Landaluce

Thoroughbred racehorse infobox
horsename = Landaluce


caption =
sire = Seattle Slew
grandsire = Bold Reasoning
dam = Strip Poker
damsire = Bold Bidder
sex = Filly
foaled = 1980
country = United States flagicon|USA
colour = Dark Brown
breeder = Spendthrift Farm
owner = L. R. French & Barry Beal
trainer = D. Wayne Lukas
record = 5: 5-0–0
earnings= $372,365
race = Maiden Special Weight (1982)
Hollywood Lassie Stakes (1982)
Del Mar Debutante Stakes (1982)
Anoake Stakes (1982)
Oak Leaf Stakes (1982)
awards= American Champion Two-Year-Old Filly (1982)
honours =
updated= January 2, 2008

Landaluce (1980-1982) was, for the briefest of moments, a champion American Thoroughbred race horse. Landaluce was out of the first crop sired by the great Seattle Slew, 1977’s Horse of the Year and the 10th winner of America's Triple Crown. Her dam was Strip Poker, by Bold Bidder, who was sired by Bold Ruler.

Bred by Francis Kernan in Kentucky on Spendthrift Farm, the yearling Landaluce was chosen at auction for buyers L. R. French and Barry Beal by the Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas. Her price tag was $650,000. He said he noticed her “tremendous heart girth.” But he also went on a buying spree that year, buying 24 horses for a total of 6 million dollars.

Beal and French named their new filly after a guide on a Spanish ranch they'd once visited, Francisco Landaluce.

Landaluce turned out to be an immediate sensation. Racing only at two, during that one year she started five times, winning five times. Her combined winning margin was 46 ½ lengths, 21 of those lengths coming in the Grade II Hollywood Lassie Stakes.

She debuted at Hollywood Park Racetrack on July 3, 1982 in a 6 furlong Maiden Special Weight in the very impressive time of 1:08 1/5. (The horse who placed seven lengths behind her, Some Kinda Flirt, won her next race by a huge margin, just as Landaluce had completely and easily outdistanced her.) Her jockey was the Hall of Famer, Laffit Pincay, Jr.. Riding her once, Pincay chose to continue riding her. As he said, “Normally, I am not a superstitious man, but I walk around these days hoping nothing happens to her. When I see Wayne Lucas walking towards me, my instinct is to turn away. I am afraid he is going to tell me something has gone wrong. I never want to hear that she has turned a hair.”

Only one week later on the 10th of July she took the 6 furlong Hollywood Lassie in 1:08. Coming into the stretch after battling with the undefeated Barzell, Pincay tapped her on the shoulder and she exploded into another gear on top of another gear. The tape of the race was watched over and over by racing officials as well as by Lucas and the trainers of her competitors. The evidence was irrefutable. She blew away her rivals. Landaluce’s margin of victory remains the greatest ever run in any race, stakes or otherwise, by a two-year-old at Hollywood Park. Her own father at two, Seattle Slew, had taken a race by 9 and 3/4ths lengths. Secretariat had won a race by eight lengths. But Landaluce had won by 21 lengths. Her time is said to be fastest clocking ever for a juvenile filly in a one turn 6 furlong race.

Lucas was quoted as saying, “You search and you look, and then all of a sudden, it comes, that star, and you know you have been blessed with something special.”

At Del Mar Racetrack on September 5th, she easily outran the field in the one mile Del Mar Debutante Stakes, and in the process came close to equaling the stakes record. And then she went to Santa Anita Park for the October 11th running of the 7 furlong Grade II Anoakia Stakes. Again she won easily, outstripping her competition by eight lengths.

Her last race and her last victory (not that anyone knew it; what they knew is that she might be voted Horse of the Year if things continued as they’d begun), was the one and one sixteenth mile Grade I Oak Leaf Stakes at Santa Anita. Once again, she won easily and by many lengths.

Lucas was now pointing her towards the Grade I Hollywood Starlet Stakes scheduled to run on November 28th. But on November 22nd, she became ill. Lucas, knowing it was a virus, was still hopeful she’d make the Starlet. But Landaluce had Colitis X, a disease that struck Swale, another Seattle Slew offspring. At that point Lucas hoped she’d make the Hollywood Futurity. One more day, and all anyone could do was to try and save her life. Steadily weakening from the blood clots formed by a severe bacterial invasion, she died with her head in Lucas’s arms on December 11, 1982.

Landaluce was awarded the American Champion Two-Year-Old Filly for 1982. It was given posthumously. The Hollywood Lassie Stakes was renamed the Landaluce Stakes in her honor and she was buried in the infield at Hollywood Park.

References

* “D. Wayne, the High Rolling and Fast Times of America’s Premier Horse Trainer,” by Carlo DeVito, McGraw-Hill, Professional, 2002
* "Champions, The Lives, Times, and Past Performances of America's Greatest Thoroughbreds, Champions from 1893-2004"," Revised Edition (2005), by the Editors and Writers from the Daily Racing Form DRF Press ISBN 1932910026
* [http://www.pedigreequery.com/landaluce Landaluce’s pedigree, racing stats, and photo]