digitaLmbuL’s FiLes

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No insect produces a louder mating call than the cicada, although the female of the species is mute. The equine that was named for this creature was perhaps mute in terms of a mating call, in fact at stud she produced only one stakes winner, but Cicada’s exploits upon the racetrack were heard all across America. Bred in Virginia and foaled in 1959 at the Meadow Stud of Christopher C. Chenery, she raced under his Meadow Stable name. She was by Bryan G. out of Satsuma, a daughter of Chenery’s great “blue hen” mare, Hildene. In spite of being blind, Hildene produced three major stakes winners in First Landing, Hill Prince and Third Brother.

Cicada was a solid dark bay filly with a white blaze in her face. Although attractive, she was very small, standing barely 15 hands, two inches, yet she had tremendously powerful hindquarters and gaskin letting well down into her hocks. Trained by J. H. “Casey” Hayes, she was precocious at 2, winning 11 of 16 starts, but she was later able to carry her extraordinary speed from five to nine furlongs. Prior to the advent of the Eclipse Awards that were instituted years after her retirement, she nevertheless won divisional championships at 2, 3 and 4 years old.

She came to the races as a 2-year-old early in 1961, winning her first stake race, the Blue Hen at five furlongs, followed by a division of the national Stallion Stakes. Shipping to Saratoga in August, she won the Schuylerville and the Spinaway Stakes before moving to downstate New York to win the three most important fixtures for her age and sex: the Matron, Astarita and the Frizette. As if this were not enough to insure a championship, she tried two turns in the richest race in the country for her age and sex — the Gardenia at Garden State Park in New Jersey at a mile and a 16th — and galloped to a 10-length victory.

Moving to Hialeah for winter racing, Cicada started out in an allowance race Feb. 7, winning against top class older mares, although she was not even chronologically 3 years old herself. Not satisfied with this extraordinary effort, merely a week later she was asked again to take on older mares in the Columbiana Handicap, and by finishing second, ended a seven-straight winning streak, while conceding 11 pounds on the scale to the winner. Undaunted, Hayes ran her back against older mares again, winning another allowance race.

Cicada was then asked to take on the colts in the Florida Derby when stable-mate Sir Gaylord dropped out of the race due to injury. Turning the event into a virtual match-race, she battled and bounced off the much larger Ridan all the way through the stretch, only to lose by a nose. A stewards’ inquiry did not overturn the result, despite her coming off second best; the gutsy little filly had retaliated when slammed by Ridan. Admiral’s Voyage, which later won the Wood Memorial and became Ridan’s archrival, ran third, beaten six lengths.

After returning to race against her own age and sex at Churchill Downs in late April, Cicada easily won the Oaks Prep Stakes, which tempted her connections once again to run her as a replacement for Sir Gaylord in the Kentucky Derby. It was decided at the last minute that discretion was the better part of valor and, instead, she ran in the Kentucky Oaks, winning by three lengths. Two weeks later, she won the Acorn at Aqueduct and followed this within two weeks by winning the Mother Goose, her fourth successive victory. Finally, the streak was broken in the 10-furlong Coaching Club American Oaks, this time simply by the distance of the race and a top class filly when Bramalea beat her by half a length.

Ten furlongs appeared to be a fraction beyond Cicada’s best distance, particularly since the indomitable little filly resented being rated and would prematurely open long leads in her races. Nevertheless, she was asked to go a mile and a quarter again in the Delaware Oaks, this time finishing third while Bramalea was second. Hayes was proving a point that he may have failed to recognize himself when, two weeks later, he ran her once again at 10 furlongs in the Delaware Handicap, and again taking on older fillies and mares. She finished second to 4-year-old Seven Thirty but did outlast Bramalea, which was third. Two weeks later she went to the post at mile and a quarter for the fourth consecutive time in Saratoga’s Alabama, finishing a weary third to Firm Policy.

It has always been the belief of erudite horsemen that the three Triple Crown races for colts run over a five-week period is the most physically demanding series in racing. Apparently the connections of Cicada were either unaware or contemptuous of this theory, for she had already run in not three, but four mile-and-a-quarter races within seven weeks, and they apparently believed she could do more. So it was only a week after the Alabama that she ran in the Travers against colts again, her fifth start in eight weeks, all at 10 furlongs. Cicada finished worse than third for the first time by begrudgingly relinquishing the lead after a mile, but the race was perhaps most memorable since it resulted in an epic battle through the length of the stretch with Belmont Stakes winner Jaipur saving a nose decision over Ridan.

If courage is a component of class, then Cicada was not only resilient but also royal. She recovered from what should have been a devastating campaign of five losses within eight weeks — all at a mile and a quarter — to prove her fortitude after a 30-day hiatus by winning the Beldame Stakes. Taking revenge on the Alabama winner Firm Policy by a length and a half, she led throughout and broke Kelso’s track record at nine furlongs.

Despite having run 14 times between February and September, the brave little filly won one more race that year, the Jersey Belle at Garden State Park by five and a half lengths. But the tide would inevitably turn. A week later she carried 123 lbs. against older mares in the Vineland Handicap, and suffered an injury to either her stifle or a pulled muscle (it was never decided), which resulted in a fourth-place finish. Two weeks later, Hayes mistakenly believed that she had recovered well enough to run in Aqueduct’s Ladies Handicap; she finished fifth and was forced into retirement for the remainder of the year due to the recurring injury.

She returned to the races in February 1963 for her 4-year-old campaign by winning the Columbiana Handicap at Hialeah. The remainder of the year, she was a victim of high weights and the recurring injury but, nevertheless, won half of eight starts and was only once worse than third. She was unplaced in the Black Helen and then was second in the Suwannee River before returning to New York. In quick succession she won the Distaff, was third in the Top Flight, won the Vagrancy and then the Sheepshead Bay Handicap (her only start on turf) before finishing second in the 10-furlong Delaware Handicap, carrying high weight of 128 lbs. After having run eight times in five and half months, and never less than high-weight in any race, she again pulled up lame, but this time she never recovered entirely.

Although her 4-year-old season had been cut short, at this point in her career, Cicada had broken the earnings record for a 2-year-old filly, a 3-year-old filly, and had become the leading distaff money winner ever to race. But she still had one goal that everyone in her corner hoped she would reach: to be the first distaff millionaire. Despite efforts to keep her in training at 5, she never fully recovered from her injuries. She was to make only one more start.

In the spring of 1964, Kenny Noe, then racing secretary at Garden State Park, urged me to run a tough 6-year-old horse named Relative in an allowance race that Noe assured me he would win. When the entries came out, I was stunned to find Cicada also in the race, making her first start of the year. But Noe was right, and Cicada was not; Relative won by two lengths. Cicada never ran again, but the heroic little filly will retain a place as one of the greatest of her sex of the last century, retiring with earnings records at 2, 3 and 4, and three divisional championships. She was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1967 and died in 1988.