Brief Candles but Lasting Lights, Part I

Brief Candles but Lasting Lights, part I

Joseph Di Rienzi

This series will focus on horses that raced in the last 60 years who had brilliant careers that were prematurely ended by injuries. However, as stallions they were very successful, and some have legacies that continue to this very day. I will examine each horse’s racing record and then give a synopsis of their progeny and their respective success. Part I will look the careers of Hail to Reason and Raise a Native.

A Kentucky bred born in 1958, Hail to Reason was a strapping dark bay or brown son of Turn-to out of the mare Nothirdchance. The name was given to him by his co-breeder, Isidore Bieber, who liked to provide serious appellations to his best horses. Hail to Reason, a combination of the names of both sire and dam, refers to the delayed response by the allies in World War II to Nazi aggression and barbarism. Hail to Reason was trained by his other co-breeder, Hirsch Jacobs and owned by daughter, Patrice. Hirsch Jacobs was an amazing force in the thoroughbred world. He was an owner-breeder-trainer. He built his stable by taking bloodstock at the claiming level often from more fashionable racing stables and developing them into productive racehorses. He was a keen judge of breeding potential and from his racing stock produced some of the most powerful bloodline families in the North American Turf. Jacobs was also an idiosyncratic trainer who believed in frequent racing to bring out a horse’s true potential. He is attributed with the saying, “I would rather have a horse wear out than rust out.”

Hail to Reason as a two-year-old
(bloodhorse.com)

There was no better example of the above philosophy than his development of Hail to Reason, who from early on was considered a horse of high potential. Starting in January of 1960, Hirsch ran this horse five times at 5 furlongs or less (four of these races were run over a fifteen day interval), before Hail to Reason was able to break his maiden. He was victorious in the Youthful, Tremont and Great American Stakes, assuming leadership in the two year-old division with a come from behind win in the 6 furlong Sapling Stakes at Monmouth Park. At Saratoga Racetrack, Hail to Reason would win the Sanford Stakes (prior to the Sapling), have an unexpected loss in the Saratoga Special, but then he capped off his Saratoga campaign with a 10 length victory in the Hopeful Stakes setting a new track record for the 6½ furlong distance. Next, Hail to Reason won the World’s Playground Stakes at Atlantic City Racecouse by open lengths at 7 furlongs. Training for the Belmont Futurity, he suffered a severe injury, but fortunately he could be saved. With a record of 9 wins from 18 starts, all before September 11, 1960, he was promptly retired to stud at Hagyard Farm in Kentucky where he was foaled. Despite his early retirement, Hail to Reason was still voted the year’s Two-Year-Old Male Champion.

At stud, Hail to Reason became an outstanding sire in producing six champions, four classic winners, colts who became important sires, and fillies who became significant broodmares. His best sons include Kentucky Derby winner Proud Clarion, Preakness victor Personality and Belmont Stakes hero Hail to All. Hail to Reason also sired English Derby winner Roberto and was the dam sire of Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe heroine Allez France. His stakes winner Halo sired Kentucky Derby winners Sunny’s Halo and Sunday Silence (who also won the Preakness). The last named became a dominant sire in Japan and through his sons have established a powerful stallion line in that country. Hail to Reason’s influence is alive today in Northern America, primarily through his great grandson More Than Ready.

Raise a Native was bred in Kentucky by Happy Hill Farm and sold as a yearling in 1962 to Louis Wolfson’s Harbor View Farm for $39,000. He was a chestnut son of the fabled Native Dancer. Trained by Burley Parke, Raise a Native was brilliant from the start winning a maiden race at Hialeah early in 1963. The eminent turf writer Charles Hatton once said that when Raise a Native trained in the morning at Belmont Park, “the trees swayed”. In his four juvenile starts, the colt set or equaled three track records. His only stakes wins were in the Juvenile and the Great American Stakes both at Aqueduct Racetrack. He never raced beyond 5½ furlongs, but due to his pedigree and confirmation it was assumed he could carry his speed much further. Unfortunately, Raise a Native never had an opportunity to prove that on the racetrack as he suffered a bowed tendon training for the Sapling Stakes in August and was promptly retired to stand stud at Spendthrift Farm. As with Hail to Reason, Raise a Native’s brilliance, though brief, was duly noted, and he too garnered Two-Year-Old Champion honors.

In addition to siring Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Majestic Prince, Raise a Native was also the grandsire of Triple Crown winner Affirmed and Kentucky Derby victress Genuine Risk. He also sired Alydar who was second to Affirmed in all the 1978 classics and who in turn sired two Kentucky Derby winners in Alysheba and Strike the Gold, Preakness winner Alysheba, and Belmont winner Easy Goer. However, Raise a Native’s greatest accomplishment to the thoroughbred breed was siring Mr. Prospector, a sprinter, who as a stallion (eventually at Claiborne Farm) sired a Kentucky Derby winner (Fusaichi Pegasus), a Preakness winner (Tank’s Prospect) and a Belmont winner (Conquistador Cielo). Mr. Prospector is also responsible for the most influential sire line to this very day in North America and slightly less so in Europe. His descendants include Forty Niner, Distorted Humor, Seeking the Gold, Smart Strike, Dubai Millennium, Dubawi, Kingmambo, Street Cry, Street Sense, Zenyatta, Thunder Gulch, Fappiano, Unbridled, Empire Maker and American Pharoah [sic] to name a select few. 

Raise a Native was born in the same year as the jaunty Canadian champion Northern Dancer. The latter would go on to win the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in 1964. However, both Raise a Native and Northern Dancer’s achievements as racehorses, pale before their genetic impact. The two are prime breed shapers, and their legacy through their descendants is still significant today. Many of the world’s most successful racehorses can trace their lineage to one or both of these horses. The truth is these prolific progenitors are descendant from a common ancestor, the great Native Dancer, who was the sire of Raise a Native and the dam sire of Northern Dancer.

What is most amazing about these two stallions is the continued success from cross breeding descendants of Raise a Native with that of Northern Dancer. A recent example would be the 2015 Triple Crown winner, American Pharoah who is descended from Raise a Native’s son Mr. Prospector through “Pharoah’s” sire Pioneer of the Nile and Northern Dancer from his dam’s sire, Yankee Gentleman. 

Queen Elizabeth II visiting Raise a Native in 1984
(Spendthrift Farm@Facebook.com)