Famous Horses

Figure

admin April 8, 2025

Figure, otherwise known as the ‘Justin Morgan Horse’, after his most famous owner, was the foundation sire of one of the earliest American breeds, the Morgan Horse. The details of his lineage have been hotly debated down the years, but he was almost certainly foaled in southern New England in 1789 and was sired by True Briton, s Throughbred, out of a dam by Diamond, known as ‘The Wildmair Mare’. John Wallace, for example, who published the first volume of his ‘Trotting Register’ in 1871, claimed that Figure was not, in fact, sired by True Briton, and effectively accused his owner of fraud by misrepresenation.

Vermont schoolteacher Justin Morgan reputedly received Figure as part payment of a debt in 1791. Morgan advertised Figure for stud duties at various locations in the Connecticut River Valley between 1792 and 1795, but thereafter the horse passed from owner to owner, stood in many places and sired an unrecorded number of foals. In 1891, Figure was sold to his final owner, Levi Bean, in Chelsea, Vermont, and died two years later of a flank injury, caused by a kick from another horse, aged 32. A fictionalised version of his story appeared in the 1945 children’s novel ‘Just Morgan Had a Horse’ by Marguerite Henry and was adapted as a film by Disney Studios in 1972.

A compact, muscular horse, who stood approximately 14 hands high, Figure was the progenitor of a breed that is, nowadays, revered for its beauty, athleticism and calm, intelligent demeanour. Morgans are suitable for various equestrian disciplines and their excellent disposition makes them popular pleasure mounts for experienced and novice riders. Indeed, the official breed registry, the American Morgan Horse Association (AMHA), originally founded in 1909 as the Morgan Horse Club, has the slogan “The Horse That Chooses You.” According to the AMHA, approximately 90,000 living Morgans are officially registered with the Association.

Eclipse

admin April 7, 2025

Born during, and named after, an annular eclipse on April1, 1764 – dubbed ‘The Great Eclipse’ by the scribes of the day – Eclipse did start racing until he was fully mature, as a five-year-old, but won all of his 18 races between May 3, 1769 and October 4, 1770. Indeed, such was his dominance during those two seasons that he started at odd-against just once and walked-over on eight occasions, having frightened the opposition away. His eventual retirement to stud, in 1771, was due, in large part, to the lack of meaningful competition.

On May 3, 1769, prior to the second heat of the Noblemen and Gentleman’s Plate on Epsom Downs, Connacht-born gambler Dennis O’Kelly supposedly asked for odds against “Eclipse first, the rest nowhere”. In other words, O’Kelly was suggesting that Eclipse, who had won the first heat easily, would pass the winning post before any of his rivals passed the ‘distance’ post, 240 yards from the finish, such that they would be deemed to have finished ‘nowhere’. Eclipse did just that, landing odds of 6/4 and even money for the intepid Irishman, who later used his winnings to buy the horse.

Following his retirement from racing, Eclipse stood at Clay Hill Stud, Epsom and later at Cannpns Stud, Edgware, where he would become the foremost sire of modern Thoroughbreds, with his name appearing somewhere in the pedigree of approximate 95% of the breed. Eclipse died following an attack of colic on February 27, 1789, aged 24. Nowadays, his almost complete skeleton is on display at the Royal Veterinary College in Hertfordshire. On the racecourse, he is commemorated by the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes, which is run annually at Sandown Park in July. Established in 1886, the Eclispe Stakes was, at that stage, the most valuable race ever run in Britain.

Comanche

admin April 7, 2025

Comanche was a United States Cavalry horse, reputedly so-named by Captain Myles Keogh, whose personal mount he was, after the horse screamed “like a Comanche” when struck by an arrow during an altercation with the Native American tribe of the same name in 1868. A mixed-breed horse of uncertain ancestry, Comanche was greyish-brown in colour and stood a modest 15 hands high. Although by no means an impressive physical specimen, Comanche nonetheless found fame as, to all intents and purposes, the sole survivor of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, in Missouri Territory, on June 25, 1876.

Despite a final, desperate defence, which became known as ‘Custer’s Last Stand’, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and all the men in his immediate command – five companies of the Seventh Cavalry, numbering approximately 210 in total – were killed. When relief arrived the following day, the only living being in the vicinity of the engagement was Comanche, albeit grieviously injured by opposition gunfire.

