Kentucky Derby Lucky Losers: Cryptoclearance (1987)

That 1984 crop of Thoroughbreds was something special. Alysheba won the Kentucky Derby (G1) and the Preakness (G1) and then went on to win the Santa Anita H. (G1), the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), and Horse of the Year as a four-year-old. 

Gulch was a two-time winner of the Metropolitan H. (G1) and then won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) before going on to sire dual U.S. classic winner Thunder Gulch. Bet Twice spoiled Alysheba’s Triple Crown try with his Belmont S. (G1) victory and then took the Pimlico Special H. at age four. 

Rokeby Stable's Java Gold followed in his sire Key to the Mint's footsteps and won the Travers S. (G1) and the Whitney H. (G1), plus the Marlboro Cup H. (G1), all at age three. 

Cryptoclearance was another exceptional member of the class of 1984, a hard-trying horse who was always in the mix in the sport’s biggest stakes and a stellar sire who passed on his champion genes to more than one classic winner. 

Finding His Feet

Thomas P. Whitney was more than a journalist, diplomat, and translator of two of Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s works, The First Circle and The Gulag Archipelago: he also owned a chain of independent bookstores and bred Thoroughbreds, including a mare named Naval Orange. A daughter of Mock Orange, who produced multiple stakes winners, Naval Orange managed to win only once as a racehorse, but as a broodmare, her cover by Fappiano yielded a solid dark bay colt who would become a star. 

On the racetrack, Fappiano was a stakes-winning miler and then a leading sire, later producing 1990 Kentucky Derby winner Unbridled. His colt out of Naval Orange was a good-looking one and sold for $190,000 at the 1985 Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Signing the sales slip was Phil Teinowitz, a lifelong Chicagoan and real estate developer who raced horses like 1977 Illinois Derby winner Flag Officer. Teinowitz named Naval Orange’s colt Cryptoclearance, a reference to a type of security clearance for military communications.

He sent Cryptoclearance to trainer Flint S. "Scotty" Schulhofer, a former steeplechase jockey turned conditioner who had taken over training for Tartan Farm after John Nerud retired and later conditioned sprinter Ta Wee and turf star Mac Diarmida. The Hall of Fame trainer sent the colt to Saratoga for an early August debut. He finished fourth in that first start and then broke his maiden in his next start, a seven-furlong maiden special weight. 

Cryptoclearance stepped up to stakes company in his next race, the Arlington-Washington Futurity (G1) at Arlington, where he finished ninth behind Bet Twice. The Fappiano colt had two more starts in 1986, winning a one-mile allowance at Belmont Park to finish out his two-year-old season. 

Hanging Tough 

Cryptoclearance’s three-year-old campaign started with a bang in the Biscayne Bay S. at Hialeah Park, taking the six-furlong sprint by 3 1/2 lengths. Schulhofer kept the Fappiano colt on the Florida trail to the Triple Crown season, contesting the Bahamas S. next, where Cryptoclearance finished second; the Everglades (G2), which his colt won by 1 1/2 lengths; and the Flamingo (G1), where Talinum caught him in the stretch. Cryptoclearance finished his Derby prep season with a victory in the Florida Derby (G1). For the first time in his career, 60-year-old Scotty Schulhofer had a Kentucky Derby contender. 

The 1987 Kentucky Derby was a stacked affair, the 16-horse field including Alysheba, Bet Twice, Gulch, Capote, and Cryptoclearance. Stuck in traffic early, jockey Jose Santos found running room on the outside toward the end of the 10 furlongs and was able to move the Fappiano colt up to fourth in the stretch, finishing just three lengths in back of a victorious Alysheba. In the Preakness, Schulhofer’s colt made the top three, finishing third behind Alysheba and Bet Twice. Bet Twice thwarted Alysheba’s bid for the Triple Crown in the Belmont while Cryptoclearance passed Alysheba and then outfinished Gulch for second. 

Cryptoclearance raced seven more times at three, winning the Pegasus H. (G1) at the Meadowlands and posting in-the-money finishes in the Jim Dandy (G2), Travers, and the Meadowlands Cup H. (G1). After an unsuccessful turn in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Schulhofer gave the Fappiano colt a two-month break after his 15-start campaign and prepared Cryptoclearance for his four-year-old season. 

Finishing Strong

At four, the Fappiano colt started his season with an allowance win and then did not find the winner’s circle again until the Hawthorne Gold Cup H. (G2) in late August. In between, he was in the top three in six of eight starts, the hard-trying Cryptoclearance keeping himself in the mix in nearly every race. After another fifth in the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Classic, he finished the season with a win in the Paterson H. (G2) at the Meadowlands. 

For his final season in 1989, Cryptoclearance started with a sizzling win in the final yards of the Donn H. (G1) at Gulfstream Park. Tenth on the far turn, the late-running son of Fappiano made up 12 lengths in the stretch, blowing by Slew City Slew in the final yards. He followed that with a win in the Widener H. (G1) at Hialeah, beating Slew City Slew again after finishing third behind him in the Gulfstream Park H. (G1). 

Cryptoclearance got his final career victory in the Hawthorne Gold Cup, taking that Grade 2 for the second time. He ran into the red-hot Easy Goer in the Whitney and the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1), finishing third and then second behind the three-year-old superstar. For his final start, Cryptoclearance tried the Breeders’ Cup Classic for the third time, finishing fifth behind Sunday Silence and Easy Goer. 

The son of Fappiano and Naval Orange ended his career with a record of 44-12-10-7 and $3,376,327 in money won. Teinowitz retired his multiple Grade 1 winner to Margaux Farm in Kentucky, where Cryptoclearance stood until his death in 2009. Among his 744 winners are Millennium Wind, 2001 Blue Grass S. (G1) winner; Volponi, the 2002 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner; Ride the Rails, sire of Candy Ride; Canadian champion Cryptocloser; and 1998 Belmont winner Victory Gallop.