Thoroughbred Horse Racing
Harry Payne Whitney was a major figure in thoroughbred horse racing. He inherited a large stable from his father (including the great filly Artful and her sire Hamburg, and in 1915 established a horse breeding farm in Lexington, Kentucky where he developed the American polo pony by breeding American Quarter Horse stallions with his thoroughbred mares. He was thoroughbred racing's leading owner of the year in the United States on eight occasions and the breeder of almost two hundred stakes race winners, first led by Hamburg and then led by his great sire Broomstick by Ben Brush. His Kentucky-bred horse Whisk Broom II (sire by Broomstick) raced in England then at age six came back to the U.S. where he won the New York Handicap Triple.
Whitney had nineteen horses who ran in the Kentucky Derby, winning it the first time in 1915 with another Broomstick foal, Regret, the first filly ever to capture the race. Regret went on to earn Horse of the Year honors and was named to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. Whitney won the Kentucky Derby for the second time in 1927 with the colt, Whiskery. His record of six wins in the Preakness Stakes stood as the most by any breeder until 1968 when Calumet Farm broke the record. Whitney's colt, Burgomaster, won the Belmont Stakes and also received Horse of the Year honors. Amongst many, Whitney's breeding operation produced Equipoise and Johren.
Whitney's stable won the following prestigious U.S. Triple Crown races:
- Kentucky Derby:
- 1915 : Regret (voted Horse of the Year)
- 1927 : Whiskery
- Preakness Stakes:
- 1908 : Royal Tourist
- 1913 : Buskin
- 1914 : Holiday
- 1921 : Broomspun
- 1927 : Bostonian
- 1928 : Victorian
- Belmont Stakes:
- 1905 : Tanya (filly)
- 1906 : Burgomaster (voted Horse of the Year)
- 1913 : Prince Eugene
- 1918 : Johren
His Lexington, Kentucky stud farm was passed on to his son, C.V. Whitney, who owned it until 1989 when it became part of Gainesway Farm.
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Famous quotes containing the words thoroughbred, horse and/or racing:
“There can be no two opinions as to what a highbrow is. He is the man or woman of thoroughbred intelligence who rides his mind at a gallop across country in pursuit of an idea.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“I was the horse and the rider,
and the leather I slapped to his rump
spanked my own behind.”
—May Swenson (1919–1995)
“Upscale people are fixated with food simply because they are now able to eat so much of it without getting fat, and the reason they don’t get fat is that they maintain a profligate level of calorie expenditure. The very same people whose evenings begin with melted goat’s cheese ... get up at dawn to run, break for a mid-morning aerobics class, and watch the evening news while racing on a stationary bicycle.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)