Rhythm (horse)

Rhythm (March 31, 1987 – 2007) was an American Champion Thoroughbred racehorse.

Rhythm
Sire	Mr. Prospector
Grandsire	Raise a Native
Dam	Dance Number
Damsire	Northern Dancer
Sex	Stallion
Foaled	March 31, 1987
Country	United States
Colour	Bay
Breeder	Ogden Mills Phipps
Owner	Ogden Mills Phipps
Trainer	Claude R. McGaughey III
Record	20: 6-3-4
Earnings	$1,592,532
Major wins
Travers Stakes (1990) Breeders' Cup wins: Breeders' Cup Juvenile (1989)
Awards
U.S. Champion 2-Yr-Old Colt (1989)
Last updated on September 8, 2007

Background

Rhythm was a bay horse bred in Kentucky by his owner Ogden Mills Phipps. Rhythm was trained by future Hall of Famer, Shug McGaughey.

He was sired by Mr. Prospector out of the Grade I winning mare Dance Number who was a daughter of Northern Dancer.

Racing career

The colt started five times in 1989, finishing his two-year-old campaign with a record of 3-1-1. His one second-place finish was to stablemate Adjudicating in the Grade I Champagne Stakes. In the most important race of the year for his age group, jockey Craig Perret rode Rhythm to a two-length victory in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile in a year when it was held at Florida's Gulfstream Park. The colt's performances earned him 1989 U.S. Champion 2-Yr-Old Colt honors.

In 1990, three-year-old Rhythm made ten starts, winning three times. An increasingly difficult temperament combined with a throat problem that necessitated surgery resulted in the colt's handlers having to skip the U.S. Triple Crown series. By mid summer, Rhythm was getting back in shape and ran second in the Dwyer Stakes and third in both the Woodward Stakes and in the Haskell Invitational Handicap before scoring his most important victory of the year in the prestigious Grade I Travers Stakes.

Rhythm was retired after failing to win in five starts in 1991.

Stud record

Rhythm was sold for US$5.5 million to Japanese breeders. He entered stud in 1992 at Arrow Stud at Hokkaidō from where he would be shuttled to breeders in New Zealand and Australia before returning to the United States in 1997 to stand at Ashford Stud near Versailles, Kentucky. In 2000, Rhythm was sent to Diamond F Ranch in Grass Valley, California where on September 4, 2007 he is reported to have fractured a leg in a paddock accident and had to be euthanized.

As a stallion, Rhythm sired 24 stakes winners. His most successful progeny were in New Zealand and Australia where he was the sire of three Southern Hemisphere champions including the outstanding filly Ethereal whose four Group One wins included three of the most important staying races in Australian racing: the Caulfield Cup, the Melbourne Cup and The BMW Stakes.

Pedigree

Pedigree of Rhythm (USA), bay stallion, 1987

Sire Mr Prospector (USA) 1970	Raise a Native (USA) 1961	Native Dancer	Polynesian
			Geisha
		Raise You	Case Ace
			Lady Glory
	Gold Digger(USA) 1962	Nashua	Nasrullah
			Segula
		Sequence	Count Fleet
			Miss Dogwood
Dam Dance Number (USA) 1979	Northern Dancer (CAN) 1961	Nearctic	Nearco
			Lady Angela
		Natalma	Native Dancer
			Almahmoud
	Numbered Account (USA) 1969	Buckpasser	Tom Fool
			Busanda
		Intriguing	Swaps
			Glamour

• Rhythm was inbred 3 × 4 to Native Dancer, meaning that tis stallion appear in both the third and fourth generations of his pedigree.