St. Simon (horse)

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St. Simon
Stsimon01.JPG
Race: English blood
Father: Galopin
Mother: St. Angela
Mother, father: King Tom
Gender: stallion
Year of birth: 1881
Year of death: 1908
Country: England
Colour: Black brown
Stick measure: 164 cm
Breeder: Prince Gustavus Batthyany
Owner: 6. Duke of Portland
Trainer: Mathew Dawson
Record: 9 starts: 9 wins
Prize amount: £ 4826
Greatest wins, titles and awards
Greatest victories
Ascot Gold Cup (1884)
Goodwood Cup (1884)
Epsom Gold Cup (1884)
title
4th place - Top 10 GB. 19th Century Racehorses
St. Simon Stakes in Newbury
Leading sire in GB & Ireland
(1890–1896 & 1900–1901)
Leading broodmare sire in GB & Ireland
(1903–1907 & 1916)

Infobox last modified on: November 30, 2011.

St. Simon (* 1881 in England ; † April 2, 1908 ) was an English thoroughbred and one of the most successful stallions in the history of thoroughbred breeding. He is fourth in the ranking of the greatest English racehorses of the 19th century. St. Simon was a horse that remained unbeaten in the race and topped the stallion list nine times .

Early years

St. Simon was a black and brown stallion with white burl hair on the hocks. His father was Galopin (by Vedette) and his mother St. Angela (by King Tom), who gave birth to the foal on April 2, 1881 in William Barrow's Paddock near Newmarket . St. Simon was the sixth foal of the 16 year old mare, who had disappointed as a broodmare up to this point. Therefore, his owner and breeder Gusztáv Batthyány did not register the young stallion for any of the classic races of the time, with the exception of the " 2,000 Guineas Stakes ".

In July of that year all of his horses were sold at the Tattersalls July Sales in Newmarket. Among them were the racehorses that were under the care of trainer John Dawson. Dawson will have been aware of the qualities of the two-year-old St. Simon, although potential buyers were more interested in the stable's star at the time, "Fulmen" (from Galopin - Lightning). But two of those interested, the young William Cavendish-Bentinck and his trainer Mat Dawson, a brother of John Dawson, also examined St. Simon's ankles and based on the statements of the brother it was concluded that everything was in order.

Cavendish-Bentinck and Dawson were outbid in the auction of "Fulmen", which was sold for 5,000  guineas , but they won St. Simon for a low 1,600 guineas. At the same auction, his father “Galopin” was sold to Henry Chaplin's Stud in Blankney for 8,000 guineas and his mother “St. Angela ”was sold to Leopold de Rothschild in France for 320 guineas . St. Simon ended up in Mat Dawson's training stable at Heath House near Newmarket.

Cavendish-Bentinck (1857–1943), at that time just 25 years old, inherited the title of Duke of Portland in 1879 and thus also the Welbeck Abbey stud in Nottinghamshire , where the derby winner of 1819 “Tiresias” had already been bred. Cavendish-Bentinck pursued the plan to bring the stud back to its old reputation, but in 1883 the two-year-old St. Simon was the only stallion he had founded in the establishment phase of the breeding program. This showed his new owner that in early training he could be a kicking, bucking and wild horse that shone with hopping steps and uncoordinated behavior and would destroy any future connection with a mare.

Success on the racetrack

St. Simon with his jockey by John Arnold Wheeler (1821-1903)

“As long as I live, I will never touch this animal with spurs again; this is not a horse, but a devilish steam engine "

- St. Simons Jockey, Fred Archer

Because his breeder had passed away, all entries for St. Simon had become invalid and it was difficult to find a race for St. Simon. He first demonstrated his class at the Halnaker Stakes in Goodwood on July 31, 1883. Under his jockey Fred Archer he won by six lengths over the second "Richelieu" and "Cerva" in third. The next day he entered the Maiden Plate Stakes and left all opponents behind except for "Balfe", whom he easily beat by a length with a weight of 133 pounds. The result was that he bargained 8 pounds more than handicap. In the following race he won strong pulling with his chin on his chest against "Clochette" and "Fleta".

Because of this success, St. Simon was allowed to compete in Epsom, where he won the Devonshire Nursery Plate by two lengths on August 31 , in a "light Kanter", against 19 rivals with "Trionfi" and "Archer" in second and third who had a 19 pound weight advantage. St. Simon carried 124 pounds.

Another effortless win followed on September 13 in Doncaster at the Princess of Wales's Nursery Plate , in which he outclassed his 21 opponents, carrying 126 pounds, by eight lengths. The next challenge was on October 24th during the Houghton Race in Newmarket against a horse owned by Robert Grosvenor, 1st Marquess of Westminster , named "Duke of Richmond" (a son of "Hampton", former name "Bushey"). Both jockeys got the riding order to "tie off the throat of the other flayer right from the start". But it was St. Simon who won the 1,200-meter race by a three-quarters advantage. He finished his youth career unbeaten in 5 races, although he had not yet taken part in any main race for 2-year-olds. Still, he was considered the best horse of his age at the moment.

