|
|
Henry of Navarre
|
|
 |
|
|
A champion racehorse at ages three, four and five, Henry of Navarre is considered one of America's great all-time runners, endowed with speed, stamina, and heart. Unfortunately, this "king of the turf" was unable to transmit his qualities to his offspring, and none could be said to be, as he was, a "horse of the first water." He did, however, have an impact as a broodmare sire, most notably in Germany, where his American-bred daughter Grave and Gay ended up. He also did his part for the war effort, spending his last seven years as one of the first stallions of the U.S. Remount Service.
His sire, Knight of Ellerslie (1881), was bred at R.J. Hancock's Ellerslie Stud in Virginia. He was by Eolus (1868), a son of the imported stallion Leamington, that had such an influence on American bloodlines. Eolus was out of the tiny four-miler, Fanny Washington (by Revenue), who also figured in Knight of Ellerslie's pedigree as the dam of Scathelock (1867), the sire of Lizzie Hazlewood, Knight of Ellerslie's dam. Eolus was one of many good Leamingtons, winner of Baltimore's City Hotel Stakes (1-1/2 miles), Saratoga's Jockey Club Purse (2 miles), and other good races. A successful stallion based at Ellerslie, Eolus also got the juvenile and three-year-old champion colt Morello (1890), champion three-year-old colt St. Saviour (1881), and champion handicapper Eole (1878), and a host of other winners, such as Elkwood (1883, Suburban Handicap, Kenner Stakes, Twin City Handicap, etc.), Eurus (Suburban Handicap, Oriental Handicap twice), Diablo (Withers Stakes, Brooklyn Handicap, etc.), Eon (Brookdale Handicap, New York Jockey Club Handicap, etc.), Russell (1888, Brooklyn Derby, Great American Stakes, etc.), and Braw Lad (U.S. Hotel Stakes).
Knight of Ellerslie's dam, Lizzie Hazlewood (1874) was by Scathelock, a son of that important source of speed in the U.S., Morris' Eclipse, and a half-brother to Eolus. Scathelock, bred by Major Thomas Doswell at Bullfield, near Richmond, Virginia, ran, largely unsuccessfully, for the partnership of Hunter and Travers, and was later given to R.J. Hancock by Doswell. At Ellerslie he became the sire of Tillie Russell, the dam of the good winner Russell (1888), and Lizzie Hazlewood. Hancock, who had wanted to purchase Eolus from Doswell some years earlier, was able to track the horse down after Doswell sold him, and in 1877 he traded Scathelock for Eolus with a farmer who was using Eolus as a trotting horse. It was at Ellerslie that Eolus turned out his many good runners, making Ellerslie one of the most noted farms of its era. To the cover of Eolus, Lizzie Hazlewood also produced the Knight's brother, Charlie Dreux (1885), who won the Van Courtland Stakes and Jerome Park's Westchester Handicap.
|
Henry's sire, Knight of Ellerslie
Henry's dam, Moss Rose, by The Ill-Used
| |
Knight of Ellerslie was raced by Hancock in partnership with Major Thomas Doswell. A chestnut with a white stripe and white hind feet, he had, unlike most of the other Eolus youngsters, "more quality and is not so sluggish." He was described as a "smooth, level colt, with a great deal of substance, like his sire...another jewel in the crown of Eolus as a sire." At age three he easily took the 1 mile-1 furlong Army and Navy Stakes at Washington D.C., won the Preakness Stakes, the one mile Vernal Stakes, and one other race at Baltimore. He arrived at Jerome Park coughing, but went off second favorite to Withers stakes winner Panique in the Belmont Stakes, which was a corker, with a great battle between the two in the stretch. Panique won "a desperate race by half a length."
After the Belmont, Knight of Ellerslie was purchased by the partnership of Appleby and Johnson for $10,000. He ran second to Rataplan in the Emporium Stakes, but soon after, he went unsound and was retired as a stallion to Lucien Appleby's Silver Brook Stud at Little Silver, New Jersey. There he proved to be a useful stallion of modest winners, including Herald, Knight of Rhodes, Brancas, and Rough Rider. Henry of Navarre was in his first crop of 1891.
|
Henry's dam was Moss Rose (1883), by August Belmont's imported stallion, The Ill-Used, and out of Scarlet, by the Lexington son Kentucky -- a sire of mostly precocious juveniles. Moss Rose had raced for Appleby and Johnson before she retired to Silver Brook as a broodmare. She also produced The Huguenot (1895), a brother to Henry, and Knight of Ellerslie's second best runner. He was a good stakes winner that took Morris Park's Withers Stakes, Aqueduct's Carlton Stakes and the Brooklyn Derby at age three. Another brother to Henry, Turk H., won races at ages two, three and four.
