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Intense battle to the wire in the 1989 Preakness evokes images from another dramatic Triple Crown finish — Affirmed and Alydar’s Belmont. Shades of another famous showdown, the East versus West match-up of Nashua and Swaps in the 1955 Kentucky Derby, were present in 1989, as well. Sunday Silence played the Swaps role as West Coast upstart, and Easy Goer was the modern Nashua, a pedigreed racing royal from a powerfulEast Coast stable.

A handsome and charismatic chestnut, Easy Goer was a homebred for Ogden Phipps, who had been racing and breeding top-class horses for more than fifty years. Among the champions Phipps had bred and raced were the great Buckpasser, Numbered Account, and Relaxing, the dam of Easy Goer. In 1988 as a two-year-old, Easy Goer added his name to that list of champions. After breaking his maiden at Saratoga, Easy Goer won three in a row at his favorite track, BelmontPark, including the Cowdin Stakes by three lengths and the Champagne Stakes by four. In his final outing he faltered in the muddy going at Churchill Downs to finish second to Is It True in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, but the loss did not dissuade voters from awarding him the two-year old male championship.

Out in California, Sunday Silence had a less distinguished juvenile season but did enough to prove his quality. A son of Halo out of the bluecollar mare Wishing Well, Sunday Silence had been offered for sale at the California Thoroughbred Sales Inc.’s two-year-olds in training sale that March but had been bought back by Arthur Hancock, who had raised the colt for breeder Oak Cliff Thoroughbreds. Hancock had already bought back the lanky black colt as a yearling. After this, he convinced Hall of Fame trainer Charlie Whittingham to buy a half-interest in the colt. Sunday Silence didn’t start until late October 1988, finishing a close second in a maiden event at Santa Anita. Not quite two weeks later he won a maiden race by ten lengths at HollywoodPark, and in his final start that season he finished second in an allowance race at the same track.

In March 1989 both Sunday Silence and Easy Goer began their treks down the Triple Crown trail, each racing on his respective coast. Sunday Silence made his seasonal bow in a March 2 allowance race at Santa Anita, winning by four and a half lengths. Two days later trainer Shug McGaughey sent Easy Goer out in the seven-furlong Swale Stakes at GulfstreamPark in Florida to win by eight and three-quarters lengths. Both horses raced twice more before the Kentucky Derby, Sunday Silence winning the San Felipe Handicap and Santa Anita Derby (by eleven lengths) and Easy Goer taking the Gotham by thirteen lengths and the Wood Memorial by three, both at Aqueduct in New York.

For the May 6 Kentucky Derby, Easy Goer, with entry-mate Awe Inspiring, was made the heavy favorite at 4-5 while Sunday Silence was the second choice at 3-1. Thirteen other horses were entered in the Derby, but the real showdown was between the East Coast titan and the West Coast brawler. Or it was supposed to have been that way. Sunday Silence took command in the stretch and made Easy Goer play catch-up. Easy Goer got only to within two and a half lengths of Sunday Silence at the wire.

After the Derby, fans across the country had become increasingly polarized about the two horses with loyalties mostly divided along East-West lines. And Easy Goer fans were especially eager to see their colt redeem himself. Easy Goer was once again the odds-on favorite and Sunday Silence the second choice for the Preakness. A record 90,000-plus people turned out to witness the rematch. On-track fans and television viewers would not be disappointed.

Sunday Silence, with Pat Valenzuela aboard, settled just off pacesetters Northern Wolf and Houston while running wide down the backstretch. After a poor break Easy Goer was eager to get in the race, and jockey Pat Day let him move up on his own. It appeared he might pull away and dominate as he had in so many other races, but Sunday Silence wasn’t about to let him get away and closed the gap heading into the homestretch.

And the battle was on. Easy Goer took the rail path, with Sunday Silence lapped on him so closely that Pat Day couldn’t whip with his right hand. In a scene eerily similar to the battle of Affirmed and Alydar, the two colts raced down the stretch, strides in synch, neither willing to give an inch. In the final strides Day tugged Easy Goer’s head slightly to the right, in hopes that eye contact with his foe would give his colt that little extra boost. Valenzuela tapped Sunday Silence on the right with his whip; a similar tactic in the Derby had had his colt veering in down the stretch. But not this time. Sunday Silence ran true, and at the wire his nose caught the line first.

Easy Goer, who, ironically, was sired by Alydar, would finally get his revenge with an easy win over Sunday Silence in the Belmont. But the two horses will be forever linked in perpetual combat in a Preakness for the ages. JM