Dark Ronald
| Dark Ronald | |
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| Race: | English blood |
| Father: | Bay Ronald |
| Mother: | Darkie |
| Mother, father: | Thurio |
| Gender: | stallion |
| Year of birth: | 1905 |
| Year of death: | 1928 |
| Country: | Ireland |
| Colour: | dark brown |
| Breeder: | Edward Kennedy |
| Owner: | Graditz main stud |
| Record: | 7 starts: 4 wins, 2 places |
| Prize amount: | £ 8,239 |
| Greatest wins, titles and awards | |
| Greatest victories | |
| Royal Hunt Cup, Princess of Wales's Stakes | |
| title | |
| Championat of the father horses in Germany 1918, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922 | |
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Infobox last modified on: October 27, 2009. |
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Dark Ronald (* 1905; † 1928) was an English thoroughbred horse . He was the hallmark of the German thoroughbred breed of the 20th century and was bred in Ireland by Bay Ronald out of Darkie.
ancestry
Dark Ronald is descended from the direct stallion line and is in the 10th generation by Eclipse . His father, Bay Ronald , competed in a total of 26 races in 5 racing years, of which he won 5, including the famous Epsom Gold Cup (i.e. today Coronation Cup ). As a sire, Bay Ronald was even more important. During his time in England he sired the classic winners Macdonald and Bayardo alongside Dark Ronald . However, its qualities only became apparent after it was sold to France. His daughter Rondeau , who was bred there, is the mother of the outstanding thoroughbred and warmblood sire Teddy . Teddy's thoroughbred stallion lines extend into the 21st century. The same applies to Bay Ronald's son Bayardo (* 1906), who u. a. produced two English triple crown winners, Gay Crusader (* 1914) and Gainsborough (* 1915). Dark Ronald's mother Darkie was only active on the racetrack as a less than successful two year old.
Racing career
Dark Ronald was a very talented racehorse, but he had a lot of bad luck with injuries in his racing career, so that his racing record does not reflect his enormous potential. After a first start and victory as a two-year-old, he injured himself so badly in his second race, which he still finished second, that he had to be burned on both front ankle joints. According to available sources, Dark Ronald is said to have spent his convalescence time on the South African farm of its owner Sir Alec Bailey. He did not return to the racetrack until the age of four. When he made his comeback in the Newbury Spring Cup, he was not yet fit and finished a race unplaced for the only time in his career. This was followed by three wins over different distances, including in the Princess of Wales's Stakes (2,414 m), until he was injured again at the Doncaster Cup (3,219 m) and had to end his racing career. In total, he won £ 8,239 in racing awards. In addition, Sir Alec Bailey won over £ 100,000 in a bet on Dark Ronald's win in the prestigious Royal Hunt Cup (1,560m) at Ascot.
Breeding career
With a height of 165 cm, Dark Ronald was a very imposing horse, had no flaws in the building and overall looked splendid. That made him interesting for warmblood breeding from the start . The German Landstallmeister and famous hippologist Siegfried von Lehndorff was convinced of Dark Ronald as a breeding stallion from the start and tried to get his father, the Oberlandstallmeister Georg von Lehndorff , enthusiastic about him. However, the latter repeatedly refused the purchase, stating that he had already spent enough money on foreign stallions. It was not until Georg von Lehndorff's successor as the Prussian Oberlandstallmeister, Burchard von Oettingen finally agreed to the purchase for the then enormous sum of £ 25,000 = 500,000 gold marks. Despite the very high price, Dark Ronald turned out to be one of the best investments of all time in German horse breeding.
Before Dark Ronald came to Germany in June 1913, he began his breeding career in 1910 at the Tickford Park stud in England. His most important offspring from this time was probably the tough son-in-law , who should also be an excellent sire. His stallion line in Australia extends to the present day. There are also very good German horses among Son-in-Law's offspring, especially the only German winner to date in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe Star Appeal and his son Kamiros go back to Son-in-Law's sire line.
His first great offspring in Germany was the Schlenderhan Prunus , who won the Henckel Races and the St. Leger , but only finished third in the German Derby and thus narrowly missed the Triple Crown. For Schlenderhan, Prunus sired three Derby winners and the great oleander . Dark Ronald also produced the versatile Wallenstein for Schlenderhan , who not only won the Golden Whip over 1200 m, but also the gladiator race over 2800 m. As a Schlenderhan stallion, Wallenstein sired two Derby winners, including Alba . Dark Ronald's best son was supposed to be a Herald . Herold lost only one race, the Henckel race, and that only because Herold's jockey let his horse coast down prematurely in a deceptive certainty of victory. Without this unnecessary defeat, Herold would have been retired as the undefeated Triple Crown winner. Herold produced three Derby winners, including an alchemist , who in turn was to become an outstanding sire. Other outstanding immediate descendants of Dark Ronald were Eckstein , Tulipan , Nubier , Famulus , Träumer and Aditi . Dark Ronald's daughters were less successful. His best daughter was the Diana Prize winner Rapids . Dark Ronald was champion of father horses in Germany five times between 1918 and 1922 .
A stamp stallion in the English thoroughbred is characterized by the fact that not only his immediate offspring, but also those of the later generations on the racetrack, cut an excellent figure. It was precisely this quality that distinguished Dark Ronald from all other stallions in Germany. Except for the legendary Nereid and the Ticino father Athanasius , most of the major 20th century thoroughbreds raised in Germany after Dark Ronald's arrival are descended from him in some way. A stamp stallion also has to be good-natured towards inbreeding . Dark Ronald also met this requirement. The miracle mare Schwarzgold was a 3x4 Dark Ronald inbred. Her father was the Dark Ronald grandson alchemist and her mare father was the Dark Ronald grandson Oleander. At 113.5 kg, Schwarzgold achieved the highest GAG ever awarded in Germany . The most important broodmare for Schlenderhan, Aster (father Oleander, mother-father Wallenstein) is a 3x3 inbred on Dark Ronald. Paired with Alchemist, the 3x4x4 Dark Ronald inbred Aralia emerged from her , which was very successful both on the racetrack and in breeding. The 1993 Arc winner Urban Sea , the outstanding 2009 horse Sea The Stars and the 2007 German Derby winner Adlerflug all descend in the direct dam line from Aster and, via her famous grandson Lombard, also from Aralia.
literature
- R. Mortimer et al .: Dark Ronald , in Biographical Encyclopaedia of British Flat Racing, Macdonald & Jane's Publishers Ltd., London 1978, pp. 150f. ISBN 0-354-08536-0
- R. Sternfeld: Excellent father horses VII. Dark Ronald, in thoroughbred - magazine for the promotion of the relationship between racing and thoroughbred breeding , August Reher-Verlag, Berlin 1922, pp. 73-82
- H. Ohm: The breeding achievements of Nuage and Dark Ronald with special consideration of the inbreeding question , in thoroughbred (see above), August Rher-Verlag, Berlin 1922, p. 156-163
- R. Roeingh: Dark Ronald, in Das Deutsche Reiterbuch , Deutscher Archiv-Verlag, Berlin 1940, pp. 159–169
- MW Graf: Dark Ronald - The pillar of German horse breeding , Thuringian printing house Gast & Frisch 2009