Alchemist (horse)
| alchemist | |
 Monument to the alchemist in Altefeld |
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| Race: | English blood |
| Father: | Herald |
| Mother: | aversion |
| Mother, father: | Nuage |
| Gender: | stallion |
| Year of birth: | 1930 |
| Year of death: | 1945 |
| Country: | Germany |
| Colour: | brown |
| Breeder: | Graditz main stud |
| Owner: | Graditz main stud |
| Trainer: | Robert Utting |
| Record: | 10 starts: 6 wins, 3 places |
| GAG : | 105 |
| Prize amount: | 130,140 RM |
| Greatest wins, titles and awards | |
| Greatest victories | |
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Deutsches Derby 1933 Grosser Preis von Berlin 1933 Grosser Preis von Baden in 1933 |
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| title | |
| Champion of sire horses in Germany 1946 and 1947 | |
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Infobox last modified on: September 1st, 2012. |
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Alchemist (March 2, 1930 , † 1945 ) was an English thoroughbred stallion . He was bred out of aversion by Herold at the Graditz main stud . Despite comparatively few opportunities, he was one of the most important sires of the German thoroughbred breeding and perhaps the most influential of all.
ancestry
Alchemist combined the blood of the three most important stallions imported from Graditz Stud in his pedigree: Dark Ronald as the father of the father, Nuage as the father of the mother and Ard Patrick as the father of both grandmothers. Since both Nuage and Ard Patrick were grandsons of St. Simon , the blood of this very influential sire is also very well represented in his pedigree.
Despite her top-class pedigree, Oberlandstallmeister Burchard von Oettingen wanted to swap Alchimist's mother Aversion for a Waldfrieder horse at the age of two because of a slightly too narrow ankle. With a victory in the St. Leger and third place in the Diana Prize, she justified the trust of Siegfried von Lehndorff , who successfully resisted the exchange. As the mother of four very good horses, in addition to the alchemist Aditi , Aditja and Superstition , the grandmother of Arjaman and the great-grandmother of Ticino , she finally earned the nickname Perle von Graditz . Alchemist was the last foal of aversion. She died a few months after his birth on September 3, 1930 in Graditz at the age of only 16. Although Aversion is represented several times in the pedigree of every German thoroughbred today, her dam line seems to have died out. The 1998 Dictators song drawn from the Arralina Alinara seems to have been their line the last mare.
Racing career
Alchemist inherited precociousness from his father Herold. Despite a completely messed up start, he won the Baden-Baden future race, still one of the most important tests for two-year-old horses, and came second in the winter favorite , behind Waldfrieder Janitor . Janitor would remain his fiercest rival at the age of three, along with Cassius . The latter relegated Alchemist to second place in the classic Henckel race . In the Union race , Alchimist left his two rivals clearly behind for the first time. The German Derby he eventually won from start to finish. He then also clearly won the two most important races for older horses, the Berlin Grand Prix and the Baden Grand Prix .
Breeding career
Due to an injury, Alchemist had to end his racing career at the age of three. He was then set up at his home stud next to his father Herold as a stallion. Since almost all of the mares there descended from his close ancestors, he had few opportunities on Graditz, but enjoyed greater popularity from foreign breeders than his father, who despite his brilliant racing record was avoided as a carrier of the virus anemia .
His big breakthrough as a sire came with his daughter Schwarzgold , who was bred by Gestüt Schlenderhan in 1937 and who dominated German turf in 1939 and especially in 1940 in a way that is still unforgotten today. At this point, however, the Second World War was already in full swing. In 1945 there were no races at all in Germany and the breeding business was largely dormant. When Russian troops approached Graditz, the alchemist and the best mares from the stud fled west to the Harzburg stud . On April 15, 1945, the Alchemist Trek reached the Mulde . There, however, the US Army refused to pass to the safe shore and the traces of the alchemist were lost. So from 1941 to 1944, alchemists only had four war-affected breeding years to pass on his genes.
