DerbyTrail
05-28-2005, 11:42 AM
From Derby Trail: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/derbytrail
Saturday's Peter Pan has been a traditional Belmont Stakes prep since its inception in 1940, and has produced seven winners of the "Test of the Champion" during its 51 runnings (1940-60, 1975-2004). Neil Drysdale's A.P. Indy (1992), John Nerud's Gallant Man (1957) and Sy Veitch's Counterpoint (1951) are among Peter Pan winners who wheeled back successfully one or two weeks later to annex the oldest Triple Crown event.
The Peter Pan annually comes and goes as but a sidebar to the five week crush of Triple Crown hype. Its history, and more specifically its namesake, should not be treated with such cavalier indifference however. Peter Pan, the 1907 Belmont winner for training legend James Rowe, was one of the brilliant productions of transcendent father-son, owner-breeders James and Foxhall Keene and their Castleton Farm.
To this day, the influence of the elder and junior Keene are felt on racing through their remarkable insight into breeding and eyes for quality bloodstock. It is Peter Pan, his progenitors and siblings, that mark the commencement of a transition in American racing from stamina to speed. While American breeding practices are being decried at the beginning of this century for its overzealous desire for early maturation and precocious speed, it was an identical desire by the Keene's 100 years ago that initiated the direction.
Young Foxhall, to this day recognized as America's last "sportsman" and greatest polo player ever, first spied a black yearling bred by famed breeder Major Barak Thomas, at Tattersall's New York sale in 1893. Keene paid $3000 for the uniquely-built colt they called Domino, and the rest as they say, is history. Domino, unbeaten at two and winner in 19 of 25 starts for a record-shattering $193,500, was a wickedly fast son of sire Himyar and dam Mannie Gray, a racemare unremarkable but for her 3x3 inbreeding to 19th century star sire Lexington. Domino's earnings mark stood until it was broken by Man o'War a quarter of a century later.
Domino got but 20 foals in two crops before his tragic death from spinal meningitis in 1897. But as he had on the racetrack, the "Black Whirlwind" managed to leave a lasting impression through his progeny whose influence continues on in the breed uninterrupted. None of his get was more important than Commando, 9/7-2-0 (though notoriously unsound) including the 1901 Belmont, before breaking down in the Lawrence Realization.
Commando himself produced only 27 foals in four years before dying of tetanus from an infected hoof at seven. But his legacy was already in place at the time of his passing through the foaling of four sons of unending gravitas: racing stars Peter Pan (1903), Celt (1905) and Colin (1905), as well as unraced speed sire Ultimus (1906).
In just a 13 month racing career, Colin, Rowe's mercurial and legendarily undefeated bay (15/15, $178,100), won every important juvenile stake at two before an abbreviated sophomore campaign featuring wins in the Withers, Belmont and Tidal. So great was the Castleton star that Rowe requested that upon his own death, a simple epitaph grace his gravestone: "He trained Colin".
Celt, brilliant but notoriously unsound, won the Junior Championship and Brooklyn before going on to lead the sire list in 1921 and broodmare list in 1930. Ultimus, literally too fast for his own good, made up for his lack of a racing record with a shed career that finds his name in the pedigree of hundreds of the game's greatest performers through sons Stimulus and Supremus.
Stimulus, 9 of 14 on the oval including the august Pimlico Futurity, sired Beaugay, Bourtai, Broad Ripple and many more runners that carried on the line. Supremus, a modest success under tack, features prominently in matriarchal discussions as the sire of Hal Price Headley's blue hen dam and multiple champion filly Alcibiades (Blue Grass-Preakness winner Menow).
But among the sons of Commando, it was Peter Pan that embodied all the best of the qualities that make his family such an important and lasting thoroughbred legacy. 10 of 17 ($115,500) on track, Peter Pan won Saratoga's Hopeful under 130 pounds among his four juvenile wins before scores in the 1907 Belmont, Standard Stakes and Brooklyn Derby at 3. He was retired after his sophomore campaign and began his brilliant stud career.
When the senior Keene's stock was dispersed after his death in 1913, Peter Pan was purchased by the immortal Harry Payne Whitney for a sale-topping $38,000 and delivered a series of stakes winners among the 192 that Whitney bred. In the meantime, with racing suspended in NY due to Gov. Charles Evans Hughes' anti-gambling crusade, Keene had sold all of Peter Pan's 1911 homebred yearlings to the one and only Col. E.R. Bradley for his fledgling Idle Hour Stock Farm.
