Silver Buck winning the 1982 Whitney Handicap, Saratoga Race Course, NY.
Silver Buck was owned by C.V. Whitney, trained by Elliot Burch and ridden by Don MacBeth.
Photo © NYRA/Adam Coglianese. Used with permission.
The last time a Whitney won the Whitney Handicap was 30 years ago. A home-bred for Cornelius Vanderbilt "Sonny" Whitney, Silver Buck won the Whitney Handicap (Gr.1) on a 1982 hot streak that would also include breaking the track record while winning Belmont Park's Suburban Handicap (Gr.1) and placing in both the Metropolitan Handicap (Gr.1) and the Woodward Stakes (Gr.1).
Silver Buck's 1982 Whitney Handicap NYRA win photo.
Photo © NYRA/Adam Coglianese. Used with permission.
Horses carrying Sonny Whitney's Eton blue and brown racing colors won the Whitney Handicap four times in total -- Equipoise (1931), Counterpoint (1952), State Dinner (1980) and Silver Buck (1982).
Six more Whitney wins in the family.
Sonny's first cousins, brother and sister John Hay "Jock" Whitney and Joan Whitney Payson, raced under the banner of their family's Greentree Stable which won the Whitney six times -- St. Brideaux (1931), Swing and Sway (1942), Devil Diver (1944), One Hitter (1951), Tom Fool (1953) and Cohoes (1958).
Note: Sonny Whitney's widow Marylou, and her husband John Hendrickson, have a string of race horses, many descending from the bloodstock of the Whitney breeding program. There are no Whitney horses running in the 2012 Whitney Handicap on August 4.