General Assembly (horse)

General Assembly (1976–2005) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse. He was bred and raced by the prominent husband-and-wife team of Bertram and Diana Firestone, of Upperville, Virginia. General Assembly was out of the mare Exclusive Dancer, daughter of Hall of Fame inductee and American Horse of the Year Native Dancer. His sire was the 1973 U.S. Triple Crown champion Secretariat, who was rated #2 in the Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century.[1]

General Assembly was trained by future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee LeRoy Jolley. At age two, the colt won the Hopeful Stakes and the Saratoga Special Stakes; he ran second to Spectacular Bid in both the Champagne Stakes and the Laurel Futurity.

Racing at age three in 1979, in the U.S. Triple Crown series General Assembly ran second in the Kentucky Derby and fifth in the Preakness Stakes to winner Spectacular Bid. In the Belmont Stakes, he finished seventh behind upset winner Coastal. General Assembly won the Vosburgh Stakes and ran second again to Spectacular Bid in the Marlboro Cup Invitational Handicap. He then earned the most important victory of his career with a 15-length win in the Travers Stakes, in which he set a Saratoga track record for the mile and a quarter which stood until 2016.