race record of Swordtail

[francesca]

Hi, I wondered if any of you with access to the thoroughbred racing websites could give me a detailed record of the Damascus son Swordtail. A friend of mine stood him in his later years as a hunter sire, and he passed away earlier this year. I would like to get a copy of one of his racing photos from his early years. He raced in NY. Thanks.

[JimbleBrimble]

Well OK,

Swordtail won his first race just four days after the last Triple Crown was completed.

wins:

June 14, 1978 at Belmont Park, NY

January 26, 1980 at Aqueduct, NY

March 1, 1980 at Aqueduct, NY


all more than 25 years ago!!

good luck with that!

[francesca]

Thanks for your help. Unfortunately, Aqueduct and Belmont only keep the negatives for 5 years...I am about 20 years too late.

[JimbleBrimble]

Hi,

I don't think I would give up so easily.

It simply does not make sense that negatives for winner's circle pictures would be destroyed after five years. (and that goes double in this day and age of computer storage)

You need to obtain the identity of the track photographer at the time of the horse's victories, and at least contact that person to see if he/she still has those negatives.

Not a great deal of space is really needed to store 250 race days of negatives only, per year. Figure one set of your drugstore-like negatives per race day. Storage isn't that much. Organization, on the other hand, may prove a difficult task.

My instinct says to keep searching.