Wonderfully durable as well as brilliant, Alma North ranked among the best of her generation while competing in the early 1970s. The daughter of Northern Dancer, racing in the colors of Eugene Mori's East Acres, was a Grade 1 winner in track record time, won or placed in 35 stakes, and retired in 1974 as the second-richest Maryland-bred distaffer in history.
So astounding were her accomplishments during her 3-year-old season in 1971 that Alma North earned the "America's Iron Horse of the Year" citation -- a selection made by four of the nation's top racing secretaries: Tommy Trotter (NYRA), Kenny Noe (Hialeah, Garden State), Jimmy Kilroe (Santa Anita) and Doc Lavin (Churchill Downs, Keeneland). That year she started 27 times, won or placed in 19 -- 12 in stakes -- while racing over 13 different tracks in seven stakes.
Her nine wins at 3 included the Cotillion Handicap at Liberty Bell, when she led at every call to defeat the nation's 1970 champion 2-year-old filly Forward Gal. She faced males when contesting the Monmouth Invitational -- now known as the Haskell -- and finished third to West Coast Scout, who set a stakes record, with Belmont Stakes winner Pass Catcher and Canadian Horse of the Year Kennedy Road behind her. Other placings that season included seconds in the Saratoga's storied Alabama Stakes, behind another daughter of Northern Dancer, that year's Canadian Horse of the Year Lauries Dancer, and the Monmouth Oaks (to Forward Gal). She ran third behind future sprint champion Chou Croute in Keeneland's Spinster, and to regular rival Forward Gal in the Gazelle at Belmont Park.
Her accolades included the title of Maryland-bred Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old filly.
Alma North wasn't done. By the time she retired at the start of 1974, she had run 78 times, winning 23, with 14 seconds and 18 thirds. From ages 3 to 5, she made 67 trips to the post (an average of more than 22 a year).
The bay filly earned another championship title in 1972 as Maryland-bred champion older female when hitting the board 14 times in 20 starts, with two stakes victories and eight stakes-placings. The Maryland Horse noted that she had "proven that she can run and win at any distance at any track at any time of the year. Her first 1972 stakes triumph occurred at Hialeah in March in the mile and an eighth Black Helen Handicap and her second was in November at Garden State Park in the mile and a quarter Vineland Handicap." Her biggest win, and then loss, was when she led throughout and finished a half length better than champion Numbered Account in Atlantic City's Matchmaker, only to be disqualified and placed third.
Alma North's 5-year-old season was arguably her best. In 1973 she won seven stakes, four graded, topped by the Matchmaker-G1 at Atlantic City while equaling the track record. Again leading at every call, she defeated Light Hearted and Susan's Girl (who took the Eclipse Award as the nation's top older female that year). The victory not only earned purse money, but a free stallion season -- Mori picked Northern Dancer (the season could be used for any of his mares).
Three times that year Alma North defeated fellow Maryland-bred Twixt, and the two battled for year-end titles. It was unfortunate that the two best Maryland-bred performers of the 1973 season competed in the same division. By year's end Twixt--with one more stakes win, the last with Alma North coming in second--was not only awarded the older mare championship but that of Horse of the Year. While Alma North gained no divisional championship, she was clearly the second best Maryland-bred performer of the 1973 season.
It was announced after the Matchmaker win that October that Alma North would be retired to stud the next year. But her connections sent her out one more time. Facing newly crowned Maryland-bred Horse of the Year Twixt on Jan. 5 at Liberty Bell, Alma North went out a winner, defeating Twixt decisively. Her final earnings total of $513,597 was second only to Politely at the time.
Trained throughout her career by Frank Zitto, Alma North was purchased by Mori at the Saratoga yearling sale for $15,500. A member of Northern Dancer's third crop, out of the Swaps mare Spaws Arrow, she was bred by the J.I.B. Farms, a partnership between Dr. Robert A. Leonard and Stanley Bender.
It was said before she made her first start, Mori later regretted the purchase. Leonard was willing to buy her back, but Mori, who built and owned Garden State Park, and had controlling interests in tracks nationwide, including Hialeah, chose to keep her. During her 2-year-old season, Alma North finished in the top three in nine of her 10 starts, and was stakes placed. Years later, Mori called her his "best buy ever."
During her broodmare career, Alma North produced stakes winner and sire Duns Scotus (a son of Buckpasser) and four other winners. She topped the Keeneland January sale in 1981, selling for $1 million in foal to Alydar. Champion sprinter Points Offthebench and multiple Grade 1 winner Iotapa are among her descendants.
Stakes named in her honor have been run in New Jersey (at Garden State) and at the tracks Maryland, most recently Laurel, going back into the late 1970s.