Busanda in the 1951 Saratoga Cup. Bob Coglianese photo.
Neither a champion nor a Hall of Fame inductee, Busanda nonetheless lives on in two ways: through her bloodlines and one of those Aqueduct winter races that, when I first started following races, sent me to the archives to figure out who those eponymous horses were. I don’t know whose idea it was to name a race after Busanda, but I’m awfully glad he did.
In addition to compiling an impressive race record, she puts the lie to the idea that accomplished race mares make lousy broodmares. Busanda beat males in the 1951 Suburban and twice in the Saratoga Cup (1951 and 1952); she also won the Alabama, the Top Flight, and the Diana. And when she was finished racing, she headed to the farm where she foaled…Buckpasser, in addition to other stakes winners.
Brooklyn Backstretch 