Stymie the High-Headed Horse

Here's another photo, courtesy of Rancho San Antonio, of the beautiful, handsome, crowd-pleasing, hard-working, dutiful Stymie. He was born April 14, 1941 at King Ranch in Texas. His parents were Equestrian and Stop Watch by On Watch. Between the ages of 2-8, he ran and won races from anywhere of 1 to 2 1/2 miles! He was the Eclipse Champion Handicap Horse in 1945. He ended up racing 131 times for a final record of 35(25), 33(19), 28(19). He earned $918,485 and remained the highest earner until the first milionaire, Citation.

His first owner, Max Hirsch, put him in a $1,500 claiming race very early in his career and he was claimed by his trainer and then lifetime owner, Hirsch Jacobs, who transferred his ownership to his good wife, Ethel. Ethel was Stymie's mom for the rest of his days until he passed in 1962.

From 1945-1947, he won 24 races and finished in the top 3 in 50 of his 58 starts! He ran 28 times as a 2 year-old and 29 times as a 3 year-old. He got a small breather, a chance to rest, because of a racing ban during World War II. And when they finally lifted the ban after his rest, he started to win like crazy!

During his career, he set 3 track records, and twice each he won the Metropolitan, Saratoga Cup, Gallant Fox, Grey Lag, Aqueduct, and Sussex Handicaps. He earned #41 on the Top 100 thoroughbreds of the 20th century and was inducted into the National Museum and Racing Hall of Fame in 1975!

As a stud, he was pretty good, producing 6% stakeswinners! Among his progeny, he can count my little Violet, such a good solid sweet girl. I hope she has his stamina!

Violet's Rugged Well-Used Stymie!

I am very proud to say that Violet is related to Stymie through her Classicist line. Stymie was born in 1941 and had a final track record of 131-35-33-28. Can you believe that he raced 131 times in his career? He began as a claiming race runner and was doing poorly, until a trainer saw his potential and saw that he was frightened of people and needed consistent handling. In two years, he had been to the post 57 times! Once they sorted out his troubles and found his distance, he just burned up the tracks. He was Champion Handicap Horse of 1945 and was voted the #41 Top Race Horse of the 20th Century by Blood Horse magazine. He was inducted into the National Museum and Racing Hall of Fame in 1975, and was so famous, some say as famous with average Americans as Seabiscuit, that he had the Stymie Handicap named after him. He was beloved for his very exciting style of racing. He was a hero to racing fans because of his heart-stopping come-from-behind finishes, sometimes by as many as 20 lengths. In his career, he beat Gallorette and Assault at The Metropolitan Handicap (a race he won twice). And he beat Assault, Natchez, and Phalanx in the International Gold Cup. Remember that Assault was a Triple Crown Winner and Gallorette the highest money-earning filly of her time. So, by the time his long, long, long career was over, Stymie had gone from losing claiming races to a leading money winner in the world. He won 25 stakes races while competing against some of the best horses of all time!! His career was ended by a sesamoid bone fracture. His owner took the winnings he earned from Stymie and built Stymie Manor in Maryland. And when Stymie passed, he was buried at Hagyard Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. Dr. Charles Hagyard of the world famous Hagyard-Davidson-McGee Veterinary owns this place. Stymie has an amazing pedigree all to himself. His dad and mom are Equestrian and Stopwatch. He has Man 'O War on the dam side of both his dam and sire. He also has Commando's kids, Peter Pan and Colin (#15 of Top 100 race horses 20th century) in his recent family tree, and lots and lots of Broomstick, Ben Brush, and Hindoo. Remember that Commando won the Belmont Stakes in 1901 and then his two boys won in 1907 and 1908. And Ben Brush and Hindoo are Kentucky Derby winners, and Man 'O War himself won the Preakness and Belmont Stakes and probably would have won the Derby, if his owner, Samuel Riddle had entered him! Anyway, Stymie has Colin twice on both sides of the dam and sire of his mom. Colin is the sire of the sire of his mom. And his daughter is bred to Man 'O War to produce the dam of his mom. What I think is really lovely is that Stymie's daughter, Classic Music, was bred to Princequillo to produce Classicist. That's lovely because that means that two big-hearted lines were crossed to produce a filly. What's more, Classicist was bred to Jaipur, and so you have three big-heart lines meeting -- Nasrullah, Princequillo, and Classic Music!! You can read more about this tough, hard-running guy at the following cites:

http://www.spiletta.com/UTHOF/stymie.html

or

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stymie_(horse)

or

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stymie

or

http://www.tbheritage.com/TurfHallmarks/Graves/cem/GraveMattersHagyard.html

Hailee and Violet's Equipoise!!!

Hailee and Violet are related to one of the most famous handicap horses of all time! Equipoise was born in 1928, and his record was 59-29-10-4. He earned $338,610 in his lifetime and was inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 1957. He was also voted the #21 of the Top 100 20th century race horses by Blood Horse magazine. Among his many stakes wins, he won the Pimlico and Whitney. He was called the Chocolate Soldier by his fans. He was the U.S. Champion 2 year-old in 1930, and U.S. Champion Older Horse in 1932, 1933, 1934. He was Horse of the Year in 1932 and 1933, a rare feat to be voted twice. He died young, but was voted Leading Sire in North America in 1942. In the Pimlico, he was left at the gate, but then raced so fast that he raced right out of 2 of his shoes. His jockey, Sonny Workman was asked whether that Pimlico was his greatest race. He replied, "My greatest race? Hell, it may have been the greatest race anybody ever saw." He carried heavy weight. In fact, he gave 26 lbs to the runner-up, but still won the Metropolitan. He also set a world record at Arlington Park. He appears at least twice in Hailee's pedigree through her Top Deck line. Equipoise was bred to Frilette, Man 'O War's daughter from a cross to Frillery, Broomstick's daughter. Broomstick is the sire of Equipoise's mom, Swinging, as well as the sire of the mom of Equipoise's Frilette -- a double Broomstick cross on the dam side of the grandparent line. Equipoise produced Equestrian, the AQHA Hall of Fame sire and sire of Top Deck. So, this royal pedigree is part of Hailee's Easy Jet line. For Hailee, Equipoise appears on both the sire and dam side of her daddy. For the sire of her daddy, Speckled E.T., it goes Jagajet, Easy Jet, Jet Deck, Moon Deck, Top Deck, Equestrian, and Equipoise! For Violet, he appears at least once in her Classicist line where he is helping to make another great Handicap horse, Stymie. You can read more about Equipoise at the following links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equipoise_(horse)

or

http://www.racingmuseum.org/hall/horse.asp?ID=66

or

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,745970,00.html