San Simeon
BreedStandardbred
SireCaptain Hook
GrandsireMeadow Skipper
DamLeyoro Lass
Maternal grandsireLeyoro
SexStallion
Foaled1976
CountryAustralia
ColourBay
BreederL. Porter
Record
39: 33-2-1
Earnings
A$383,799
Major wins
1981 Western Australian Pacing Cup
1981 Interdominion
Awards
1982/3 Australian Harness Horse of the Year
1978/79 Australian 2yo of the Year
1979/80 Australian 3yo of the Year
1980/1 Australian Grand Circuit Champion
Honours
Best mile rate, 1:59
Last updated on: 17 August 2011.
Major wins
major races won
Awards
Horse of the Year, etc.
Other awards
other than race related awards
Honors
Halls of Fames, etc.

Black Caviar’s 130 rating is the highest score achieved by an Australian galloper, in th e World Thoroughbred Rankings since rankings were introduced. The World Top 50 rates the performances of horses for the previous six months and therefore this rating is for the period 1 October 2010 to 27 March 2011.

Phalaris br 1913

    Fairway ch 1925 
    |    Blue Peter ch 1936 
    |    Fair Copy br 1934
    |    Fair Trial ch 1932
    |         Court Martial ch 1942 
    |         Palestine gr 1947 
    |         Petition br 1944
    |              March Past br 1950
    |                   Queen's Hussar b 1960
    |                        Brigadier Gerard b 1968 
    |              Petingo br 1965
    |    Honeyway br 1941
    |         Great Nephew b 1963
    |              Grundy ch 1972 
    |    Watling Street b 1939 
    Colorado br 1923 
    Manna b 1922 
    |    Colombo b 1931 
    Pharamond II b 1925
    |    By Jimminy br 1941
    |    Menow br 1935
    |         Capot br 1946 
    |         Tom Fool b 1949
    |              Buckpasser b 1963
    |              Tim Tam br 1955 
    Pharos br 1920
    |    Cameronian b 1928 
    |    Firdaussi ch 1929 
    |    Nearco br 
    |    Pharis br 1936
    |         Ardan b 1941 
    |         Pardal b 1947
    Sickle br 1924
         Unbreakable br 1935
              Polynesian br 1942 


Tabulated pedigree edit

Pedigree of Swynford (GB), brown stallion, 1907
Sire
John o'Gaunt
1901 
Isinglass
1890 
Isonomy Sterling
Isola Bella
Dead Lock Wenlock
Malpractice
La Fleche
1889 
St.Simon Galopin
St.Angela
Quiver Toxophilite
Young Melbourne Mare
Dam
Canterbury Pilgrim
1893
Tristan
1878 
Hermit Newminster
Seclusion
Thrift Stockwell
Braxey
Pilgrimage
1875 
The Palmer Beadsman
Madame Eglentine
Lady Audley Macaroni
Secret (Family 1-g)[1]



Tabulated pedigree edit

Pedigree of Leamington (GB), brown stallion, 1853
Sire
Faugh-a-Ballagh (IRE)
Br. 1841
Sir Hercules
1826
Whalebone Waxy
Penelope
Peri Wanderer
Thalestris
Guiccioli
1823
Bob Booty Chanticleer
Ierne
Flight Escape
Young Heroine
Dam
Pantaloon Mare
1841
Pantaloon
1824
Castrel Buzzard
Alexander Mare
Idalia Peruvian
Musidora
Daphne
1837
Laurel Blacklock
Wagtail
Maid of Honor Champion
Etiquette (Family: 14)

Tabulated pedigree edit

Pedigree of Northerly (AUS), bay gelding, 1996
Sire
Serheed (USA)
B. 1980 
Nijinsky II
B. 1967 
Northern Dancer Nearctic
Natalma
Flaming Page Bull Page
Flaring Top
Native Partner
1966 
Raise a Native Native Dancer
Raise You
Dinner Partner Tom Fool
Bluehaze
Dam
North Bell
Br. 1988 
Bellwater
1982 
Bellypha Lyphard
Belga
Paddle Jim French
Pram
North Fleur
1981 
Far North Northern Dancer
Fleur
Yoka Triple Band
Royal Hula (Family: No.9)


