Remembering Skip Away

 

Simply put, this is a tribute to one of the most remarkable horses I have ever had the privilege to see run and the two people whose lives he encompassed.

One Fist of Iron, the other of Steel

No words are more fitting to describe Skip Away than the lyrics seen in the head above of the popular 1950’s Tennessee Ernie Ford song “Sixteen Tons.” It is only appropriate therefore to focus first on his stats and toughness before getting to the human side of his story.

To give you an example of just how brilliant and resilient Skip Away was, I surprisingly will start off with his workouts before I even get to his racing record. You can search far and wide and you won’t find anything comparable to what Skip Away accomplished in the morning.

During his career, he turned in an amazing 53 bullet works, along with 21 works that were the second-fastest at the distance. Just think of it: 74 works that were the first or second-fastest times on the tab.

Nowadays, you’d be hard-pressed to find trainers working their horses farther than five furlongs, and only on an occasional basis. Skip Away worked six furlongs 30 times. In addition to having six works within the 1:10 and 1:10 3/5 range, he turned in a 1:08 3/5 drill at Belmont Park in 1997. At five furlongs, he worked in under 1:00 29 times, 10 of those under :59, including a :57 1/5 work at Gulfstream. At four furlongs, he had 11 works ranging from :46 1/5 to :46 4/5. From March 21 to April 21, 1998, he turned in six consecutive bullet works, and would have had seven had his 1:23 3/5 seven-furlong drill not been the only work at the distance.

Track conditions never stopped trainer Sonny Hine, who worked Skip Away 19 times on an off track – 10 in the slop, five in the mud, and four on a good track.

OK, you get the picture. Skip Away’s racing career was no different, as he utilized that same brilliance and ruggedness in the afternoons as well, finishing in the money in 34 of his 38 starts. Of the four times he was out of the money, one was his career debut at five furlongs, in which he broke poorly; one came when he bled badly and was eased early in his 3-year-old campaign; and the other two came at Churchill Downs (in the Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic). Churchill proved to be the only track he couldn’t handle. And Skip Away was not the only horse to whom that applied over the sometimes cuppy Churchill surface. Following his Derby fiasco, he finished in the money in 26 consecutive races, 25 of them graded stakes, 20 of which were grade I.

Skip Away was not the type of horse who would beat you in the final eighth of a mile, or even the final quarter of a mile. His strength was his ability to run his opponents off their feet in the first three-quarters of a mile and keep going. He wasn’t going to dazzle you with his exceptional final quarters. But having already demoralized his foes by running them into the ground, he didn’t need to close fast. When he had the lead turning for home, he was near-unbeatable. Of the 16 times he led at the head of the stretch, he won 14 of them, with two seconds. In those races, grade 1 winners Cigar, Gentlemen, Free House, Formal Gold, Will’s Way, Behrens, Deputy Commander, Louis Quatorze, Puerto Madero, and Editor’s Note couldn’t catch him. The only two times he didn’t win were in the Belmont Stakes after breaking from post 13 and getting hung wide on the first turn and the Gulfstream Park Handicap after going head and head every step of the way in demanding fractions, while giving nine pounds to the winner.

With Skip Away, there was no such thing as stealing a race with slow fractions. He didn’t believe in doing anything slow; that wasn’t his style. He ran hard, he ran fast, and he ran far.

In his 1 1/4-mile victories, he set fractions of 1:09 3/5 and 1:33 4/5 in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (run in a stakes-record 1:59); 1:10 and 1:33 4/5 in The Jockey Club Gold Cup (run in 1:58 4/5); 1:09 3/5 and 1:34 in the Hollywood Gold Cup; and :46 3/5 and 1:10 1/5 in the Gulfstream Park Handicap. In his 1 1/8-mile wins, he went in :45 2/5, 1:09 flat, and 1:34 1/5 in the Woodward; 1:09 4/5 and 1:34 2/5 in the Haskell Invitational; 1:10 and 1:34 4/5 in the Philip H. Iselin (carrying 131 pounds); 1:10 1/5 and 1:34 4/5 in the Mass Cap (carrying 130 pounds); 1:10 1/5 and 1:34 4/5 in the Blue Grass Stakes; and in 1:10 3/5 in the Molson Million and 1:10 4/5 and Donn Handicap.

