His dam was the outstanding runner Jacola, the American Champion Two-Year-Old Filly of 1937 who beat Seabiscuit by two lengths in the 1938 Laurel Stakes.
At age three, after winning the Wood Memorial Stakes, he was the betting favorite going into the 1947 Kentucky Derby[3] but ran second to Jet Pilot.
[6] He also won the Dwyer Stakes, the Empire City Handicap and in the fall, the two-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup.
He did not get his first win of the year until November 6, when he captured the Daingerfield Handicap at Jamaica Race Course carrying top weight of 129 pounds.
[7] Retired to owner Sonny Whitney's stud farm in Kentucky, Phalanx notably sired Career Boy, the 1956 American Champion Turf Horse, and Fisherman, a multiple top-level performer whose wins included the Travers Stakes and Washington, D.C. International Stakes.