Herald (horse)
| Herald | |
| Race: | English blood |
| Father: | Dark Ronald |
| Mother: | hornet |
| Mother, father: | Ard Patrick |
| Gender: | stallion |
| Year of birth: | 1917 |
| Year of death: | 1945 |
| Country: | Germany |
| Colour: | brown |
| Breeder: | Siegfried von Lehndorff |
| Owner: | Graditz main stud |
| Trainer: | William Spademan |
| Record: | 9 starts: 8 wins, 1 place |
| GAG : | 103 |
| Prize amount: | 496,750 RM |
| Greatest wins, titles and awards | |
| Greatest victories | |
|
German Derby 1920 Grand Prix of Berlin 1920 St. Leger 1920 |
|
| title | |
| Championat of sire horses in Germany 1931 and 1933 | |
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Infobox last modified on: May 2nd, 2011. |
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Herold (born May 5, 1917 , † 1945 ) was an English thoroughbred stallion . He was bred from the hornet by Dark Ronald at the Graditz main stud .
ancestry
Herold's mother Hornet was very successful on the racetrack. Among other things, she took 2nd place in the Diana Prize in 1911. Her father was the English derby winner Ard Patrick , imported from Graditz stud after his racing career , a grandson of the undefeated legend St. Simon . Her mother was Hortensia , also imported from England , daughter of the English Derby winner Ayrshire and granddaughter of Hampton , the grandfather of Dark Ronald. Herold was thus a 3x4 inbreeding to the Hampton, admired by Herold's breeder Siegfried von Lehndorff from his youth.
Racing career
Herold inherited the weakness in his front legs from his father and had to be burned on one of the front ankle joints as a yearling. Despite this difficult operation and his relatively late birth, Herold made his successful debut on the racetrack when he was two years old, but came back lame from this race and finally had to be burned on the other front ankle joint. This medical measure, which is now controversial and no longer practiced, worked much better with Herold than with his father, so that he returned to the track the next spring and immediately triumphed over 13 opponents in the Flagoelet race . This was followed by the classic Henckel race over the same distance , which Herold seemed to dominate similarly. With a false certainty of victory, Herolds jockey Julius Rastenberger let the horse coast to a stop, which knocked Herold around the head. This faux pas ultimately cost Herold the coveted Triple Crown , because in the German Derby , Herold finally prevailed as the dominator of a strong age group, which, in addition to the Dark Ronald sons Nubier and Wallenstein from Gestüt Schlenderhan, also included the Fels son and Nereide father Laland . In addition, winning was made more difficult by the one year older Dark Ronald son Eckstein . After the derby, Herold won all major German races with the Berlin Grand Prix, the St. Leger and the gladiator race, which was particularly renowned at the time (the races in Baden-Baden were canceled due to the war). His superiority was now his undoing. Probably under pressure from the racing clubs and private racing stables, the Prussian Oberlandstallmeister Großcurth ordered the termination of Herold's racing career, a process that is probably unique in the history of turf. Since almost all of Dark Ronald's sons did not reach their performance peak until the age of four, it is understandable that Siegfried von Lehndorff struggled with this decision and the unnecessary defeat in the Henckel race until the end of his life.
Breeding career
After he had to end his racing career in good health, Herold returned to Graditz and promptly fell ill with the virus anemia that was rampant there . It took Herold two years to recover from this serious illness, which also killed his mother Hornet. At this point, however, his mentor Siegfried von Lehndorff had already left Graditz for Trakehnen and Herold only got second-class mares from small breeders, the better mares were covered by the well-established stallions Dark Ronald and Nuage. But when he pulled the Derby winners Lupus and Dionys from very moderate mares - Lupus also won the St. Leger - the spell was broken and Herold got the best mares from then on - at least from the Graditzer stud in his home country. During this time he fathered his best son, an alchemist , and the also very good sire Arjaman . His son Effendi even almost snatched the derby victory from the great Ticino if Effendi had not had to forego the derby due to injury after the superior victory in the Union race over Ticino. The winner of the brown ribbon Panzerturm should not go unmentioned as a successful descendant.
Herold's daughters were no less successful. Among them, the best Graditz mare, Sichel, stands out. In addition to the Henckel Race, the Diana Prize , the Grand Prix of Berlin (Group I) and the Grand Prix of Baden , she would probably have won the Derby if she had had a nomination for it. With the Antonia , who was able to found a large family that is still active to this day, and the liege mistress , Herold was able to provide two more Diana winners. One of Dark Ronald's most important bridges in the Hanoverian warmblood breeding runs through the liege mistress and her son Der Löwe (1944–1973), winner of the 1948 Baden Grand Prix . No less important is his influence on Trakehner breeding through his grandson Pasteur (1963–1985). The dressage wonder horse Totilas is descended directly from Pasteur and thus also from Herold and Dark Ronald.
Herold became champion of sire horses in Germany in 1931 and 1933. Due to the economic crisis, there was a lack of money for new mares in Graditz, so that in the end there were almost only mares that were descended from Herold himself, his father Dark Ronald or his son Alchemist. Under these unfortunate circumstances, Herold also proved himself in daring inbreeding experiments. So from the pairing with his granddaughter Astrologie the very good Agamemnon emerged , who also became a sustainable stallion. The successful acacia , after all the great-grandmother of the legendary jumper Deister, emerged from the pairing of his daughter Artichoke with his son Alchemist . Herold remained fertile into old age. In 1944 his last important son, mayor , half-brother of the black cock and father of the pasteur mentioned above, was born. When Russian troops approached Graditz Stud towards the end of the Second World War , the elderly herald had to be left there and he perished in the turmoil of the war.
Aftermath
Siegfried von Lehndorff was not allowed to experience the enormous sustainability of his favorite horse in thoroughbred and warmblood breeding. The two leading stallions of the private stud farms Schlenderhan and Erlenhof, Oleander and Ticino, dominated the German thoroughbred breeding in his time because they had many more offspring. Both of them lacked the sustainability that Herold and his son Alchemist so distinguished. While the stallion lines of Oleander and Ticino have long been extinct, that of Herold is still well represented in both thoroughbred and warmblood breeding. For example, the 2010 Galopper Scalo goes back to Herold in a direct stallion line. All in all, Herold is most strongly represented among the thoroughbreds raised in Germany in the pedigrees of today's thoroughbred and warm-blooded animals.