Pay the Butler
Pay the Butler was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who was best known for winning the 1988 Japan Cup. Bred at Clovelly Farm, Kentucky, he began his racing career in France, achieving mixed results and winning only 2 of his 17 races. Upon returning to the United States as a four-year-old, he won the Red Smith Handicap in his North American debut.
The highlight of Pay the Butler's career came in November 1988, when he defeated a strong field of international racers, including Tony Bin and Oguri Cap, at the annual invitational Japan Cup at Tokyo Racecourse in an upset victory. This was Pay the Butler's sole Grade I victory, and came with a winner's purse of over a million dollars. He remained in training for two further seasons and ran in several major GI contests, including the following year's Japan Cup and Arlington Million, but his performances were inconsistent and he recorded only one further minor win. He was retired to stud in Japan in 1991 but was euthanized following a ruptured ligament after producing one crop of foals.
Background
Pay the Butler was a bay horse bred in Kentucky by Robin Scully's Clovelly Farm. He was sired by the French stallion Val de l'Orne who won the Prix du Jockey Club in 1975. His other progeny included the Queen's Plate winners Golden Choice and La Lorgnette as well as the Hollywood Derby winner Victory Zone. Pay The Butler's dam Princess Morvi produced several other winners including River God who won the Queen's Vase and finished third in the St Leger. She was a descendant of the influential French broodmare L'Esperance. As a yearling, the colt was offered for sale at Keeneland in September 1985 but failed to reach his reserve price of $20,000.Pay the Butler was named after another horse seen by his trainer in France, John Fellows, during a trip he took to Australia. As both horses would be based on opposite sides of the globe, Fellows adopted the name in full for his horse back in France.
Racing career
1986 & 1987: two- and three-year-old seasons
As a two-year-old, Pay the Butler raced in France and failed to win in five races although he finished third in the Listed Prix Herbager at Maisons-Laffitte Racecourse. In the following year was unplaced in eight of his nine races but recorded his first victory when he won the Listed Grand Prix de Strasbourg on 28 May.1988: four-year-old season
In the early part of 1988, Pay the Butler raced three times in France, winning a handicap race at Longchamp Racecourse on April 4 and was then sent to the United States to be trained by Robert J. Frankel. On his first appearance for his new trainer Pay the Butler contested the Grade II Red Smith Handicap over ten furlongs at Belmont Park on May 28, winning by a neck over Equalize after a strong charge in the final stretch of the race; a victory that resulted in the then-largest pick-six payoff in New York racing history at $500,000. He continued to run well in the United States, finishing second in both the Bowling Green Handicap and the Man o' War Stakes before running unplaced in the Canadian International Stakes on October 16.Pay the Butler was sent to Japan to contest the eighth running of the Japan Cup at Tokyo Racecourse on November and started at odds of 13.9/1 in a fourteen-runner field. There was a strong European contingent comprising Tony Bin from Italy, Moon Madness and Shady Heights from Britain and Kondor from Germany. The other North American contenders were Salem Drive and My Big Boy whilst the Southern hemisphere was represented by the New Zealand-bred gelding Bonecrusher. The best of the "home team" appeared to be Tamamo Cross, who started favourite after wins in the Takarazuka Kinen and the Tenno Sho and the three-year-old Oguri Cap. Ridden by Chris McCarron, Pay the Butler won by half a length from Tamamo Cross, with Oguri Cap taking third just ahead of My Big Boy, Tony Bin and Moon Madness, earning $1,033,000. During his time in Japan with Pay the Butler for the event, McCarron was impressed with the Japan Racing Association's racing program, leading to his eventual founding of the North American Racing Academy.
On his final appearance of the year, Pay the Butler finished sixth behind the Breeders' Cup Turf winner Great Communicator in the Hollywood Turf Cup Stakes at Hollywood Park Racetrack on December 24.
1989: five-year-old season
Pay the Butler failed to win in nine starts as a five-year-old in 1989 but ran well in several major turf races, with the exception of the Arlington Million, having been a last minute replacement in the race. He finished second in the Pan American Handicap and the Oak Tree Invitational Stakes as well as running third in the John Henry Handicap and the Bowling Green Handicap. On his final start of the year he attempted to repeat his 1988 success in the Japan Cup. He was again ridden by McCarron and finished third of the fifteen runners behind Horlicks and Oguri Cap. Despite not winning any of his races in the year, Pay the Butler's annual purse winnings for the year was nearly $509,000.1990: six-year-old season
Pay the Butler began his 1990 campaign by winning an allowance race at Hollywood Park in May but failed to make any impact in five subsequent races. On his final appearance he finished fourth in an allowance at Hollywood in November.Stud record and death
Some time after his final race, Pay the Butler was retired from racing to become a breeding stallion in Japan. However, during his first season, on 1 July 1991 Pay the Butler was euthanized after suffering from a ruptured ligament following a fall at the farm he was standing at. Pay the Butler was buried in Yushun Memorial Park in Niikappu, Hokkaido.In total, Pay the Butler mated with 53 mares and produced 43 foals, earning a total of ¥489,815,000. The racing results for his progeny were modest, with most of his foals racing at an ungraded level or for only a few runs. Of them, the only horse to win a graded race was Pal Bright, a mare who won the GIII Niigata Kinen in 1997 and the GIII Hakodate Kinen in 1998.
Pedigree
Cultural references and legacy
Pay the Butler's race and subsequent victory at the Japan Cup was depicted in the manga and anime Umamusume: Cinderella Gray, a series that chronicles the racing career of Oguri Cap through anthropomorphized versions of the racehorses of the late 1980s and early 1990s. While often the series directly uses the real life names of the racehorses, Pay the Butler's stand-in was named Obey Your Master due to permission issues.On 19 November, 2011, the Aqueduct Race Track in Queens, New York City, ran the Pay the Butler Stakes, a mile race with ten entrants and carrying a prize of $60,000. It was won by Kindergarden Kid, who defeated Sal the Barber by a neck.