While Bradley sold off the excellent chestnut Pennant from that group to Rowe for Whitney, he kept a black son of Peter Pan by the Ben Brush mare Belgravia. Though only competent as a racehorse in Bradley's colors, the foresight of retaining Black Toney for himself would result in a stream of stars and champions for Idle Hour that was unprecedented in American racing during the first half of the 20th century. In addition, it was Black Toney's stud career in combination with Bradley's importation of La Troienne from France in 1920 that helped establish the lines that would give way to Darby Dan Farm in the century's second half.
The influence of Black Toney can hardly be understated:
BIMELECH (Black Toney-La Troienne): Unbeaten 2 year old Champion, dual Classic winner, sire of Better Self who sired Aspidistra (Blue Hen dam of Dr. Fager and Ta Wee).
BLACK SERVANT (Black Toney-Padula): Blue Grass winner, 2nd Kentucky Derby, sire of Blue Larkspur, 1929 Belmont winner and Horse of the Year. Called by Hervey "the most beautifully gaited horse seen in the last 40 years" and sire of champions and inumerable broodmares including famed Myrtlewood, 4th dam of Mr. Prospector.
BLACK GOLD (Black Toney-Usseit): Winner of the Golden Anniversary Kentucky Derby.
BLACK HELEN (Black Toney-La Troienne): Winner of 15/22 starts including the American and Florida Derby over colts and the Coaching Club American Oaks.
BIG HURRY (Black Toney-La Troienne): Foundation mare of the Phipps Family.
BROKERS TIP (Black Toney-Forteresse): Famed 1933 winner of the "Fighting Finish" Derby
BALLADIER (Black Toney-Blue Warbler): 1934 Champagne Stakes winner, foundation sire of Arthur Hancock Sr.'s Claiborne Farm including Champion Double Jay.
So as we turn our attention to Saturday's 9f, $200,000, Gr. II event, it is especially interesting to note that the race's honoree appears in the pedigree of all eight of the entrants!
1-- ROBADOR (Harty-Valdiva Jr.) 116/12-1: Trainer doesn't leave West on a lark, and bay rallied impressively last out this trip when topping Cal-breds at HOL earning career best fig. Bargain colt 5/1-2-2 this year under Valdivia who tags along. Has logged 20f in the a.m. prepping for this. One of few that has exotic appeal at tolerable tote.
2-- SIR GREELEY (J. Jerkens-Coa) 116/3-1: Nice gelding a different animal for Jimmy since getting off Big A Inner. Crushed lesser for diploma when made available for $25k in April, and followed that up with 1-2 finishes versus elder. Goes turf to dirt with the stretch-out, and may find himself alone on the lead turning for home. Likeable.
3-- MR SWORD (Pederson-Arroyo Jr.) 118/12-1: Paragallo product strong together winter wins while failing to develop before mediocre tries in graded company at Cincy and Lexington. Typical rush job by connections doesn't look appealing against several here moving in more deliberate direction.
4-- CHEKOV (Biancone-Stevens) 116/5-2: $3.3 million Tabor-Smith Pulpit colt put it all together in last when dominant at 8.5f first try on East Coast. Has stabled in worked at Spa since then, and looks well meant today. Can't wait to make late run though as pace scenario looks tepid.
5-- GOLDEN MAN (Dutrow-Prado) 116/4-1: Savvy Dutrow-Goldfarb claim "moved up" immediately when waxing ALW foes last time at Hallandale. Was intended for last week's Preakness by soon-to-sit (60 days) Dutrow, but fell short on earnings. Gelding figures to take plenty of money, but not convinced he can keep up with a few of these.
6-- GORBASH (Oleanik-J. Espinoza) 116/30-1: Grindstone son has either matured in a hurry or didn't care for NY winter weather with sudden improvement on view in last 3 (2/1-2-0). Looks overmatched on paper.
7-- REVERBERATE (Russo-Santos) 116/8-1: Red-hot Sal clicking 3 of 5 since moving over to Elmont, and this Thunder Gulch chestnut has plus style for partially paceless party. One of few here that has shown ability to stay with solid fractions and finish and has nice number attached in otherwise chalky event. Worth including.
8-- ORATORY (Albertrani-Bailey) 116/6-1: Bailey lands on a second Pulpit participant, and this Darley-Albertrani trainee figures to sit a good stalking voyage outside for this one turn 9 panel Pan. First try at this level, but inclined to think bay runs well at square number.
