Albatross Hall of Fame Feature No 2

By Don Baker

03/01/2015

Albatross started life as a small cold out of an unproven mare. No one wanted him.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, he had that awful name. He wasn’t a big, web-footed bird.

A group of five men got together to purchase the mare, Voodoo Hanover, and have her bred to Meadow Skipper. The result was Albatross—basically a cull (not a gull).

The mare was bred again. This time she had a filly. Nothing much to brag about. ( edit: Please note Albatross had 8 full brothers & sisters, the best won just $5,818. Also of note, his sisters failed to breed on, this U6 female line/branch looks dead, which l find not only strange but remarkably disappointing .)

So, the mare and her two foals were sold for $11,000.

Bert James, (edit: the father of David James, Empire Stallions) the man who bought the package, tried to sell Albatross immediately, without success. So he put him in a sale, but the top bid was $6,800 and James wanted $7,000.

Albatross went into training as a pacer.

Of course, no one thought much of the little bay horse. In fact, he was only being trained because there wasn’t anything else to do with him.

Everyone was down on Albatross, except Albatross. Albatross had a pretty high opinion of himself, and he was about to demonstrate why.

During his two-year old racing season, he went to the post 17 times, and he came home a winner 14 times. He was second twice and third once.

His earnings for the 1970 season were $183,540 which set a new standard for juvenile pacers at the time. That much money isn’t too bad today.

Harry M. Harvey had driven Albatross to all these wins and to the Two-Year-Old Pacer of the Year honors. But Harvey was never to drive to champ again.

The little horse no one wanted was now the big horse everyone wanted. Albatross was sold to a syndicate for a cool, $1.25 million.

Stanley Dancer, probably the greatest driver/trainer of trotters and pacers of all time, was hired to train and drive the syndicate’s new star.

With Dancer at the reins, Albatross – now known as Super Bird—racked up a good record as a three-year-old. Before the 1971 racing season was over, Albatross was the fasted three-year-old pacer.

He was the fasted pacer of any age going two heats combined (three minutes, 49 and three tenths seconds). He was the fastest three-year-old going two heats combined, and he was the fastest pacer of any age going the first heat of a two-heat race. Naturally he was the speediest pacer of any age going the second heat of a two-heat contest. That pretty much made him the fastest thing around, period.

Even more than that, Albatross was the first Standardbred to ever reach a half-million in earnings in a single season. In 1971 Albatross won $558,009.

He also won Harness Horse of the Year, having paced 18 two-minute miles (a new record) and having won 25 events, with the two seconds and one third.

But all this is just part of the Albatross story.

As a four-year-old some of the most important people in harness racing were squabbling over the horse. There was an attempt to dump the trainer/driver Stanley Dancer, and there was a bitter battle over who had the right to purchase the Super Bird for $2.5 million.

A new syndicate got the horse for his final year of racing, and the Super Bird acted as if he were Superman.

First he won 20 races as a four-year-old, pushing his racing career lifetime record to: 71 starts, 59 wins, 8 seconds, 3 thirds with earnings of $1,201,470.

He ended his racing career on November 28, 1972 at Hollywood Park, California, by winning the American Pacing Classic.

He was the youngster no one wanted.

But all grown up he had a new title: World’s Greatest Harness Horse.

By the middle of 2016 Albatross was still the 5^th offspring earnings list at more than $148 million dollars, this is a remarkable effort considering he was born back in 1968.Just to add to this legends legacy he was able to sire 44 foals from his last year at stud in 1998 at the age of thirty.

Offspring of Albatross (1968)

Broodmare Sire Credits for Albatross (1968)

Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com

Driving The Future Of Harness Racing