Charismatic was produced out of the Drone mare Bali Babe, by an unremarkable stallion named Summer Squall. Summer Squall’s stud career had been a bust, despite the fact that his dam, Weekend Surprise, was by Secretariat, and was a remarkable broodmare. Summer Squall had been an excellent racehorse, coming in 2nd in the Derby of his three year-old year, and winning his Preakness, but he had failed to reproduce himself, and by 1999, his foals were regularly passed by for the flashier Secretariat broodmare lines. The other strike against Charismatic was his dam’s age- she was 16 when he was born, and had yet to produce a single offspring of worth. Still, he was a good looking foal, and Bob and Beverly Lewis purchased him with the hope that he would become a racer.
To their chagrin, and his trainer’s confusion, the big, good-looking colt never ran a lick. He was placed in claiming races, infamously running for a $62,000 tag, but was never claimed. Trainer D Wayne Lukas decided the colt needed harder work, and began training the colt with more vigorous workouts. To his surprise, it worked. Charismatic figured out he was supposed to run, and win the races, and was 2nd in the El Camino Real Derby. Then he won the Lexington Stakes, and cashed his ticket to the Kentucky Derby.
Despite his trainer’s credentials (Lukas had won the Derby previously with Winning Colors, Grindstone, and Thunder Gulch), Charismatic was dismissed by the bettors for having raced too much, and being “too fat.” He had “no chance” according to most handicappers, despite one observer saying that he was at home over the track. Charismatic proved the naysayers wrong with style by winning the race by a head over Menifee, with Lukas’s other horse, Cat Thief, coming in a strong third.
His victory notwithstanding, most bettors dismissed him in the Preakness. His margin of victory was so small that most people watching the race believed Menifee would’ve caught him had there been any more yardage. It was also “common knowledge” that Cat Thief was the better of the two horses (Lukas disputed this, but no one believed him). Menifee was the favorite in the Preakness, but this time Charismatic proved his class, sweeping past the other horse to a 1 1/2 length victory. Cat Thief was nowhere to be seen this time, and Lukas felt vindicated. His faith in the big, flashy red colt had been proven. Chris Antley, the jockey, lifted his fingers in the number “2” symbol as they swept past the finish line. He believed the Triple Crown would be theirs.
Going into the Belmont, Lukas was confident as well. He’d always felt the Belmont would actually be the easiest of the three races for Charismatic, because his breeding screamed stamina. Indeed, on the top and the bottom, he had horses that had run and won at the distance of a mile and a half. The three weeks to the Belmont passed in a blur. The entire Lukas/Lewis/Antley team waited impatiently for the race. They believed that only a mile and a half stood between their horse and history.
Belmont day dawned bright and sunny, and a dry, fast racetrack awaited Charismatic. The race was his to win, or so everyone said. Finally, he had the faith of the common man as well as his trainer, jockey, and owner.
And then, at the top of the stretch, he took the lead. The crowd went mad.
Suddenly, his head bobbled. He fell back to second, and then third. Everyone groaned. History would have to wait for another horse, another day. But after the finish line, Chris Antley leaped from the saddle- something was wrong. The race went from disappointing to devastating.
Charismatic had broken down.
History will record that Lemon Drop Kid defeated him that day, and that he finished third, behind Vision and Verse as well. But in the hearts of fans everywhere, he did not lose to another horse. He lost to his own body- his leg snapped while he was trying so desperately to win the Belmont Stakes, and had it not been for the injury, he would have won, and been the 12th Triple Crown winner.
He never raced again, retiring to stud duty first at a Kentucky farm, and then to Japan when the Kentucky blue-bloods did not send enough mares to him. He is not listed among the top 20 Japanese Stallions yet, but there is still plenty of time. Some of his sons here- in particular a miler named “Sun King” have proven to be runners after all. And thanks to “The Ferdinand Clause,” should he prove to not be a popular stallion in Japan, he will be returned here to the US, where he could be retired to a Kentucky farm similar to the “Old Friends” Equine Center.
His great courage gave millions of racing fans a chance to see a horse that carried the legacy of the great Secretariat. Perhaps he didn’t win the Triple Crown- but he won plenty of hearts.
