Category: Belair Stud

Marguerite, Mother of Champions

Published on by Jennifer Kelly

In her twenty-five years, Marguerite’s nine foals included more than one overachiever of the first half of the 20th century, including a Triple Crown winner and a Travers victor, her impact so great that she was buried intact, a high honor for a horse. Best known for her first foal by Sir Gallahad III, this daughter of Celt is not only the mother of Gallant Fox but also one of William Woodward’s favorite mares, a light chestnut recognized by Horse and Horseman magazine in 1939 as “America’s most eminent broodmare.”

Claiborne Through and Through

When Fairy Ray arrived in the United States, her new American owner Frederick Johnson thought she was a poor specimen of a broodmare. Yet her pedigree, laden with English classic winners, promised much, even if her looks left something to be desired. Johnson sold the mare and her yearling by Cock o’ the Walk at a dispersal sale, and, as luck would have it, Arthur B. Hancock, master of Claiborne Farm, came away with the daughter of Radium, twice winner of the Jockey Club Cup in England. Hancock bred Fairy Ray to Celt, one of Claiborne’s flagship stallions of the early 20th century.

Celt was one of those horses whose potential on the racetrack was never quite realized owing to circumstance and injury. He happened to be a stablemate of the undefeated Colin, himself rated alongside Man o’ War in the estimation of turf writers of the day. Though Celt could not prove himself in the same ways Colin had, injury preventing him from racing more than his scant six starts, he proved to be a much better sire than his stablemate. By 1919, he already had a Futurity winner in Dunboyne and a Coaching Club American Oaks winner in Polka Dot. The choice to breed him to Fairy Ray was a fortuitous one: the result was Marguerite.

Belair’s Beginnings

At the Saratoga yearling sales in 1921, William Woodward, master of Belair Stud, spotted Marguerite and purchased her for $4,700, adding her to his burgeoning broodmare band. Though Belair was an ample estate with plenty of land, Woodward kept his broodmares at Claiborne, so, when it was time for Marguerite to transition to that phase of her life, she returned to her place of birth and became one of his owner’s best producers, a foundational mare for this dynasty of the 1930s.

Her first cover was Wrack, the imported stallion who had won on the flat and over the jumps. The result was Petee-Wrack, 1928 Travers winner who later added the Suburban and Metropolitan Handicaps to his resume. In Sir Gallahad’s first season at stud, 1926, Woodward sent Marguerite to the newly imported stallion and produced a bay colt with a blaze and a precocity that gave his owner great hopes. That was Gallant Fox.

The Fox was the first of her seven foals by Sir Gallahad III, their pairing producing Flying Fox and Foxbrough, both stakes winners, as well as daughters like Marguery and Marigal, who also had stakes winners of their own. From Gallant Fox came Granville, Flares, and, of course, Omaha. Down the line from Omaha came Nijinsky II, the last of the English Triple Crown winners.

From Marguerite came a long list of winners, helping give rise to the Belair dynasty of the 1930s.

A Life of Consequence

Marguerite’s impact as a broodmare merited her inclusion in historian Edward Bowen’s book Matriarchs as well as a stakes race at Pimlico Race Course from 1945 to 1965. You can read more about her in The Foxes of Belair: Gallant Fox, Omaha, and the Quest for the Triple Crown, coming soon from the University Press of Kentucky.

Throwback Thursday: Granville

Published on by Jennifer Kelly

William Woodward was one of those breeder-owners of similar ilk to his peers, the Whitney family and Calumet Farm: they bred to race, relying on generation after generation of horses carefully selected by each to produce the next champion. Woodward started with a handful of mares sired by Ajax that he purcahsed from French breeder Edmond Blanc during World War I, and, from those five mares, he produced multiple champions, including the horse at the center of today’s Throwback Thursday post, Granville.

