Edward Evans Day

The two sports that present the best stories about individuals are golf and horse racing. In horse racing, the stories are of both humans and equines.

One of the most notable parts of racing that has been lost in the past half-century - and there are many - has been the lack of homebred stables. Racing operations based on breeding horses and running them on racetracks instead of pointing the majority of horses towards commercial sale. The names of past legendary homebred racing stables are on lists of winners of every top race in North America - the Whitneys, Haggin, Calumet, Cain Hoy, Lucky Baldwin, Idle Hour Farm of Colonel Edward Riley Bradley, Darby Dan, Meadow, Overbrook, on and on. They have not all vanished - Breeders Cup Classic winner Blame is the latest of a long list of great horses bred by Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider (who in turn was continuing in the tradition of her grandfather John Olin who won the Centennial Derby with Cannonade).

Edward (Ned) Evans carried on the tradition of his father Thomas Mellon Evans who won the 1981 Derby with the homebred Pleasant Colony. Ned Evans was quoted in Blood Horse in 2002 saying "My operation has always been separate, and I've been doing this for a long time." Thomas Mellon Evans - a cousin of another great breeder-owner Paul Mellon - was a legendary corporate raider of fifties and sixties and obviously Ned Evans wanted to be recognized for his own accomplishments. Evans had purchased Spring Hill Farm in 1969 and in earlier racing days he would have rightfully been called "The Master of Spring Hill Farm".

Ned Evans died on New Year's Eve at Mt. Sinai Hospital of leukemia at the age of 68. Today at Aqueduct, Dance Quietly - the first horse to run in Evans' familiar colors - Yellow, Black Diamond Hoops, Two Black Chevrons on Sleeves, Black Cap - since his death won the 38th running of the Busanda. Within the hour, a horse named My Uncle Ned - a homebred of Evans' brother Robert - won a maiden turf race at the Fair Grounds paying $24.80.