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The sudden loss of a World Champion is a shock to all of us. Especially a Champion that seems to be hale and hardy and ready to run. This shocking event affects not only the owner, breeder and trainer but the industry in general as many World Champions become crowd favorites wherever they race.
On Sunday June 18, 2023, the industry was
hit with the news that 2021 World Champion Danjer had passed away because of an aneurysm. The Quarter Horse racing world was in shock as the seven year old Danjer had just started back
on a campaign in pursuit of a second World Championship. He had already annexed two Grade 1 races, including the Debbie Schauf Remington Park Invitational Championship-G1 on June 3, and the Leo Stakes-G1 on May 6. He was named the Horse of the Meet at Remington Park for 2023, a title he earned for the second time.
Danjer was bred by Dean R. Frey, who was his trainer and co-owner with Pat Guthrie of Downtown Enterprises LLC and Billy G. Smith. His sire was FDD Dynasty, and his dam was Shez Jess Toxic by Take Off Jess. The race career
for Danjer got started in a steady but modest
way, earning a respectable $211,594 in 2018. He won the prestigious All American Juvenile and placed third in the Texas Classic Futurity-G1. He came back in 2019 to earn $315,117, winning
the First Down Dash Stakes with seconds in
The Championship at Sunland Park-G1 and Ruidoso Derby-G1 and a third in the Zia Park Championship-G1. His 2020 campaign shows earnings of $326,061 with three more stakes wins in the Downs At Albuquerque Championship-G1, AQHA Challenge Championship-G1 and Canterbury Championship Challenge-G3. He earned the Champion Aged Horse and Champion Aged Gelding titles. His 2021 campaign blossomed into his World Championship year, winning $651,113 as well as the Champion Aged Horse and the Champion Aged Gelding titles.
He won five stakes races in the Debbie Schauf Remington Park Invitational-G1, Refrigerator Invitational-G1, All American Gold Cup-G1, AQHA Challenge Championship-G1 and the Canterbury Championship Challenge-G3. The 2022 campaign was on the road with five stakes wins, including four Grade 1 wins in the Debbie Schauf Remington Park Invitational-G1, The Championship at Sunland Park-G1, Downs
At Albuquerque Fall Championship-G1,
AQHA Challenge Championship-G1 and the Canterbury Championship Challenge-G3. But he finished second to eventual World Champion Empressum in the prestigious Champion of Champions-G1 that cost him any titles. With two wins in 2023, we see that Danjer had 35 starts with 22 wins, seven seconds and three thirds and earnings of $2,499,432.
Danjer will go down in history as one of
our all-time great racehorses, so let’s put his career in perspective as to how he stands as a runner. Since the first AQHA World Champion was named in 1940, there have been 79 World Champion titles awarded with 30 of them won by geldings. From 1940 to 1999 they named
13 geldings as World Champions. From 2000
Linda Earley, Speedhorse
to 2022 we have seen 17 geldings named World Champions, showing the dominance of geldings on Quarter Horse racing in this period.
The 35 race starts for Danjer, a 2016
brown gelding, saw him run at eight racetracks from 2018 to 2023. They were Remington Park, Canterbury Park, Ruidoso Downs, Albuquerque, Zia Park, Horseshoe Indianapolis, Lone Star and Los Alamitos Racecourse. He was first, second or third in 32 of his 35 starts. He was first, second or third in 25 stakes races. He won 12 Grade 1 stakes races, making him #1 All-Time Winner of G1 stakes races. Sixteen of his total stakes wins came at 440 yards, making him a highly successful racehorse in the pursuit of the classic distance of 440 yards.
His earnings of $2,499,432 gives Danjer a unique position among geldings that have earned a World Championship, especially when we
see how dominant geldings have been winning world titles since 2000. It makes him the #1 All-Time Leading Money Earner among World Champion geldings. He is followed on this list by Stolis Winner with earnings of $2,242,661 and five Grade 1 stakes wins, Heza Dasha Fire with earnings of $2,240,112 and nine Grade 1 stakes wins, Refrigerator with $2,126,112 and ten Grade 1 stakes wins, and Winalota Cash with earnings of $1,952,848 with six Grade 1 stakes wins. What makes this list so interesting is that Danjer is the only runner of the five that has never won a million-dollar race. In fact, Stolis Winner, Refrigerator and Winalota Cash all won the All American Futurity-G1.
We have seen that Danjer became a fan favorite as the blue-collar worker that did
his job in a workman’s manner. He took on
all challengers and raced with reliability and determination that is second to none. He will be missed by all that loved him, especially his connections and the fans who went to see him run at the races across America. Now, we will all remember him as Danjer, the Legend! A legend that sadly left us too soon.
SPEEDHORSE July 2023 23
Coady Photography
DANJER
A Tribute to a World Champion
by Larry Thornton