Dr. Fager (April 6, 1964 – August 5, 1976) was an American thoroughbred racehorse who had what many consider one of the greatest single racing seasons by any horse in the history of the sport. In 1968 at the age of four, he became the only horse to ever hold four American titles in one year when he was named the Horse of the Year, champion handicap horse, champion sprinter, and co-champion grass horse. In his most famous performance, Dr. Fager set a world record of 1:32 for a mile in the Washington Park Handicap while carrying 134 pounds. Dr. Fager was also a major winner at ages two and three. At two, he won four of five starts including the Cowdin Stakes. Various health issues kept him out of the Triple Crown races at age three but he still won seven stakes races while setting track records in the New Hampshire Sweepstakes and Rockingham Special. He was named the champion sprinter of 1967 after defeating older horses in the Vosburgh Handicap. He also finished third behind Damascus and Buckpasser in the "race of the decade", the Woodward Stakes. Upon retirement to stud in Florida, he became an important sire and broodmare sire, and led the North American sire list in 1977. He died young due to a colic attack at the age of twelve. Dr. Fager was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1971. On the Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century, he was ranked #6. Background Dr. Fager was a homebred for Tartan Stable, owned by William L. McKnight (chairman of the board of Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co.) and managed by Hall of Famer John Nerud. Nerud, who owned 25% of Dr. Fager and was his trainer, developed Tartan Stable from "literally nothing" into a prominent racing stable. Dr. Fager was from the first crop of Tartan Farm's Rough'n Tumble, a good racehorse with soundness problems and dubious breeding. Thanks in part to Dr. Fager, Rough'n Tumble developed into a leading regional sire in Florida, preserving the now-rare sire line of Plaudit, the Kentucky Derby winner of 1898. Dr. Fager's dam Aspidistra earned only two wins during her racing career and could have been claimed for only $6,500 in her last start. As a broodmare though, she produced 10 winners, including two Hall of