Henry did not inherit his sire's good looks. A chestnut with flaxen mane and tail and a plain head with a small star, he topped out at 15.1-3/4 hands and around 1100 pounds. But he was built like a racer, with a long length-of-rein, sloping shoulders, and powerful hind quarters. He had straight hind legs and short pasterns, but this did not impede his action, which turf writer W.S. Vosburgh called "perfect."
"There was great crying and drying of eyes the morning the colts and fillies [the first crop bred at Silver Brook] were led away to the paddocks at Monmouth Park, where, in sight of the home of their birth, they were put up at auction and sold to the highest bidder." Henry's looks appealed to a number of potential purchasers, and he was knocked down to Byron McClelland of Kentucky for $3,000. McClelland had already trained the champion filly Sallie McClelland and Bermuda, a winner of the U.S. Hotel Stakes and Manhattan Handicap, and would go on to train Kentucky Derby winner Halma and August Belmont's classic winner Margrave.
Henry of Navarre on the Turf
Henry was an outstanding racehorse of the highest class, who met and defeated all the best American horses over three successive seasons. He was the U.S. champion earner at ages three (tied with Domino), four and five, again and again proving his "lion-hearted courage" with his combination of speed and stamina. His generational rival was the great speedster Domino, and Henry beat him every time they met, but two, and one of those was a famous dead-heat between the two. He started 42 times, and won 29 races, placing second eight times. He first raced for his trainer, Byron McClelland, and near the end of his four-year-old season was purchased by August Belmont, for whom he continued to rack up impressive wins, and retired in Belmont's ownership.
At age two, running for owner-trainer Byron McClelland, he won six of his ten starts, including Lexington's Breeder's Stakes, Coney Island's Dash Stakes and Golden Rod Stakes (7/8 mile), Brooklyn's Algeria Handicap (beating Dobbins, Declare and other good ones), and was unplaced just once. That year the brilliant Domino was the undisputed champion juvenile.
At age three Henry could hardly be beat, taking nine consecutive races among his thirteen wins in 20 starts (five times second, once third, once unplaced). His wins included the Belmont Stakes, Saratoga's Travers Stakes, the Foxhall Stakes, the Iroquois Stakes, the Manhattan Handicap, Sheepshead Bay's Dolphin Stakes and Spindrift Stakes, and the Bay Stakes. At the beginning of the season he had met Domino in Morris Park's Withers Stakes, and was beaten by that fast horse by a head at even weights, and also ran second to Dr. Rice in the Brooklyn Handicap. Towards the end of the season, in September, Henry and Domino came out at even weights for what was billed as "the race of the decade," the Third Special at Brooklyn over 1-1/2 miles, with $5,000 added. In this exciting race, it looked as if Domino would win, leading by two lengths at the entry to the backstretch; then Henry's jockey Sam Doggett "let him go" and Henry caught Domino at the turn. A nose-to-nose battle ensued, and that's how they crossed the finish line, in a dead-heat.
A month later the two met again, in what truly was the race of the decade, this time at Morris Park, which included Clifford, a good four-year-old that had beaten Henry of Navarre once, and came into the race with a nine in thirteen win record for the season. By that time Henry had won 12 of his 19 races that year, and this would be his thirteenth and would give him the title "King of the Turf" for the season. In this race, Domino broke first, but was caught at seven furlongs by Henry, both running flat-out. Clifford, left at the post and bided his time, then made his move, but Henry, calling on his courage and strength, turned back Clifford, winning by a length, with Domino ten lengths back. There is no higher praise than that from the opposition, and Clifford's trainer, Jack Rogers, said of the race:
I thought I had a good horse in Clifford -- I still think so, but this Henry of Navarre -- he had Domino take him by the head -- and there's no faster one -- and when he had shaken Domino off, Clifford came at him; but he shook Clifford off too. Any horse that can shake off two such horses as they, in separate attempts, must be a race-horse of the first water."
