Malicious

Historic Tanforan

My thanks to Bob Urban
for the following e-mail dated November 29, 2002

I was really surprised ... and gratified ...
to find your website and discover that Malicious is included.
My Dad owned Malicious during the time that he was so popular, and as a child I traveled with him to race tracks all over the place.
Great to hear Joe H voice again. A minor correction: the owner should be identified as
Syvia Urban, my mother. My dad's name was Robert Urban.

Malicious, as a fan favorite, takes his place alongside Silky Sullivan and Seabiscuit. His thrilling two-mile races with the electrifying finishes will long be remembered.

My thanks to
The California Thoroughbred Breeders Association,
and The History of Thoroughbred Racing In America
that those new to the sport of racing may also relive the moments.

They laughed at him as a two-year-old
but when the final curtain came down he did it his way.
The Paul Anka song - I Did It My Way - may have been written for Malicious after all.

64 Years Ago

The fans will never forget the legendary Joe Hernandez
and his famous battle cry of
Here Comes Malicious
as their idol, 12 year old Malicious, was racing and still winning races. Listen as he thunders down the stretch at
Historic Tanforan on December 16, 1938.

Audio©
Malicious - owned by Mrs. Syvia Urban (Mrs. Robert Urban)
2 mile champion of the United States
Jockey Johnny Adams, up - Joe Hernandez makes the call.
December 16, 1938 at Historic Tanforan
Expect download time 1:45 mg's.

Little known fact that Malicious ran at Aqua Caliente
January 28, 1940
Submitted by Caliente Historian David Beltran

May years ago John Hay Whitney, guest of honor, delivered an almost eerily prophetic State of the Union message
on American racing as it stood
at the end of 1963.

Referring to the earlier years i.e. the 20's and 30's - he alluded to the tremendous overlay of stakes money for two-year-olds, so incongruous with their abilities and so destructive to their potential, is a direct result of treating racing too much as a business and not enough as a sport. It's a trend that needs watching he said, lest racing devour its young.

He continues: I must admit at this point perhaps the most spectacular reward for failure was received by Greentree Stables.
The prize wasn't gaudy, but the failure was. Our trainer, John Gaver, received a package the other day. It contained a very attractive silver bowl.
John naturally assumed it was a trophy for one of our horses
that had won a stakes.
He couldn't remember winning any stakes recently,
so he put on his glasses and read the inscription.

It was for Malicious our two-year-old colt that ran--if I may use the term loosely--for the opulent rewards in the Arlington-Washington Futurity. Of 15 starters, Malicious finished 14th, 17 lengths up the track. And the 15th horse hadn't finished. He'd jumped the rail and gone cavorting off into a parking lot. For this they gave us a silver bowl, and we shall treasure it. I don't know whether the fence-jumper got a trophy too.

But Malicious would prove to have the last laugh. He became one of the most thrilling two-milers' in Thoroughbred History.