Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Coaltown -- What a good boy!

I don't have a photo that I can use for this gentleman, though I encourage you to check out the Thoroughbred Gallery and look for Barbara Livingston's copyrighted photos. Coaltown was a half-brother to Citation and came second to his brother in the 1948 Kentucky Derby. But he was talented, fast, wonderful. He ended up being inducted into the National Museum Racing Hall of Fame in 1983 and was voted the #47 of the Top 100 racehorses of the 20th century. He raced from ages 3-6, but didn't race as a 2 year-0ld because he'd suffered a life-threatening throat hemmoraghe and was nursed by his trainer, Calumet Farm's Jimmy Jones. His final record was 39: 23(16), 6(6), 3(3), earning $415,678.

His parents were Bull Lea and Easy Lass by Blenheim. He ultimately won the Champion Sprinter for 1948 and Champion Handicap Horse in 1949 and shared Eclipse Horse of the Year with Capot in that same year.

He set track records, won great races, raced effectively. And he was just a small little guy. His two trainers, the famous father-son combo of Ben and Jimmy Jones, said "He's the fastest horse I've ever handled" and "He had class right from the start."

He sired some kids in the United States before being sold to France. And he passed when he was 20 years old. Much of the information for this entry comes from the Bloodhorse Thoroughbred Champions Top 100 Racehorses of the 20th Century.

You can read more about him at the following links. Also, you can read the obituary of his trainer, Jimmy Jones, who passed away on September 2, 2001, at the age of 94. It's a really interesting obituary because he trained 8 Kentucky Derby winners, for goodness sakes, including Triple Crown winners Citation and Whirlaway, among others. He had strong opinions about everything, including his opinion that "A Bull Lea foal is worth $10,000 the minute it hits the ground."

My girls have Bull Lea in their family tree!
http://www.racingmuseum.org/hall/horse.asp?ID=48
or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coaltown
or
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE4D71F30F930A3575AC0A9679C8B63