NTWA | National Turf Writers Association

NTWA HONOREES

Mr. Fitz Award - For Typifying the Spirit of Racing

Remembering "Mr. Fitz"
by Whitney Tower

Over a century ago—in 1885 to be exact—a smiling, handsome young lad named James E. Fitzsimmons took himself to the old track at Sheesphead Bay and launched a 78-year career which may never be surpassed in the annals of U.S. training achievement. The record, of course, will show that the man, whose problems with weight ultimately steered his career from that of a jockey to one as a trainer, saddled 148 stakes winners among his 2,266 winning races (and, incidentally, winning purses of some $13,001,500). But what no record could show is the personal record of this great and lovable humanitarian.

His refreshing good nature and even disposition soon earned him the nickname of “Sunny Jim” and, in his later years, “Mr. Fitz,” as he became known by every American race-goer, was the seat of wisdom to whom all horsemen, fans and racing journalists turned for advice or a friendly word of encouragement.

Mr. Fitz, although he trained for many owners during his long career, was most closely associated with the Woodward and Phipps family. And although his stakes winners were many, including such names as Captain Alcock, Flambino, Diavolo (one of his favorites), Faireno, Dark Secret, Granville, Johnson, Seabiscuit, Vagrancy, Busanda and Hitting Away, he will probably best be remembered for his successes in the classic races. He won two Triple Crowns, with Gallant Fox and Omaha, a Preakness with the fabulous Bold Ruler (sire of Secretariat), and both a Preakness and Belmont with the great Nashua.

One of the many high points of Mr. Fitz’s celebrated career came in the summer of 1955 when a match race was arranged between Kentucky Derby winner Swaps and Nashua. After training the latter for over a month on the deep, tiring Saratoga track (while Swaps was working on Chicago’s faster Washington Park strip), Mr. Fitz and Eddie Arcaro journeyed west. Their confidence seemed unrealistic to the Swaps rooters who flocked to Chicago to watch the California-bred colt repeat his Derby victory. This hardly bothered Mr. Fitz, who noted calmly, “Training in Saratoga makes a horse fit. In a match race the object is to run from the gate, and the fittest horse wins.” Nashua beat Swaps by more than six lengths.

Hardly more than a furlong away from Saratoga’s National Museum of Racing, Mr. Fitz would hold daily court in the Saratoga track paddock. He sat, each August afternoon, on the same bench under the same elms and no one needed an appointment to sign up for a bit of learning. “Son,” he would say to anyone within earshot, “the owners of race horses are the greatest people on earth. They pay the bills with little chance of making any money.”