Strike the Gold is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Thoroughbred

Thoroughbred

The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...

 racehorse

Horse racing

Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...

 best known for winning the 1991 Kentucky Derby

Kentucky Derby

The Kentucky Derby is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses, held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is one and a quarter mile at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry...

. Upon the death of 1987 Derby winner Alysheba

Alysheba

Alysheba was an American Thoroughbred race horse who won two legs of the Triple Crown in 1987. A successful sire, he produced 11 stakes winners....

 in March 2009, Strike the Gold became the oldest living Kentucky Derby winner.

A son of U.S. Racing Hall of Famer

National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame

The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame was founded in 1950 in Saratoga Springs, New York, to honor the achievements of American thoroughbred race horses, jockeys, and trainers...

, Alydar

Alydar

Alydar was a chestnut colt and an American thoroughbred race horse who was most famous for finishing a close second to Affirmed in all three races of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, a feat not achieved before or repeated since.-Racing career:Trained by John M...

, Strike the Gold was purchased in 1990 for $500,000 from breeder Calumet Farm

Calumet Farm

Calumet Farm is a Thoroughbred breeding and training farm established in 1924 in Lexington, Kentucky, United States by William Monroe Wright, founding owner of the Calumet Baking Powder Company. Calumet is located in the heart of Lexington's blue grass country, the finest horse breeding region in...

 by B. Giles Brophy, William J. Condren, and Joseph M. Cornacchia who raced him under the name BCC Stable. Competing at age three in the Florida Derby

Florida Derby

The Florida Derby is an American Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-old horses held annually at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida on the Saturday closest to the end of March or the first of April. Added to the racing schedule in 1952, the Grade 1 race is run at 1⅛ miles on the dirt...

, their promising colt finished second behind the 1990 U.S. Champion 2-Yr-Old Colt

Eclipse Award for Outstanding 2-Year-Old Male Horse

The American Champion Two-Year-Old Male Horse is an American Thoroughbred horse racing honor awarded annually in Thoroughbred flat racing. It became part of the Eclipse Awards program in 1971....

 Fly So Free

Fly So Free

Fly So Free was an American Thoroughbred Champion racehorse. A grandson of U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee Damascus, Fly So Free was owned by New York City Broadway theatre producer and music publishing company owner Tommy Valando and his wife Elizabeth.In 1990, Fly So Free capped off a...

 but ahead of third-place Hansel

Hansel (horse)

Hansel is an American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the final two legs of the U.S. Triple Crown races in 1991 and was voted the Eclipse Award for Outstanding 3-Year-Old Male Horse. Out of the mare Count on Bonnie, his sire was Woodman, a Champion 2-year-old colt in Ireland who was a son of the...

. Two weeks later in mid April, Strike the Gold won the Blue Grass Stakes

Blue Grass Stakes

The Toyota Blue Grass Stakes, currently sponsored by the Toyota Motor Corporation, is an American Grade 1 horse race for 3-year-old Thoroughbreds held annually in mid April at Keeneland Racecourse in Lexington, Kentucky....

. However, for the first leg of the U.S. Triple Crown

Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing

The Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing consists of three races for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses. Winning all three of these Thoroughbred horse races is considered the greatest accomplishment of a Thoroughbred racehorse...

, the Kentucky Derby, Hansel was the betting

Gambling

Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods...

 favorite with Fly So Free the second choice. Both horses disappointed; Fly So Free finishing fifth and Hansel tenth to winner Strike the Gold. Second place went to the still lightly regarded, but future great, Best Pal

Best Pal

Best Pal was an American Hall of Fame champion racehorse, who to this day holds the record for purses of any California-bred racehorse, earning his owners, the Golden Eagle Farm, US$5.6 million over his lifetime.A descendant of Princequillo on both his sire's and dam's line, Best Pal won the first...

. Mane Minister

Mane Minister

Mane Minister is an American Thoroughbred racehorse best remembered as the first horse to ever finish third in all three of the U.S. Triple Crown races. Bred by Normandy Farm in Lexington, Kentucky, he was out of the mare Lacework, whose sire was In Reality, winner of the 1967 Florida Derby and...

 finished third as he would in all three of the Triple Crown races.

