Wining Effort and My Girls!

Violet's dam was a 1997 racehorse named Wining Effort who had a dosage index of 5 and career earnings of $10,672! Her own parents are Two's A Plenty and Right Effort by Rajab. Her dad earned $282,183 and Rajab earned $75,600, and his own dad, Jaipur earned over $618,000! So, Violet is well-connected to racehorses on her mama's side.

In fact, if you look at her pedigree, you'd be super impressed. Wining Effort has Dark Star, the only horse to beat the 1953 Kentucky Derby winner, Native Dancer. And she has One Count, the Belmont Stakes winning kid and grandkid of Count Fleet and Reigh Count. And she has War Admiral, and the double whammy Count Fleet, War Admiral kid cross to create Three Fingers!. And she's got a dash of Jaipur, the horse who beat Ridan in one of the most amazing match races ever. And Wining Effort has a splash of Stymie, lucky girl!

So, my sweet, dancing, flirty, girly, smart Violet is rich in dam history!

Kentucky 2007: Nasrullah's Grave

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.

Moccasin and My Girls!

My girls are related to Moccasin, a champion racing filly and broodmare! Moccasin was born in 1963, just like me, and she looks so much like Violet. She was a chestnut with two white hind socks and a white fore sock on the left side. Here is a picture of her grandchild K One King that she produced through her son Apalachee out of Round Table. Moccasin is considered a Blue Hen, having produced 9 foals, with 8 runners, 7 winners, and 7 stakeswinners! She is in many good blood lines, and is even the third dam of Hail Atlantis. Her notable kids include Apalachee (of course) and Indian, Nantequo, Brahms, Belted Earl, Scuff, and Flippers. Her own race record was so good at age 2 that she was voted co-Champion U.S. Horse of the Year -- the only time a 2 year-old filly took such an honor. She was also voted U.S. Champion 2 year-old filly. She was bred by and raced for Claiborne, and ran her races so convincingly that they looked like easy victories by a wide margin. She had 8 undefeated races in a row. Her final record was 21: 11-2-4 for a total earnings of $388,075. She was so good that the Moccasin Stakes in Hollywood Park were named after her. Her sire was Nantallah out of Nasrullah and her dam was Rough Shod. Here's something interesting -- her full-sibling is Ridan, the horse that Violet's relation, Jaipur, defeated in the famous match race the Travers Stakes. This girl is buried at Marchmont Farms in Paris, Kentucky. She is related to my girls in many ways, including the following: Nasrullah, Blandford, Isinglass, Stimulus, Sir Gallahad, Commando, Orme, Ormonde, Love Wisely, and St. Simon. You can read more about this amazing competitive filly and excellent mother at the following links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moccasin_(horse)
or
http://www.tbheritage.com/TurfHallmarks/Graves/cem/GraveMattersMarchmont.html
or about Moccasin's sire Nantallah and his famous pedigree:
http://www.reines-de-course.com/nantallah.htm
or about Moccasin's dam Rough Shod and her famous pedigree:
http://www.equineinfo.com/roughshod.htm
or about Moccasin's boyfriend, Round Table:
http://www.spiletta.com/UTHOF/roundtable.html
or about Moccasin's grandchild, K One King:
http://www.reines-de-course.com/k_one_king.htm
or an example of a mixed-horse related to Moccasin:
http://www.ckappaloosas.com/mares.html

Nicanor -- Barbaro's Baby Brother

Next week is the Kentucky Derby and another champion will run into the history books. This photo is taken from a really neat link by a gentleman named John who writes his thoughts about various issues facing horses around the world. I encourage you to go to his link which I post below. He is really an engaging thinker and has grown with a true appreciation for the importance of horses. Anyway, he was writing about "catching lightning in a bottle" and whether one could recapture the magic of any particular horse. He was mentioning how everyone has high hopes for Nicanor here, Barbaro's full-brother out of Dynaformer and La Ville Rouge. He talked about a few famous full-siblings in history, mentioning Ridan and Moccasin. You'll remember that Ridan was a famous horse who was beat in a match race in the Travers Stakes by Violet's relative Jaipur. I'll be writing about Moccasin, his champion sister, in a few weeks. He then mentioned Secretariat and his two full-sibling sisters. Secretariat's one sister, Syrian Sea won 2 graded stakes as a 2-year-old and became a great broodmare. Of his other sister, The Bride, his owner Penny Chenery said, "She couldn't beat a fat man running downhill." I got a big kick out of that. Anyway, visit John's site. He has an unusual point of view, a taste for travel, a respect for horses of all types and stripes, and a real perspective on social justice with animals. Namaste!!

http://www.horsesdiary.com

Violet's Jaipur!!! The most exciting horse race in history!

Jaipur was born in 1959 and won the Belmont Stakes in 1962. He received the Eclipse Award for Outstanding 3 year-old Male Horse. He started 19 times, won 10 and placed 6. His lifetime earnings were $618,926. He not only won the Belmont, but also the Withers, and Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Track. This latter race was voted by Blood Horse as one of the top moments in racing history. They wrote about it in their 2006 book Horse Racing's Top 100 Moments. Jaipur won by a fraction of a nose over Ridan in track record time! His jockey was the world famous Willie Shoemaker. He is the son of Nasrullah out of Rare Perfume, Damsire of Eight-Thirty. He's also the great-great-grandpa on the dam side of Violet's dam! Violet's family is so accomplished -- what a lucky beautiful fast girl. I'll write about her Dosage Index in an upcoming Blog! Stay tuned! You can read more about Jaipur at the following link:

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

Violet's Eight Thirty

Violet is related to Eight Thirty, a sire who was voted by Blood Horse magazine as the #78 Top Race Horse of the 20th Century. He has an AQHA listing as well. During his track life, he earned $155,475 and raced 27 times, for 16 wins, 3 seconds, and 5 thirds. In one month alone, he won 4 important stakes races. When he was 3, he won 7 of 10 starts, and in his 4th and 5th year, he won 6 of 10. He was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 1994. During his stud life, he sired 44 stakes winners from 299 foals, for a 15% stakes percentage. His nickname was "The Perfect Gentleman." Awwww. That's so sweet. Now I can see why Violet is the nicest biggest kitten of a girl. In Violet's family, Eight Thirty was bred to Fragrance to produce Rare Perfume. Rare Perfume was bred to Nasrullah to produce Jaipur. His owner and breeder, George D. Widener, Jr. is one of only four people ever named an Exemplar of Racing, and he served as President of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame from 1960-1968. Violet's beautiful gentleman lived to the distinguished age of 29 and his horse-loving owner lived to 82. You can read more about this handsome fellow at the following links:

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

or

http://www.racingmuseum.org/hall/horse.asp?ID=63

or

http://www.thoroughbredreview.com/unheralded.htm