Tabulated pedigree edit

Pedigree of Sunday Silence (USA), brown or black stallion, 1986
Sire
Halo
Br/bl. 1969
Hail to Reason
Br. 1958
Turn-to
B. 1951
Royal Charger
Source Sucree
Nothirdchance Blue Swords
Galla Colors
Cosmah
1953
Cosmic Bomb Pharamond
Banish Fear
Almahmoud Mahmoud
Arbitrator
Dam
Wishing Well
1975
Understanding
1963
Promised Land Palestinian
Mahmoudess
Pretty Ways Stymie
Pretty Jo
Mountain Flower
1964
Montparnasse Gulf Stream
Mignon
Edelweiss Hillary
Dowager (Family: 3-e)

Tabulated pedigree edit

Pedigree of Marske
Sire
Squirt
1732 
Bartlet's Childers
1716 
Darley Arabian unknown
unknown
Betty Leedes Old Careless
Cream Cheeks
Snake Mare
1713
Snake Lister Turk
unknown
Grey Wilkes Hautboy
Pet Mare
Dam
Blacklegs Mare
Hutton's Blacklegs
1725 
Hutton's Bay Turk unknown
unknown
Coneyskins Mare Coneyskins
Clubfoot
Bay Bolton Mare
1728
Bay Bolton Grey Hautboy
Makeless Mare
Fox Cub Mare Fox Cub
Coneyskins Mare (Family: 8)


Ben Brush
 
Saddling up for the Kentucky Derby
SireBramble
GrandsireBonnie Scotland
DamRoseville
DamsireReform
SexStallion
Foaled1893
CountryUnited States
ColourBay
BreederRunnymede Farm
OwnerH. Eugene Leigh & Edward D. Brown
Michael F. Dwyer
James R. Keene (at stud)
TrainerEdward D. Brown
Hardy Campbell, Jr.
Record40: 24-5-5[2]
Earnings$65,108[2]
Major wins
Champagne Stakes (1895)
Kentucky Derby (1896)
Suburban Handicap (1897)
Latonia Derby (1897)
Brighton Handicap (1897)
Awards
American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt (1895)
Leading sire in North America (1909)
Honours
United States Racing Hall of Fame (1955)

Ben Brush (1893–1918) was a high class Thoroughbred racehorse who was the first horse to win the Kentucky Derby at its modern distance of 1¼ miles. He was later a very successful sire.

Breeding edit

He was bay stallion by Bramble (1879 champion handicap horse) his dam Roseville (a sister to Azra, the 1892 Kentucky Derby and Travers Stakes winner) was by Reform. Ben Brush was bred by Clai and Woodford.[2]

Racing record edit

At two years edit

Ben's dam Roseville was purchased by Colonel Catesby Woodford and Colonel Ezekial Clay of Runnymede Farm near Paris, Kentucky in 1891 from the horseman H. Eugene Leigh. At the time she was in foal to Leigh's La Belle Stud stallion, Bramble. When the resulting colt was offered for sale by Clay and Woodford, Leigh and his new partner, the African-American Hall of Famer Ed Brown, bought him for $1,200. Brown named him Ben Brush in honor of the superintendent of the old Gravesend Race Track at Sheepshead Bay in Gravesend on Coney Island, New York who'd allowed them scarce, therefore valuable, stall space. The original Ben Brush was a strict disciplinarian, but ever after, Leigh and Brown found him very lenient when it came to his namesake. When others complained of his double standard, the human Brush said, "Not a damn one of you fellows ever named a horse Ben Brush!"

Ben Brush raced 40 times, won 25 of those races, placed in five, and showed in 5, earning a career total of $65,208. Yet Joe Palmer said of him in his "Names in Pedigrees," that he was "not a particularly impressive-looking animal." The colt was a "rather small horse, a bit longer for his height than Bramble, almost equally coarse about the head."

