Valeriy Gridnev - Charlie Whittingham & Sunday Silence

Lot description

Valeriy Gridnev Charlie Whittingham & Sunday Silence Oil on Canvas 26.75 x 35 in Signed. Charles Edward “Charlie” Whittingham trained with distinction for nearly half a century and was the U.S. champion trainer by earnings seven times, Eclipse Awardwinning trainer three times, and National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame inductee in 1974. Whittingham trained the winners of 252 stakes races, including Kentucky Derby winners Ferdinand and Sunday Silence. Sunday Silence’s victory in the 1989 Derby gave Whittingham the distinction of being the oldest person to have trained a Kentucky Derby winner. From a yearling that nobody would buy to a Racing Hall of Fame inductee, Sunday Silence defied all the odds in his remarkable rise as one of the most influential Thoroughbreds of modern times. His three-year-old rivalry with Easy Goer was one for the books, encompassing the 1989 Triple Crown season and culminating in his defeat of his nemesis in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Gulfstream later that year. The nearly black stallion with a blue-collar pedigree took up residence at Japan’s Shadai Stallion Station, where he ranked number one on the country’s leading sire list from 1995 through 2007.