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Ariel
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Bred at Harry Sinclair's (Sinclair Consolidated Oil Corp.) Rancocas Stud in Jobstown, New Jersey, Ariel was a juvenile speedster, and became a leading sire of fast, precocious runners when at stud. Like his sire, Eternal (Sweep - Hazel Burke), whom he resembled in his heavy muscling, he had an ability to run in the mud and was very fast, traits he passed along to his offspring more often than not.
Despite his five wins from nine starts at age two, and being rated second in the Free Handicap early in the season, he was just below the top juveniles of 1927; Dice (Dominant - Frumpery) was considered the best, but his untimely death in August left a gap, filled in the fall by Reigh Count (Sunreigh- Contessina), and the filly Anita Peabody (Luke McLuke - La Dauphine) , with Arial third. His best wins were the Saratoga Special, the Youthful Stakes at Aqueduct, and the Kingston Handicap.
He won his only race at age three, injured himself, and was retired, although he was not put into the stud immediately. His owner, Harry Sinclair was embroiled in the Teapot Dome Scandal, and was charged with conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government in 1924. Five years of legal wrangling ensued, with Sinclair ultimately spending some time in jail and forced to divest himself of much of his wealth to pay taxes and penalties. Arial was among the horses dispersed in the first of a series of Rancocas Stud sales in 1930, being purchased by Adolphe Pons for the sales-topping price of $6,000.
Pons, a former August Belmont protege who became a bloodstock agent and breeder, owned Country Life Farm at Bel Air, Maryland; he put Arial to stud at W.B. Miller's Greenwich Stud, later selling a part interest in Arial to Miller. A half-interest in Arial was later purchased by Walter Salmon, and he was moved to Old Hickory Farm, Lexington, and later to Salmon's Mereworth Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. Salmon ultimately became sole owner of Ariel, and it was at Mereworth that Ariel died, hemorrhaging from his nose before collapsing on March 31, 1950.
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Airflame
Education
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The 15-hand, slightly-built AIRFLAME (1934, Ariel- Fiamante) was bred by Pons and purchased as a yearling by Alfred Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt's trainer, J.H. Stotler, considered Airflame the fastest horse he had ever trained. He was a star of the juveniles of 1936, having won the Santa Anita Juvenile Championship carring 122 pounds and running the 3 furlong distance in :33-3/5. He won only one race at age three, but at age four returned to win the Wilmington Handicap, Aqueduct's Carter Handicap in the slop --then one of racing's premier sprint races-- and the American Legion Handicap at Saratoga over 7 furlongs, setting a new track record. He ran last in the Catskill Handicap, after which it was discovered he had been doped with morphine; his groom was suspended for this incident, and Airflame was retired after it. He was not a success at stud.
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EDUCATION (1944, Ariel - Faculty), a son of Ariel's old age, was a heavily-campaigned juvenile winner of ten of his sixteen races, placing second three times and third once, making him the leading money winning juvenile in 1946. Purchased in the yearling sales by Fred Hooper of Jacksonville, Florida, and running in Hooper's wife's name, Education won several times in Florida, including the Hialeah Juvenile Stakes, and in Chicago took several allowance races and the 6 furlong Primer Stakes; the Elementary Stakes; the Washington Park Futurity, which was run in the mud; the Praire State Stakes, covering six furlongs in 1:10-2/5, and then the Hawthorne Juvenile Handicap, in which he equaled the Hawthorne track record of 1:10-2/5. Sent to Kentucky in the late fall, he won the Breeders' Futurity at Keeneland by five lengths, and later placed second to Double Jay in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, his last race of the season. In all, he won 15 of his 29 starts, with 7 places and 4 times third. He was only moderately successful as a sire, his best winner on the track being the long-running Bold Scholar, winner of about 1/3 of his 141 starts.
Ariel's daughters included the speedy COLOSSEUM (winner of 8 of 41 starts, ten times second), dam of Lea Lark and Lyceum, the good broodmares AIR POST, winner of $4,000 and dam of the Woodbine Oaks winner Air Page; ARIEL BEAUTY, dam of Louisiana Derby and Derby Trial Stakes winner Federal Hill; and ARDEN LASS, dam of the great handicap mare Cinda. His most influential offspring of either sex, however, was his stakes-winning daughter, PLANETOID (1934, Ariel - La Chica). She produced twelve winning foals, among them Grey Flight, a winner of 12 out of 35 career starts, and dam of fourteen winners, including the sturdy colts and sires Misty Flight and Misty Day, the stakes-winning What a Pleasure, leading American sire in the mid 1970s, and the champion three year old filly of 1955, Misty Morn, later American Broodmare of the Year in 1963. More recent descendants from this line include Hand in Glove, who became a successful grand prix jumper in the U.S. after his racing career, and was in the Selle Francais stud in France; the French stakeswinner Priolo--descended on both sides from Grey Flight; the good stakes-winning racemare Squan Song, and many more.
--Patricia Erigero
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