Go and Go

Go And Go (1987–2000) was an Irish Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning a Triple Crown race.

Background

Owned and bred by Swiss businessman Walter Haefner, Go And Go was bred at his Moyglare Stud Farm in Maynooth, County Kildare. The horse was sired by Be My Guest and out of the mare Irish Edition. His grandsire was the great Northern Dancer, and his damsire, Alleged, was a two-time winner of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and 1977 European Horse of the Year.

Racing career

Racing at age two in Ireland, Go And Go was trained by Dermot Weld and ridden by Michael Kinane. Between July and September 1989, he had four starts, losing in his first, then winning the next two before finishing tenth in the Group I National Stakes at the Curragh. Sent to the United States, Go And Go won the important Laurel Futurity on the turf course at Laurel Park in Maryland. He then ran eighth in the 1989 Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Gulfstream Park.

In 1990, Go And Go was back in Ireland, where he won the Minstrel Stakes at the Curragh in his three-year-old debut. He then ran fourth in the Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial, after which his handlers decided to try him for the first time on the dirt and entered him in June's Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park in New York. With regular jockey Michael Kinane aboard in the third and longest leg of the U.S. Triple Crown series, Go and Go won the 1½ mile race. His victory in the nine-horse field came over runners-up Thirty Six Red and Baron De Vaux, plus the fourth-place finisher, the heavily favored Unbridled, who had won the Kentucky Derby and finished second in the Preakness Stakes.

Go And Go then finished seventh in August's Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. In November's Breeders' Cup Classic, he was pulled up and did not finish. Left to race in the United States, Go and Go was trained by D. Wayne Lukas and ridden by Kent Desormeaux. Racing in California under Lukas, he finished third in December's Native Diver Handicap and January 1991 San Fernando Stakes. He was then dropped down to an allowance race, which he won. Sent next to Arlington Park in Chicago, he raced for the last time, finishing fourth in the 1991 Washington Park Handicap.

Stud record

Go and Go was retired to stud duty, where he met with modest success. Standing at Dr. Jerry Bilinski's Waldorf Farm in North Chatham, New York, in April 2000 he was euthanized as a result of a pelvis fracture sustained in a paddock accident.

Pedigree

References

• Go And Go's offspring at the Triple Crown database by Kathleen Irwin and Joy Reeves
• YouTube video of Go and Go's win in the 1990 Belmont Stakes