Selections:
1. Oratory
2. Chekov
3. Mr. Greeley
4. Robador
Saturday's Peter Pan has been a traditional Belmont Stakes prep since its inception in 1940, and has produced seven winners of the "Test of the Champion" during its 51 runnings (1940-60, 1975-2004). Neil Drysdale's A.P. Indy (1992), John Nerud's Gallant Man (1957) and Sy Veitch's Counterpoint (1951) are among Peter Pan winners who wheeled back successfully one or two weeks later to annex the oldest Triple Crown event.
The Peter Pan annually comes and goes as but a sidebar to the five week crush of Triple Crown hype. Its history, and more specifically its namesake, should not be treated with such cavalier indifference however. Peter Pan, the 1907 Belmont winner for training legend James Rowe, was one of the brilliant productions of transcendent father-son, owner-breeders James and Foxhall Keene and their Castleton Farm.
To this day, the influence of the elder and junior Keene are felt on racing through their remarkable insight into breeding and eyes for quality bloodstock. It is Peter Pan, his progenitors and siblings, that mark the commencement of a transition in American racing from stamina to speed. While American breeding practices are being decried at the beginning of this century for its overzealous desire for early maturation and precocious speed, it was an identical desire by the Keene's 100 years ago that initiated the direction.
Young Foxhall, to this day recognized as America's last "sportsman" and greatest polo player ever, first spied a black yearling bred by famed breeder Major Barak Thomas, at Tattersall's New York sale in 1893. Keene paid $3000 for the uniquely-built colt they called Domino, and the rest as they say, is history. Domino, unbeaten at two and winner in 19 of 25 starts for a record-shattering $193,500, was a wickedly fast son of sire Himyar and dam Mannie Gray, a racemare unremarkable but for her 3x3 inbreeding to 19th century star sire Lexington. Domino's earnings mark stood until it was broken by Man o'War a quarter of a century later.
Domino got but 20 foals in two crops before his tragic death from spinal meningitis in 1897. But as he had on the racetrack, the "Black Whirlwind" managed to leave a lasting impression through his progeny whose influence continues on in the breed uninterrupted. None of his get was more important than Commando, 9/7-2-0 (though notoriously unsound) including the 1901 Belmont, before breaking down in the Lawrence Realization.
Commando himself produced only 27 foals in four years before dying of tetanus from an infected hoof at seven. But his legacy was already in place at the time of his passing through the foaling of four sons of unending gravitas: racing stars Peter Pan (1903), Celt (1905) and Colin (1905), as well as unraced speed sire Ultimus (1906).
In just a 13 month racing career, Colin, Rowe's mercurial and legendarily undefeated bay (15/15, $178,100), won every important juvenile stake at two before an abbreviated sophomore campaign featuring wins in the Withers, Belmont and Tidal. So great was the Castleton star that Rowe requested that upon his own death, a simple epitaph grace his gravestone: "He trained Colin".
Celt, brilliant but notoriously unsound, won the Junior Championship and Brooklyn before going on to lead the sire list in 1921 and broodmare list in 1930. Ultimus, literally too fast for his own good, made up for his lack of a racing record with a shed career that finds his name in the pedigree of hundreds of the game's greatest performers through sons Stimulus and Supremus.
Stimulus, 9 of 14 on the oval including the august Pimlico Futurity, sired Beaugay, Bourtai, Broad Ripple and many more runners that carried on the line. Supremus, a modest success under tack, features prominently in matriarchal discussions as the sire of Hal Price Headley's blue hen dam and multiple champion filly Alcibiades (Blue Grass-Preakness winner Menow).
But among the sons of Commando, it was Peter Pan that embodied all the best of the qualities that make his family such an important and lasting thoroughbred legacy. 10 of 17 ($115,500) on track, Peter Pan won Saratoga's Hopeful under 130 pounds among his four juvenile wins before scores in the 1907 Belmont, Standard Stakes and Brooklyn Derby at 3. He was retired after his sophomore campaign and began his brilliant stud career.
When the senior Keene's stock was dispersed after his death in 1913, Peter Pan was purchased by the immortal Harry Payne Whitney for a sale-topping $38,000 and delivered a series of stakes winners among the 192 that Whitney bred. In the meantime, with racing suspended in NY due to Gov. Charles Evans Hughes' anti-gambling crusade, Keene had sold all of Peter Pan's 1911 homebred yearlings to the one and only Col. E.R. Bradley for his fledgling Idle Hour Stock Farm.
