Ticino (horse)
| Ticino | |
| Race: | English blood |
| Father: | Athanasius |
| Mother: | Terra |
| Mother, father: | Aditi |
| Gender: | stallion |
| Year of birth: | 1939 |
| Year of death: | 1958 |
| Country: | Germany |
| Colour: | Black brown |
| Breeder: | Erlenhof stud |
| Owner: | Erlenhof stud |
| Trainer: | Adrian von Borcke |
| Record: | 21 starts: 14 wins, 4 places |
| GAG : | 112 |
| Prize amount: | 491,060 RM |
| Greatest wins, titles and awards | |
| Greatest victories | |
|
German Derby 1942 Grand Prix of the Reich capital in 1942, 1943 and 1944 |
|
| title | |
| Championat of father horses in Germany from 1950 to 1958 | |
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Infobox last modified on: December 7th, 2007. |
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Ticino (* 1939; † 1958) was an English thoroughbred horse that was bred by Athanasius from Terra at the Erlenhof stud farm of the Thyssen family .
ancestry
He is a direct male line of the 13th generation of Eclipse .
His sire line is the most successful in German thoroughbred breeding. Landgraf - Ferro - Athanasius - Ticino - Orsini - Marduk presented the winner in the German Derby in uninterrupted succession over 6 generations - this is also a unique series internationally.
Racing career
Race record:
- 2- to 5-year-olds: 21 races - 14 wins - 4 places,
- Prize money: 491,060 RM,
- highest general balancing weight (GAG): 112 kg (only Schwarzgold ever received a higher handicap assessment in Germany).
His trainer was Adrian von Borcke, who after his successful career as an amateur rider (including 3-time winner in the Karlshorster Parforce hunting race with the famous Bandola ) became a private trainer for the Erlenhof stud and prepared numerous first-class racehorses there.
Even if Ticino completed his entire racing career during the war, making international comparisons impossible, he is still considered one of the best German racehorses of the 20th century. It didn't look like that at the beginning of his racing career. He won a winless race when he was two years old, but then had an inflammation of the pastern joint and had to be punctured. In the first months of his three-year season he was still clearly behind Effendi and only showed his class when he won the “German Derby” against the excellent Gradivo .
With age he got better and better and had his best racing season when he was five years old when he was unbeaten in 7 races. As the first horse in history, he won the "Grand Prix of Berlin" founded in 1888 (today "Germany Prize" in Düsseldorf) three times (1942–1944). After that, only Mercurius (1963–1965) succeeded in doing this . Of course, Ticino also won the “Grand Prix of Vienna”, the then “Austrian Derby”, against Ortwin and Effendi . Although a "stayer", ie a horse for endurance tests from a distance of 2,200 m, he also managed to win the most important German short-distance race, the "Golden Whip" (1,200 m); while dreaming , he beat the champion mare from 1944 and won the Grand Prix of Baden four weeks later over twice the distance (2,400 m). Even if racing and competition were limited due to the war, the double victory “Golden Whip” - “Grand Prix of Baden” is a special achievement that only a few other horses have achieved.
Breeding career
Much more important than his racing career, however, is Ticino's breeding performance. Like Oleander , he won the championship for sire horses in Germany 9 times in a row (1950 to 1958) and 9 times the championship for sire of dams (1960 to 1968).
With Dutch (1950), Neckar (1951), Funny (1955) and Orsini (1957 ) he produced 4 winners in the "German Derby". No stallion has so far had more winners in this race. Ticino are tied with Hannibal and Orsini (from Ticino), who were also the fathers of 4 German Derby winners. Ticinos' son Neckar sired 3 German derby winners . 13 Ticino sons worked in thoroughbred and warmblood horse breeding in German-speaking countries, Neckar and Orsini , for their part, led the championship of leading father horses and sires of dam mares in Germany several times.
In total, Ticino sired 10 classic winners in Germany (between 1950 and 1957), who together won 15 classic races. He thus tops the list of the eternal best in this ranking.
He was also the father of Bella Paola , who had moved to France (out of Rhea II v. Gundomar ). Bella Paola won the English 1000 Guineas , the English Oaks , the "Prix Vermeille" and, in the fall, the "Champion Stakes" from Newmarket. She was also second in the “ Prix du Jockey Club ” (French Derby). Bella Paola was the most successful racehorse of 1958 in France and if you consider that German thoroughbred breeding was only of little international importance in the post-war period, the success for the German-bred mare was a sensation.
In 1957, Ticino became sterile and could no longer be used for breeding. He only had 10 years on the track, whereby the first years, due to the post-war situation in Germany, were much smaller than would have been the case under normal circumstances.
In the direct stallion line, the Landgraf-Ticino line is now extinct in Germany, but through many mare lines it is still present at least once in most pedigrees of German racehorses.
In 1958 his health deteriorated dramatically, so that he had to be killed. On the day of his death, the flag was half-mast in Erlenhof.
literature
- M. Beckmann: A monument to Ticino . In: Thoroughbred - Breeding and Racing . No. 3, 1959, pp. 18-28
- H. Rudolfi: From evening peace to Baalim . Cologne 1963