Iron Constitution

Iron Constitution (born in 1977) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse he was the son of Iron Ruler and grandson to Never Bend. Iron Constitution will be best remembered for winning the 1977 Withers Stakes and placing second three weeks later in the $200,000 grade 1 Preakness Stakes to undefeated Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew.^[1]

Racing career

Iron Constitution had a very short racing career that only lasted from late in his two-year-old season until the middle of his four-year-old season. After breaking his maiden at Aqueduct Racetrack in his third attempt and followed that up with a second-place finish in allowance company. In only his fifth lifetime start his connections decided to take a big step up class and race him in a graded stakes race. That race was the one turn one mile Withers Stakes which he won in 1:37.00 under jockey Jorge Velasquez at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Three weeks later his trainer, Thomas F. Root, Sr. decided to take a shot at the second jewel of the Triple Crown. The Preakness Stakes is run at a mile and three sixteenths on dirt at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. In that race Iron Constitution was listed a 31-1 longshot in a field of ten stakes winning colts. The prohibitive odds-on favorite was the undefeated Kentucky Derby winner Seattle Slew. Iron Constitution broke from near the outside and broke poorly in ninth in front of only Run Dusty Run. The fractions that day were blistering on the lead finishing the first quarter mile in :223/5 and the half in :453/5.^[2] Just prior to Pimlico's famous "Clubhouse Turn" Iron Constitution's jockey Jorge Velasquez angled him in and slid between horse to reach the rail. He moved from ninth up tho seventh as he saved ground on both turns on the inside. Down the back stretch he moved up well into third behind only runner-up Seattle Slew and the front running leader Cormorant. Velasquez then took him outside at the top of the lane and he willingly picked up the pace finishing the mile in 1:344/5. Jean Cruguet applied a steady hand ride to Slew who went on to win by one and one half lengths. Iron Constitution finished second that day two lengths in front of Run Dusty Run who finished third. Iron Constitution took the 20% runner-up's share of the purse equalling $30,000.

After his strong Preakness placing performance in the Preakness Stakes he went on to place in three very nice races that year including the Grade 1 Jersey Derby. It was the last Jersey Derby ever held at Garden State Park Racetrack before a fire deystroyed the property. He also placed second in the Woodlawn Stakes on the turf at Pimlico Race Course. He also showed in third place in two mile and one sixteenth races on the dirt in the Monmouth Invitational Handicap which is now called the Haskell Invitational Stakes at Monmouth Park Racetrack and the Dwyer Stakes at Belmont Park. At age four he placed second in his last stakes race, the Cinema Handicap.

Iron Constitution was euthanized due to a fractured leg in June 1989 at Graywood, Livonia Center, New York, where he spent his stud career.

References

• Iron Constitution's pedigree and partial racing stats