The 1960s was a decade rife with stars. Kelso won Horse of the Year five times while Northern Dancer and Buckpasser were superstars on the racetrack and then in the breeding shed. Racing was at its peak during this era, with crowds flocking to the racetrack and bringing their wagering dollars with them. The sport enjoyed a prominence that would continue into the next decade, setting the stage for not one but three to wear a crown.

The 1960s also had its share of horses like Primonetta, Cicada, and Jaipur, stars who made enough of a mark on their moment that they are immortalized in the stakes races that bear their names.

Primonetta (1958-1993)

Swaps surprised the racing world with his win in the 1955 Kentucky Derby where he beat the favorite Nashua by 1½ lengths. After a Hall of Fame career in which he set or equaled multiple track and world records, the California-bred survived a fractured leg and several weeks in a sling to recover enough to stand stud. His first crop hit the ground in 1958 and immediately this record holder made a mark with the filly Primonetta.

Primonetta after winning 1962 Spinster. (Keeneland Library/Meadors Collection)

Her dam Banquet Bell had been purchased by John Galbreath of Darby Dan Farm at the 1952 Keeneland yearling sale. Though she won only once in 15 starts, Banquet Bell boasted Preakness Stakes winner Polynesian as her sire and French classic winner Pot au Feu as her dam’s sire. After producing a foal by Ponder in 1957, her first cover by Swaps produced a golden chestnut filly, Primonetta, her name meaning ‘first little one,’ a reflection of her status as Swaps’ first foal.

At 2, she started fast, winning all four of her starts, including the Marguerite Stakes at Pimlico. Trained by James Conway, the filly added three more stakes wins to her streak before suffering her first loss in the Monmouth Oaks, finishing second by a neck. She added the Alabama Stakes to her tally and then finished second behind Bowl of Flowers in the Spinster Stakes at Keeneland.

At 4, Primonetta continued her winning ways facing horses like Cicada and Seven Thirty over the course of the season as she notched victories in the Molly Pitcher and Regret Handicaps as well as the Spinster Stakes. Those were enough to earn her a championship as champion older handicap female of 1962. She retired to broodmare life at Darby Dan Farm just as her full brother Chateaugay gave Galbreath his first of two Kentucky Derby winners and then a few weeks later added the 1963 Belmont Stakes to his classic wins.

Despite reproductive problems that left her barren more than once, Primonetta went on to become an excellent broodmare, producing seven foals. She won 1978 Kentucky Broodmare of the Year after her daughter Cum Laude Laurie won four Grade 1s, including the Spinster and the Beldame. She died at age 34 in January 1993 as one of the longest-lived Thoroughbred racehorses ever. Named for the champion racemare, the Primonetta Stakes is a black-type stakes contested at six furlongs now run annually at Laurel Park.

Cicada (1959-1981)

Cicada was a powerhouse racehorse in a small package. Standing just 15.3 hands and weighing 800 pounds during her career, this homebred clad in the iconic blue and white silks of Christopher Chenery and Meadow Stable was a sensation during her three seasons on the racetrack, collecting wins with ease.

Her sire Bryan G. also was a Meadow homebred and winner of the Pimlico Special and consecutive Aqueduct Handicaps in the early 1950s. Yet it was Cicada’s dam, Satsuma, whose family was the star in this pedigree. Though she won once in eight starts, the daughter of Bossuet continued the excellence that her dam, Hildene, had started in the breeding shed. Hildene produced 13 foals for Chenery, including Horse of the Year and Preakness winner Hill Prince and First Landing, 1958 2-year-old champion and sire of Riva Ridge. Additionally, Bossuet was a product of Belair Stud and had sealed his place in racing history by being one of the three horses in that triple dead heat in the 1944 Carter Handicap at Aqueduct.

Cicada after winning 1961 Matron Stakes. (Keeneland Library/Morgan Collection)

Foaled May 9, 1959, this daughter of Bryan G. and Satsuma was a solid bay except for the splotch of white with a line on her face. Chenery sent the filly to trainer Casey Hayes, who favored racing horses early. She debuted in February 1961, before she had even celebrated her actual second birthday, with a win in a three-furlong race at Hialeah Park. She then recorded wins in the Blue Hen and National Stallion Stakes before Hayes sent her to Saratoga. There, she started a winning streak that included the Schuylerville, Spinaway, Matron, and Frizette Stakes, clinching the 2-year-old filly championship.

The following year, she was on track for the Kentucky Derby alongside stablemate Sir Gaylord, but Chenery pivoted her to the Kentucky Oaks instead, believing that Sir Gaylord had a better shot at getting the 1 ¼ miles. However, on Oaks day, the colt suffered a hairline fracture of a sesamoid bone ending his pursuit of the Derby and his racing career. Chenery left Cicada in the Oaks, which she won by three lengths. She then won the Acorn, Mother Goose, and Beldame Stakes, beating Kelso’s track record for 1⅛ miles in the latter. Her eight wins in 17 starts at 3 earned her another divisional championship.

