Lest We Forget: The Tiny Tigress Dark Mirage

Dark Mirage’s juvenile season didn’t help in earning her more respect. King did not believe in keeping his trainees in cotton wool. Dark Mirage raced 15 times. She won twice with three second-place finishes and two thirds. Clearly, she had some talent. King believed she would get better with more maturity – mental maturity, that is. In her first start at three in March at Aqueduct, she ran fourth. Then, suddenly, everything came together for her. The filly’s body may have been tiny but not her mind. Dark Mirage transformed into an insatiable winning machine. Another filly never again finished in front of her until the tragedy of her injury more than a year later.

A nine-length win in allowance company was followed by a bump up in class in the Prioress Stakes. “The Tiny Tigress,” as she was becoming known to fans, easily won that race and then was sent on the road in search of more stakes prizes to satisfy her now burgeoning appetite for victory. The La Troienne Stakes and the historic Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs were added to Dark Mirage’s resume. Back in New York, the pony-sized dynamo was sent after New York’s Triple Crown for fillies, the Acorn Stakes, Mother Goose Stakes, and the Coaching Club American Oaks. Since its inauguration in 1957, no filly had to that point swept all three races.

With her regular team in place, trainer King, regular jockey Manny Ycaza and exercise rider Tuesdee Testa, who doted on the filly, and a new confident attitude born from winning, Dark Mirage took the Acorn Stakes by six lengths, setting a new track record of 1:34 4/5. The Mother Goose Stakes was held on a somber day, June 8, 1968. Only a few days earlier in Los Angeles, Democratic presidential candidate Senator Robert F. Kennedy had been assassinated. His funeral mass was held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in downtown New York City.

As the funeral train carrying Kennedy’s body left New York for Washington, D.C., and interment at Arlington National Cemetery that night, Dark Mirage treated the spectators at Belmont Park to a tour de force performance in the Mother Goose, winning the race by a widening ten lengths in 1:49 2/5.

Perhaps her greatest performance came in her next start, the 1-¼ mile Coaching Club American Oaks. Against a top-notch field that included Gay Matelda, Syrian Sea, and Moss, Dark Mirage came out swinging. The tiny, nearly black little ball of fire didn’t wait for her usual turn for home move, but rocketed to the lead midway through the backstretch and never looked back. She kept pouring it on around the sweeping turn for home and through the stretch, capturing the historic race by twelve lengths in a stakes record time of 2:01⅘. The New York Times reported that Dark Mirage “reached the finish, ears cocked and neck bowed, she was galloping along with no more apparent effort than a saddle horse out for leisurely bridle-path canter.”

Her rider Manny Ycaza remarked, “You could place her anywhere, up close, from behind. But wherever you were, when she got to the head of the stretch I couldn’t hold her any longer. She was an unbelievable filly.”

Trainer Everett King glowed, “She’s just small in everything except the one thing that counts – ability.”

Two more facile victories came in the Monmouth Oaks and a betless exhibition in the Delaware Oaks before an ankle injury ended Dark Mirage’s season prematurely. Despite being stopped mid-season, no one could argue with the choice of Dark Mirage as the champion 3-year-old filly of 1968.

Having conquered the best of the East, Miller and King decided to invade Southern California with their pint-sized champion. She reappeared under colors again at Santa Anita on Feb. 12 in the 1-1/16-mile Santa Maria Handicap. It would not be an easy assignment, as in the race was William Haggin Perry’s formidable Princessnesian. Despite shouldering a burden of 130 pounds, having a different pilot in Eddie Belmonte, and being caught in traffic, Dark Mirage’s will to win was as strong as ever. First trying to get to the outside in the stretch run, finding no room, and then going back inside, the determined little filly tussled her way through a small opening and got up in time to win by a head.

Three weeks later on March 1, Dark Mirage was hugely favored to win her eleventh straight race in the Santa Margarita Handicap. Sadly, it was not to be, as tragedy struck early in the race. Dark Mirage was severely jostled during the rough start and never was comfortable as the field raced to the first turn. When she refused to switch leads, jockey Eddie Belmonte pulled her up, took off her saddle, and held her injured right foreleg up waiting for the horse ambulance. Trainer King and Tuesdee Testa ran to tend to her, finding the filly had suffered a dislocated sesamoid.

At first, it looked like Dark Mirage might recover quickly, possibly even race again, but that possibility quickly faded. Owner Miller retired his courageous champion with a record of 12 wins, three seconds and, two thirds in 27 starts, and $362,788 in purses. It was announced she would be bred to Horse of the Year Dr. Fager and she was shipped to Tartan Farms near Ocala, Fla.

Dark Mirage’s injury proved to be more severe than anyone at first realized. While at Tartan, Dark Mirage developed laminitis in her good left foot. In early summer, veterinarians strapped their tiny patient to an operating table to surgically fuse her dislocated sesamoid. The operation lasted for six hours, and afterward, she was placed in a sling. It only prolonged the inevitable.

“We tried a special shoe on the right forefoot at first, a shoe for ruptured tendons that would support the fetlock and allow her to bear some weight on that foot, but it didn’t work," a veterinarian on Dark Mirage's surgical team later told The Blood-Horse. "After the operation she lost weight, even though she kept eating about nine quarts of grain a day, nickering for her feed. The foundered foot really caused the problem because she shifted her weight to the cast leg and then the screws in the plate began to loosen. We couldn’t keep her in the sling indefinitely, the foundered foot got worse and the screws were loosening, and it just looked completely hopeless. Then she skipped a meal, and we had to stop on her.”

Dark Mirage was interred at Tartan, in an area shaded by giant oak trees overlooking the lush fields of the farm. She was the first horse to be so honored at Tartan, followed in later years by her intended mate, Dr. Fager, Aspidistra, Valid Appeal, Cequillo, My Dear Girl, Intentionally, Ta Wee, and several others. Dark Mirage was enshrined in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1974.

Today, the brilliance of Dark Mirage can only be seen in very grainy videos from over half a century ago. The nearly black filly is hidden in the early stages of her races by her much bigger counterparts before that little white star on her forehead pokes through the gloom of the video’s grain as she takes the lead enroute to vanquishing her heavyweight rivals in race after race.

If she had a motto, she could have taken a page from Julius Caesar, “Veni, vidi, vici–I came, I saw, I conquered.” For that she certainly did.

This is the second in a new series from writer Elizabeth Martiniak. Find the first edition profiling Playfellow here. Horse racing often focuses on there here and now when it comes to equine stars, and we remember the all-time greats, like Man o' War and Babe Ruth, but there are colorful individuals who made contributions in some way or another, maybe are even Hall of Fame members, but they are just not remembered. Secretariat will always be remembered. But, for example, Maskette is in the Hall of Fame, yet only hardcore fans would know who she was. Lest We Forget is an attempt to bring out of the mists of time those horses who were very interesting or great in their day, but we don't think of them now.