All Good Things Start Here

Granville with Jimmy Stout

One of those Ajax mares was Mousse des Bois, who was imported to the United States after World War I with her yearling colt, Sarmatian, in tow. Sarmatian did not race here, but became one of Belair’s earliest stallions, siring the filly Gravita. Gravita herself was not a winner on the racetrack, but, as a broodmare, Woodward paired her with his Triple Crown winner, Gallant Fox, and, in early 1933, Gravita foaled a bay colt with a thin white blaze. Woodward named him Granville.

When Granville was foaled, Gallant Fox’s first crop of foals were yearlings so standouts like Omaha had yet to hit the track. At two, though, Granville proved to be cut from the same cloth as his sire and Omaha even more so: it took Granville four tries to break his maiden in an allowance race at Aqueduct, his only victory of his two-year-old season. Like his sire and Omaha, Granville needed time to find his gear. As a three-year-old, this son of the Fox and Gravita truly would shine.

Belair Bruiser

Granville started his three-year-old season with a win in an allowance race, a tune-up for the Wood Memorial four days later. He lost the Wood by a nose to Teufel, owned by Wheatley Stable. Then, in the Kentucky Derby, a chain reaction of bumping sent Granville to his knees and knocked Bold Venture off stride. Bold Venture’s young rider Ira Hanford managed to stay in the saddle; Jimmy Stout could not keep his seat on Granville, tumbling to the track unhurt and watching his mount run the mile and a quarter without him.

In the Preakness, Granville managed to keep his feet and his rider throughout the race at Pimlico, challenging Bold Venture in a stretch run that had both horses battling head to head down the stretch. Bold Venture eked out the victory by a nose, becoming the fifth horse to win both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. With only the Belmont Stakes to go, Bold Venture was on the precipice of becoming the fourth horse to win the Triple Crown and the third to do it that decade. Unfortunately, the dual classic winner bowed a tendon while preparing for the Belmont, knocking him out of the race. Granville wore down the front-running Mr. Bones to take the Belmont Stakes by a neck.

From there, this homebred won the Arlington Classic, the third Belair horse to win that race that decade, and then went to Saratoga for the rich stakes there. He then did what both Gallant Fox and Omaha had been unable to do and won the Travers Stakes, bringing home the first Man o’ War Cup, a replica of the trophy award to Man o’ War upon his victory in the match race against Sir Barton in 1920. Then, he won the mile-and-three-quarters Saratoga Cup by eight lengths over 1935’s Horse of the Year, Discovery, and the mile-and-five-eighths Lawrence Realization by two lengths. His remarkable run of six victories after losing close finishes in the Wood Memorial, the Preakness Stakes, and the Suburban Handicap earned him both Champion Three-Year-Old Colt and Horse of the Year honors at the end of 1936.

Not-So-Grand Finale

A minor leg injury after the Lawrence Realization forced Granville to miss the Jockey Club Gold Cup, ending his three-year-old season a bit prematurely. Woodward had intended to bring Granville back to race at four, but Virginia breeder Kenneth Gilpin convinced the master of Belair to retire the son of Gallant Fox. Gilpin had stood Teddy, Granville’s great-grandsire, at his Kentmere Farm, but Teddy’s death in 1936 left Gilpin without a stallion. The Virginia breeder leased Granville from Woodward for two years; after that, Granville stood in Knetucky at John Hay Whitney’s Mare’s Nest Stud before his 1943 sale to Dr. J.M. Winchester. He stood out on Winchester’s ranch in New Mexico for several years, eventually becoming a part of the United States Army’s Remount Service, much like Sir Barton had in the early 1930s. Granville died in 1951.

With Gallant Fox’s bad-luck turn in the 1930 Travers and then Omaha’s injury in the Arlington Classic in 1935, the Travers Stakes eluded William Woodward until Granville’s turn in 1936. Much like his sire, Granville was not a star at two, but, at three, he shined brighter than the rest, earning Horse of the Year honors after a string of victories in some of the country’s leading stakes races. He joined his sire and Omaha on that long list of other Belair champions of that era, part of the red dots’ dominance of racing in the 1930s. His induction into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1997 solidified his place as one of the great champions of American racing as the sport expanded from coast to coast during the Great Depression.

