Daryl's Joy: Antipodean warrior once honored at Saratoga

One of the supporting features on the Aug. 2 Whitney Day program at Saratoga will be the $750,000 Fourstardave (G1), which honors the rugged New York-bred gelding who, in a 99-start career, won at least one race for eight consecutive Saratoga meets (1987-94).

The Fourstardave was previously known as the Daryl's Joy, a race Fourstardave the horse contested five times. After finishing second in the second division of the 1989 Daryl's Joy, Fourstardave won the then-Grade 3 event in both 1990 and 1991. He trailed a field of five in the 1992 renewal that was rained off the turf, but rebounded to finish second in the 1993 edition behind Hall of Fame miler Lure.

While Fourstardave's connection to Saratoga is obvious, Daryl's Joy's to the Spa was tenuous at best. Who was Daryl's Joy?

Although not the best nor most accomplished horse from Australia and New Zealand to ever grace the American turf, Daryl's Joy held his form in the U.S. far better than most Antipodean invaders. Indeed, he might have been destined for far greater success if not for untimely infirmities.

Daryl's Joy raced for Singaporean businessman Robert Goh and was initially trained by Syd Brown, who died this past May 18 at age 99. During the 1968-69 racing season, Daryl's Joy was acclaimed New Zealand's top two-year-old after winning his home country's most prestigious juvenile races while compiling a 14-7-5-2 mark.

With a deep bench of three-year-olds for the 1969-70 season, Brown sent Daryl's Joy to Australia for the Melbourne Spring Carnival. Daryl's Joy was immediately thrown into the fire by meeting Australia's top two-year-old, the Golden Slipper winner Vain, in three consecutive starts. Daryl's Joy acquitted himself well, defeating Vain in the Moonee Valley S. in between placing in the Ascot Vale S. and Caulfield Guineas behind that rival.

Interestingly, Daryl's Joy was ridden in both the Moonee Valley S. and Caulfield Guineas by American Hall of Fame jockey Johnny Sellers, who had won the 1961 Kentucky Derby and Preakness aboard Carry Back. Sellers was serving as a consultant for an American syndicate looking to acquire Daryl's Joy, but a $225,000 offer for a three-quarter interest in the colt fell through when Daryl's Joy failed a vet inspection.

A planned engagement in the prestigious Caulfield Cup was nixed while the sale of Daryl's Joy was being negotiated, so the three-year-old next lined up in Australia's signature weight-for-age test, the 1 1/4-mile Cox Plate at Moonee Valley. Sent off as the third choice to Ben Lomond, Daryl's Joy convincingly defeated his older rival by 2 1/2 lengths.

One week later, in his first attempt over 1 1/2 miles, Daryl's Joy romped home by three lengths in the Victoria Derby at Flemington. It was an amazing performance, given the colt was dead lame the morning of the race, the result of a nail injuring his foot after he had been misshod earlier in the week.

"An hour after the race, he couldn't put his foot on the ground," Brown would recall decades later.

By the end of November, Daryl's Joy was off to America, with Goh on paper retaining full ownership. No doubt under the recommendation of Sellers, who was based in Southern California at the time and would regularly ride the champion during the U.S. portion of his career, Daryl's Joy was sent to Hall of Fame trainer Charlie Whittingham.

Not only in that era but in the years to come, Whittingham had an embarrassment of riches when it came to high-level grass performers. In addition to stable newcomers Daryl's Joy and Cougar II, a Chilean import, Whittingham enjoyed tremendous success during the 1970 season with Fiddle Isle, who contended for champion turf male honors. Indeed, Daryl's Joy's time racing in America largely involved hard-fought intramural contests among Whittingham trainees.

Daryl's Joy made his U.S. debut on April 6, 1970, in an about 6 1/2-furlong sprint down Santa Anita's hillside course. Used purely as a get-fit run for bigger prizes at Hollywood Park, Daryl's Joy finished fourth, the only time he finished worse than third in a 30-race career.

Lower in the stable pecking order than Fiddle Isle, whose five-stakes win streak that spring and summer included a dead-heat score in the San Juan Capistrano H. over eventual Horse of the Year Fort Marcy, Daryl's Joy recorded an allowance win at Hollywood in between placings in two restricted stakes, the Coronado S. and Cortez H. By the time Del Mar rolled around, though, Daryl's Joy was ready for a class hike.

After an allowance win at the San Diego-area course, Daryl's Joy started as the second favorite in the Del Mar H. over 1 3/8 miles. Getting four pounds from stablemate Pinjara and two pounds from 3-2 favorite Quicken Tree (a prior winner of the Santa Anita H., Jockey Club Gold Cup, and San Juan Capistrano), Daryl's Joy made all to win by a head over Cougar II, a future grass champion himself and Hall of Fame inductee. The final time was a course record 2:15 2/5.

Daryl's Joy closed out 1970 with back-to-back starts against Fiddle Isle at Santa Anita. After finishing two lengths second to that more accomplished foe in the 1 1/4-mile Carleton F. Burke H. while in receipt of six pounds, Daryl's Joy toppled his odds-on favored stablemate next out in the 1 1/2-mile Oak Tree S., winning by a neck. Each carried equal weight of 126 pounds, though Daryl's Joy was helped by racing in closer attendance to a tepid early pace.

In the Daily Racing Form Free Handicap of 1970, Fort Marcy was given top weight of 132 pounds among grass horses. Fiddle Isle was assigned 131 pounds, while Daryl's Joy was tied for fourth with a respectable rating of 125 pounds.

With Fiddle Isle off to the breeding shed, Daryl's Joy appeared poised to assume leadership of the 1971 turf ranks in Southern California. The season couldn't have got off to a better start, with Daryl's Joy posting back-to-back, half-length wins in the 1 1/4-mile Arcadia H. and 1 1/2-mile San Luis Obispo H., the latter over Cougar II while toting 129 pounds. However, Daryl's Joy's career was just about finished.

After missing several intended starts due to a cough that swept through the Whittingham stable, Daryl's Joy reappeared in the minor Crenshaw S. at Hollywood Park in late April. He would finish third to old stable rival Pinjara that day, but never regained his health or fitness to race again. It was not until early 1973 that the plug was officially pulled on Daryl's Joy's racing career.

Acclaimed Florida horseman Fred Hooper eventually acquired Daryl's Joy as a stallion prospect, but the Kiwi proved a relative dud at stud, siring only two U.S. graded stakes winners. His record as a broodmare sire was similarly unspectacular.

Daryl's Joy was exported back to Australia in 1986 to stand stud in Victoria, alongside his multiple stakes-winning son B. W. Turner. Tragically, as Syd Brown would recall years later, Daryl's Joy wound up a victim of patricide. 

"One morning, they discovered one of the gates had been left open and the stallions got into the same paddock," Brown said. "They had fought all night. Daryl's Joy's leg had been broken by his son."