Comanche was transported to Fort Abraham Lincoln,near Bismarck, North Dakota, where he was slowly nursed back to health, before being retired from active duty in April 1878. Indeed, at that point, Colonel Samuel Sturgis issued a ceremonial order guaranteeing his comfort and well-being during his retirement. In fact, Comanche was not the only horse that survived the Battle of the Little Bighorn, but it was he who became the living embodiment of the spirit of the Seventh Cavalry, and the United States Army in general, much beloved by soldiers.

Comanche died on November 7, 1891, probably aged 29, and was given a dignified farewell, including military honours. Rather than being buried, though, his remains were preserved for posterity and his taxidermy mount, which was first displayed at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois in 1893, stands in the Kansas University Natural History Museum.

Citation

admin April 3, 2025

Foaled on April 11, 1945, during the waning days of World War II, Citation was bred and owned by Calumet Farm, under the auspices of Warren Wright Sr., and trained by Horace ‘Jimmy’ Jones. Unfashionably bred, he nevertheless won 32 of his 45 races, including a then-record 16 consecutive stakes races, and became the first horse to win $1 million in prize money. Indeed, Citation finished outside the first three just once, on his penultimate start, as a six-year-old, in the Premiere Handicap at Hollywood Park Racetrack in Inglewood, California in 1951.

Citation will always be best remembered for his three-year-old campaign, in 1948, when he won 19 of his 20 races, including the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes, to become the eighth winner of the American Triple Crown and the last until Secretariat 25 years later. Indeed, ahead of the Kentucky Derby, Jones deferred to his father, Ben, as the official trainer of Citation, in an effort to allow him to equal the previous record set by Herbert ‘Dick’ Thompson.

In any event, Citation won the Kentucky Derby by 3½ lengths, the Preakness Stakes by 5½ lengths and the Belmont Stakes by 8 lengths. Jockey Eddie Arcaro, who rode hime to all three victories, later said of him, “Citation was the best ever. He was so fast he scared me.” Jimmy Jones went further still, saying, “My horse could beat anything with hair on it.”

Citation ended his career on a winning note, with victory in the Hollywood Gold Cup, again at Hollywood Park, on July 14, 1951, taking his career earnings past the $1 million mark. He subsequently stood at stud at Calumet Farm, where his progeny included the 1956 Preakness Stakes winner Fabius, until his death on August 8, 1970, aged 25.

Black Caviar

admin April 3, 2025

A great-granddaughter of Nijinksy, Black Caviar was a prolific Australian mare, who was retired from racing unbeaten, after 25 starts over five seasons, on April 17, 2023. Indeed, her career tally included 15 Group 1 victories, one more than the previous record holder, Kingstown Town, who won the W.S. Cox Plate three years running in 1980, 1981 and 1982. She was awarded a Timeform Annual Rating of 136, making her the highest-rated Australian horse in the history of that distinguished organisation.

Owned by lifelong friends Colin and Jannene Madden, Gary and Kerryn Wilkie and Neil Werrett and trained by Peter Moody, in Melbourne, Victoria, Black Caviar recorded her first Group 1 success in the Patinack Farm Classic at Flemington – when ridden for the one and only time by Ben Melham – on November 6, 2010. Reunited with her regular partner, Luke Nolen, she followed up with an impressive, 3¼-length victory in the Lightning Stakes, also at Flemington, the following February and would go on to win that race twice more, in 2012 and 2013.

The closest Black Caviar came to defeat was in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot, in her one and only race outside Australia, on June 23, 2012. Sent off at prohibitive odds of 1/6, in a field of 14, Black Caviar looked like comfortably extending her winning sequence when taking command, under just hands and heels riding, inside the final furlong. However, Nolen prematurely dropped his hands in the closing stages, allowing the hard-driven Moonlight Cloud, ridden by Freddie Head, to press for the lead. Thankfully, though, Nolen realised his error and resumed riding just in time for Black Caviar to hold on by a head.

Black Caviar was humanely euthanised on August 17, 2024, shortly after delivering her final foal – her ninth in 11 years since her retirement – having been diagnosed with the extremely painful, and incurable, hoof disease laminitis. Completing the tragedy, the foal died shortly afterwards.