Pferdina's New Writeups

Macbeth II (person)

2008-05-05T21:25:43Z

Geldings almost never win the Kentucky Derby, although whether this is because there are so few of them trying (something for sports statisticians to work on) or because the lack of testicles is an even bigger handicap than it seems, I am not sure. Vagrant in 1876, Apollo in 1882, Old Rosebud in 1914, Exterminator in 1918, Paul Jones in 1920, Clyde Van Dusen in 1929, and Funny Cide in 2003 are the only other geldings to win the Run for the Roses.

Macbeth II was a bay gelding bred by Rufus Lisle and born in Kentucky in 1885. The horse was owned by Chicago Stable and trained by John Campbell.¹

In May of his third year, Macbeth II was one of seven horses competing in the Kentucky Derby. He carried 115 pounds, including his jockey George Covington, who only made this one appearance in the now-famous race. At post time, the odds were 6-1 on the gelding.^1,2

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Montrose (person)

2004-07-09T15:43:31Z

Montrose was the name of a bay colt bred in Kentucky by Milton Young, and born in 1884. The horse was owned by the Labold brothers and trained for the racetrack by John McGinty, who had also trained Leonatus.¹

In the spring of his third year, Montrose was one of seven horses entered in the thirteenth running of the Kentucky Derby. He carried 118 pounds, including African-American jockey Isaac Lewis.

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         |                  |               | Australian by West Australian 
         |                  | Waverly       |                         
         |                  |               | Cicily Jopson    
         | Duke of Montrose |               |                            
         |                  |               | Bonnie Scotland by Iago      
         |                  | Kelpie        |                 
         |                  |               | Mare by

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Northern Dancer (person)

2004-01-18T20:37:49Z

Before Wayne Gretzky learned to skate, the most famous Canadian athlete in the world was a small bay Thoroughbred by the name of Northern Dancer. Born May 27, 1961, at Mr. Edward Plunket Taylor's National Stud near Oshawa, Ontario, Northern Dancer started life by way of an accident.¹ His dam, Natalma (a daughter of The Grey Ghost, Native Dancer), broke a bone in her knee while training for the 1960 Kentucky Oaks and was sent to the breeding shed rather late in the season. Northern Dancer's sire, Canadian champion Nearctic, had just retired to stud and had yet to prove himself as a stallion.²

The small bay colt with three white stockings and a blaze was unremarkable as a yearling. When Taylor offered him for $25,000 at his annual private yearling sale, there were no interested buyers. So, Northern Dancer was shipped to Fort Erie to begin training under Tom Fleming. On August 2, 1963, he won his first race at Fort Erie (the 5 1/2…

Ben Ali (person)

2003-06-06T15:44:06Z

In the final quarter of the nineteenth century, wealth and opulence really caught on in America. Barons of railroading, shipbuilding, banking, and other industries became philanthropists, perhaps to offset their sometimes ruthless business reputations. Thoroughbred horse racing, always a rich man's sport, continued to attract moguls with disposable cash, inviting them to spend their leisure publicly and lavishly. At the track, old money mingled with new money, lubricated by the meritocracy of their equine runners.

James Ben Ali Haggin, son of Christian Turk parents, became a lawyer in the East and moved to California. In those new lands, Haggin got involved in real estate and mining, eventually holding one of the largest fortunes in the United States. He was known as "the copper, gold, and silver king" because of his extensive operations in the Californian and Peruvian ranges. Like other millionaires, he…

Staggerford (thing)

2003-06-03T14:03:44Z

Published in 1977, Jon Hassler's first novel is about the complexity of life, good and evil mingling together, that takes place in a small northern Minnesota town along the banks of the fictional Badbattle River. The book explores nine days in the life of Miles Pruitt, high school English teacher, who grew up in Staggerford and now boards at the home of the town's pillar of morality, Miss Agatha McGee. Agatha has taught sixth grade at St. Isadore's Catholic school for over forty years and she believes that a new Dark Age is beginning, heralded by every reform or experiment that takes place in the Roman Catholic Church or in the field of education. Miles, Agatha, and a handful of other characters are ordinary people, living in an ordinary town not unlike another fictional Minnesota town. Miles has work-related disagreements with the detail-minded principal of the high school, Wayne Workman; he is infatuated with the principal's wife, Anna Thea (he calls…

Joe Cotton (person)

2003-05-29T15:54:33Z

A chestnut colt was born in Kentucky during the spring of 1882. The well-known horseman A. J. Alexander had arranged King Alfonso's romantic meeting with the imported mare Inverness eleven months earlier. King Alfonso was already heralded as the sire of 1880 Kentucky Derby winner Fonso and his rival Grenada. This latest colt was given the name Joe Cotton, after a bookie, and purchased for the racing stable of J. T. Williams.¹

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         |                  |                 | King Tom by Harkaway 
         |                  | Phaeton         |                         
         |                  |                 | Merry Sunshine by Storm      
         | King Alfonso     |                 |                            
         |                  |                 | Vandal by Glencoe       
         |                  | Capitola        |

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