A descendant of Cornelius Vanderbilt, founder of the New York Central Railroad, and a member of one of America's richest families, Alfred Gywnne Vanderbilt became interested in racing as a youth. On his 21st birthday, his mother gave him a maroon Rolls-Royce, a butler, and Sagamore, her horse farm in Maryland. Vanderbilt reportedly found the butler useful and the Rolls-Royce somewhat ostentatious, but horse racing was to become his life's passion. Although he raced champions such as Discovery, Next Move, and Bed o' Roses, Vanderbilt's greatest achievement his homebred Native Dancer. A son of 1945 Preakness winner Polynesian and Geisha, a daughter of Vanderbilt's foundation sire, Discovery, Native Dancer was racing's first four-legged television personality. Easy to pick out on the black-and-white screens of the era, Native Dancer ranked alongside Ed Sullivan and Arthur Godfrey as the most popular figures of the day as he raced to nine straight victories as a 2-year-old. When he lost the 1953 Kentucky Derby to a 25-1 shot named Dark Star, people turned from the television sets in tears. Two weeks later, "the Grey Ghost" picked up where he left off and in short order won the Withers, the Preakness, the Belmont, the Dwyer, the Arlington Classic and the Travers. He concluded his 3-year-old campaign with a win in the American Derby, and the final race of his career came in 1954, when he scored his 21st win in an overnight handicap at Saratoga. As sire of Raise a Native and grandsire of Mr. Prospector and Northern Dancer, Native Dancer became internationally predominant in Thoroughbred pedigrees with dozens of champions in his lineage.
Негізгі бет Saratoga 150 Feature: Alfred Vanderbilt & Native Dancer
No video
Пікірлер: 2