He did on occasion show the ability to win from off the pace in the final quarter, capturing the Suburban, Haskell, and Molson Million with strong stretch runs.

He didn’t even reach his peak until he was 5, putting together a nine-race winning streak, seven of them in grade I stakes, from Oct. ’97 to Sept. ’98.

In his last 31 starts, he ran triple-digit Beyer speed figures in 29 of them. He ran figures of 110 or higher 22 times, including 125, 122, 121, and 120. He ran the fastest Breeders’ Cup Classic ever (1:59 flat at Hollywood Park) three weeks after winning the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont in 1:58 4/5. Just to be totally accurate, Ghostzapper’s time six years later in his 2004 Classic victory was 14 one-hundredths of a second faster. Skip Away also set a new stakes and track record (1:47 1/5) in the 1 1/8-mile Massachussetts Handicap carrying 130 pounds. That time was significantly faster than the 1:48 3/5 and 1:49 3/5 run by Cigar two and three years earlier, as was Skip Away’s time of 1:47 4/5 in his second Mass Cap victory.

One thing about Sonny Hine, he wasn’t afraid to travel, regardless where it was. In addition to winning stakes at Belmont, Hollywood Park, Gulfstream, Monmouth, Keeneland, and Pimlico, and placing in stakes at Saratoga and Aqueduct, Skip Away also won stakes at Suffolk Downs, Woodbine, and Thistledown, and placed in a stakes at Lone Star Park.

Sonny and Carolyn: A Love Story

So now you know the all-encompassing statistical resume of this remarkable horse. The real story of Skip Away is in actuality a love story. In fact, it is two love stories – Carolyn Hine and her horse and Carolyn and Sonny. It might sound a bit far-fetched to say that Skip Away was the child they never had, but that is the way Carolyn described him. Some may cringe and some may find it endearing, but the most familiar sound at the barn when Carolyn was there was “Skippy, mommy loves you,” which Carolyn would say constantly to the horse, much to Sonny’s amusement. Carolyn didn’t care if anyone cringed; she never hid her emotions when it came to Skip Away, and sometimes maternal instincts are exhibited in different ways.

The relationship between Sonny and Carolyn, who met on a blind date, was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. They were best friends for almost 40 years. Sonny, despite having a tendency to complain about a ride or other minor things in what some may describe as a whiny voice, had the most easy-going disposition, which is why I chose him to work for at Monmouth Park in 1991 for a four-part feature I did for the Daily Racing Form, titled “Life on the Backstretch.” For five days, I mucked stalls, walked hots, held horses as they were being washed, did countless other jobs around the barn. I began to wonder what I was getting myself into when on the first morning, Sonny said to his assistant, “What are we gonna do about insurance for Steve?”

In additon to my chores at the barn, I attended backstretch card games, night time prayer meetings, vanned down to Atlantic City with one of Sonny’s horses who was running in the United Nations Handicap, and attempted unsuccessfully to sit in on drug counseling meetings, but did speak to some of the counselors and attendees.

Sonny’s barn was the stopping off point for anyone needing to borrow money or sell a horse, or simply indulge in bagels with cream cheese or donuts, which Carolyn would bring whenever she came. Some of the more recognizable backstretch characters that resided in Sonny’s barn were their cats Morris, Chi Chi, and Pepi. Morris’s misadventures are a story by themselves and every person on the backstretch knew him, because you could never tell where he would show up. Once he stowed away on a van and had to be shipped back to Sonny. When asked about his name, Sonny explained his full name was Morris Katz.

Although the Hines’ certainly had enough money, that didn’t stop Carolyn from saving grocery coupons and searching for bargains at Fortunoffs. They preferred a Chinese buffet to a three-star restaurant, and never once in 38 years did they take a honeymoon or a vacation. Their life was the horses and their love for each other, and that was it. According to Carolyn, their entire life together was a honeymoon.

What makes Sonny’s story all the more remarkable, and one that seemed mind-boggling to those who knew him, was that prior to becoming a horse trainer he was an FBI agent and worked for Air Force intelligence and the CIA. On one mission he had to infiltrate enemy lines during the Korean War to monitor Russian and Chinese pilots who had been causing a great deal of damage to American facilities. The mission, coordinated by the Air Force and the CIA, was so important and hush-hush, Marines were sent in to protect them and battleships were positioned off the coast to prevent any further Communist movement in the area.

