Zippy Chippy

Zippy Chippy (born April 20, 1991) is a thoroughbred race horse, a bay gelding, who is notable for being winless in 100 races. Zippy Chippy's pedigree includes many famous horses, such as Ben Brush, Buckpasser, Busanda, Bold Ruler, Count Fleet, Man o' War, Nasrullah, Native Dancer, Northern Dancer, Round Table, Tom Fool, War Admiral and the greatest "blue hen" broodmare of the twentieth century, La Troienne.^[1]

Career

Zippy Chippy was owned and trained by Felix Monserrate and at Capritaur Farm in New York. Tom Gilcoyne, a retired historian for the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, New York, said that Zippy Chippy "...hasn't done anything to harm the sport. But it's a little bit like looking at the recorded performances of all horse races through the wrong end of the telescope."^[2]

Felix Monserrate, who had boarded Zippy Chippy, acquired the horse in 1995, in a trade for a 1988 Ford truck. Eventually, Zippy Chippy was banned from competing at numerous tracks. The only track not to ban him was at the Northampton Fair.

In August 2001, Zippy came in first against a minor league baseball player in a 120-foot (37 m) race. (Although there are sources that say he lost this 40-yard dash, it seems there may have been two races. On August 18, 2000, Rochester outfielder José Herrera outran Zippy Chippy in a 40-yard race.) Zippy also won against a harness racer called Paddy's Laddy in a publicity stunt in which he spotted the trotter a twenty-length lead.^[3]

Zippy Chippy's 100th loss occurred on September 10, 2004, in the Northampton Fair at the Three County Fairgrounds. He went off at odds of 7-2, making him the second betting choice; however, Zippy Chippy finished last.^[4] In December 2004, he retired from racing to become an outrider pony at his hometown track, Finger Lakes racetrack in Farmington, New York, where he'd been banned from racing on September 8, 1998, after failing to leave the gate with the rest of the field for the third consecutive time. As an outrider pony, he escorted horses in the post parade and led them to the gate.

In 2000, People magazine included Zippy Chippy on its list of that year's most interesting personalities.^[5][6] An English ad campaign used his name and image to convince kids to stay in school.

Zippy Chippy's lifetime record is: 100 starts, 0 wins, and lifetime earnings of $30,834.^[4]

Retirement

Zippy Chippy retired to the Bobby Frankel Division of Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Farm at Cabin Creek near Saratoga Race Course in New York on April 22, 2010. The 19-year-old gelding joined Cabin Creek's seven other retirees and is expected to live out his life there.^[7][8]

Zippy Chippy went on tour in Kentucky in the summer of 2012 to bring attention to the safe retirement of race horses.^[9]

Other horses with long losing streaks include Dona Chepa (0 wins out of 125 starts), Ouroene (0 for 124), Haru Urara (0 for 113, Japan), Meine Attrice (0 for 192, Japan),^[10] Thrust (0 for 105, North America) and Quixall Crossett (0 for 103, Britain).

Adaptations

• Thomas, William (5 April 2016). The Legend of Zippy Chippy: Life Lessons from Horse Racing's Most Lovable Loser. McClelland & Stewart. ISBN 978-0-7710-8162-0. .^[11][12]

Pedigree

Zippy Chippy is inbred 3 × 3 to Buckpasser, meaning that Buckpasser appears twice in the third generation of his pedigree. He is also inbred 4 × 4 to Native Dancer.

See also

• Underdog
• Haru Urara, a similarly unsuccessful but popular Japanese racehorse.

References

External links

• Zippy Chippy in The Encyclopedia of New York State