Sword Dancer (VA)

A small chestnut bred in Virginia by Isabel Dodge Sloane’s Brookmeade Stable, Sword Dancer won only three times in 14 starts as a juvenile in 1958 before breaking through and emerging as Horse of the Year as a 3-year-old when he won six major stakes.

Inducted

1977

Foaled

1956

Sire

Sunglow

Dam

Highland Fling

Damsire

By Jimminy

Breeder

Brookmeade Stable

Owner

Brookmeade Stable

Trainer

J. Elliott Burch

Career

1958-1960

Earnings

$829,610

Racing Record

39

Starts

Year	Starts	First	Second	Third	Earnings
Year	Sts	1	2	3	$
1958	14	3	2	3	$60531 $60,531
1959	13	8	4	0	$537004 $537,004
1960	12	4	1	1	$232075 $232,075

Biography

A small chestnut bred in Virginia by Isabel Dodge Sloane’s Brookmeade Stable, Sword Dancer won only three times in 14 starts as a juvenile in 1958 before breaking through and emerging as Horse of the Year as a 3-year-old when he won six major stakes.

Trained by Hall of Famer Elliott Burch, Sword Dancer finished second in both the Kentucky Derby (by a nose) and Preakness Stakes before winning the Metropolitan Handicap by 3¼ lengths and the Belmont Stakes by three-quarters of a length. Sword Dancer then won the Monmouth Handicap, Travers Stakes, Woodward Stakes, and Jockey Club Gold Cup. He defeated Hillsdale by a head in the Woodward with Hall of Famer Round Table third. In the Gold Cup, he trounced Round Table by seven lengths.

Returning as a 4-year-old, Sword Dancer won the Grey Lag Handicap, Suburban Handicap, and repeated in the Woodward, setting a track record of 2:01.20 in defeating Bald Eagle and T. V. Lark. Sword Dancer was retired with a record of 15-7-4 from 39 starts and earnings of $829,610.

Standing stud at Darby Dan Farm in Kentucky, Sword Dancer sired Hall of Fame member Damascus and champion filly Lady Pitt. He later stood in France. Sword Dancer died at the age of 28 on Nov. 16, 1984.