Strike the Gold wound up sixth in the Preakness Stakes

Preakness Stakes

The Preakness Stakes is an American flat Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds held on the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a Grade I race run over a distance of 9.5 furlongs on dirt. Colts and geldings carry 126 pounds ; fillies 121 lb...

 in a race won by Hansel. In the Belmont Stakes

Belmont Stakes

The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes Thoroughbred horse race held every June at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is a 1.5-mile horse race, open to three year old Thoroughbreds. Colts and geldings carry a weight of 126 pounds ; fillies carry 121 pounds...

, Strike the Gold drew the outside post and at one point in the race was twenty lengths back of the frontrunner. He fought back to battle Hansel in the homestretch ending up a head behind in second place. Later that year, Strike the Gold finished third in both the Jim Dandy Stakes

Jim Dandy Stakes

The Jim Dandy Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race. The Grade II race has been held annually since 1964 at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York. The race is open to horses age three, willing to race one and one-eighth miles on the dirt. It carries a purse of $500,000. Prior...

 and the Jockey Club Gold Cup

Jockey Club Gold Cup

The Jockey Club Gold Cup, established in 1919, is a prestigious thoroughbred flat race open to horses of either gender three-years-old and up. It is typically the main event of the fall meeting at Belmont Park, just as the Belmont Stakes is of the spring meeting and the Travers Stakes is of the...

. In all, after his Kentucky Derby win, Strike the Gold lost twelve straight starts which resulted in a bitter dispute between his three owners over his handling by trainer Nick Zito

Nick Zito

Nicholas Philip "Nick" Zito is an American Thoroughbred horse trainer.Zito began his career as a hot walker and worked his way up to a groom, to an assistant trainer, and to a trainer...

. In May 1992, the four-year-old horse was sold at auction for $2.9 million, bought by William J. Condren and Joseph M. Cornacchia, two of the original three partners. Just five days after the sale, with Zito still as their trainer of choice, Strike the Gold rebounded to win the Pimlico Special

Pimlico Special

The Pimlico Special is an American thoroughbred horse race held at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland in mid May. It is raced on dirt over a distance of 1³/16 miles . The race is currently open to horses age three and older and offers a purse of $250,000.The Pimlico Special was first run in...

 over Fly So Free

Fly So Free

Fly So Free was an American Thoroughbred Champion racehorse. A grandson of U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee Damascus, Fly So Free was owned by New York City Broadway theatre producer and music publishing company owner Tommy Valando and his wife Elizabeth.In 1990, Fly So Free capped off a...

 and five other top horses. A few weeks later he scored another victory in the Nassau County Handicap over Pleasant Tap

Pleasant Tap

Pleasant Tap was an American thoroughbred stallion racehorse. He was sired by 1981 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner Pleasant Colony, out of the mare, Never Knock...

 then the two horses reversed their positions in the Jockey Club Gold Cup

Jockey Club Gold Cup

The Jockey Club Gold Cup, established in 1919, is a prestigious thoroughbred flat race open to horses of either gender three-years-old and up. It is typically the main event of the fall meeting at Belmont Park, just as the Belmont Stakes is of the spring meeting and the Travers Stakes is of the...

.

Raced at age five in 1993, Strike the Gold's best showing was a third in the Nassau County Handicap that he had won the previous year. In mid season he was retired to breeding

Horse breeding

Horse breeding is reproduction in horses, and particularly the human-directed process of selective breeding of animals, particularly purebred horses of a given breed. Planned matings can be used to produce specifically desired characteristics in domesticated horses...

 duty at Ben P. Walden Jr.'s Vinery near Midway, Kentucky

Midway, Kentucky

Midway is a city in Woodford County, Kentucky, United States. Its population was 1,620 at the 2000 census. It is located midway between Frankfort and Lexington along the single-track railroad between them. It is part of the Lexington-Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town is home to a...

 but his progeny never met with much racing success. By 1997 his stud fee stood at only $15,000 and in 1999 he was sold to the Jockey Club of Turkey to serve as a stallion at the Turkish National Stud. There his mating with Free Trade, a daughter of Shareef Dancer

Shareef Dancer

Shareef Dancer was an American-bred Thoroughbred racehorse owned by Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and based at his family's Godolphin Stables in England....

, produced the 2001 colt Sabirli who set records in Turkish

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

sprint and mile races and earned more than US$ 6 million. On September 15, 2009, Sabirli died in his barn. He has couple of foals born in 2010.