At age four, 1895, Henry won eight of his ten starts, placing second (Sheepshead Bay's Twin City Handicap, won by Rey el Santa Anita) and third (Gravesend's Oriental Handicap, jockey error) once each. His wins included Morris Park's Municipal Handicap (beating Clifford) and Manhattan Handicaps, Latonia's Merchants Handicap, the Country Club Handicap at Cincinnati, and two specials, where he once again met Domino. In the first, a 1-1/6 mile special at Coney Island, the two were neck-and-neck for the first seven furlongs, but Henry got up to win by a length at the end, with Domino second and the American Derby winner Rey el Santa Anita third. In September at Brooklyn, the two met in a special over 1-1/4 miles; Domino was beaten by the mile mark, and Henry went on to win, with Clifford second and the excellent California-breds Sir Walter and Rey el Santa Anita third and fourth. In August of that year, August Belmont's offer of $35,000 for Henry of Navarre, already considered a cripple, was accepted by McClelland, and after that the horse ran in the Belmont colors.
He came out twice at age five, and won twice. His last race was Sheepshead Bay's Suburban Handicap, carrying the highest weight to that time in that race -- 129 pounds -- and he came to it "a broken-down horse." Despite the weight and his condition, he put away The Commoner and Clifford, crowning his successful career with a win in the prestigious handicap, which brought the thousands attending to their feet with "thunderous applause."
Henry of Navarre in the Stud
Henry was retired to August Belmont's Nursery Stud, joining imported Rayon d'Or and other good stallions, where he saw some well-bred and/or high class former racemares, including Sallie McClelland. Despite this, his performance as a stallion was dismal, especially in light of his own wonderful race qualities. By 1900 he had been decisively supplanted at the Nursery Stud by Hastings, who was an immediate hit in the stud. Henry of Navarre never even cracked the top twenty list of leading sires in the U.S. However, he got some good broodmare daughters, and a number of them bred on in tail-female, with distinguished stakes winning descendants.
In 1909, after the 1908 Hart-Agnew anti-gambling legislation put an end to gambling in New York -- followed by other states -- Belmont sent many of his horses to Europe, including Henry of Navarre and the Belmont-bred Octagon (1894, by Rayon d'Or), a good runner at age three and a better-performing stallion than Henry, getting many more stakes winners for Belmont when at the Nursery Stud, including the great champion mare Beldame and Norman, a horse Belmont sent to England to race where he won the Two Thousand Guineas. Henry spent the 1909 season at Joseph Cannon's Lordship Farm near Newmarket, standing with Mintagon, Golden Measure and Wolf's Crag. The following year he joined Octagon at Belmont's Haras de Villers at Foucarmont in Normandy, France. With war looming in Europe, both stallions were made available to French cavalry officers with mares for breeding, but that same threat sent Belmont and his horses back to the U.S., when the French government began commandeering horses for the army.
Early in March of 1911 Belmont donated six stallions -- including Henry of Navarre and Octagon -- to the U.S. Army to aid in jump-starting a cavalry remount service in the U.S. At the end of March, the two ex-pat stallions arrived back in New York on the Atlantic Transport Line steamship Minneapolis. The horses were met by Capt. C. Conrad. Jr., and a crowd of horse enthusiasts at Pier 58 on the North River: "when the former racers appeared there was a scurrying to avoid their flying heels. It was hard to believe they had been cooped up in stalls for ten days on the Atlantic, as their lively behavior was in striking contrast to that of utility horses and cattle that also made the trip across the ocean."
Henry (age 20) and Octagon (age 17) were taken by ferry to a private rail car where they were "comfortably installed," bound for their new home at the army's remount station at Front Royal Virginia. The intent was to breed to local "cold-blood" Virginian mares and mares belonging to army officers. The army would have the option of purchasing the offspring at a set price to supply horses for the cavalry and artillery. The stallions served at Front Royal until their deaths. Henry died in 1917, and was buried at Front Royal.
|
2 Year Old Henry of Navarre Filly bred at Front Royal in 1914
| |
While hundreds of foals resulted from Front Royal breedings, without access to the Quartermaster's Records, it is not possible to determine how many foals Henry, specifically, or any of the other stallions got in his seven years at the station. Surely many of his half-bred offspring saw duty in World War I, both before -- when J.J. Maher came to the U.S. to purchase cavalry horses for England -- and after the U.S. entered the war. It's also probable a percentage, rejected by the army, became or were bred to produce Virginia hunters and show horses of the late teens and 1920s.
