The pedigree info for Mad Play is incomplete. The 1924 Belmont Stakes winner was a very good handicap horse when young. However he came back to the races twice, and finally bowed out in July of 1933.
He was sold at auction in Chicago for $125 in July 1931 (*). Later, the 10/14/31 issue of the WaPost contained an article headlined "Mad Play, winner of $136,000 Trails $450 Platers, Ruled Off." Evidently, he satisfied officials at tracks (Jefferson Park, Washington Park, Lincoln Fields, Beulah) and he was allowed to run the next two years, and amassed more earnings.
In the DRF charts, he was listed as an entire horse through his seventh year. Coming back to action 3 years later, that was changed to "gelding."
His # of starts per year:
1923 (10) 1924 (17) 1925 (13)
2 yr layoff
1928 (11)
2 yr layoff
1931 (16) 1932 (6) 1933 (9)
Total: 82 starts
* The newspaper headline quoted a different earnings figure of $194.535.
Mad Play (1921)
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