Sonny, was a good friend of J. Edgar Hoover, who he met at Charles Town Racetrack as a young man. He spoke fluent Mandarin Chinese and became adept at breaking Chinese codes for the National Security Agency, for whom he worked, along with the CIA, in Hong Kong, investigating fraud cases. He also spent time in Vienna monitoring the Hungarian refugees who had converged on Austria following Hungary’s revolution. He was ranked one of the top 10 investigators in the world by the State Department, won the Outstanding Service Award, and did investigative work for the House Un-American Activities Committee.

This was such a far cry from the affable, cherubic Sonny Hine everyone knew that it was difficult to picture that aspect of his life. What I found funny was that Sonny would say about his life with Carolyn, “We’re so plain and simple it’s probably boring to most people.”

When Sonny, who was born in The Bronx, N.Y., and Carolyn first were married they had $900 to their name and lived in an attic at old Narragansett Racetrack in Rhode Island. They had to cook meat on aluminum foil because they didn’t own a pot. When they were at Charles Town it was so cold they had to sit back to back on a bed in the tack room to keep warm. They carried all their possessions from track to track in a U-Haul and couldn’t even afford curtains for their windows.

So, one can understand why, when Skip Away came along over 30 years later, Carolyn would call him their “Gift from God.” Sonny always felt that he was Carolyn’s reward for having to endure so much in those early years.

Sonny had been a successful trainer before Skip Away came along, having won major races such as as the Monmouth Invitational , Pennsylvania Derby, and Gulfstream Park Handicap twice with Skip Trial, Florida Derby with Technology, and Vosburgh with Sprint Champion Guilty Conscience.

Then came the 1995 Calder 2-year-old sale when Sonny laid eyes on a big strong gray son of Skip Trial. He was thrilled to get him for $30,000 and race him in Carolyn’s colors. But following the sale his veterinarian informed him that X-rays revealed a bone chip in the colt’s ankle and advised him to return him. Carolyn had already fallen in love with the horse, and she was disheartened as they left the sales pavilion and drove home. After hanging a left on route 441, heading to Hallandale Beach Boulevard, Sonny suddenly pulled off to the side of the road.

“Honey, there’s something about that horse,” he said to Carolyn. “I want to buy him anyway if you’re OK with it.”

Carolyn replied, “Well, it’s my birthday in a couple of weeks. That’ll be my birthday present.”

So, Sonny turned around and drove back to the sales pavilion and told the agent consigning the horse he still wanted to buy him, even with the ankle chip. The agent contacted the seller and breeder, who knocked $7,500 off the price in order to pay for any surgery that might be required. But Sonny felt the chip was manageable. He was confident in his ability as a horseman and decided not to have surgery performed. So, Skip Away went through his entire career, one of the most grueling in years, racing with a chip in his ankle and retired perfectly sound, which was a testament to Sonny’s skills as a trainer. I don’t ever remember the colt missing a race or even a work.

Skip Away showed his brilliance and toughness early on and made his way onto the Kentucky Derby trail. Carolyn had already fallen even more in love with him, and they turned down a $5-million offer for the horse after his  dominating victory in the Blue Grass Stakes. And when Skip Away went on to become a household name, Sonny and Carolyn didn’t hesitate to put up $480,000 to supplement him to the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Yes, they had a frugal reputation when it came to certain everyday aspects of their life. But they never turned down a friend in need, and with Skippy they felt they owed it to him after all he had done for them.

Sonny would often kid Carolyn, asking her where he ranks in her life compared to Skip Away, and Carolyn would always answer: “Dead-heat.”

When Skip Away retired, he had earned over $9.6 million, second all-time only to Cigar’s $9.9 million. He won an Eclipse Award for Champion 3-year-old in 1996, Champion Older Horse in 1997 (with Carolyn additionally winning the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Owner), and Horse of the Year and Champion Older Horse in 1998.

But the awards were far from over, as we will see later on.

