Here is the grave of Princequillo, also an important sire in Violet's family tree and a grandpa of Secretariat! You'll recall from my earlier blog that Princequillo had quite an interesting career. He really had poor breeding with a pedigree "crammed with plodders" and his first three dams "sired by proven failures." So, there is really no explanation at all for why he was such an important stud who sired 479 foals and produced a 13.4% stakeswinner rate. He led the sire list in 1957 and 1958 and has been a leading broodmare sire 8 times since 1966. One of his most important fillies was the lovely Somethingroyal. And one of his most famous colts was Round Table, the Horse of the Year in 1958 and 3X Turf Champion.Princequillo's dad was Prince Rose the Triple Crown winner in Belgium who was nationalized he was beloved so, and so he would never be allowed to leave that country. But in World War II, they were intent on protecting him, so they sent him to France where he was killed by artillery fire. By then Princequillo had been bred by an American in Paris who worked for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and had chosen the lovely Cosquilla as the dam, and our little hero was a gangly underfed weanling ensconced in New Orleans.
He had a checkered, spotty race career and ended his career with most thinking that he was well-below the best. At one point, he was claimed in a stakes race for $2,500. He ran in New Orleans which I think is cool, as well as other places. There were a few conflicts in his life about who actually owned him, and there were fights between his trainer (who was mad at the owner for never paying his training bill) and the owner (who was mad at the trainer for not showing up for work at the stables on Sundays). Despite this, Bull Hancock told his dad when he saw Princequillo win the Saratoga Cup at 3 that "This is one horse we've got to have."
And that was that -- the poorly bred, spotty record, better at longer distances, stamina horse -- made it to Claiborne Farms where he and Nasrullah formed the heart and foundation of the top of the thoroughbred lines in the United States. You go, sweet Princequillo!
Again, information for this entry are from Abram S. Hewitt's Sire Lines and Horse Racing's Top 100 Moments both from the 2006 publishing year of Eclipse Press.