While Bradley sold off the excellent chestnut Pennant from that group to Rowe for Whitney, he kept a black son of Peter Pan by the Ben Brush mare Belgravia. Though only competent as a racehorse in Bradley's colors, the foresight of retaining Black Toney for himself would result in a stream of stars and champions for Idle Hour that was unprecedented in American racing during the first half of the 20th century. In addition, it was Black Toney's stud career in combination with Bradley's importation of La Troienne from France in 1920 that helped establish the lines that would give way to Darby Dan Farm in the century's second half.
The influence of Black Toney can hardly be understated:
BIMELECH (Black Toney-La Troienne): Unbeaten 2 year old Champion, dual Classic winner, sire of Better Self who sired Aspidistra (Blue Hen dam of Dr. Fager and Ta Wee).
BLACK SERVANT (Black Toney-Padula): Blue Grass winner, 2nd Kentucky Derby, sire of Blue Larkspur, 1929 Belmont winner and Horse of the Year. Called by Hervey "the most beautifully gaited horse seen in the last 40 years" and sire of champions and inumerable broodmares including famed Myrtlewood, 4th dam of Mr. Prospector.
BLACK GOLD (Black Toney-Usseit): Winner of the Golden Anniversary Kentucky Derby.
BLACK HELEN (Black Toney-La Troienne): Winner of 15/22 starts including the American and Florida Derby over colts and the Coaching Club American Oaks.
BIG HURRY (Black Toney-La Troienne): Foundation mare of the Phipps Family.
BROKERS TIP (Black Toney-Forteresse): Famed 1933 winner of the "Fighting Finish" Derby
BALLADIER (Black Toney-Blue Warbler): 1934 Champagne Stakes winner, foundation sire of Arthur Hancock Sr.'s Claiborne Farm including Champion Double Jay.
So as we turn our attention to Saturday's 9f, $200,000, Gr. II event, it is especially interesting to note that the race's honoree appears in the pedigree of all eight of the entrants!
1-- ROBADOR (Harty-Valdiva Jr.) 116/12-1: Trainer doesn't leave West on a lark, and bay rallied impressively last out this trip when topping Cal-breds at HOL earning career best fig. Bargain colt 5/1-2-2 this year under Valdivia who tags along. Has logged 20f in the a.m. prepping for this. One of few that has exotic appeal at tolerable tote.
2-- SIR GREELEY (J. Jerkens-Coa) 116/3-1: Nice gelding a different animal for Jimmy since getting off Big A Inner. Crushed lesser for diploma when made available for $25k in April, and followed that up with 1-2 finishes versus elder. Goes turf to dirt with the stretch-out, and may find himself alone on the lead turning for home. Likeable.
3-- MR SWORD (Pederson-Arroyo Jr.) 118/12-1: Paragallo product strong together winter wins while failing to develop before mediocre tries in graded company at Cincy and Lexington. Typical rush job by connections doesn't look appealing against several here moving in more deliberate direction.
4-- CHEKOV (Biancone-Stevens) 116/5-2: $3.3 million Tabor-Smith Pulpit colt put it all together in last when dominant at 8.5f first try on East Coast. Has stabled in worked at Spa since then, and looks well meant today. Can't wait to make late run though as pace scenario looks tepid.
5-- GOLDEN MAN (Dutrow-Prado) 116/4-1: Savvy Dutrow-Goldfarb claim "moved up" immediately when waxing ALW foes last time at Hallandale. Was intended for last week's Preakness by soon-to-sit (60 days) Dutrow, but fell short on earnings. Gelding figures to take plenty of money, but not convinced he can keep up with a few of these.
6-- GORBASH (Oleanik-J. Espinoza) 116/30-1: Grindstone son has either matured in a hurry or didn't care for NY winter weather with sudden improvement on view in last 3 (2/1-2-0). Looks overmatched on paper.
7-- REVERBERATE (Russo-Santos) 116/8-1: Red-hot Sal clicking 3 of 5 since moving over to Elmont, and this Thunder Gulch chestnut has plus style for partially paceless party. One of few here that has shown ability to stay with solid fractions and finish and has nice number attached in otherwise chalky event. Worth including.
8-- ORATORY (Albertrani-Bailey) 116/6-1: Bailey lands on a second Pulpit participant, and this Darley-Albertrani trainee figures to sit a good stalking voyage outside for this one turn 9 panel Pan. First try at this level, but inclined to think bay runs well at square number.
Selections:
1. Oratory
2. Chekov
3. Mr. Greeley
4. Robador