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
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.