A Champion is Crowned in the Gold Cup

Going into the 1996 Jockey Club Gold Cup, Skip Away was already established as a top-class 3-year-old with victories in the Blue Grass, Haskell Invitational, Ohio Derby, and Woodbine Million, and second-place finishes in the Preakness in stakes record-equaling time and Belmont Stakes. But the Gold Cup would be his biggest test. Not only was he up against Louis Quatorze, who defeated him in the Preakness, he was bold enough to take on super horse Cigar, the defending Horse of the Year and winner of 17 of his last 18 starts. Cigar was also coming off an impressive four-length victory in the 1 1/8-mile Woodward Stakes run in a sharp 1:47 flat and was undefeated at Belmont Park.

Under jockey Shane Sellers, Skip Away pressed the early pace set by Louis Quatorze, with Cigar sitting back in third, four lengths off the pace. Cigar made his usual big move on the turn to reach contention, and at the eighth pole it was the three of them across the track, with the reigning champ looking like a virtual lock. Louis Quatorze began to tire, but Skip Away dug in and would not go away. Cigar started to drift out, but kept coming. As Skip Away continued to fight him off, Carolyn stood in her box, pounding the rail with both fists, shouting, “Come on Skip! Come on Skip!” As soon as they crossed the wire, with Skip Away the winner by a head, one of Carolyn’s guests shouted in disbelief. “You beat Cigar! You beat Cigar!”

With their anniversary in a week, Sonny and Skip Away could not have given Carolyn a better anniversary present. In the executive offices following the race, Sonny, being the gracious winner he was, saw Cigar’s owner Allen Paulson and said to him, “You’re a credit to the game. I really admire you. You’ve gone everywhere and you’ve run everywhere – you’re really a great sport.”

Back at the barn, darkness had fallen on Belmont Park, and Sonny stood alone in Barn 3, which housed what remained of the retiring Woody Stephens string of horses. As Skip Away was cooling out, the colt passed Sonny and gave a single cough.

As if on cue, Sonny said to no one in particular, “Uh-oh, he coughed. Must be Cigar smoke.”

If there was any smoke it was from the torch that had just been passed. The racing world had been given a glimpse of the future, and its color was battleship gray.

Sonny then handed out hundred-dollar bills to just about everyone, from Stephens’ stable help to the security guards. When they questioned such a generous gift for doing little or nothing, Sonny assured them they were all part of the team. He and Carolyn had to catch a helicopter to the airport, but there was one more thing he had to see before they left.

“First he’s got to go in his stall and lay down and roll and then I’ll be happy,” Sonny said. Skip Away, as if knowing what he was expected to do, was led into the stall once occupied by champion Forty Niner and rolled over on both sides.

“Look at him,” Sonny said. “He’s still full of himself. He’s not even tired. Isn’t he amazing? He doesn’t get tired, he gets tougher. OK, now we can go home.”

Saying Goodbye

In October of 1997, following a second-place finish to the red-hot Formal Gold in the Woodward Stakes, Sonny decided to switch riders and replaced Sellers with Jerry Bailey. After his first start aboard Skip Away, an impressive score in the The Jockey Club Gold Cup, Bailey had a prior commitment for the Breeders’ Cup Classic and Mike Smith guided Skip Away to a six-length victory in stakes record time. With Bailey back aboard for the 1998 season, the big gray was unbeatable, rattling off seven more victories. Going into The Jockey Club Gold Cup riding a nine-race winning streak, seven of them Grade 1 races, Skip Away got caught up in a brutal pace over a very sloppy surface and being on the worst part of the track. Turning for home, he began to tire and struggled home in third.

In the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs, considered by many the strongest Classic field ever, with the likes of Silver Charm, Touch Gold, Awesome Again, Swain, Gentlemen, Coronado’s Quest and Victory Gallop, Skip Away still was sent off as the 9-5 favorite. But once again, he failed to handle the Churchill surface while stuck down on the rail and finished sixth, beaten four lengths.

Whether it was the track or just finally tailing off after a long arduous career, it mattered little. This was to be Skippy’s last race, and the impact he made on the sport for three years was not going to be affected by these two defeats. All that was on Sonny and Carolyn’s mind was putting him on a van the next morning and following him down I-64 to his new home, Hopewell Farm in Midway.

I knew what was coming and wasn’t looking forward to it. For Sonny and Carolyn, the gloom of a gray November morning befitted the occasion. It was time for them to say goodbye to Skip Away and then begin their long drive home to Florida, knowing Skip Away was no longer a part of their daily lives.

