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Forward Pass (horse)

Forward Pass
Sire On-and-On
Grandsire Nasrullah
Dam Princess Turia
Damsire Heliopolis
Sex Stallion
Foaled 1965
Country United States
Colour Bay
Breeder Calumet Farm
Owner Calumet Farm
Trainer Henry Forrest
Record 23: 10-4-2
Earnings $678,231
Major wins

Flash Stakes (1967)
Hibiscus Stakes (1968)
Everglades Stakes (1968)
Florida Derby (1968)
Blue Grass Stakes (1968)
American Derby (1968)

American Triple Crown wins:
Kentucky Derby (1968)
Preakness Stakes (1968)
Awards
TSD U.S. Co-Champion 3-Yr-Old Colt (1968)
Honours
Forward Pass Stakes at Arlington Park
Last updated on October 31, 2006

Flash Stakes (1967)
Hibiscus Stakes (1968)
Everglades Stakes (1968)
Florida Derby (1968)
Blue Grass Stakes (1968)
American Derby (1968)

Forward Pass (March 28, 1965 – December 1, 1980) was an American Thoroughbred Champion racehorse who is the only horse in the history of the Kentucky Derby to have been declared the winner as the result of a disqualification.

Owned and bred by Calumet Farm, the colt was trained by Henry Forrest.

Racing at age three, he won several graded stakes races, including three important U.S. Triple Crown prep races: the Everglades Stakes, the Florida Derby and the Blue Grass Stakes. The betting favorite going into the 1968 Kentucky Derby, Forward Pass finished second, but winner Dancer's Image was disqualified to last place after traces of phenylbutazone were discovered in the mandatory post-race urinalysis. As a result, Forward Pass was declared the winner. The controversy over the first (and still the only) disqualification of a Derby winner filled the sporting news of every media outlet in North America and was the cover story for Sports Illustrated magazine, which called it the sports story of the year. It was revealed that Dancer's Image had been plagued by sore ankles and on the Sunday prior to the Kentucky Derby, his handlers had a veterinarian give the horse a phenylbutazone tablet, a pain killer commonly used to relieve inflammation of the joints, which was legal at many race tracks in the United States but not at Churchill Downs. However, it was still a legitimate practice, as the medication would dissipate from the horse's system during the six days before the Derby. When the horse's post-Derby urinalysis revealed the phenylbutazone, his owner and handlers believed someone else may have been motivated to give the colt another dose of the drug, and they filed an appeal of the disqualification. The Kentucky State Racing Commission examined the matter and ordered distribution of the purse with first money to Forward Pass. This decision was upheld in April 1972 by Kentucky's highest court in Kentucky State Racing Commission v. Fuller, 481 S.W.2d 298 (Ky, 1972). In a subsequent decision, the Commission ordered that Forward Pass be considered the winner of the 1968 Kentucky Derby and that his owners were to receive the Derby's gold cup.


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