Joel Rosario started the week singing charity karaoke at Vapor Night Club in Saratoga Springs, NY. He will continue his bid to win the $1 million Whitney Stakes (G1) on Aug. 3 aboard Disarmament During that time, Rosario became a member of the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Racing.
The ceremony was held on August 2 at the Fasig-Tipton Merchandise Pavilion, just around the corner from the museum. Rosario was the only living person honored that morning, sometimes part of the sport’s process of reaching back into the past to remind itself of where it has been. Never mind where it is going.
A pair of red horses were honored this year, both making their first appearance on the Hall of Fame ballot. Gunman last raced in January 2018, winning the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) at Gulfstream Parkthen three weeks later Align had a winning debut in the first race at Santa Anita Park. Gun Runner raced 19 times in four seasons and was Horse of the Year in 2017. Justify raced six times in one season and was the Triple Crown winner and Horse of the Year in 2018. Vive la différence.
Joel Rosario has never ridden Gun Runner or Justify. He has ridden Animal Kingdom to win the 2013 Dubai World Cup (G1), Tonality And Sir Winston to win the Belmont Stakes (G1) in 2014 and 2019, Epicenter to win the 2022 Travers Stakes (G1) and Globe to win the 2013 Kentucky Derby (G1), along with more than 3,600 other races of varying importance. His horses have amassed $322 million in prize money, earning him rare status, and his Breeders’ Cup winnings record is surpassed only by Mike Smith, John Velazquez and Irad Ortiz Jr.
Rosario is also the first rider from the Dominican Republic to be elected to the Hall of Fame. Seven other countries in what we gringos call Latin America are represented, starting in 1975 when Panama’s Laffit Pincay Jr. was the first to be recognized among the first Hispanic horsemen to emerge in the United States and Canada.
Pincay was only 28 when he was elected, which means he has been around as a Hall of Famer longer than any other living person. At the time, the eligibility rules were, let’s say, flexible. At one point, riders needed 15 years of riding time before they could be on the Hall of Fame ballot. Today, the requirement is 20 years, barring unforeseen circumstances, and that’s the way it should be.
With 9,530 winners, Pincay was retired by the time Rosario began racing.
“I liked him from the start,” Pincay said this week. “I thought he would be a great rider, and he proved that.”
Rosario was introduced at the ceremony by Ambassador Jose Singer, former special envoy of the Dominican Republic to the United Nations.
“I was honored that Joel asked me to induct him,” Singer said. “Of course, when people think of the Dominican Republic and a Hall of Fame, they think of baseball. As for horse racing, we’re in a different territory now.”
Ask Rosario and he’ll tell you he’s always been a powerful hitter trapped in a horseman’s body. As a youngster in his hometown of San Francisco de Macoris, there was rarely a day without baseball after school. The Dominican Republic’s baseball pipeline to Major League Baseball has been steady for years, though there’s been a 30-year gap in the recognition of the best of them, from Juan Marichal in 1983 to Pedro Martinez in 2015. Since then, Dominicans Vladimir Guerrero, David “Big Papi” Ortiz and Adrian Beltre have joined Marichal and Martinez in Cooperstown, N.Y., 65 miles south of Saratoga Springs.
Singer’s history as a Thoroughbred owner in the Dominican Republic spans half a century, meaning Rosario was on his radar from the start. In December 2008, near the end of his breakthrough year in Southern California, Rosario traveled to Puerto Rico to ride Dominican-bred Sicotico to victory for Singer and a partner in the $290,000 Clasico del Caribe.
Four years later, Rosario traveled to New York to win the 2012 Easy Goer Stakes in the Belmont Stakes (G1) with Singer’s colt. Dog’s teeth then returned to contest the Dwyer Stakes (G2). By the following year he was running full-time in the East, represented by agent Ron Anderson.
“Ron told me not to talk too long,” Singer said. “I told him I have two personalities. As a lifelong businessman, when I speak, I speak briefly and to the point. When I represent the Dominican Republic at the United Nations Security Council, I can talk and talk without saying anything. So I’m going to practice the business part of my personality.”
Clement L. Hirsch died in 2000 and Joe Hirsch died in 2009. They were not related, except for their intense passion for thoroughbred horse racing.
Clement L. Hirsch
Clement’s parents were St. Louis merchants who immigrated to Los Angeles and prospered. He played a key role in the early founding of the California chapter of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, helped pave the way for the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, and supported the nonprofit Oak Tree Racing Association with like-minded partners.
Joe’s parents were New Yorkers who worked in the garment industry, and his son graduated with a degree in journalism from New York University. He founded the National Turf Writers Association, mentored generations of younger writers, and was an influential advocate for the creation of international events such as the Arlington Million, Breeders’ Cup, and Japan Cup.
Joe Hirsch received the Eclipse Award for Merit in 1992. Clement Hirsch received the Special Eclipse Award on behalf of Oak Tree in 1998. One of them shared a Manhattan bachelor apartment with Joe Namath, the other could be found sailing with his neighbor, John Wayne. It didn’t matter which one they did, because they were all larger than life.
Joe may have been in Garden State Park covering the Daily Racing Form in the late 1970s when Clement came to town with star mare June Darling. Clement welcomed Joe to Santa Anita Park for the Breeders’ Cup presented by Oak Tree in 1986 and 1993. Gone but never forgotten, both Hirsches were added to the Hall of Fame on Friday as Pillars of the Turf, a shorthand way of saying their contributions to the sport are forever.
