Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Albatross was named Horse of the Year in 1971 and 1972 and retired as the fastest racing Standardbred in history by virtue of his 1:543f win at Sportsman's Park. He was also the richest horse in the history of the breed at retirement with $1,201,470 in the bank.

As a stallion, he had sired 2,546 foals at the time of his death, and 1,173 of his foals have 2:00 marks.

The plain bay colt with a head a bit too large for his body was broken to harness at the Arden Downs track in western Pennsylvania. He had difficulty finding his gait at first, but when he did an astute horseman like Harvey quickly realized that he was something special.

"Something would scare him, and you'd know that you had a good piece of horseflesh," said his first trainer Harry Harvey. "His symmetry was so good and everything flowed together."

Albatross was indeed a good piece of horseflesh. He won 14 of his 17 starts, including the Fox Stake, Roosevelt Futurity, L.B. Sheppard, and others.

At the start of his sophomore season, Albatross was syndicated and taken away from Harvey and given to Stanley Dancer for the 1971 campaign. It was a storybook season with only one major flaw.

Albatross swept through the Cane Pace, Messenger, Adios, and every other race on his schedule, and shipped to Delaware, Ohio, in September for his date with destiny in the Little Brown Jug. In one of the most memorable upsets in the sport's history, Albatross was defeated by Nansemond.

Stanley Dancer had a point to prove when he started Albatross in the Tattersalls Pace at Lexington, and the pair answered all questions about the youngster's greatness when he looped the Red Mile twice in 1:544, then the fastest race miles in history.

AlbatrossRaceShot

                  Albatross in action with trainer-driver Stanley Dancer

Albatross was voted Horse Of The Year as a 3-year-old after a season in which he won 25 of 28 starts and a record $558,009.

After his 4-year-old season got off to a rocky start and syndicate members were fighting, Hanover Shoe Farmsswept in to purchase controlling interest in Albatross. The horse stayed in the Dancer Stable and it was just m ore of the same. He won just about every time he faced the starter and set a world race record of 1:543 over the tight turns at Sportsman's Park, then a 5/8-mile oval. His 1:553h race mile at Delaware in 1972 was the fastest competitive performance ever on a twice-around.

Albatross went to Hanover Shoe Farms and began breeding mares in 1973 at a stud fee of $5,000. What he accomplished in his quarter-century in service there is little short of miraculous. At one time his stud fee was set at $75,000, highest ever in the Standardbred business.

When the foals of Albatross began racing in the mid to late-1970s, it was obvious that he and Most Happy Fella, who was a year older, would provide a serious threat to the ascendancy of their sire Meadow Skipper.

Niatross, considered by many as the greatest pacer of the 20th Century, swept through the Triple Crown in 1980 and ushered in a new era of Standardbred speed with a 1:491 time trial in October of that year.

Niatross was the first of five Little Brown Jug winners sires by Albatross. Following him were Fan Hanover (1981), Merger (1982), Colt Fortysix (1984) and Jaguar Spur (1987).

Albatross was the leading money-winning sire in the sport in 1981-84 and again in 1986.
In addition to his Jug winners, Albatross sired such notable pacers as Sonsam, Simcoe Hanover, Conquered, Three Wizzards, Lon Todd Hanover, Royce, Armbro Wolf, Soky's Atom, Oye Vay, Barefoot Hanover, Ball And Chain, Kiev Hanover, Tucson Hanover, Keystone Luther, and Praised Dignity.

His daughter Fan Hanover is still the only filly ever to win the Little Brown Jug, but Albatross also sired such superb pacing fillies as Three Diamonds, Cheery Hello, Halcyon, Turn The Tide, Forbidden Past, JEFs Eternity, Milynn Hanover, Albaquel, and many others.

Albatross is the leading sire of $100,000 winners in the sport with 367 sons or daughters who earned more than six figures, placing him well ahead of Abercrombie, Most Happy Fella, and Speedy Crown in that category.

After dominating the sport's pacing stakes in the early 1980s, Albatross soon began to build a reputation as a broodmare sire and now he stands as the sport's greatest in that category, too. Through the end of last year, his daughters had produced 2,548 pacers with 2:00 marks.
Last year daughters of Albatross produced the winners of $182 million, ranking him almost 50 percent higher than his nearest rival Abercrombie.

Many of the sires which have risen to prominent in the past two decades, such as Abercrombie, No Nukes, Big Towner, Cam Fella, and Jate Lobell owe at least part of their success to the contributions made by Albatross broodmares.

A champion on the track and in the breeding shed, Albatross left a legacy of inestimable influence on the breed.

Albatross died at age 30, in August of 1998, at his longtime home at Hanover Shoe Farms.

"Albatross showed signs of colic around noon," said Murray Brown, public relations director for the famed Pennsylvania nursery. "We were hoping that it was just colic, but it was a twisted intestine. The veterinarians checked his vital signs and didn't feel that his heart was strong enough to survive a trip to a veterinary hospital, and he died shortly after 4:oo p.m. (EDT). Until today, he had never been sick a day in his life."

Brown said that Albatross served a book around about 85 mares during the breeding season which concluded a month before his death, and that the great stallion had never missed a trip to the breeding shed in his career.

Albatross Career Totals
Year     Starts/Wins/2nds/3rds    Earnings       Mark         Date & Venue of Record
1972      26                                       $459,921        4, 1:54.3F S      PK F 07/01/1972
1971      17         14                                                3, 1:54.4M
1970                                                                      2, 1:57.4M
Total     26         20        4       1       $1,201,470      4, 1:54.3F