could Holy Bull possibly duel with Bertrando early, dispose of him, and still hold off the late run of all the decorated closers assembled in that group?

That question never was answered -- because Mike Smith respected Bertrando's speed and he tried to get Holy Bull to rate.

And rate he did, The Bull settled kindly and relaxed off of Bertrando, before blowing the field away with a sparkling third-quarter that he sustained powerfully through the stretch under a hand ride.

After the wire, Smith was fired up. The Bull rated. He got him to relax and show a different dimension. The elated jockey was almost coming out of his skin with excitement as he celebrated a great performance.

Now, let me ask you this, can you imagine having a Glow-in-the-Dark T-shirt of this great horse...and losing the shirt? Shame! I will find it.

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