Bewitch

Bewitch was a Thoroughbred race horse born in 1945 at Calumet Farm, Kentucky, United States in the same crop in which the stallion Bull Lea produced Citation and Coaltown. Each of these exceptional Bull Lea foals were, in time, inaugurated into the Thoroughbred Hall of Fame. Bewitch was the only filly.

From her dam, Potheen (purchased by Warren Wright for the small sum of $500), Bewitch inherited the blood of Broomstick, whose sire was the great Ben Brush. On her mother's side also flowed the blood of Peter Pan (sired by Commando), and Hanover (sired by Hindoo).

Trained by the Hall of Famer Ben A. Jones, as a two-year-old Bewitch was all but unstoppable, winning her first eight starts, six of them consecutive stakes races. In her very first effort, she led throughout and won by six lengths. One of these stakes was the Washington Park Futurity in which she beat her half-brother Citation, the only defeat he suffered as a two-year-old.

Before the end of her first season, Ben Jones turned her training over to his son, Jimmy Jones, who also became a member of the Hall of Fame. Bewitch was named the Champion Two-Year-Old Filly for 1947. At the end of her third season, even though she was out of action with bucked shins until late June, she still won four of her six starts.

When she was four, in winning the Beverly Handicap at the old Washington Park Race Track in Chicago, Illinois, she ran the fastest mile ever run by a filly.

At the age of five, she raced from one end of the country to the other, unplaced only once. And when she was six, she ran fifteen times, twelve of those races against males.

When she retired, Bewitch had earned $462,605, which made her the greatest money-earning filly to date. In 1977, she was inducted into the Hall of Fame along with both her trainers, father and son, as well as her two half-brothers, Citation and Coaltown.

Racing Record

• At two: Won the Washington Park Futurity, the Arlington Lassie Stakes, the Pollyanna Stakes, the Princess Pat Stakes, the Hyde Park Stakes, and the Debutante Stakes, and came in third in the Futurity Stakes.
• At three: Won the Cleopatra Handicap, the Artful Handicap, the Modesty Stakes, and the Ashland Stakes, and was third in the Dick Welles Stakes.
• At four: Won the Misty Isle Handicap, the Beverly Handicap, and the Vineland Handicap, and placed in the Arlington Matron Handicap.
• At five: Won the Black Helen Handicap, placed in the Vanity Handicap and the Columbiana Handicap, and was third in the Premiere Handicap and the Vineland Handicap.
• At six: Won the Vanity Handicap, placed in the Hollywood Gold Cup (on the heels of Citation), placed in the Santa Margarita Handicap, the American Handicap, and the St. Patrick's Day Handicap.

Of Interest

In a poll among members of the American Trainers Association, conducted in 1955 by Delaware Park Racetrack, Bewitch was voted the ninth greatest filly in American racing history. Gallorette was voted first.

Retired

Bewitch had only two foals, both of which died before they reached racing age. When she herself died in 1959, she was buried at Calumet.