Forego – One of the Greatest Handicap Horses of all Time.

Forego came onto the racing scene at the same time as other great racehorses like Secretariat, Sham, Shecky Green, and Stop The Music. He soon became a fan favorite as he defeated the best of his generation.

Unraced as a two year old, Forego went right to work early in his three year old season winning two of his first three races at Hialeah Park before moving to Gulfstream Park for a pair of second place finishes in stakes races. The first Saturday in May he was fourth in the Kentucky Derby behind Secretariat.

With Secretariat in the spotlight during 1973, Forego was barely noticed. He had been a consistent runner that year winning 9 of his 18 starts and finishing in the money on 6 other occasions. He had equaled two track records and set another in New York. Being a very big horse, bigger than most, he was a late bloomer.

In 1974 Forego began to dominate the upper class of racing’s greats. He started the year off by winning three prestigious handicaps (a race where weight is assigned in an attempt to even the field) in Florida. Due to his winning ways, Forego’s assigned weights began to increase. After winning the Carter Handicap in New York carrying 129 pounds, Forego was assigned 134 for the Metropolitan Mile where he finished second behind Arbee’s Boy who carried 22 pounds less than Forego.

During his four year old year, Forego accomplished a remarkable and unheard of feat by winning the Woodward, dropping back to the seven-furlong Vosburgh where he bested the top sprinters in the country, then moving on to win the two mile Jockey Club Gold Cup all in a span of 7 weeks. He earned the titles of Champion Sprinter, Champion Older Male and Horse of the Year for 1974.

Forego continued his winning ways in 1975, winning numerous handicaps carrying more than 130 pounds and once again capturing Horse of the Year honors and Champion Older Male. In 1976 his most memorable victory came in the Marlboro Cup. Forego had been assigned a staggering 137 pounds and the track was listed as sloppy, a surface that Forego didn’t much care for. Entering the stretch the big bay gelding was still far back from the lead. Even jockey Bill Shoemaker didn’t think he could win the race but Forego swung out into the middle of the track and made his signature late surge. He powered through the slop to nip Honest Pleasure at the finish line by a head and just missed equaling the track record by 1/5 of a second.

During his 6 year career on the track Forego ran into the history books as one of the greatest handicap horses of all time. He earned a total of 8 Eclipse Awards which included Horse of the Year three years in a row. He won 34 of his 57 races with nine seconds and seven thirds and earnings of nearly two million dollars. What made his accomplishments even more remarkable was the heavy weight he was required to carry and the fact that he had bad legs. Throughout his career he was plagued with ankle problems but still managed to show the world the heart of a true champion. Forego was a horse of valor.

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Forego’s Handicapping Legacy and What It Means for Bettors

Forego’s extraordinary career as a handicap horse in the 1970s — carrying crushing weights while defeating rivals carrying far less — remains one of the most compelling demonstrations of raw equine talent in American racing history. His ability to concede significant weight allowances to high-quality rivals and still win reflects a physical superiority so pronounced that the normal mathematical penalties of the handicapping system were insufficient to equalise his chances with the field. Understanding how weight affects performance is one thing; watching a horse overcome seemingly insurmountable weight concessions with ease is a visceral demonstration of what genuine championship quality looks like.

For modern bettors who wager on handicap races, Forego’s career provides useful calibration for assessing what weight differences actually mean competitively. A horse giving away five pounds to a rival of comparable ability is at a genuine disadvantage; a horse giving away five pounds to a clearly inferior rival may still win comfortably. The art of handicap betting is distinguishing situations where the weight has genuinely equalised competitive chances from those where one horse’s ability so clearly exceeds its rivals that the weight concession cannot bridge the gap. For more on handicap racing and weight assessment, our articles on how do handicaps work in horse racing and weights in horse racing cover the key principles. And our guide to the 12 greatest race horses of all time places Forego among American racing’s all-time elite.

Career Record and Championships

The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame records Forego as a winner of 34 races from 57 starts, with nine seconds, seven thirds and $1,938,957 in earnings. He won eight Eclipse Awards, including Horse of the Year in 1974, 1975 and 1976, and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1979.

The Weight Difference Was Only Part of the Race

Forego’s 1974 Metropolitan Handicap and 1976 Marlboro Cup show why carrying the most weight and winning are separate questions. In the Metropolitan, he carried 134 pounds and finished second to Arbee’s Boy, who carried 112: a 22-pound concession. In the Marlboro Cup, he carried 137 against Honest Pleasure’s 119 and won narrowly: an 18-pound concession. The archived past performances put those figures beside the actual race conditions.

It would be a mistake to subtract four pounds from one comparison and use the difference to explain the opposite outcomes. These were different opponents, distances, pace scenarios and days in Forego’s career. The record establishes what he carried and how he finished; it does not isolate the effect of weight from everything else.

For a modern handicap, use the same distinction. First compare relevant ability, then the weights under today’s conditions. A high weight can reflect a horse’s established quality while also being a burden it must carry. It is neither an automatic reason to oppose the runner nor proof that its superiority will overcome the assignment.

Forego’s eight Eclipse Awards capture the breadth of his achievement, including sprint honors alongside repeated recognition as an older male and Horse of the Year. His versatility makes the career worth studying across races, rather than reducing it to one spectacular late charge or a fixed arithmetic rule.

Check the Assignment Alongside the Result

The National Museum of Racing credits Forego with 34 wins from 57 starts and three consecutive Horse of the Year awards from 1974 through 1976. Its biography notes 13 victories while carrying at least 130 pounds. Those figures show repeated success under demanding assignments, not a rule that a high-weight horse should always be backed.

For a particular race, compare the weight given to Forego with the weight, quality and recent form of his rivals. The famous 1976 Marlboro Cup involved a 137-pound assignment and a head victory over Honest Pleasure. That is a concrete example to study, but the field and trip still matter more than turning one weight difference into a fixed betting formula.

Forego’s Championships by Season

The Racing Museum’s achievements list separates the eight awards into their categories and years. That breakdown explains the career’s breadth more clearly than a single total and shows why sprint and older-horse performances both belong in the profile.