Norcliffe
Hall of Fame Inductee, 2005

Nine of his 14 victories came in stakes races. Twice he won the Carling O’Keefe Invitational Handicap and was first, second or third in 25 of his 33 starts. One of his impressive efforts was in the Coronation Futurity of 1975 when he was clocked in 1:49.1 for 1 1/8 miles, a record that still stands for the 2-year-old stakes event. Norcliffe also holds Woodbine’s track record for 1 1/2 miles, 2:29.1, set in 1977 while winning the Carling O’Keefe Handicap. Norcliffe gained added respect in the Nassau County Stakes Handicap at Belmont, N.Y., that year when he was beaten less than a length by the legendary Forego.

Fell, who was in the irons when Norcliffe broke his maiden by 16 lengths, predicted the following spring he would win the Plate and told friends to ignore the colt’s fourth-place finish in the Toronto Cup. The crowd made Attfield’s colt the 8-to-5 favorite. Attfield, however, was concerned before that race that the colt’s training schedule had been changed because of a bruised foot. “It put me off key a little bit on how to bring him to the race. I had to race him three weeks in a row at a mile and a 16th, which usually wouldn’t be my ideal way of bringing a horse up to the Plate. This is a funny game. If I get beaten, I’m wrong. I won, so I did the right thing.”

After Norcliffe’s 4-year-old season he was purchased and syndicated by Roy Kennedy’s Gateway Farms in Ocala. He later stood at Patricia Kennedy’s Hyllview Stallion Station in Florida and Crescent Farm in Kentucky. Norcliffe had only seven crops get to the races before his untimely death in 1984 at age 11 at Shadowlawn Farm, Midway, Ky. In his abbreviated career Norcliffe produced 33 stakes winners. His most notable son was Groovy, who earned more than $l.3 million. Groovy was the Eclipse Award champion sprinter of 1987. Norcliffe was also the sire of At The Threshold, winner of the Arlington Classic and American Derby, and grandsire of Kentucky Derby winner Lil E. Tee.