Under trainer Ed Brown, Ben Brush began racing in Louisville. In his first race at two, he was an easy winner by five lengths. In his second start, he came home by three lengths. His third effort saw him easily galloping home ahead of the good horse Nimrod. Ben then went on to Ohio, winning the Emerald Stakes and the Diamond Stakes.

After five wins in five starts he went to New York where he ran third at Sheepshead Bay, but then easily won an overnight handicap giving away 19 pounds to his nearest rival. He then lost to the high class Requital in the Flatbush Stakes. He ran out of the money for the first time in the Great Eastern Handicap, but won the Holly Handicap. The Eastern elites mocked him as an "overrated little goat." At this point he was sold to the famous gambler Mike Dwyer who had, with his brother, raced his sire Bramble as well as the champions Hindoo, Hanover, Miss Woodford, and Luke Blackburn. Ben Brush would be the last champion to carry Mike's colors. The reported sum was $18,000. (A race for three-year-olds, the Dwyer Stakes, held at Belmont Park since 1918, was named in their honor.)

Now ridden by the great Hall of Famer Willie Simms, an African-American considered one of the greatest riders of his day, and trained by Hardy Campbell, Jr., Ben Brush went on to win six more races as a two year old. All in all, as a virtual baby Ben earned $21,398 with 13 wins in 16 starts. In 1895, he was Champion 2-year-old. At this point the deeply impressed Walter Vosburgh said he "could have beaten any three-year-old of that season." Not bad for a "goat." Easterners were suitably rebuffed. (Wille Simms also rode in England, where he was the first to introduce the short-stirrup style. After his stint in Europe, he was retained by Dwyer as his stable rider, but such was Simms's stature that he had the freedom to accept mounts from other stables as well. The nation's leading rider of 1893-94, he remains the only African-American jockey to have won the Derby, Preakness and Belmont.)

At three years edit

Ben's first race in his 1896 season was the Kentucky Derby. Without benefit of a prep race and having never run farther than seven furlongs in his career, he stumbled badly coming away from the barrier, nearly unseating Simms. By the time they recovered the race seemed over for Ben Brush and Willie Simms. But Ben made a tremendous move on the backstretch, caught First Mate on the turn for home, and then battled fiercely with Ben Elder down the stretch before winning by a nose. The correspondent for the "Spirit of the Times" wrote, "Simms made one last and desperate rally with Ben Brush, displaying as vigorous a piece of riding as was ever seen, and gradually but surely gaining on the other Ben, he finally beat him out by a nose in a terrific and hair-raising finish, which elicited a wild and spontaneous shout from the grandstand." When Simms saw how deeply his spurs had cut his game mount, and that his sides were covered in blood, he cried with shame. (Col. Clark, the guiding force behind the development of Churchill and then serving as the track's presiding judge, credited Simms with the victory. "It was a great race—one of the greatest I ever saw," Clark said. "There was no doubt in the world about the finish. Simms simply lifted Brush a foot or so in front at the last jump.") It was the first time the white and pink roses were darped over the shoulders of the victor.

Ben Brush finished his season with four wins and almost $27,000 in earnings.

At four years edit

At four Ben Brush was simply brilliant. In the view of many, it was Ben Brush's 1897 campaign that as Palmer put it, "perhaps put the stamp of greatness on him more unmistakably than did his performances at two and three." During this last racing season, Ben Brush met Ornament, the Champion Three Year Old Colt and 1897's Horse of the Year, giving Ornament nine pounds and still winning by three lengths. He beat the 1895 Preakness and Belmont winner Belmar; 1896 Belmont hero Hastings, later to gain immortality as the grandsire of Man o' War; 1897 champion three-year-old Ornament, the winner of 20 of 33 lifetime starts himself; and the elder statesman of the handicap set, the high class Clifford, who twice managed to defeat the great Henry of Navarre and Domino in 1894-95.