Flambette, a Belair Reine-de-Course

Published on by Jennifer Kelly

Gallant Fox, Omaha, and the many champions of Belair Stud are products of both great training and great breeding. William Woodward spent a great deal of time working out the minutiae of breeding his mares to the sires of the day, often doing so in partnership with his good friend Arthur Hancock of Claiborne Farm. Woodward started small, but his investments during the upheaval of World War I yielded a number of his best horses.

One of this was Flambette.

Flambette with Linus McAtee up. Courtesy of and copyright the Keeneland Library’s Cook Collection.

From Gotham to Gaul

Herman Duryea, breeder and friend of Harry Payne Whitney, saw the Hart-Agnew laws as sounding the death knell for horse racing in New York and perhaps in the United States as a whole. Duryea, whose inherited wealth enabled him to spend his days at sport, had invested in properties in New York and Tennessee, but decided to move his operation to France, establishing Haras du Gazon. There, he bred two English classic winners, Durbar II, winner of the 1914 Epsom Derby, and Sweeper II, who won the Two Thousand Guineas in 1910. In addition, the mare Frizette, for whom the Frizette Stakes is named, was part of his broodmare band. When Duryea died in 1916, his widow attempted to maintain Haras du Gazon, but eventually sold much of the breeding operation and its stock to Marcel Boussac.

About the same time, Edmond Blanc’s concern about the Great War in Europe prompted him to sell a number of his broodmares, most by Ajax. William Woodward bought five of them, including La Flambee. Wartime conditions prevented the mares from coming to the United States until 1919, so, in the interim, Woodward had La Flambee covered by Durbar II. By the time those five mares arrived at Belair, they also had La Flambee’s filly La Rabelais and her yearling filly by Durbar II. Woodward named her Flambette.

A Queen on the Track and Off

Prior to 1923, Woodward’s horses were leased by his friend Philip A. Clark, his friend and fellow horseman who had also owned other good horses, like 1918 Belmont Futurity winner Dunboyne. In 1921, at age three, Flambette ran in Clark’s colors, winning the Latonia Oaks and the Coaching Club American Oaks, where she defeated stablemate and Kentucky Oaks winner Nancy Lee. An injury in the Wilton Handicap at Saratoga ended her career, which meant the start of her next career, broodmare for Belair Stud.

Though she flashed brilliance in her nine-race career, Flambette became one of Belair’s foundational broodmares, producing thirteen foals for William Woodward. Of those thirteen, seven were starters and four were winners. Her first foal was a filly by Wrack, the Claiborne stallion who had won both on the flat and over jumps. That filly was named Flambino. Flambino won the Gazelle Stakes and finished third in the 1927 Belmont Stakes and the Coaching Club American Oaks, but, as a broodmare, she gave Woodward another prize: Omaha.

Flambette also produced La France, an unraced filly by Sir Gallahad III. La France’s best foal was Johnstown, 1939 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner. Also by Sir Gallahad III was another filly, Gallette. Now, as a racehorse, Gallette was terrible both over jumps and on the flat. She started sixteen times and could not do better than second, finishing her career with a grand total of $225 in winnings. From Gallette came Gallorette, champion handicap mare in 1946.

Later, Flambette’s daughters would go on to produce more good horses. Other than Omaha, Flambino produced Fleam and Flares for Belair. Omaha also sired Flaming Top, third dam of Nijinsky II. La France is the fourth dam of Decidedly, 1962 Kentucky Derby winner, and the sixth dam of Danzig Connection, who won the 1986 Belmont Stakes. Another classic winner with Flambette in his pedigree was Sunday Silence, who has Flambette in his pedigree through his dam Wishing Well.

