John Henry - 1984 Turf Classic 

I have to admit ( and it won't surprise anyone who knows me ) I feel emotional as I watch this race because John Henry has always been one of my favorite horses . I will always love and deeply respect him. I can't thank you enough for posting this race my dear friend . God Bless .

the letters are the old off tracki betting designations-fine race thnx-

A former claimer John Henry was tough as nails to go by

So much I could babble on about after watching this, lol. Win ran a heck of a race; and he had the longer route, being on the outside. An admirable performance. But, I think Chris summed up John Henry perfectly when he said, "...if there's a horse right next to him, he won't let it get by...". :-) Thanks so much for the great upload, CF.

John Henry wasn't giving up that lead ... Like whoa! Thanks for sharing this treasure.

I believe the letters correspond to OTB designations for the horses.

Lil John said: I don't think so son. Little spitfire till the end.

Wow, looks like there were many Top 100 U.S. racehorses racing at the same time. Guess I shuold learn more of the time stuff xD

All along was a champion in her own right. And she was racing against the boys here

Nice :)

why the letters after the number? i understand multiple entries 1a, 1b, 1c, 2a, 2b, ect.... but why all of the numbers in this race?

They were in fact in correlation with the numbers of the horses, or rather actually, the post positions of the horses (if there was a coupled entry, the letters would correspond with post position rather than number). Until the mid-1990s when most tracks either began scratching off the program or there was enough lead time, OTB had to do this since their betting started before scratches were known in many cases.