Evening Attire (horse)

Evening Attire (foaled February 14, 1998) is a Thoroughbred racehorse who made 65 starts in a 10-year racing career, winning 15 times and earning nearly $3 million. A staple of the New York racing circuit, his biggest victory was in the 2002 Jockey Club Gold Cup.

History

Bred by Joseph M. Grant and Hall of Famer Thomas J. Kelly, and owned by Kelly along with his longtime clients Joe and Mary Grant, Evening Attire was first trained by Tommy's son Tim Kelly. When Tim retired, the horse was taken over by another of Tommy's sons, Pat Kelly. The first time Tommy Kelly watched him breeze, he said, "That's a special horse. He'll be a stakes winner." He also said, "I can't put it into words what's it's been like owning and breeding a horse like Evening Attire. After some of his races, I went home and cried. How lucky can one person get?"

Evening Attire is the son of 1991 Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year winner Black Tie Affair. Kelly purchased Evening Attire's dam, Concolor, from Doe Run Farm, one of his former clients. He invited Joe Grant, an old friend, to become a 50/50 partner in her offspring. Because of back and heart problems, he usually watched Evening Attire's races on television instead of attending them in person.

A dappled gray, Evening Attire was gelded because one of his testicles was immature and stuck in the canal. Said Pat Kelly, "It had been bugging him, so they wound up gelding him. The poor guy had to have two surgeries over the winter." As a gelding, Evening Attire raced until the age of ten. He raced well off the pace, often closing dramatically.

Racing Career

Evening Attire made his first start on July 16, 2000 in a maiden special weight race at Belmont Park, finishing second. He broke his maiden in his next start at Saratoga on August 6. He then stepped up in class to enter the Grade I Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga on September 2 but finished seventh. He then lost five straight races in allowance company in a 13-month span, during which time he was gelded. He finally returned to the winner's circle on October 31, 2001 in the Discovery Handicap, then followed up with a win in the Queen's County Handicap.^[1]

In 2002, he earned his most important win in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. That year, he also won the Aqueduct Handicap, Saratoga Breeders' Cup Handicap and Red Smith Handicap while also finishing fourth in the Breeders' Cup Classic. In 2003, Evening Attire earned only two allowance race wins but was second in both the Clark and Queens County Handicap and was third in both the Whitney and Jockey Club Gold Cup.^[1]

In 2004, the now six-year-old gelding made 11 starts with one win in the Saratoga Breeders' Cup Handicap and six runner-up placings. In 2005, he won the Stuyvesant Handicap, but he was winless in five starts.^[1]

On March 3, 2007, at odds of 8-1 and at the age of 9, he took the 52nd running of The Stymie by two and a half length, making a move at the 8th pole. The Aqueduct track writer wrote, "Evening Attire proved that age means little if you have class."

Evening Attire finished third in the 2007 Stuyvesant Handicap after hesitating at the start, a trait his trainer said the 10-year-old gelding developed in 2007. Evening Attire was entered in the 2007 Queens County Handicap at Aqueduct (a race he won in 2001) and took it by a head under veteran jockey Edgar Prado. He became the oldest horse ever to win the Queens County, which has been run since 1902. After the race (in which he defeated Hunting, who had won the 2007 Stuyvesant), Prado said: "He knows his way around the track. When he's right, he's pretty tough."

Though his trainer, Patrick Kelly, had thought to take Evening Attire out of stakes competition, NYRA stakes coordinator Andrew Byrnes convinced him to enter the horse in the June 6, 2008, Brooklyn Handicap at Belmont Park contested at a mile and a half. With Cornelio Velasquez aboard, ten-year-old Evening Attire placed, coming from sixteen lengths behind at the quarter pole and going down the center of the track to rapidly close on five-year-old Delosvientos. Delosvientos went wire to wire, but the slowly breaking Evening Attire got within two lengths of the winner. Patrick Kelly said, "In the barn today, he had his game face on early. I’m always happy when he’s in the money. It was fun to try."

On July 19, 2008, in his first win outside the state of New York, Evening Attire won the Greenwood Cup Stakes at Philadelphia Park Racetrack by 8¼-lengths, breaking the 16-year-old track record. The previous track record of 2:31 flat for 1½ miles was set on January 4, 1992, by Laugh a Minute. Evening Attire's time was 2:29.90. Evening Attire was retired after the race.

Retirement

On September 28, 2008, his owners and trainer announced that Evening Attire would retire due to a suspensory injury.

His trainer, Tommy Kelly, said, “He was one of a kind. He had to be castrated early on because he couldn’t break from the gate. Still to this day, he didn’t break like any other racehorse. But at the final end when it counted, from the quarter pole to the wire, he always put in his run. I’ve never seen him back down once. He might have finished second, third, fourth, or fifth, but he was already running at the end, where the best part of a racehorse manifests itself. We’re all going to miss him.”

On October 25, 2008, Evening Attire was brought to Belmont Park one last time. He was walked around the paddock, and a celebration was held in the Belmont Park winner's circle.

His next stop was Akindale Farm in Pawling, New York. Akindale is a farm dedicated to the rescue, rehab, and retraining of retired thoroughbred racehorses.

Honors

Aqueduct Race Track renamed its Aqueduct Handicap as the Evening Attire Stakes in his honor. The first Evening Attire took place on January 17, 2009.

References

• Evening Attire's pedigree
• EveningAttire.net The Evening Attire Web Site
• The Jockey Gold Cup
• The Ultimate Horse Dictionary
• NYRA official site
• Tommy Kelly in the Hall of Fame