Twilight Tear

Twilight Tear
Twilight Tear
Sire	Bull Lea
Grandsire	Bull Dog
Dam	Lady Lark
Damsire	Blue Larkspur
Sex	Filly
Foaled	1941
Country	United States
Colour	Bay
Breeder	Calumet Farm
Owner	Calumet Farm
Trainer	Ben A. Jones
Record	24: 18-2-2
Earnings	$ 202,165
Major wins
	Arlington Lassie Stakes (1943); Test Stakes (1944); Acorn Stakes (1944); Coaching Club American Oaks (1944); Pimlico Special (1944); Arlington Classic (1944)
Awards
	U.S. Co-Champion 2-Yr-Old Filly (1943); U.S. Champion 3-Yr-Old Filly (1944); U.S. Champion Older Mare (1944); United States Horse of the Year (1944)
Honours
	United States Racing Hall of Fame (1963); #59 - Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century
	Last updated on October 8, 2006

Twilight Tear (1941-1954) was an American Hall of Fame Thoroughbred filly racehorse. At age two, she won four of her six starts, finishing second and third in her other two starts. Her performances earned her a share of 2-year-old filly honors.

At three, Twilight Tear won fourteen out of seventeen races including eleven straight, beating both fillies and colts. In the prestigious Pimlico Special she defeated Devil Diver and Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner Pensive in a time that matched the record set by Seabiscuit in the 1938 race. Her dominating performance in 1944 earned her Horse of the Year honors, the first filly to do so in forty years.

In her first race at age four, Twilight Tear suffered respiratory tract problems and was retired to stand as a broodmare at Calumet Farm.

In a poll among members of the American Trainers Association, conducted in 1955 by Delaware Park, she was voted the second greatest filly in American racing history. (Gallorette was voted first.)

References

Women of the Year - Ten Fillies Who Achieved Horse Racing's Highest Honor by the Staff and Correspondents of The Blood-Horse magazine (2004) Eclipse Press ISBN 1-58150-116-1