Here is the grave of a very important stud to thoroughbreds and to my sweet Violet. Nasrullah was born in 1940 and passed at Claiborne Farms in 1959. His race record was 10 : 5-1-1 and he sired 105 stakeswinners out of 425 foals for a total percentage of 25%! He was a leading sire in England in 1951 and then a led the sire list in the United States 5 times (1955, 1956, 1959, 1960, and 1962).But he was a nasty old goofball as a race horse, and people still speculate about whether that was because of his wicked temper or his strange British training . Phil Bull, a famed handicapper who wrote about Nasrullah in the Best Horses of 1943 said, "Last year, I regarded Nasrullah as head and shoulders above the other colts of his age. I gave him a long and rather enthusiastic write up, and I fear that, in spite of his having failed in each of his classic ventures, in spite of his bad temper, his mulish antics, in spite of his exasperating unwillingness to do the job, etc., etc., I fear that I am going to give him another write up. I know he doesn't deserve it, but I can't help it." And then he praised him some more, though he said that if Nasrullah's daddy, Nearco, found out how bad his kid was, it would really impact his fertility!
His habit was to fight with his jockey in the saddling area, fight afterwards, run swiftly, but then pull up and fling his head when he would pull into the lead. Some thought that it was because he had been trained by the British method of letting him follow a lead horse for his workouts, so he would be relaxed and feel like he was in a herd -- So, he didn't like to be out front! Anyway, he was a total nasty pistol about fighting his jockeys and quitting a race once he took the lead, as you can see in his final record.
There's a funny story about an exchange between a gentleman and Nasrullah's trainer, Frank Butters, at the Newmarket Heath. It was during World War II, and Nasrullah's jockey had joined the Army. The gentleman said to Butters, "Have you heard that Charley Smirke has been decorated with the Victoria Cross." "Really?" said the dignified Butters. "What was he decorated for?" "Charley stopped a German tank." "I am not surprised," observed Butters. "When he was riding for me, he could stop anything!"
Nasrullah was a big old tank of a horse, 16 1 1/2 hands and strong and sound. He came from the "best sire line in England and the fastest female line." And he produced some amazing babies over his lifetime, including Bold Ruler, Noor, Nashua, Jaipur, Red God, and On-and-On. I am sure you recognize some of those names from Violet's family tree!
Anyway, A. B. Hancock purchased him for his syndicate and brought him to Claiborne in 1951. Some of the best horses ever were by crossings of Nasrullah's sons and Princequillo's daughters! But that crossing ended up with a sort of nasty limerick about Nasrullah: "Match Nasrullah through a son, and Nasrullah though a daughter, To make it really blister, match Nasrullah through his sister."
Ummm, now that I think on it, Violet has both Nasrullah and Nasrullah's half-sister, Sun Princess who produced Royal Charger, a very successful sire by Nearco and also a member of Violet's family tree! So...I guess Violet is part of the history of this dirty little limerick!! Yay!
So, you can bet that on that August morning, I was proud to be standing before this gravestone!
I used the following sources for this blog entry: Abram S. Hewitt's (2006) Sire Lines and Horse Racing's Top 100 Moments (2006), both by Eclipse Press in Lexington.