|
Henry's stakes-winning offspring included JUNE GAYLE (1898, out of Lisric by Lisbon), a winner of Latonia's Harold Stakes (1/2 mile) for juveniles; SILVER DREAM (1901), who won the Rockaway Stakes for Belmont; the Belmont-bred gelding DICK TURPIN (1901, out of Tarpeia, by imp. St. Blaise), a juvenile winner of Aqueduct's 3/4 mile Oakdale Handicap; the filly ANONDYNE (1903, from Annot Lyle by Barcaldine), a useful juvenile that took Crescent City's Martha Washington Stakes (4 furlongs), Aqueduct's Ozone Stakes (4 furlongs) and Sheepshead Bay's Pansy Stakes (6 furlongs); she went to Belmont's stud in France.
The Belmont-bred and raced DON DIEGO (1903, from imported Bella Donna, by Hermit), was a winner of the Neptune Stakes and his sister, DONNA HENRIETTA (1898, won once and placed third once in eight starts at age two) were out of the mare that produced the outstanding filly Beldame (by Octagon, winner of $72,000 for Belmont), Don de Oro (by Rayon d'Or, a winner of 18 of his 40 starts and $36,440), Preakness Stakes winner Don Enrique (1904, by Hastings), and Bel Dominio (by Uncas, winner of 18 of his 84 starts). DONNA HENRIETTA was sent to the Haras de Villers in France. BELLAMIA (1900), a sister to DON DIEGO AND DONNA HENRIETTA, did not race, but her line bred on, leading to the great Canadian horses Canadiana (1950), Victoria Park (1957) and other good ones.
There were some other minor winners, but nothing that came close to Henry's own excellence as a racehorse. However, several of his offspring were shipped to England to race, and there they were more successful.
W.C. Whitney, who was the leading racehorse owner in the U.S. in 1901, sent some of his American-bred horses to England to race. One of these was Henry of Navarre's daughter MURLINGDEN (1899, from Shibboleth by imp. St. Blaise); running unnamed, she took Sandown's Great Kingston Stakes for juveniles. Another was GRAVE AND GAY (1899, out of Mount Vernon, by Uhlan), one of Henry's better runners and his most immediately successful broodmare daughter, although not in the U.S.
|
Grave and Gay
| |
GRAVE AND GAY was a competitive juvenile in England, running in top company during the season. She was third in Ascot's Coventry Stakes and Doncaster's Gimcrack Stakes (both won by Sterling Balm), and won Hurst Park's Two Year Old Stakes. She was purchased by Sir John Thursby, owner of Blink Bonny Stud at Malton, and ran for him at ages three and four; she could not place in Sceptre's Oaks (eighth of 14), but at age four, although she could only run ninth in the Lincolnshire Handicap (the great Sceptre was sixth, with 20 running), she was second in Ascot's Rous Plate to Duke of Westminster and she won Ascot's Windsor Castle Stakes. A "very speedy but uncertain" filly, she was "violently attached" to a donkey that travelled with her to her races.
|
In 1906 the Weinberg brothers, who owned Gestüt Waldfried in Germany, purchased GRAVE AND GAY at the Newmarket December sales for 3,600 guineas, which included her weanling foal by Trenton (later called Granton), and the foal she was carrying, by Zinfandel (later called GrossHerzog). She produced some outstanding racing sons, and a couple of daughters that bred on, most importantly Grolle Nicht (1917, by Fervor), whose numerous daughters established one of Germany's most important female lines.
