Category: Gallant Fox

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.

Gallant Fox Wins the Preakness

Published on by Jennifer Kelly

I found this fun newsreel on YouTube yesterday and wanted to share it with you! This is about ninety seconds of a newsreel chronicling Gallant Fox’s Preakness from May 1930. Unfortunately, it has no sound, but the images are wondrous nevertheless!

The scene is Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland, on May 9, 1930. In the post parade, the Fox and jockey Earl Sande wear saddlecloth #1, the first horse after the outrider that accompanies the field. You can see Sande clad in the white with red polka dots and red cap. See the field loaded into the Bahr gate, which Pimlico used that year, and then notice the horse that starts from the far left, standing outside the starting gate. That was Armageddon, a bad actor who held up the start until J. F. Milton moved him out of the stalls to start from there.

Read more about the 1930 Preakness Stakes and how Gallant Fox brings home the victory at Pimlico in early May, when The Foxes of Belair: Gallant Fox, Omaha, and the Quest for the Triple Crown will be available at your favorite bookseller.

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.

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.

The Road to the Derby – 1930

Published on by Jennifer Kelly
Courtesy KentuckyTourism.com

With ninety-four days to go, the Kentucky Derby looms large over the racing calendar for this year’s crop of newly minted three year olds. The inevitable bevy of top 10 lists rate the best of what we’ve seen thus far, early looks at immature horses who still have growing to do between late January and the first Saturday in May. As we consider the chances of horses like Essential Quality and Life is Good, let us harken back to the ninety-one years ago and the run-up to the Kentucky Derby for an all-time great.

The story of 1929’s two-year-olds were Harry Payne Whitney’s pair, Boojum and Whichone. Boojum had beaten his stablemate in the Hopeful after showing off his speed in earlier sprints while Whichone had taken the Champagne Stakes, the Saratoga Special, and the Futurity at Belmont. In the Winter Book for the 1930 Derby, Whichone was at the top of the list at 4-1, with Boojum second choice at 10-1 along with another juvenile standout, Gallant Fox, also at 10-1. With 112 days to go, of these three, who would come out on top?

Unfortunately, lingering injuries from 1929 would keep both Boojum and Whichone from finding out how they would all measure up. Whichone did not make his first start until May 1930, while Boojum attempted a comeback in April but his injured tendon was not ready for racing. Without those two standouts, the Kentucky Derby picture was wide open, with not one horse standing out above the rest. Instead, the weeks between January 25th and May 17th saw the standings shift between names like Gallant Knight, Tanery, and Crack Brigade. After his performance in the Preakness, one week before the Derby, one horse rose to favoritism: Gallant Fox.

The historic Twin Spires of Churchill Downs

He had won only one prep race, the Wood Memorial, prior to the Preakness. The Fox had won two of his eight races as a two-year-old, demonstrating the inconsistency of a horse with bottomless talent and a mind of his own. With Earl Sande, though, he was a different horse. Instantly, the presence of one of the era’s greatest jockeys lent him credibility. Instantly, that troubled trip around the Pimlico oval demonstrated a depth that augured for something special.

When all was said and done, the other names that had been bandied about as favorites for the 1930 Kentucky Derby became afterthoughts, discarded for the Fox of Belair. His Run for the Roses was impressive enough that he had propelled himself to the top of his division, but still he had one more hurdle to clear before he became its clear leader: Whichone. The Whitney colt may not have made it to Louisville, but his status as juvenile champion and winter book favorite meant that the Fox had one more horse to beat before he could call the year his.