Swaps (horse)

Swaps
SireKhaled
GrandsireHyperion
DamIron Reward
DamsireBeau Pere
SexStallion
FoaledMarch 1, 1952[1]
Died1972
CountryUnited States
ColourChestnut
BreederRex C. Ellsworth
OwnerRex C. Ellsworth
Silks: Red, Black Triangle front and back, Red and Black Cap.
TrainerMesh Tenney
Record25:19–2–2
Earnings$848,900
Major wins
San Vicente Stakes (1955)
Santa Anita Derby (1955)
Californian Stakes (1955)
American Derby (1955)
Broward Handicap (1956)
Sunset Handicap (1956)
American Handicap (1956)
Argonaut Handicap (1956)
Hollywood Gold Cup (1956)
Washington Park Handicap (1956) Triple Crown classic race wins:
Kentucky Derby (1955)
Awards
United States Horse of the Year (1956) American Champion Older Dirt Male Horse (1956)
Honours
United States Racing Hall of Fame (1966)
#20 - Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century
Life-size statue at Hollywood Park Racetrack
Interred - Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs
Swaps Stakes held at Hollywood Park Racetrack
Last updated on January 10, 2017

Swaps (March 1, 1952 – November 3, 1972) was a California bred American thoroughbred racehorse. He won the Kentucky Derby in 1955 and was named United States Horse of the Year in the following year. He was known as the "California Comet,"[2] and occasionally with affection, due to his wins despite numerous injuries and treatments, the "California Cripple."[3]

  1. ^ "Swaps pedigree". Equineline.
  2. ^ "Another California comet emerges". April 11, 2014. Retrieved 2014-08-07. In 1955, a chestnut-coated "California comet" named Swaps streaked from Santa Anita to the finish line at Churchill Downs, beating the favored Nashua in the Kentucky Derby. Fifty-nine years later, Swaps's then-18-year-old exercise rider, Art Sherman, is the trainer of the latest chestnut California comet, the appropriately named California Chrome, the smashing winner of the Santa Anita Derby on April 5.
  3. ^ Swaps, 1956 Horse of the Year, Unofficial Thoroughbred Hall of Fame, retrieved September 8, 2014.