The National Museum of Racing will have one of its largest Hall of Fame classes ever when 16 new members will be inducted on August 2.
Jockey Craig Perret and the champion fillies Royal Delta, My Juliet, and Waya will be joined by 12 Pillars of the Turf: James E. “Ted” Bassett, Christopher Chenery, Dick Duchossois, William S. Farish, John Hettinger, James R. Keene, Frank E. “Jimmy” Kilroe, Gladys Mills Phipps, Ogden Phipps, Helen Hay Whitney, Marylou Whitney, and Warren Wright Sr.
Perret, 68, won 4,415 races in a career that spanned from 1967 through 2005. He was voted an Eclipse Award as the Outstanding Jockey of 1990, the year he guided Unbridled to victory in the Kentucky Derby (G1). Three years earlier, Perret rode Bet Twice to a dazzling win over Alysheba in the Belmont Stakes (G1).
In addition to Unbridled and Bet Twice, Perret also rode champions Honest Pleasure, Rhythm, Housebuster, Storm Song, and Smoke Glacken, among others. He was honored with the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 1998 and won four Breeders’ Cup races, including the inaugural Sprint in 1984 aboard champion Eillo.
The late Royal Delta, was the champion three-year-old filly of 2011 and champion older female in 2012-13. Trained by Bill Mott, she earned more than $4.8 million. Her stakes victories included two renewals of the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic (G1) and Delaware H. (G2), as well as the Personal Ensign (G1), Beldame (G1), Alabama (G1). She died in 2017 at age nine.
My Juliet won 23 of 36 starts and was voted champion sprinter of 1976 at age four, the year she captured the Vosburgh H. (G2) and Vagrancy H. (G3). Other stakes wins during her career included the Michigan Mile and One-Eighth H. (G2) versus males as well as the Cotillion (G2) and Black-Eyed Susan (G3).
Waya was the champion older female of 1979 for owners George Strawbridge and Peter Brant. She was trained that season by the late David Whiteley, a Hall of Fame nominee this year. During her championship campaign, Waya won the Beldame (G1), Top Flight H. (G1), and Saratoga Cup on dirt and the Santa Barbara H. (G1) and Santa Ana H. on turf.
Campaigned by Daniel Wildenstein and trained by Angel Penna in 1977-78, the French-bred won the Turf Classic (G1) and Man o’ War (G1) against males as well as the Diana H. (G2) and inaugural Flower Bowl H. at Belmont in 1978. As a three-year-old in 1977, Waya won the Prix de l’Opera (G2) at Longchamp.
Both My Juliet and Waya passed away in 2001.
The Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place at 10:30 a.m. (EDT) at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion at Saratoga on August 2. The event is free and open to the public, with Tom Durkin serving as master of ceremonies.