Her 4-year-old season saw her try the turf for the first time, winning the Sheepshead Bay Handicap at Aqueduct. She also collected wins in the Distaff, Vagrancy, and Columbiana Handicaps, and added a second in the Delaware Handicap, enough to earn a third consecutive championship, this time as older handicap female. Chenery retired her to broodmare life, but Cicada did not immediately get in foal and was returned to training. Her one start at five was a fourth-place finish in an allowance at Garden State Park. She was retired for good after that and sent back to Meadow Stud in Virginia, where she produced six foals for Chenery, including Cicada’s Pride, her lone stakes winner.  

Cicada’s 23 wins in 42 starts earned her a spot in the Hall of Fame as well as the multiple championships she received during her time on the racetrack. This petite dynamo also made her mark facing colts several times at 3, including a runner-up finish in the Florida Derby and a start in the Travers Stakes. For her tenacity and grit, the Meadow Stable star had a stakes race named for her, a six-furlong black-type race run annually at Aqueduct.

Jaipur (1959-1987)

Cicada’s Travers try saw her finish seventh in a race dominated by two colts and separated by a nose. One of those was Jaipur.

A homebred for George D. Widener Jr.’s Erdenheim Farms, Jaipur’s pedigree practically dripped with racing royalty: his sire, Nasrullah, would produce Nashua, Bold Ruler, and Noor and his dam’s sire, Eight Thirty, was another Erdenheim homebred, winner of the Travers and Whitney Stakes as well as the Suburban and Metropolitan Handicaps. Jaipur’s dam, Rare Perfume, was also a stakes winner and had already produced Rare Treat, another stakes winner, by Stymie. Named for the city in India, the dark bay Jaipur went to trainer Bert Mulholland, who had also worked with Rare Perfume and Eight Thirty, for his preparations.

Widener especially valued the New York stakes and Jaipur’s early starts reflected that. Making the rounds of the Gotham State’s tracks, the colt won his debut at Aqueduct and then followed with a victory in the Flash Stakes at Saratoga. He stayed in stakes company for the rest of the year, winning the Hopeful and Cowdin Stakes and finishing second in the Champagne and Futurity Stakes. It was enough to make him one of the top juveniles of the year, but Crimson Satan, winner of the Garden State Stakes and the Pimlico Futurity, came away with the championship.

Jaipur was not pointed to the Kentucky Derby in 1962, but instead started his season with wins in the Gotham and the Withers Stakes ahead of a try at the Preakness Stakes. The mercurial colt, who had inherited some of the Nasrullah temperament, sulked his way through the Preakness, unhappy about the dirt flying in his face. He then met Crimson Satan in the Jersey Derby and battled with the champion and Admiral’s Voyage down the stretch, with just noses separating the three at the wire. The stewards looked at the race’s film and determined that Crimson Satan had interfered with Jaipur in the stretch and disqualified him, giving the Widener colt the win.

The Belmont Stakes was next, with Widener eager to add the historic race to the long list of races he won over his time as an owner. Dating back to 1918, he had entered nine horses in the Belmont with no success, but Jaipur was different. He hooked up with Admiral’s Voyage early, staying a length to 1½ lengths behind around the big oval with Crimson Satan trailing them both. Early in the stretch, Crimson Satan came in on Jaipur, bumping him slightly, a tap which seemed to make the Widener colt mad. He fought on and challenged Admiral’s Voyage down to the wire, eking out the win by a nose.

1962 Travers photo finish (Blood-Horse Library/NYRA/Jones Precision Photo Finish)

Jaipur refused to train at Belmont ahead of his next start, so Mulholland sent him back to Erdenheim for a break before Saratoga and the Travers. Looming in the field was Ridan, another highly rated juvenile who was coming into the race off a win in the Arlington Classic and a second in the American Derby. The 1962 Travers field counted seven, but truly the race came down to the horses breaking from posts one and two, with Ridan on the rail and Jaipur on his outside. The field broke from the gate, horses bumping into each other from the middle posts, but on the inside Jaipur and Ridan were already a length ahead. Ridan had a slight advantage under the wire the first time, but, by the first turn, they were head and head and stayed that way down the backstretch, around the far turn, and into the stretch drive.

Jaipur ground out a short lead in the stretch as Ridan seemingly hit his distance limit, but the battle was not yet done. Jockey Manny Ycaza gave Ridan a couple of taps and the colt rallied, challenging Jaipur again. The two hit the wire as a tandem, seemingly inseparable without the benefit of the photo. In the end, Jaipur had a nose in front and equaled the track record for the mile and a quarter, while lowering Man o’ War’s Travers Stakes record of 2:01 4/5 by a 1/5 of a second.

It would be Jaipur’s last win. He would round out 1962 with three more starts, including a second to Kelso in the Woodward, and then started twice more at 4, finishing second to Ridan in the Palm Beach Handicap, before a wrenched ankle ended his career. Jaipur retired to Erdenheim Farm, where he sired 102 winners and 13 stakes winners from his 162 foals.

Though he may not have reproduced himself at stud, Jaipur lives on in his namesake stakes, a Grade 1, six-furlong turf sprint at Belmont Park run annually on the Belmont Stakes undercard.