Northern Dancer Blog: May 2015

Saturday, May 16, 2015

American Pharoah dominates in the Preakness

Once again we have a horse with a chance at the Triple Crown. It was 51 years ago to the day that his great great great grandsire, Northern Dancer accomplished the same feat. The downpour and sloppy track didn't seem to bother American Pharoah as he stormed to victory by seven lengths. It was longshot Tale Of Verve finishing second and Divining Rod third. All three were great great great grandsons of The Dancer. In the case of Divining Rod, his great great grandmother was the Dancer's Hall of Fame daughter Fanfreluche. She was kidnapped while in foal to Secretariat. You can read about her in this blog.

photo from AP/Mike Stewart

American Pharoah - great great great grandson x2 through Storm Cat/Storm Bird and El Gran Senor
Tale Of Verve - great great great grandson x3 through Storm Cat/Storm Bird and Nijinsky
Divining Rod - great great great grandson x3 through Storm Cat, Nijinsky and daughter Fanfreluche

Link to Fanfreluche in this blog http://northerndancerblog.blogspot.ca/2009/12/chapter-12_2744.html

Saturday, May 2, 2015

American Pharoah wins the 141st running of the Kentucky Derby

It was favourite American Pharoah winning the Kentucky Derby with a tough Firing Line second and stablemate Dortmund finishing third. All three were descendants of The Dancer.

American Pharoah - great great great grandson through Storm Cat/Storm Bird
Firing Line - great great great grandson x2 through Danzig and Storm Bird
Dortmund - (son of Big Brown) great great grandson x3 through Danzig and Nuryev

photo from Peter Casey USA Today

Gleneagles wins first leg of British Triple Crown

While we wait for this year's running of the Kentucky Derby, Gleneagles wins the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket to take the first leg of the British Triple Crown. It was Territories second and Ivawood third, all three are Irish breds and descendants of Northern Dancer.

Gleneagles - great great grandson through Galileo/Sadlers Wells
Territories - great great grandson x2 through Danzig
Ivawood - great great great grandson x2 through Danzig

image from Alan Crowhurst Getty Images

Reason for the Blog

I thought it was time to extend the story I started in 2005. This will be a busy week in November 2009 for thoroughbred racing and something tells me my little hero will have played a significant role by the end of the week.

I wrote that on November 2, 2009 and I would say that the Dancer is still playing a significant role. I am trying to update the status of Northern Dancer's legacy using excerpts from my book which was completed in 2007 and published in 2008 along with today's thoroughbred racing news. If you are confused it may be because in addition to inserting the latest (2009) news I also decided to shift around my chapter flow from the original book which also featured many time shifted chapters to begin with. I am confusing myself just trying to describe it. Back to the future - it is Nov 12, 2009 for another 5 minutes.

Quotes describing Northern Dancer from the CBC Life and Times Biography

"They say the north wind was tangled in his mane"

"The pony from Canada"

"The little dancer"

"The little horse with a big heart"

"He gave you more resasons to love him"

"You can see the soul of an animal through his eye and Northern Dancer had a particularly deep eye, it was as if you could see forever in there"

"What he represented to us was the heroic"

"Little guy ... big heart, trying his best, never gave up ... it was heroic"

on his relationship with E.P. Taylor - "It was alchemy, they transformed each other"

"He became a Canadian hero"