Looking Back to Wendy Skipper (07/15/10)

Posted Thursday, July 15, 2010

                                                                By Mike Paradise

  This is another in a new weekly feature exclusively on www.harnessillinois.com. Every week I’ll post a least one “Looking Back feature. Mostly they’ll be
 of the great horses who have competed in our state through the years. At times they’ll be pictures from the winner’s circle, special celebrations, and in some cases old memorable race track scenes. Some of these photos haven’t been printed or posted in decades . . . others have never been printed at all.
  
  Just by right clicking your computer mouse, going to “Save Picture As”, you can make your own jpeg copy of any Looking Back photo posted. You can e-mail them and share with a friend or maybe start your own computer file of “Looking Back” memories.

  To view Archived Notes and Quotes click here.   
 

                                                     Looking Back

                                                                    WENDY SKIPPER
   
  
  A daughter of Gay Skipper, Wendy Skipper was a frequent winner for the powerhouse Doug Hamilton Stable in the early through mid-1980s. The Illinois bred mare campaigned from 1981 into 1985 and ended up with a sparkling 47 per cent winning percentage and over $225,000 in earnings.

  As a 2-year-old in 1981 the chestnut filly proved best in 13 of 19 races and took her freshman mark of 1:59.4 at Sportsman’s Park. That was the year her stable-mate Osborne’s First sped to a world record clocking of 1:55.2 on July 11 in a Sportsman’s Free For All. That same July evening the largest crown of the season of 20, 027, saw history made when—for the first time—all 10 races were timed in 2:00 or faster. The standing-room only crowd poured $2,069,070 through the betting windows at the old Cicero, Illinois facility. In 1981 the average attendance at Sportsman’s was 13,136 and the average nightly on-track handle was $1,627,058.

  Wendy Skipper would go on to be one of the better ICF pacing mares for Hamilton and in 1984 at the age of four tallied 11 victories that included her lifetime mark of 1:57.2 at Sportsman’s, banking $62,602. All together she finished first in 41 of 87 career starts.