Chris Evert

Chris Evert (February 14, 1971 – January 8, 2001) was an American Hall of Fame Champion Thoroughbred racehorse, winning the U.S. Filly Triple Crown in 1974 and earning the Eclipse Award for Outstanding 3-Year-Old Filly. Background Chris Evert was bred by Echo Valley Farm near Georgetown, Kentucky, owned by Donald & Shirley Sucher. The couple would later breed Winning Colors, another Hall of Fame filly and winner of the 1988 Kentucky Derby. Carl Rosen (1918–1983), owner of clothing manufacturer Puritan Fashions Corp., purchased the unnamed filly at a Keeneland yearling sale. He named her for the tennis player Chris Evert, whom he had signed to endorse his company's line of sportswear. Racing career Chris Evert began racing at age two. Of her five starts, she won four and finished second in the other. At age three she dominated her class, winning the U.S. Filly Triple Crown and earning the Eclipse Award for Outstanding 3-Year-Old Filly. In 1974, Aaron Jones, the owner of the West Coast-based filly Miss Musket, issued a challenge to Chris Evert's owner for their horses to meet in a match race. Miss Musket's record included winning the Hollywood Oaks, and her confident owner offered to put up $100,000 if Chris Evert's owner would match it. Hollywood Park Racetrack offered another $150,000 to the winner-take-all race, which it would host and would bill as the Hollywood Special Stakes. Rosen accepted the offer for a match race to be held on July 20, 1974. Chris Evert won by 50 lengths, and the large purse significantly contributed to her becoming 1974's leading money earner in U.S. Thoroughbred racing.