The Little Lady Is a Champ

Only his heirs could care whether a millionaire throws away $6,000. But veteran horsemen could not resist a tsk-tsk or two when Cincinnati Industrialist Lloyd Miller laid out that sum for a thoroughbred filly at the 1966 yearling auctions in Keeneland, Ky. The youngster's sire, Persian Road II, was so poorly regarded as a stallion that he later sold for only $6,000. Her dam, Home by Dark, had never raced and was stone-deaf to boot. The filly herself was more the size of a Shetland pony than a race horse and the only thing remarkable about her was her temper.

Named Dark Mirage, the filly went to the post 15 times in 1967, won only two races and $19,906--barely enough to repay her purchase price and upkeep. Her first start this year as a three-year-old was equally unimpressive: she finished fourth, beaten by 7 1/2 lengths. What has happened since beggars belief. Dark Mirage, almost certainly the smallest thoroughbred in training in the U.S., has not lost a race.

In May she won the Acorn Stakes at Belmont by six lengths, packing 121 lbs. and tying the one-mile track record of 1 min. 34 4/5 sec.--set in 1942 by the famed Count Fleet, carrying only 116 lbs. She followed that up with a ten-length victory in Belmont's 1 1/4-mile Mother Goose Stakes and a twelve-length triumph in the 1 1/4-mile Coaching Club American Oaks, thereby becoming the first thoroughbred in history to capture the filly Triple Crown. By post time at the $57,950 Delaware Oaks two weeks ago, Dark Mirage had just about run out of opposition. Only three other fillies took to the track, and

Delaware Park officials, rather than pay off the legal minimum of 10-c- for every dollar wagered on Dark Mirage, declared the race a betless exhibition. Dark Mirage danced home first by two lengths to score her ninth victory in a row and boost her 1968 bankroll to $322,482.

Right on the Record. Winning obviously agrees with Dark Mirage. Since she launched her streak last spring, she has grown 3 in. taller, to 5 ft. 1 in. (15.1 hands), and put on 120 lbs., to 850. She is still puny compared with other thoroughbreds, who average about 1,100 lbs. Her small stature and undistinguished ancestry prompt some horsemen to label her a freak. "I can't find anything right about her except her record," says Trainer Buddy Raines. "It seems impossible that she has so much quality on the racetrack. If I had my pick of all the horses now running at Delaware Park, without knowing their records, she'd be the last."

Such remarks bring out the Irish in Dark Mirage's trainer, Everett King. "I can't find anything about her that isn't perfect," says King. "Horses are like people: you don't have to be big to have a good build. And how many great athletes have ordinary parents?" Besides, Dark Mirage's parents are no longer ordinary. Jack Ward, the Connecticut breeder who paid $6,000 for Persian Road II, has reportedly been offered six figures for the stallion; Home by Dark was purchased last week by James J. Hoolahan, an advertising executive, and John Gaines, of the dog-food family, for $300,000.

With Dark Mirage's superiority over her own sex already established, Trainer King plans to enter her in only two more filly races this year: the $50,000 added Alabama Stakes at Saratoga this week, and the Gazelle Handicap at Aqueduct on Aug. 31. Then comes her first date with the boys. "I don't think there is a colt in the country that can beat Dark Mirage over 1 1/2 miles," says King, and he means to prove it in October's Lawrence Realization Stakes at Belmont. A victory over colts in that 1 5/8-mile race could well make Dark Mirage the first filly in 23 years to be named Horse of the Year.

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