Stud record edit

Ben Brush was a tremendous success at stud, so much so that he became one of the fundamental building blocks of the American Thoroughbred. Although his direct male line no longer exists, he continues to influence the breed. Ben Brush appears in the pedigrees of 48 of the last 50 Derby winners, including every Derby winner from 1972 onward. The leading sire of 1909, Ben Brush produced Delhi, the 1904 Belmont Stakes winner and Champion Three Year Old Colt; Pebbles, the Juvenile Champion of 1914; Broomstick, who won the 1904 Travers Stakes, set a new American record for a mile and a quarter in the Brighton Handicap, and then going on himself to lead the Sires's List from 1913 until 1915 (siring Regret, the first filly to win the Kentucky Derby as well as ranking 71 in the top 100 U.S. Thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century by Blood-Horse magazine; and Sweep, twice leading sire, winner of the 1910 Belmont Stakes, and a champion at two and three. Ben's most influential daughter was Belgravia, who produced the renowned sire Black Toney, sire of Black Gold.

Ben Brush died in Versailles, Kentucky on June 8, 1918 at the age of 25. His headstone erroneously reads 1917.

Ben Brush was one of the first handful of horses inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1955.

Tabulated pedigree edit

Pedigree of Ben Brush (USA) bay stallion, 1893
Sire
Bramble
1875 
Bonnie Scotland
1853 
Iago Don John
Scandal
Queen Mary Gladiator
Plenipotentiary Mare
Ivy Leaf
1867 
Australian West Australian
Emilia
Bay Flower Lexington
Bay Leaf
Dam
Roseville
1888 
Reform
1871 
Leamington Faugh-a-Ballagh
Pantaloon Mare
Stolen Kisses Knight of Kars
Defamation
Albia
1881 
Alarm Eclipse II
Maud
Elastic Kentucky
Blue Ribbon (Family: A1)

References edit

  1. ^ Morris, Simon; Tesio Power 2000 - Stallions of the World, Syntax Software
  2. ^ a b c Ahnert, Rainer L. (editor in chief), “Thoroughbred Breeding of the World”, Pozdun Publishing, Germany, 1970

External links edit

Tabulated pedigree edit

Pedigree of Faugh-a-Ballagh (IRE), brown stallion, 1841
Sire
Sir Hercules (GB)
1826
Whalebone
1807
Waxy Potoooooooo
Maria
Penelope Trumpator
Prunella
Peri
1822
Wanderer Gohanna
Catherine
Thalestris Alexander
Rival
Dam
Guiccioli
1823
Bob Booty
1804
Chanticleer (GB) Woodpecker
Chanticleer's dam
Ierne Bagot
Gamahoe mare
Flight
1809
Escape Highflyer
Squirrel mare
Young Heroine Bagot
Heroine (Family: 11-d)


See also edit

List of leading Thoroughbred racehorses

References edit


Tabulated pedigree edit

Pedigree of Persimmon, bay stallion, 1893
Sire
St. Simon
1881
Galopin
1872
Vedette Voltigeur
Mrs.Rid gway
Flying Duchess The Flying Dutchman
Merope
St.Angela
1865
King Tom Harkaway
Pocahontas
Adeline Ion
Little Fairy
Dam
Perdita II
1881
Hampton
1872
Lord Clifden Newminster
The Slave
Lady Langden Kettledrum
Haricot
Hermione
1875
Young Melbourne Melbourne
C larissa
La Belle Helene St.Albans
Teterrima (Family: 7-f)


Tabulated pedigree edit

Pedigree of Montjeu (IRE), brown horse, 1996
Sire
Sadler's Well s (USA)
B. 1981
Northern Dancer (CAN)
B. 1961 
Nearctic (CAN) Nearco
Lady Angela
Natalma (USA) Native Dancer
Almahmoud
Fairy Bridge (USA)
B. 1975 
Bold Reason (USA) Hail to Reason
Lalun
Special (USA) Forli
Thong
Dam
Floripedes (FR)
b. 1985 
Top Ville (IRE)
1976 
High Top (IRE) Derring-Do
Camanae
Sega Ville (FR) Charlottesville
La Sega
Toute Cy (FR)
1979 
Tennyson (FR) Val de Loir
Tidra
Adele Toum ignon (IRE) Zeedaan
Alvorada (Family: 1-u)

