Alphabet Soup (racehorse)

Alphabet Soup
Sire	Cozzene
Grandsire	Caro
Dam	Illiterate
Damsire	Arts and Letters
Sex	Stallion
Foaled	1991
Country	United States
Colour	Gray
Breeder	Southeast Associates
Owner	Ridder Thoroughbred Stable
Trainer	David Hofmans
Record	24: 10-3-6
Earnings	$2,990,270
Major wins
Del Mar Breeders' Cup Handicap (1995) Native Diver Handicap (1995) San Pasqual Handicap (1996) Pat O'Brien Handicap (1996) San Antonio Handicap (1996) Breeders' Cup wins: Breeders' Cup Classic (1996)
Last updated on June 11, 2014

Alphabet Soup (foaled March 31, 1991, in Pennsylvania) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse best known for setting a track record for 1¼ miles at Woodbine Racetrack when he won the 1996 Breeders' Cup Classic, defeating both the great Cigar and Preakness Stakes winner Louis Quatorze.

Alphabet Soup was bred by Southeast Associates, a group led by Roy S. Lerman, and purchased by Californian Georgia B. Ridder. He is a descendant of Nearco, and his damsire is U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee Arts and Letters. Purchased privately as a two-year-old by Georgia B. Ridder, Alphabet Soup was late in developing. Mrs. Ridder raced the colt in California, where he began to come into his own at the age of four, winning the 1995 Native Diver and Del Mar Breeders' Cup Handicaps. In 1996, en route to his triumph in that year's Breeders' Cup Classic, he won three important graded stakes races: the San Antonio Handicap, the Pat O'Brien Handicap, and the San Pasqual Handicap, in which he defeated Best Pal. He also crossed the wire first in the Goodwood Breeders' Cup Handicap but was disqualified and set back to third.