On June 9, 1973, history will remember Secretariat’s thirty-one length march into Triple Crown immortality, but it was an allowance race winner earlier on the card that day which would dominate the handicap ranks for years to come. Forego was characterized by his Hall of Fame trainer Sherrill Ward as a ‘fast stayer’ and he earned his place in history as one of the greatest weight carriers of the second half of the twentieth century.
A massive bay gelding with delicate underpinnings, Forego was unraced at two, but started eighteen times at three, winning half and earning the first two of his twenty-four stakes wins.
Forego began his dominance of the handicap ranks at four. He earned the Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year honors three straight seasons (1974-1976), Champion Handicap horse four straight (1974-1977) and Champion Sprinter in 1974.
Asked to carry 130 pounds or more twenty-four times, he won or placed in twenty-one of those races. He carried 137 pounds to victory in the Marlboro Cup, 134 pounds in his Carter Handicap and set a track record carrying 132 pounds in the Brooklyn Handicap. He won the Woodward Handicap four consecutive years (1974-1977), the Brooklyn Handicap three straight (1974-1976) and the Metropolitan Mile in 1976 and 1977. In total, Forego won thirty-four races, placed in sixteen others and he earned $1,938,957.
Foaled at Claiborne Farm, Forego retired in 1978 as the second leading money earner of all time, $40,000 shy of Kelso’s record. He spent his retirement years continuing to thrill his fans as a treasured member of the Hall of Champions at the Kentucky Horse Park. He was buried at the Horse Park upon his death in 1997.