Whirlaway
Whirlaway (April 2, 1938 – April 6, 1953) was an American champion thoroughbred racehorse. The chestnut horse was sired by English Derby winner Blenheim II, out of the broodmare Dustwhirl. Whirlaway was bred at Calumet Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. Trained by Ben A. Jones and ridden by Eddie Arcaro, Whirlaway won the U.S. Triple Crown in 1941.
He was voted the American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt in 1940 by Turf & Sports Digest magazine. The rival Daily Racing Form award was won by Our Boots.
Background
Jimmy Jones, son of the colt's trainer, recalled that "Whirlaway was a creature of habit. You had to create habits for him. So we created the habits we wanted him to do." The champion colt had a habit of "bearing out," drifting toward the middle of the racetrack, during the latter part of his races and losing as a result. In preparations for the Kentucky Derby, this had been such a problem that trainer Ben A. Jones fitted the colt with a full-cup blinker over his right eye. In Whirlaway's final workout before the Derby, Jones cut a small hole in the blinker so that the horse had a tiny field of vision. Jones positioned himself ten feet off the inner rail and told jockey Eddie Arcaro to ride the horse through that space. Whirlaway was able to see his trainer, Arcaro was able to keep him on a straight path, and Whirlaway won the Kentucky Derby by tying the current (as of 2015) record margin of 8 lengths.
Whirlaway (album)
Whirlaway (1999) is the fourth and final full length studio album released on CD by Tadpoles and is the first Tadpoles' album to be released by a label other than the band's own Bakery Records. Australian independent label, Camera Obscura Records, licensed and released the album worldwide. As a promotion in 1999, an edited MP3 version of the song "Whirlaway" was given away free from by Camera Obscura Records through their website. Additionally, this was the first studio album by Tadpoles not produced by Mark Kramer (Shimmy Disc) at Noise New Jersey, although Mark Kramer did record the album's final track, Horse and Buggy at New York City's Knitting Factory. The album was recorded by Pete Drivere at Ampreon Recorder in Youngstown, Ohio and features a cover version of Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes classic, You Ain't Goin' Nowhere.