La Reine-de-Course de Belair

In French, une reine-de-course is a queen of the turf. Like the chefs-de-race, a reine-de-course is a foundational figure for a family of thoroughbreds, producing producers that often go on to foal champions and other important horses within the world of horse racing. Flambette is one of Belair’s, influencing generations of champions on multiple continents, her name tucked away in the pedigrees of many a great horse. She is just one of the names that made Belair Stud among the influential breeders of the 20th century and beyond.

Read more on Flambette and other reines-de-course at Ellen Parker’s site of the same name. Much gratitude to Ms. Parker and her work alongside that of Avalyn Hunter and her excellent American Classic Pedigrees.

Ajax, the Progenitor

Published on by Jennifer Kelly1 Comment

William Woodward’s two years in England had whetted his appetite for more. As a child, he had already set it in his mind that he would win the Epsom Derby one day, as Pierre Lorillard had in 1881 with his American-bred Iroquois. Woodward’s time in Britain, though, grew this idea into an obsession, the Harvard educated young man spending as much time researching pedigrees and race records as he did the law and other concerns. Back in the United States, he continued this passion, turning his Belair estate into a veritable equine heaven, but he needed the bloodstock to make his dreams a reality. To do that, he looked to a horse named Ajax.

French Connection

Edmond Blanc divided his time between politics and horses, parlaying his inheritance into a place as one of the France’s most successful breeders. He purchased English Triple Crown winner Flying Fox from the estate of the Duke of Westminster and brought the stallion to his Haras de Jardy. There, in his first crop, Flying Fox sired Ajax.

Ajax was a sensation on the racetrack, winning all five of his starts at age three, before an injury cut his career short. He retired with that perfect record to Haras de Jardy, his wins in the Prix de Jockey Club and the Grand Prix de Paris marking him as a sire to pursue. In addition to siring Teddy, who also became a champion on the racetrack and then in the breeding shed, Ajax sired a number of broodmares, including one named La Flambee. When World War I began, many breeders rushed to sell their horses, resulting in a number of importations from Europe to the United States. Blanc decided to sell several of his broodmares, news that caught the eye of William Woodward at Belair in Maryland.

American Successes

Woodward decided to buy five of those mares, all by Ajax. Woodward was still early in his breeding career, building his bloodstock holdings slowly, waiting for the right moment to break out. Through contacts, he purchased those fives mares by Ajax for a surprisingly low $3,750. One of those mares was La Flambee, who had been bred to Epsom Derby winner Durbar II while she waited to be shipped to the United States. Even though Woodward had purchased these mares in 1914, they did not arrive in America until 1919. By that time, La Flambee’s filly by Durbar II was a yearling that Woodward named La Flambette.

La Flambette won the Coaching Club American Oaks and the Latonia Oaks for Woodward, establishing herself as a leading filly of her generation before becoming a broodmare of note, producing horses like La France (dam of classic winner Johnstown), Gallette (dam of Gallorette, champion handicap mare), and Flambino, who won the Gazelle and finished third in both the Coaching Club American Oaks and the Belmont Stakes. For Woodward, Flambino would produce Fleam, Flares, and, of course, Omaha, 1935 Triple Crown winner. From that investment in five Ajax mares came many of Belair’s great runners.

Of course, Ajax had another connection to Belair. Earlier, I mentioned that he sired Teddy, who was a champion in Spain during World War I and then a notable sire for Jefferson Davis Cohn. Among the horses he sired was Sir Gallahad III, the stallion that a syndicate of breeders like Arthur Hancock and William Woodward purchased and brought to the United States in late 1925. Sir Gallahad would sire Gallant Fox, who would then sire Omaha, out of Flambino. Ajax’s blood ran deep in the Belair bloodstock, generations of horses that brought much success to their breeder and owner across the ocean from where it all began.

In his time, a horse named for a mythical hero helped establish one breeder’s fantastic success, bringing us horses that stand alongside the actual Ajax as pillars of equine greatness.