As a three year old

Eclipse , an ancestor of St. Simon, by George Stubbs (1724–1806)

Since he was not allowed to start in the Derby or the St. Leger race, the focus was on some other big cup races. But before it was to have its first official start to the season, they wanted to test it in a few selected races on its home racetrack, Newmarket. In the spring, with Fred Archer in the saddle, they worked in plumb with the esteemed three-year-old stallion “Harvester”, winner of the Derby Stake and “Busybody”, a 1,000 Guineas and Oaks winner. Archer was instructed to shut him down and St. Simon passed. He passed his stable mates, swept through the whole lot of another coach and disappeared into the fog. Archer was unable to stop him until the end of the gallop, leading him to the famous quote “ He's not a horse, he's a blooming steam engine. "

St. Simon's next masterpiece was a publicly arranged trial against one of the best 6-year-old horses in training, the Ascot Gold Cup winner "Tristan". Archer was replaced by Charles Wood, who rode the stallion over 1 1/2 miles, six lengths ahead of Tristan. However, under the premise of "weight for old age" Tristan carried 135 pounds against St. Simon's 112 pounds in this race.

At the first start of St. Simon's second season he confirmed his acquired reputation by winning the Epsom Gold Cup on May 30th . Two weeks later, on June 12, he faced older horses over two and a half miles at the Ascot Gold Cup . After initially running after the field, he swept through to the horses leading at 40 lengths and won with 20 lengths, "Tristan" and "Faugh-a-Ballagh" behind him. He was so strong in the finish that it took almost another lap to stop him.

On June 26th at the Newcastle Gold Cup , St. Simon beat his competitor “Chiselhurst” with eight lengths and crossed the finish line in an easy Kanter . On July 20, St. Simon competed in the Goodwood Cup over 4,200 m and defeated the current St. Leger winner "Ossian" with a 20 length lead, again in the easy Kanter. Although he never played the St. Leger , he worked again afterwards with three first-class candidates and outclassed his opponents. These were the upcoming St. Leger winner "The Lambkin", "Scot Free", who had won the 2000 Guineas this season , and "Harvester", who was head-to-head in the Derby Stakes. Race with the great “St. Gatien ”had delivered.

Goodwood Racecourse in the 19th century

The Goodwood Cup was supposed to be St. Simon's last start of the season and once again it had proven unbeatable, this time in just four starts. He stayed in training but was never going to make it back to the start due to leg problems sustained in the Newcastle Gold Cup win. St. Simon retired from active racing with a flawless string of victories. Nine starts and nine wins in two seasons, even though he never officially competed against the best horses of his age.

Matt Dawson, who coached six derby winners, said he had only trained one good horse in his life and that was St. Simon.

Career as a stallion

St. Simon is the father of a total of 423 foals who have won 571 races and received more than half a million pounds in prize money. The stallion won the championship for sire horses in England nine times . His sons "Florizel II", "Persimmon", "St. Frusquin "," Desmond "," William The Third "," Petermaritzburg "," Rabelais "and" Chaucer "established even successful lines like:" Tulyar "(English derby winner from the line of Chaucer), the American record holder" Round Table " (Persimmon line), Tesio's unbeaten “Ribot” (two-time Prix ​​de l'Arc de Triomphe winner, Rabelais line). The top three horses in the 1966 Derby were directly attributable to St. Simon. In Germany, “the hot St. Simon blood” brought in the broodmare “Festa”, whose offspring “Festino”, “Fels”, “Fabula”, “Faust” and “Fervor” won a total of 75 races and 1,630,000  gold marks .

However, St. Simon also passed on his hot blood and passed on his temperament to his descendants. All of his offspring had brown fur with the exception of one (brown) gray horse.

progeny

The statue of Seabiscuit in Santa Anita Park , photo from 1942.

St. Simon is currently represented in the pedigrees of all living English thoroughbreds with a blood content of around 10 percent, in 12-generation pedigrees of current thoroughbreds it appears over 100 times, for example 230 times in the German derby winner Next Desert (born 1999).

Direct descendants

literature

  • Edward Abelson & John Tyrrel: The Breedon Book of Horse Racing Records. The Breedon Books Publishing Company Ltd, 1993, ISBN 1-873626-15-0 .
  • John Aiscan: Ribot. LB Ahnert Verlag, Echzell, ISBN 3-921142-00-8 .
  • Rainer Ahnert, Directorate for Thoroughbred Breeding and Racing, Cologne: Thoroughbred breeding of the world. Podzun-Verlag, Dorheim.
  • Horst Gründel: 175 years of horse racing in Bad Doberan - 175 years of thoroughbred breeding in Germany. Edition Temmen, Bremen, ISBN 3-86108-708-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ About St. Simon ( Memento of the original of September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on kincsem.de. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kincsem.de