After the success of Schwarzgold became apparent, Schlenderhan sent her mother Schwarzliesl to the Alchemist again. The result was Schwarzkünstler , who did not even come close to the class of his sister, but still left considerable marks as a sire. Schwarzliesl was a daughter of Oleander . Although Oleander, like Alchemist, was a grandson of Dark Ronald , both harmonized very well in breeding. The mare Aralia , bred by Gestüt Schlenderhan in 1944, was the most successful product of this combination after Schwarzgold. After superior victories in the Black Gold Race and the Diana Prize , she was also the clear favorite for the Derby , but was defeated by Alchemist's best son Birkhahn . Aralia was even more successful as a mother mare than in her racing career. Her best son, the Group I winner Agio , who unfortunately died early, is the father of the famous Lombard . The very good brood mares Aurikel and Alraune also come from the connection between alchemist and oleander . The latter was the mother of the aubergine , which in 1949 almost won the triple crown and together with aster blossom all five classic races for Schlenderhan. Alchemist's daughters were a good match for the Schlenderhan stallion Magnat. Overall, Alchemist was perhaps the most important stallion of all for Schlenderhan.
The Röttgen stud also recognized Alchemist's qualities early on. Alchimist's first classic winner, Hannenalt , was bred by the Röttgen stud in 1935 . In 1936 she was followed by the mare Waffenart , who was to become the founder of a mare family that is still very successful today. Even more successful was Röttgen with the 1944 drawn Achimist subsidiary Stammesart . This was not just a very good racehorse. As the father of the Group I winner and good sire Stani , the brilliant Diana winner Santa Cruz and the very good mother mare Sterna , she was probably the most important Röttgener mare of all time. Sterna's son Star Appeal , wearing the colors of Waldemar Zeitelhack, became the first and for a long time only winner in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe , the most important horse race in the world. The very good Röttgen stallion Sternkönig also goes back to the Sterna in the dam line.
In 1943, Alchimist finally raised her ancestral dam Waldrun for the Ravensberg stud farm , who was to become one of the most successful mother mares of all time in German breeding, although she died in 1959.
Alchemist made himself immortal in German breeding not only through his daughters, but also through his sons. In addition to the already mentioned black grouse particularly in 1942 from projects here stud Waldfried drawn Gundomar out. Gundomar was already promising at the age of two, but when he was three he was unlucky that there were no races in his derby year 1945. However, he then won the derby, which was made up for the four-year-olds' examination prize in Munich in 1946 , but later had health problems so that his racing record does not reflect his class. Gundomar only stayed three years as a stallion before he died in a paddock accident in 1949. His first great offspring was Prince d'Ouilly, raised in France by Francois Dupre . He was a real globetrotter and, in addition to winning the 1951 Baden Grand Prix, also achieved significant successes in England, France, Italy and Belgium. The same breeder bought the Gundomar daughter Rhea, who was successful in England, from Waldfried . As a mother mare, Rhea was even better. Among other things , Ticino drew his best daughter Bella Paola from her . Other important Gundomar sons were Takt , Tasman , Maranon and the late-ripe Baal , who at the age of four managed the feat in Baden-Baden, winning the Golden Whip (1200 m) and the Grand Prix (2400 m) with 4 and 5 lengths respectively win with only a week's break between the two races. Gundomar's most important son, however, was undoubtedly Mangon, born on April 1, 1949 . In 1952, in addition to the derby, he also won the Henckel race , the Grand Prix of North Rhine-Westphalia. After a long break from injury, he was able to repeat his success in the Grand Prix of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1954 and also place in the Gran Premio di Milano . Mangon showed even greater potential as a sire than on the racetrack, but he too only had three breeding years. Although both stallions gave up exactly when their sire qualities became apparent, they nonetheless left a remarkable trail of blood in German thoroughbred breeding, which would look very different today if they were used for a longer period of time. In 1946 and 1947 alchemist became champion of sire horses in Germany.
Impressed by the sire performance of the Alchemist offspring, Gestüt Schlenderhan did everything in its power to bring Alchemist's best son Birkhahn back from the GDR. Although he did not quite have the class of Gundomar or Mangon as a sire, Alchimist's stallion line continues through him to this day.
In 1998 a memorial for the sire of the century was erected at Gestüt Altefeld .