Breaking News! Heading Down the Homestretch

The longest-running racetrack in California, Bay Meadows, will close on May 11th after its last 70 day meet. It was founded in1934, so has had a 74 year run! It's an historically significant track for many, many reasons. It's innovative founder, William P. Kyne, introduced the ideas of pari-mutuel betting and the Daily Double, and implemented the technologies of the all-enclosed starter gate, the totalizer board, and the photo-finish camera, all Bay Meadows firsts!

Famous horses ran here, including Majestic Prince and Native Diver who broke their maidens at Bay Meadows. Determine and Charismatic used Bay Meadows as preps for theier Kentucky Derby wins. And other regular famous horses included Seabiscuit, Citation, Round Table, John Henry, Noor, Coal Town, Cigar, Lost in the Fog, and Secretariat's best girl, Lady's Secret! Famous jockeys included Bill Shoemaker, Laffit Pincay, Jr. and, of course, Russell Baze who just won his 10,000th race there!

A sad thing about it's history is that the groundwater contains poisonous environmental hazards, including petrochemical hydrocarbons, benzene, toluene, and pesticides.

I hope Californians enjoy their last meet at this famous track. And I hope they open another in the area which they have discussed and planned.

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.

Two Lea and My Girls!

Here's a picture of Two Lea's victory cooler that she won in the 1952 Ramona Handicap. Two Lea was a Calumet filly who ultimately earned the #77 spot on the list of the top race horses of the 20th century. During her career, she raced hard with short stretches between races, and she competed while struggling with ringbone and soreness. She was sometimes raced 3X in a single month, like the time she raced for a third time in one month against Kentucky Derby winner Ponder and was beat by him only at the end. This match was in the Santa Maturity. Despite her ringbone, she earned a career record of 26: 15, 6, 3. In her third year, she shared championship honors with Wistful and later in her career earned Champion older mare as well as was inducted into the National Museum and Racing Hall of Fame in 1982. She once raced in the Santa Anita Handicap with Citation and Ponder, but all three were beaten by Noor. Later in her career, she was on extended break due to ringbone and when she returned to the track, she showed visible scarring and knots from her firing procedures. In her final season, she raced 11 times and won 6, with 5 of those wins occurring in stakes races. In fact, she won 2 of her last 3 starts. And in one very splashy race, Calumet Farms took 1-2-3 in the Vanity Handicap with Two Lea, Wistful and Jennie Lee! When she retired, she proved to be a truly amazing broodmare as well. She produced Tom Fool, who won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and came in 2nd in the Belmont. She also produced Hall of Fame horse, Tim Tam, and through a cross with Nasrullah, produced stakes winners Pied d'Or and On-and-On. She died in 1973 at the wise age of 27! My girls are closely related to Two Lea.. Her father is Bull Lea and she also has Sweep, Chicle, Friar Rock, Spearmint, and Ballot as some of their shared relatives! You can read more about this great champion and fighting mare at the following links:
http://www.racingmuseum.org/hall/horse.asp?ID=157
or
http://www.racehorseherbal.com/Memorabilia/Cooler/cooler.html