Alphabet Soup (March 31, 1991 – January 28, 2022) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse best known for setting a track record for 1¼ miles at Woodbine Racetrack when he won the 1996 Breeders' Cup Classic, defeating both the great Cigar and Preakness Stakes winner Louis Quatorze. Upon the death of A.P. Indy on February 21, 2020, Alphabet Soup became the oldest living winner of the Breeders' Cup Classic.
He was bred by Southeast Associates, a group led by Roy S. Lerman, and purchased by Californian Georgia B. Ridder. He was a descendant of Nearco, and his damsire was U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee Arts and Letters. Purchased privately as a two-year-old by Georgia B. Ridder, Alphabet Soup was late in developing. Mrs. Ridder raced the colt in California, where he began to come into his own at the age of four, winning the 1995 Native Diver and Del Mar Breeders' Cup Handicaps. In 1996, en route to his triumph in that year's Breeders' Cup Classic, he won three important graded stakes races: the San Antonio Handicap, the Pat O'Brien Handicap, and the San Pasqual Handicap, in which he defeated Best Pal. He also crossed the wire first in the Goodwood Breeders' Cup Handicap but was disqualified and set back to third.
Alphabet Soup raced in 1997 at age six, his best effort coming in defense of the San Antonio Handicap when he finished second to Gentlemen.
He was euthanized due to chronic kidney disease, at Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement in Georgetown, Kentucky, on January 28, 2022, at the age of 30.
Stud career
Alphabet Soup retired to stud duty, he stood at Adena Springs in Midway, Kentucky.
Alphabet Soup descendants include:
c = colt, f = filly
Foaled Name Sex Major Wins 1999 Our New Recruit c Dubai Golden Shaheen 1999 M B Sea c Fayette Stakes, West Virginia Governor's Stakes 1999 Phantom Light c Dominion Day Stakes 2000 Beautiful Bets c Kentucky Cup Distaff Stakes 2000 Ladyecho c Dearly Precious Stakes 2001 Alphabet Kisses c La Brea Stakes, A Gleam Handicap 2002 Silver Whistle c Pan American Stakes 2006 Sal the Barber c Calder Derby 2009 Egg Drop c Matriarch Stakes, Las Palmas Handicap, Yellow Ribbon Handicap
References
External links Alphabet Soup's win in the 1996 Breeders Cup Classic Pedigree and partial racing stats Susan Orlean, "An Unlikely Champion Racehorse Who Charmed Everyone" — The New Yorker