Dream Race

Muralist Ezra Berger’s the Dream Race at the Graw is an adaptation of a painting of the same name by Havre de Grace artist, Bill Watson. In this imaginary battle at the Graw, six of the greatest American thoroughbreds of all time, plus Saggy, the horse which bested Citation in the Chesapeake Trial at the Graw in 1948, and Havre de Grace, a filly named for the City and proclaimed American Horse of the Year in 2011, are brought together to compete against one another. Each horse is also memorialized by a life-size statue, complete with a jockey up, in the Winner’s Circle in Graw Alley.

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Although the horses raced in different eras, with only Man O’ War and Sir Barton racing against one another in 1920 (but not at Havre de Grace), all but Havre de Grace did race at the Graw. Sir Barton, the 1919 Triple Crown winner, won at the Graw in April of 1920. Man O’ War won the 1920 Potomac Handicap at the Graw. 1937 Triple Crown winner, War Admiral, won at Havre de Grace as a two-year old in 936. Seabiscuit took the Havre de Grace Handicap in September,1938.

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Whirlaway, the 1941 Triple Crown winer, won a race at the Graw in April of 1947. Going on to win the Triple Crown in 1948, Citation won his first (maiden) race at the Graw in 1947, and came back in 1948 to lose to Saggy in the Chesapeake Trial and five days later beat the field, and Saggy, to take the Chesapeake Stakes.