Carolyn had already done some heavy duty crying in the car, but she and Sonny knew the worst was yet to come. “The drive went too quickly,” Carolyn said after arriving at Hopewell. “It’s going to be such a void in our lives. It was like there was a magnet drawing me to his stall every day.”

As Skip Away was led into his new home and stared through the Dutch doors in the back of his stall at his new surroundings, Sonny said, “He loves it here. Look at him looking around at everything. Well, you deserved it, buddy. You really earned it.”

Carolyn was in tears, feeling she was deserting Skip Away, and kept telling him she loved him. Even his groom, Jose Luis Sanchez, was crying, as Carolyn went over to console him. “It hurts,” he said.

Finally it was time for Sonny and Carolyn to leave. “Skip, we’ve got to leave you here,” Sonny said. “I’m sorry. I’ll let you go now. Goodbye old buddy. We’ll see you later.”

But Sonny would never see Skip Away again. All through the horse’s 5-year-old campaign he had been battling cancer and was too weak to travel.

Sonny always said it was Carolyn and Skip Away who kept him going when he found it difficult to put one foot in front of the other. When he became ill with the flu early in 2000, Sonny insisted on going to the barn, because, as Carolyn said, “He just loved his horses so much.” He developed pneumonia and in his already weakened state, was unable to fight it. It was the only fight Sonny would ever lose.

After he died, his physician was in tears. He had watched Sonny travel around the country with Skip Away, despite suffering the effects of chemotherapy, and knew it was only his courage and perseverance that enabled him to do it. It was that same perseverance and dedication that drove him to the barn to be with his horses, despite the risk involved.

Following Sonny’s death, Carolyn had to adjust to life without him, but found it increasingly difficult. She finally was able to visit Skip Away later that year, in October 2000. Being in Kentucky for the Breeders’ Cup, I met her at Hopewell Farm and witnessed the emotional reunion. Skip Away was led out of the barn, walked over to Carolyn and began licking her hand.

Carolyn’s first priority was to sell all the horses, keeping just one or two. But Sonny’s memory brought her back to the track and she found herself with five horses in partnership.

It took three years after Sonny’s death for their silks to be seen again. It came on August 28, 2003 at Saratoga in a 1 1/16-mile maiden grass race. Wearing their once-familiar red and gold striped silks was a gelding by Skip Away named Soaring Away, who was making his career debut and being sent off at odds of 30-1. In the paddock, Carolyn could barely hold it together and trainer Joe Orseno attempted to keep her calm. “I tried to psych myself so I wouldn’t fall apart,” Carolyn said. As if in some spiritual way, Soaring Away rallied from 10th to win by a half-length. Carolyn was in a daze, finding it difficult to comprehend what had just happened. Soaring Away never came close to winning again and ended his career in a $25,000 claiming race.

Carolyn would go to Gulfstream, which was near their home, on occasion just to see old friends, and would attend the running of the Skip Away Stakes. In 2001, Gulfstream had changed the name of the Broward Handicap to honor Skip Away. She also would visit Monmouth Park for a few years after they inaugurated the Skip Away Stakes in 2007. But her visits to the track would become fewer and fewer until she sold the last of her horses. Familiar faces all but disappeared, and eventually so did Carolyn.

When Skip Away died in 2010 at the relatively young age of 17 from an apparent heart attack, it was a devastating blow to Carolyn. It was as if she had lost a son, and in essence she had. Skippy was all she had left, and his sudden demise 10 years after Sonny’s death was more than she could bear. The horse had become an extension of her husband; a physical link to all he was and all he stood for. Skippy was Sonny’s final and greatest gift to his wife and she cherished every moment of joy he gave them — on and off the racetrack.

Into the History Books

Carolyn’s main goal in life had been to see Sonny and Skip Away inducted into the Hall of Fame. The first became a reality in 2003 when Sonny was voted in, and Carolyn asked me to make the presentation speech, which I was honored to do. The following year, Skip Away joined him.

“It’s a closure, Carolyn said afterward. “This is what I’ve been praying for. I’m grateful to have been blessed with such a wonderful husband and wonderful horse. I’m so proud of Sonny and so proud of Skippy. I don’t ever want that bubble to burst. Now I can go on and live with all my pride. The two most important men in my life are in the Hall of Fame.”