Northern Dancer (May 27, 1961 – November 16, 1990) was a Canadian-bred Thoroughbred racehorse and the most successful sire of the 20th Century. The National Thoroughbred Racing Association calls him "one of the most influential sires in Thoroughbred history".
A bay colt, Northern Dancer was by Nearctic and his dam Natalma, was by the Native Dancer. In 1952, Edward P. Taylor, Canadian business magnate and owner of Windfields Farm, had attended the December sale at Newmarket, England where he purchased Lady Angela, a mare in foal to leading English-based sire Nearco. The following spring, Taylor sent Lady Angela to be bred to Nearco once again, then shipped her to his farm in Canada later in 1953, and in 1954, Lady Angela foaled a colt in Canada named Nearctic who was voted the 1958 Sovereign Award for Horse of the Year.
At the yearling sales at Windfields in Toronto, Ontario, the diminutive Northern Dancer didn't find a buyer at the $25,000 reserve price, so he eventually joined the Windfields Farm racing stable.
Read more about Northern Dancer: Racing Career, Stud Record, Honours, Tabulated Pedigree
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—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“That God has laid His fingers on the sky,
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