Breeder-Owner Aspirations: Home-Bred Horses Have Won 20 Runnings of the Derby.; Several Winners Were Sold for Trivial Sums as Yearlings by Their Breeders--Vagrant Sold for 50., Daily Racing Form, 1939-05-06

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t 3 r I a e e E lt e ls d tie g d e e h d y g is 3S m for ir n, of n- er e er v his is e- .39 gg BREEDER-OWNER ASPIRATIONS Home-Bred Horses Have Won 20 Runnings of the Derby. Several Winners Were Sold for Trivial Sums as Yearlings by Their Breeders-Vagrant Sold for 50. LOUISVILLE, Ky., May 5.— To win a Kentucky Derby— that is the ambition of everyone connected with racing. No other race of turfdom carries so much fame, glamor and color as the popular classic, which has its sixty-fifth running here Saturday. Whether an owner, breeder, trainer, jockey all are enthusiastic to be or even a groom, connected with a winner of the Kentucky Derby. But probably the most enthusiastic of them all is the breeder-owner. Aristides, winner of the initial chapter, was bred and owned by the same person-Price McGrath. Since then eighteen other turfmen have bred and owned winners of the famed classic. There was Noah Armstrong, in 1889, with Spokane, and George J. Long, with Azra in 1892 Thomas C. McDowell accomplished the feat with Alan-A-Dale in 1902. Then Long returned with another in 1906, Sir Huon, and J. Hal Woodford came up the following year with Pink Star. H. P. WHITNEYS REGRET. Rome Respess turned the trick in 1909 with Wintergreen, while T. P. Hayes claimed the same honor in 1913 with his Donerail. Then Harry Payne Whitney scored his first breeder-owner victory in the rich classic with the filly Regret, in 1915. In 1921 came Col. E. R. Bradley to realize the honor with Behave Yourself. Mrs. R. M. Hoots was the next to do likewise, scoring with Black Gold in 1924. In the more recent years it has become the fashion that the winner of the Kentucky Derby be a colt bred and owned by the same person, with nine of the last thirteen having been such. They were: Colonel Bradleys Bubbling Over and Brokers Tip, William Woodwards Gallant Fox and Omaha, Whitneys Whisk-v ery, H. P. Gardners Clyde Van Dusen, Mrs. Payne Whitneys Twenty Grand, Samuel D. Riddles War Admiral, and Herbert M. Woolfs Lawrin. . Then, too, there are a host of stories of how a Cinderella colt, sold for a trivial sum by his breeder, went on to win the Kentucky Derby. CINDERELLA HORSES. Turning over the pages of Kentucky Derby history, chockful of thrills, the first of the Cinderellas to win the big race was Vagrant, which scored in the second edition, in 1876. Bred by M. H. Sanford at his Preakness Stud, the brown-colored fellow, a son of Virgil, sire of two other Derby winners, was sold as a yearling for a paltry 50 to T. H. Nichols, of Paris, Ky. But it didnt take Vagrant long to distm-ly guish himself, and as Derby time drew near, he was touted all over the Blue Grass coun-r, try as the "horse to beat." That he was, for he romped to as an even-money favorite, victory, downing eleven other smart three-of year-olds. Then there was Day Star, a chestnut colt, He was bred here in Kentucky by Henry Clays son, John M. Clay, who sold him for 25 to Vagrants owner, Mr. Nichols, Day Star won the fourth Kentucky Derby, the 1878 renewal, as the great Himyar and seven other three-year-olds fell in his wake, The third of those early Cinderella win-ts ners of the Derby sold for a song by their breeders, was Fonso. He was bred at Alex-_ ander J. Alexanders Woodburn Stud in Ken-k tucky, and was sold by Alexander for a mere 00 to J. S. Shawhan. But speaking of bargains, Hindoo was an-other, even though his breeder, Daniel Swig-„f ert, sold him to Dwyer Brothers for 5,000. He won the Derby in 1881 and was consid-r ered by his trainer, Jimmy Rowe, as "the greatest American thoroughbred of all time."


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1930s/drf1939050602/drf1939050602_38_6
Local Identifier: drf1939050602_38_6
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800