GRAVE AND GAY'S sons included her imported weanling Granton, that won over fences, and GrossHerzog, the foal she was carrying in-utero when imported into Germany, who was gelded; he ran second in the Hertefeld-Rennen and the Deutsches St. Leger at age three, and later was put to jumping, winning the Weimar Jagd-Rennen and the Schmidt Pauli-Jagdrennen at Berlin. Her son Ganelon (1920, by Pergolese) was a high-class winner of many races, among them, at age two, Berlin's Renard-Rennen, and at age three, the Hoppegarten's Lehndorff-Rennen, Baden Baden's Fürstenberg-Rennen and Grosser Preis von Baden, the Deutsches St. Leger, and Frankfurt's Alexander-Rennen, placing second in the Deutsches Derby. At age four his wins included Berlin's (Grunewald) Podbielski-Rennen, the Preis von Köln, the Hoppegarten's Chamant-Rennen, and the Ulrich von Oertzen-Rennen at the Hoppegarten, and he placed in a number of other good races. At age five he took Hamburg's Renard-Rennen and placed well in several other high-class races. He was sold to Hungary, where he got Rianas (1934), a winner of the Szent Laszlo dij and the Austria Preis, and Gamma (1933), a winner of the Magyar Kanca dij and later dam of Austrian Derby winner Ganymed.
GRAVE AND GAY'S most significant son, however, was Graf Ferry (1918, by Fervor). He was the top juvenile in Germany for Gestüt Waldfried, winning the Landgraften Rennen, the Leipziger Stiffungspreis, the Sierstorpff Rennen at Berlin, the Oppenheim Rennen, and the Preis des Winterfavoriten (equivalent of England's Middle Park Plate). At age three he wasn't quite so good, and may have been unsound, but did manage to win the Wäldchens Rennen at Frankfurt, and was second in the Goldene Peitsche at Berlin. At four he was back, taking the Hoppegartener Ehrenpreis at Berlin, the Teutonia Rennen at Leipzig, and placing second in the Fervor Rennen. He tucked in two more wins in 1923, age five: the Wäldchens Rennen at Frankfurt and the Fervor Rennen.
A better than useful stallion in Germany, Graf Ferry's best runner was Graf Isolani (1926), a top runner age age three that took the Deutsches Derby, Hamburg's Grosser Hansa Preis, the Hoppegarten's Union-Rennen, the Deutsches St. Leger, the Grosser Preis von Köln, and the Gladiatoren Rennen, running second to Oleander in the Grosser Preis von Baden; at age four his wins included the Grosser Hansa Preis, the Jubilaüms Preis at the Hoppegarten, the Chamant Rennen and the Gladiatoren Rennen; he also won good races at age five. Graf Isolani is best known as the sire of the wonder mare Neride, but got some other stakes winners as well. Graf Ferry also got Ladro (1927) a winner of the Zukunfts Rennen and Ratibor Rennen at age two, and second to champion Alba in a host of races at age two, including the Deutsches Derby, the Union Rennen and the Grosser Preis von Berlin; he was later a useful sire of winning juveniles. Another Graf Ferry son, Travertin, won the Union Rennen, Frankfurt's Waldchens Rennen, and other races through age five, and later got some stakes winners. A number of Graf Ferry's daughters were good producers and bred on.
Of GRAVE AND GAY'S daughters, her daughter Gaa (1909, by Fels), won the Nuage Rennen at the Hoppegarten, and later produced a good son in Georgios. Grolle Nicht (1917, by Fervor), a sister to Graf Ferry, won the Sierstorpff Rennen at Berlin at age two, and placed third in the Danubia Rennen at Berlin at age three. She is the one that continued the family line; she was second dam of two Deutsches St. Leger winners, Gregor and Gradivo, and also second dam of the good juvenile Grande. Her daughter Geia (1934) established a long-lived line that included the good mare Gondola (1964), a Deutsches St. Leger winner and DDR Derby winner Girlitz (1973). Another daughter, Grolleja (1938, by Janus) was tail-female ancestress of 1969 Irish Oaks winner Gaia, herself second dam of the 1986 Irish St. Leger winner Authaal.
In May of 1899 British sportsman Russell H. Monro, who had investment interests in the U.S., went on a tour of Kentucky stud farms and purchased nineteen yearlings to ship to England: ten came from the Nursery Stud, and nine from Milton Young's McGrathiana Farm. Included in the Nursery Stud lot were five by Henry of Navarre. All were shipped to Monro's Somerby Hall at Oakham, England. Monro had wide-ranging sporting interests, from competitive rowing and boxing in college to membership in several hunts, and as a young man in the '60s and '70s had successfully competed as a gentleman steeplechase rider, for himself and for various aristocratic friends. He was not a major player in flat racing, although he belonged to the Jockey Club; his best horse was Goosander, a winner of about £4,000 in stakes.
