What A Summer
| What A Summer | |
|---|---|
| Sire | What Luck |
| Grandsire | Bold Ruler |
| Dam | Summer Tan |
| Damsire | Summer Classic |
| Sex | Filly |
| Foaled | 1973 |
| Country | United States |
| Colour | Gray |
| Breeder | Milton Polinger |
| Owner | Diana M. Firestone |
| Trainer | Leroy Jolley |
| Record | 31: 18-6-3 |
| Earnings | US$479,161 |
| Major wins | |
|
Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (1976) Anne Arundel Stakes (1976) Fall Highweight Handicap (1977 & 1978) Maskette Handicap (1977) Silver Spoon Handicap (1977 & 1978) Distaff Handicap (1977) First Flight Handicap (1978) |
|
| Awards | |
| American Champion Sprint Horse (1977) | |
| Honours | |
| What A Summer Stakes at Laurel Park Racecourse named in her honor | |
| Last updated on June 14, 2011 | |
What A Summer (foal in 1973) was an American Thoroughbred Champion racehorse who defeated both male and female competitors. She was bred in Maryland by Milton Polinger. She was a gray out of the mare Summer Classic who was sired by Summer Tan. Her sire was What Luck, a multiple stakes winning son of U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee Bold Ruler. What A Summer is probably best remembered for her win in the Grade II $65,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes over stakes winners Dearly Precious and Artfully on May 14, 1976.
What A Summer was trained very early in her career by Hall of Fame conditioner Bud Delp while racing for her breeder, Milton Polinger. She was bought by Mrs. Bertram Firestone following Polinger's death in the early fall of 1976. That death delayed her the first start of her career until late in the year. Mrs. Firestone turned the mare over to trainer Leroy Jolley. What A Summer did not start racing until near the end of her two-year-old season, when she broke her maiden at Philadelphia Park. Near the end of the year, she won an allowance race. She ended gthe year with two wins in four starts.
In January, What A Summer placed second in her first stakes race, the $25,000 Heirloom Stakes at the old Liberty Bell Race Track in Philadelphia. Two months later, she won her second allowance race over winners and convinced her connections that she was ready to step up in class and take on stakes winners in the Grade II $65,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes. In that race, she withstood a fast closing challenge down the stretch to hold off a late charge by 4:5 favorite Dearly Precious in a final time of 1:42.40 for the mile and one sixteenth on the dirt track at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. Her jockey, Chris McCarron, was credited with a solid ride by conserving energy with moderate fractions in the middle portion of the race. Stakes winner Artfully held on for third in the field of ten three-year-old fillies. In December 1976, What A Summer won the $50,000 Anne Arundel Stakes at Laurel Park Racecourse, beating Turn the Guns and Avum in 1:38.20 for the mile under McCarron.
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