Page 72 - July 2022

Bold Venture “is a magnificent fellow. His coat shines like the gold...
and Trainer Hirsch said he never had a colt in his charge who regards the ordeal of conditioning with such complacency.” – Thomas Noone
70 SPEEDHORSE July 2022
Cary T. Grayson for the remainder of the
year. The colt’s first race under his temporary owner’s colors was far from encouraging. Moments before the Futurity was scheduled
to begin, Bold Venture burst wildly out of
the starting gate. To the bemusement of everyone present, he bucked his rider over a fence and proceeded to rampage around until he was caught by a track employee named Happy Gordon. Although the colt’s jockey
was able to mount him again, Bold Venture’s performance in the Futurity itself didn’t live up to his pre-race antics. He ultimately finished a humiliating last.
Following his failed bid at the Arlington Futurity, Bold Venture was entered into a minor race. Despite being installed as the heavy favorite, he finished second to a filly named Gold Mesh. Thankfully, the colt redeemed himself three days later in a 5-1/2-furlong allowance event. After seizing the lead in the final turn, Bold Venture staved off a challenge by Granville (a future Belmont Stakes winner) to win by 1-1/2 lengths. This triumph
seemed to mark a turning point in his career. Just four days later, the colt pranced to the
starting gate for a $1,000 race where he met
the legendary Seabiscuit. While Seabiscuit eventually matured into one of the greatest handicap horses in American history, he wasn’t a Champion yet at two. As it was, Bold Venture broke sluggishly and was pushed dangerously wide around the far turn. Nonetheless, the colt scored another victory.
Bold Venture’s consecutive wins convinced Admiral Grayson to enter him into the Hopeful Stakes – one of America’s most prestigious juvenile events. Unfortunately, the colt couldn’t rise to the occasion. Despite being sent off as the favorite, he struggled to find his best form and finished outside the money.
The colt’s run of ill fortune was far from over. After the Hopeful, Bold Venture was loaded into a train bound for New York. During his journey, the locomotive – which was also carrying Cavalcade (the 1934 Champion Three Year Old) – inexplicably caught fire. According to one source, Bold Venture only survived because his groom pushed his head through an opening in the carriage to save him from suffocating. Because of the two colts’ celebrity status, some insiders theorized that an arsonist had deliberately started the fire to sabotage them. Ultimately, however, no definitive evidence confirming this explanation was uncovered.
After that near-fatal catastrophe, Admiral Grayson and Max Hirsch hoped that their star would be able to finish his two-year-old season without any more mishaps. Once Bold Venture reached New York, they eagerly aimed him at the state’s lucrative upcoming events which included the famed Belmont Futurity. His handlers’ optimistic plans were quickly thrown into disarray. Soon after his arrival, the poor colt suddenly contracted a virus. While Bold Venture eventually recovered, the illness sidelined him for the rest of 1935. At the end of the year, Admiral Grayson’s lease on the colt expired.
The year 1936 dawned auspiciously for Bold Venture. Although Morton Schwartz and Hirsch opted not to race him until spring, turf scribe Thomas Noone remarked that the colt had “wintered finely.” Better still, the journalist noted that he was training brilliantly. “He [Bold Venture] is a magnificent fellow,” Noone declared. “His coat shines like the gold... and trainer Hirsch said he never had a colt in his charge who regards the ordeal of conditioning with such complacency.” With Bold Venture in
BOLD VENTURE
Speedhorse Archives