All but one of the Henry of Navarre yearlings disappear from records without a trace, perhaps to the hunting field. The one, called HIGH FEATHER (1898 from High Tea, by Rayon d'Or) by Monro, ran in England, without success, at age two, and then went to Ireland for a season, also unplaced, and was bred that year, producing her first foal in 1902 at Oakham. She eventually passed into others hands, and bred six winners, the best China Cock (1910), a chestnut colt she dropped to the cover of Santoi, who turned out to be a Liverpool (flat) specialist. China Cock won the Liverpool Autumn Cup in 1913, the Liverpool Spring Cup and Liverpool Summer Cup in 1914, and the Liverpool Spring Cup in 1915 (all Liverpool races at 1 mile 2 furlongs), plus, in 1914, Kempton's Queen's Prize (1 mile 6 furlongs).
HIGH FEATHER'S other winners included Desca (by Desmond), Plume (by Wavelet's Pride), Scarlet Button and Nimmy (by Santoi) and Flying Wing (by Lomond). Of these, Desca (1904) was the most significant; she won two races as a juvenile and four at age three, and produced a couple of foals in Ireland before being shipped off to South America. Her 1910 daughter Velca (by Veles) became second dam of Pallade, an Oaks d'Italia winner in 1941. Another daughter, Decagone (1911, by Martagon), won Lincoln's Brocklesby Stakes in her maiden appearance, but did not race on, however she became the dam of Prince Galahad (1917, by Prince Palatine), a winner of the Dewhurst Stakes and later a sire of Irish classic winners, and her female line continued, and includes the good winner at Ascot, Radetzky (1972, by Huntercombe).
LUNEVILLE (1910, from La Bien Venue, by Ladas) was one of the few European-bred Henry of Navarres to race. At age three he took the Gagarinskij at St. Petersburg, Russia over 2200 meters.
Henry's daughters that produced stakes winners included SARATOGA BELLE (1900, out of the good race mare Sallie McClelland), the dam of Fayette (1906, by Ogden), a winner at two of Gravesend's Tremont Stakes and Sheepshead Bay's Double Event, and at four of Aqueduct's King's County Handicap (1-1/2 miles) and Aqueduct's Long Beach Handicap (1-1/2 miles). SARATOGA BELLE'S female line includes Seattle Song (1981, Washington D.C. International). Her sister, SALLIE OF NAVARRE (1898) produced another good juvenile in the gelded Salvidere (1904, by Belvidere), who took Saratoga's Adirondack Handicap, the Brighton Junior Stakes (3/4 miles), Gravesend's Junior Champion Stakes (3/4 miles), and the Saratoga Special at age two, making him the leading juvenile of 1906, and at three won the Sheepshead Bay Champion Stakes and the Brighton Beach Cup (2-1/2 miles).
Henry's daughter ORIENTA (1898, out of imported Ortegal by Bend Or) produced Okenite (1904), a chestnut gelding by Hastings, that won Aqueduct's Averne Handicap (3/4 mile) at age three, and his half-brother, Overman (1909, by Rock Sand), who won the Pimlico Nursery Stakes. ORIENTA'S still active tail-female line included the dual U.S. classic winner Shut Out and the important stallion Miswaki. RAIMENT (1902, from Lady Rayon by Rayon d'Or) was the dam of Eyelid (1915, by Eyebrow), a classy three-year-old that won the Alabama Stakes and Belmont's Ladies Stakes, and was the leading three-year-old filly of 1918. NAVARRE'S HOPE (1903, from Fond Hope by imp. St. Blaise) produced Columbine (1914, by Garry Hermann), a winner of Pimlico's Walden Stakes.
In sire line descent, Henry's most notable contribution was his small (14.2 hands) son FUME (1901, out of Futile, by Rayon d'Or), who was retained as a stallion to get polo ponies and won at horse shows in classes for stallions suitable to get polo ponies, stood first at Babylon, Long Island, and later at Belmont's Nursery Stud in Kentucky. He got Factor (1906), who was also retained by the Belmonts, used as a sire of polo ponies, and won the polo pony stallion section at Madison Square Garden in 1909. FUME also got the mare Japonica, known as one of the fastest polo ponies "that have ever played" and was ridden by J.W. Webb for the American team in the 1924 International games.
--Patricia Erigero |
|
|
|
