Godolphin Arabian
| Godolphin Arabian | |
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| Race: | Arabian thoroughb ... |
| Father: | |
| Mother: | |
| Mother, father: | |
| Gender: | stallion |
| Year of birth: | circa 1724 |
| Year of death: | 1753 |
| Country: | England |
| Colour: | brown |
| Stick measure: | 146 |
| Owner: | Edward Coke; Francis Godolphin |
| Greatest wins, titles and awards | |
| title | |
| Champion of the sire horses in England and Ireland 1738, 1745, 1747 | |
Godolphin Arabian or Godolphin Barb (born around 1724/1725; died in December 1753) was a stallion who, along with Byerley Turk and Darley Arabian, is one of the progenitors of the English thoroughbred . The different names are explained by the fact that the stallion was or is often called a (thoroughbred) Arab by his owners and still today (English Arabian ); But there is also some evidence that the horse imported from Tunisia was actually a Berber ( Barb ). There is no evidence to support the claim that Godolphin Arabian could be a Berber.
The stallion became one of the three ancestors of the English thoroughbred breed through his successful offspring. However, the last winner of the English derby, which came from the Godolphin Arabian / Barb line, was Santa Claus in 1964 . Today the English thoroughbred breed is clearly dominated by only one of the three progenitors, the Darley Arabian. 80% of modern racehorses are said to be descended from his famous offspring Eclipse (1764–1789) (as of February 2004), according to other information, a total of 95% of modern racehorses come from Darley Arabian.
biography
There are numerous, often unsettled stories about the origin and life of the Godolphin Arabian . According to a website of the British Horseracing Authority , which has since been discontinued , the stallion probably got from Yemen via Syria to the Bey of Tunis, which would match the ancestry as an Arab. According to other information, the animal called Sham ( Arabic : sun) came from Tunisian (Berber) breeding. There is broad agreement that the stallion belonged to a group of horses that the Bey of Tunis gave to the French King Louis XV. gave. However, the horse apparently found little recognition in the eyes of the French court and came into the possession of the Englishman Edward Coke, who took him over as a stallion for his stud in Derbyshire . There he mated the mare Roxana , among others ; the resulting foal Lath was to become one of the most famous racehorses of his time.
After Coke's death in 1733 the stallion came into the hands of Roger Williams, who referred him to Francis Godolphin, 2nd Earl of Godolphin . He owes the horse the name Godolphin , by which it is known to this day. The stallion was about 29 years old. He died around Christmas in 1753, was buried next to his stable and was given a memorial stone that can still be seen today in the Wandlebury Ring .
Reception of the life story
The life story of the animal served the well-known American writer Marguerite Henry as a novel for her youth book "King of the Wind"; the book was filmed under the same title with Richard Harris , Glenda Jackson and Frank Finlay (published 1990).
As early as 1952, the NWDR Cologne produced a radio play based on this novel under the title The legendary story of the stallion Godolphin Arabian . Under the direction of Eduard Hermann , Paul Henckels as narrator, as well as Thea Grodtczinsky , Lutz Erbring , Heinz von Cleve , Wilhelm Pilgram , Wilhelm Wahl and Kurt Lieck could be heard.
A detailed life story of the horse can be found in the book Stallion of the Sun by Franz Born, Sebaldus Verlag, 1961.
gallery
Memorial stone: Godolphin Arabian / died in 1755 / aged 29
Lath , his most famous son
supporting documents
- ↑ listed as Godolphin Barb u. a. by: Jasper Nissen: Large equestrian and horse dictionary paperback. Bertelsmann Verlag , 1976, ISBN 3-570-04580-3 , p. 186.
- ↑ a b c History of Thoroughbreds ( Memento from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on www.britishhorseracing.com (Version from February 17, 2004 to February 1, 2014, accessed from archive.org on January 4, 2015).
- ^ King of the Wind (1990) in the Internet Movie Database , accessed January 4, 2015.