Tabulated pedigree edit

Pedigree of Tetratema
Sire
The Tetrarch
Gr. 1911 
Roi Herode
1904 
Le Samaritan Le Sancy
Clementina
Roxelane War Dance
Rose of York
Vahren
1897 
Bona Vista Bend Or
Vista
Castania Hagioscope
Rose Garden
Dam
Scotch Gift
1907 
Symington
1893 
Ayrshire Hampton
Atalanta
Siphonia St. Simon
Palmflower
Maund
1898 
Tarporley St. Simon
Ruth
Ianthe The Miser
Devonshire Lass (Family: 14-a)


Pedigree of Hastings (USA) (21-a), brown stallion, 1893
Sire
Spendthrift
Ch. 1876
Australian
1858
West Australian Melbourne
Mowerina
Emilia Young Emilius
Persian
Aerolite
1861
Lexington Boston
Alice Carneal
Florine Glencoe
Melody
Dam
Cinderella
1885
Tomahawk
1863
King Tom Harkaway
Pocahontas
Mincemeat Sweetmeat
Hybla
Manna
1874
Brown Bread Weatherbit
Brown Agnes
Tartlet Birdcatcher
Don John mare (1848) (Family: 21-a)


Thoroughbred family 17 edit

  • Byerley Turk Mare(Byerley Turk) -- F-No.17
  •  Bald Galloway Mare(Bald Galloway)
  •   The Wharton Mare(Lord Carlisle's Turk)
  •    Old Lady(1715, Bald Galloway)
  •     Warlock Galloway(1728, Snake)
  •      Cottingham Mare(1745, Cottingham)
  •       Snip Mare(1758, Snip)
  •        Regulus Mare(1762, Regulus
  •         Syphon Mare(1771, Syphon)
  •         │Maid of All Work(1786, Highflyer) -- 17-a
  •         │ Musidora(1804, Meteor)
  •         │  Idalia(1815, Peruvian)
  •         │   Biddy(1839, Bran) -- F-No.17-b
  •         │    The Gem(1851, Touchstone
  •         │     Regalia(1862, Stockwell) -- F-No.17-c
  •         │Rachel(1790, Highflyer) -- F-No.17-d



Tabulated pedigree edit

Pedigree of Whirlaway (USA), chestnut stallion, 1938
Sire
Blenheim
Brown 1927
Blandford
Brown 1919
Swynford
Br. 1907
John o'Gaunt
Canterbury Pilgrim
Blanche White Eagle
Black Cherry
Malva
Bay 1919
Charles o'Malley Desmond
Goody Two-Shoes
Wild Arum Robert Le Diable
Marliacea
Dam
Dustwhirl
Bay 1926
Sweep
Brown 1907
Ben Brush Bramble
Roseville
Pink Domino Domino
Belle Rose
Ormonda
Chestnut 1916
Superman Commando
Anomaly
Princess Ormonde Ormondale
Ophirdale F-No . 8-h

Tabulated pedigree edit

Pedigree of Touchstone (GB), br.h. 1831
Sire
Camel
Brown 1822
Whalebone
1807
Waxy Pot 8O's
Maria
Penelope Trumpator
Prunella
Selim mare
1812
Selim Buzzard
Alexander mare (1790)
Maiden Sir Peter Teazle
Phoenomenon mare (24) (1788)
Dam
Banter
Brown 1826
Master Henry
1815
Orville Beningbrough
Evelina
Miss Sophia Stamford
Sophia
Boadicea
1807
Alexander Eclipse
Grecian Princess
Brunette Amaranthus
Mayfly (family: 14)