By DRF.com
SARATOGA, N.Y. (Apr. 23, 2024) — Clement L. Hirsch joins Thoroughbreds Justify and Gun Runner and the jockey Joel Rosario in the nine-member class elected for induction into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, it was announced Tuesday.
The class of 2024 also includes the longtime Daily Racing Form columnist Joe Hirsch (no relation to Clement L. Hirsch) and Harry Guggenheim as chosen for induction by the Pillars of the Turf Committee. Jockey Abe Hawkins and Thoroughbreds Aristides and Lecomte were selected for induction by the Pre-1900 Historic Review Committee.
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The induction ceremony will be held on Aug. 2 at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion in Saratoga Springs at 10:30 a.m.
Justify, Gun Runner, and Rosario — all in their first year of eligibility — were chosen in the contemporary category, receiving at least 50 percent plus one vote on 177 ballots returned from eligible voters. There were 17 contemporary finalists on this year’s ballot. Those who did not achieve the necessary votes for induction were jockey Jorge Chavez, trainers Christophe Clement, Kiaran McLaughlin, Graham Motion, Doug O’Neill, John Sadler, and John Shirreffs; and horses Blind Luck, Game On Dude, Gio Ponti, Havre de Grace, Kona Gold, Lady Eli, and Rags to Riches.
Justify, in 2018, became racing’s 13th Triple Crown winner. A son of Scat Daddy, trained by Bob Baffert for China Horse Club, Head of Plains Partners, Starlight Racing, and WinStar Farm, and bred by John Gunther, Justify finished first in all six of his starts in a career that spanned only 111 days.
Justify’s victory in the Santa Anita Derby is still in limbo due to a positive test for scopolamine, an anticholinergic not permissible to be in a horse’s system on race day. Nearly six years later, Justify was ordered disqualified from that win, a ruling that is being contested in court.
Following the Santa Anita Derby, Justify swept the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont before being retired. He was voted champion 3-year-old and Horse of the Year.
Gun Runner, the 2017 Horse of the Year and champion older dirt male, compiled a record of 12-3-2 from 19 starts and his earnings of $15,988,500 are the second most behind Arrogate for a North America-based Thoroughbred. A son of Candy Ride owned by Winchell Thoroughbreds and Three Chimneys Farm, bred by Besilu Stables, and trained by Steve Asmussen, Gun Runner in 2017 won four Grade 1 stakes — the Stephen Foster, Whitney, Woodward, and Breeders’ Cup Classic. He completed his career in January 2018 with a victory in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup.
Rosario, through Tuesday, has 3,604 career victories and his career purse earnings of $319,313,804 rank fourth all-time among North America-based jockeys. He has won 413 graded stakes — 115 Grade 1s — including the 2013 Kentucky Derby aboard Orb, and the 2014 and 2019 Belmont Stakes aboard Tonalist and Sir Winston, respectively.
Rosario has won 15 Breeders’ Cup races (tied for fourth), including two runnings of the Classic, with Accelerate and Knicks Go. Rosario won a Keeneland-meet record 38 races in spring 2013 and won nine riding titles at Southern California tracks before venturing East.
Clement L. Hirsch is best remembered as a co-founder and president of the Oak Tree Racing Association, which annually conducted a fall meet at Santa Anita. Hirsch owned horses for more than 50 years, including Magical Maiden who won the Chula Vista Handicap at Del Mar, a race the track later named the Clement L. Hirsch Handicap. Hirsch enjoyed success with a number of South America imports, including Figonero, who won the 1969 Hollywood Gold Cup and set a world record for 1 1/8 miles winning the Del Mar Handicap.
Hirsch was awarded the Commissioners Cup by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and earned a Special Eclipse Award in 1999. He died the following year at age 85.
Joe Hirsch, after serving four years in the Army, worked briefly for the New York Times before going to work at The Morning Telegraph. He then transitioned to its companion publication, Daily Racing Form, where he wrote for 49 years before his retirement in 2003. Hirsch was the Form’s executive columnist from 1974 until his retirement.
Hirsch became known as one of the great ambassadors of the sport, shining a positive light on the industry and its participants while mentoring multiple generations of aspiring turf writers. Hirsch, the founding member and first president of the National Turf Writers Association, was honored with Eclipse Awards for writing as well as one for a lifetime of service to the industry. The press box at Saratoga and media center at Churchill Downs are named for Hirsch as is the National Museum of Racing’s Media Roll of Honor, which recognizes media members who have distinguished themselves in the sport.
Hirsch was honored multiple times by the NTWA (now NTWAB), including receiving the Joe Palmer Award for meritorious service to racing in 1994 and the Mr. Fitz Award for typifying the spirit of horse racing in 1998.
The New York Racing Association, in 2004, renamed the Turf Classic Invitational the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, a Grade 1 turf marathon turf stakes.
Guggenhem, a leading figure in publishing, mining, government service, aeronautics, and philanthropy, became a prominent owner, breeder, and industry leader. Racing under the name Cain Hoy Stable, Guggenheim won 540 races as an owner with purse earnings of $6.2 million, led by Dark Star, the 1953 Kentucky Derby winner and only horse to defeat Native Dancer. Guggenheim also owned champion Bald Eagle and Hall of Fame member Ack Ack.
Guggenhem, along with Hall of Fame members John W. Hanes and Christopher T. Chenery, outlined a plan for a non-profit to reorganize New York racing in the 1950s, which eventually led to the creation of the New York Racing Association.
Guggenheim served in the Navy in both World War I and World War II and was appointed U.S. ambassador to Cuba from 1929-33.
Hawkins was honored for his prowess as a jockey in the pre- and post-Civil War years. He was arguably the most celebrated rider in America prior to Isaac Murphy and the first Black athlete to gain national prominence. He is most remembered for his victory aboard Lecomte, who in the Jockey Club Purse, a race conducted in multiple four-mile heats at Metairie Course in New Orleans in April 1854, handed Lexington his only defeat in his Hall of Fame career.
After the Civil War, Hawkins furthered his career in the Northeast and won the Travers Stakes and Jersey Derby aboard Merrill and the inaugural Jerome Stakes at Jerome Park aboard Watson.
Lecomte, bred in Kentucky by Gen. Thomas Jefferson Wells, had a record of 11-4-1 from 17 starts when races were conducted in multiple heats. A foal of 1850, Lecomte won nine of his first 10 starts, avenging his lone defeat to Lexington by beating that horse in the Jockey Club Purse, done in consecutive four-mile heats.
Aristides, trained by Hall of Famer Ansel Williamson, won the first Kentucky Derby in 1875. In his career he had a record of 9-5-1 from 21 starts. Following the Derby, Aristides won the Withers Stakes at Jerome Park, finished second in the Belmont, and was third in the Travers. Aristides is retrospectively acknowledged as the champion 3-year-old male of 1875.
In 1988, Churchill Downs inaugurated the Aristides Stakes and a life-sized bronze statue of Aristides, by Carl Regutti, stands in the clubhouse gardens at Churchill as a memorial.
This year, the Museum’s Historic Review Committee considered only candidates from before 1900. In 2025, the committee will review the era from 1900-59 and in 2026 it will review 1960-2000.