When we think of breeding great thoroughbreds, often sires will come to mind. What stallion gave us this particular horse? History’s greatest horses give us a litany of names that we cite to this day, names like Eclipse and Lexington, Northern Dancer and Galileo. Those names are only half of the equation: one cannot have a foal without a sire and a dam, two halves brought together to make a whole. When you look at your favorite horse’s pedigree, you need to look at that bottom half too.

The history of Belair Stud dates back to America’s colonial years, patented with the name of Catton in 1681. By the middle of the 18th century, Catton had become Belair, home to the family of Maryland’s former colonial governor Samuel Ogle — and two English Thoroughbreds, the stallion Spark and the mare Queen Mab. Ogle’s brother-in-law was Colonel Benjamin Tasker, Jr., a noted horseman who had already been experimenting with breeding Spark to several Spanish mares Ogle had imported prior to his death in 1750. While Tasker was in England, he spotted the mare Selima, a daughter of the Godolphin Arabian, and purchased her. When she arrived at Belair, Tasker put her into training.

Selima won several races for Tasker, but her most important win came in a race that caused a rift between Virginia and Maryland for years to come. William Byrd III loved games and gambling and horse races were the best of those opportunities to play with chance. He was enamored of a chesnut Thoroughbred he had recently imported from England, a ten-year-old stallion named Tryal. The horse had no racing success to speak of and, at age 10, was well past his prime, but Byrd had enough swagger and bravado to wager on his new plaything nevertheless. He put up 500 pistoles, Spanish gold coins, that Tryal would beat any horse in a four-mile race. Tasker was one of the three men who accepted Byrd’s challenge. Five horses met at Anderson’s Race Ground in Gloucester, VA. Selima had walked 150 miles from Belair in Maryland to Gloucester, near Williamsburg, to run against four other horses, including Tryal. The results were historic.

She won the four-mile race, taking home 2500 pistoles, enough to furnish five mansions, and igniting the rivalry between Maryland and Virginia horsemen, to the point that Maryland horses were banned from competing in Virginia. Selima exited the race with a career of two wins in two starts, Tasker opting to retire his mare to the broodmare life rather than continue to race her. Selima would produce ten foals, six male and four female, horses that would go on to influence the breeding of the Thoroughbred in this country for decades. Horses like foundation sire Lexington and 1887 Belmont Stakes winner Hanover, himself an influential sire, trace their pedigrees back to Selima. She became the first of America’ “blue hen” mares, the female horses that influence generations of Thoroughbreds, including Triple Crown winners. Hanover was the sire of Lady Sterling, the dam of Sir Barton, America’s first Triple Crown winner.

In recognition of her contribution to the sport of horse racing in America, William Woodward, Belair’s 20th century proprietor, commemorated her life with a bronze plaque on the estate’s grounds and a race named the Selima Stakes, a six-furlong sprint for two-year-old fillies. While Selima eventually changed owners after Tasker’s death, her time at Belair contributed much to the American Thoroughbred we know and love today.