Purchase (horse)
Encyclopedia
Purchase an American
Thoroughbred
racehorse, was called "The Adonis of the Turf." Walter Vosburgh, the official handicapper for The Jockey Club
as well as a turf historian
for many years (and for whom the Vosburgh Stakes
were named), wrote: "…one of the most exquisitely beautiful of racehorses…to describe Purchase would be to exhaust the superlative."
He was also one of the unluckiest racehorses to appear on the turf.
Purchase was the best son of Ormandale, the only foal in the 1903 crop of Ormonde. Racing, Ormonde went undefeated, an English
Triple Crown winner, but as an imported sire he was almost infertile. As for his son, Ormandale (born in Menlo Park, California
), he was not the runner his father was, but as a sire, he was much the better horse. Sent to Kentucky
in 1912 at the death of his California
breeder, he entered the second half of his stud career as an immediate success. The dam of Purchase was Cherryola whose racing career was more than respectable, winning 26 races between the years 1909 to 1913. (On April 15, 1923, along with forty other horses, she died in a barn fire at Harry F. Sinclair
's Rancocas Stable
, New Jersey
.)
Eventually standing 16 hands 1 inch, Purchase was a long-legged golden chestnut
, sold as a yearling to the Brighton Stable which was shortly thereafter dispersed. The trainer Sam Hildreth
bought Purchase for $12,500. By the end of his racing career, Hildreth said that Purchase was one of the greatest racehorses he ever trained…"and I say that without any strings to it."
Racing at two, he went winless in at least seven races, including the Futurity Stakes (coming in second) basically due to what Hildreth described as a "bad break." But Sam Hildreth thought all that would change with maturity, especially as the colt had injured his leg just before another two-year-old race. And Hildreth was right. Racing at the age of three, Purchase was barely beaten out of winning the three-year-old colt
division by Sir Barton
even though Purchase had won nine races of 11 that year, including the inaugural running of the Jockey Club Gold Cup
. Hildreth would have entered Purchase in the 1919 Kentucky Derby
as well as the Preakness Stakes
, but just before the Derby, Purchase reared up in his stall and caught a front hoof in a hay rack. This delayed his third year campaign until he beat the first Triple Crown winner
Sir Barton by three lengths in the Dwyer Stakes
on July 10, 1919.
In the Saratoga Handicap, Purchase bested Eternal who was co-favorite for Sir Barton's Kentucky Derby and had been American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt as well as America
's top earner in 1918. Purchase came in second to Eternal in the Brooklyn Handicap
and second to Exterminator
in the Saratoga Cup
. (Exterminator won the Saratoga Cup four years in row: 1918 through 1921 as well as the 1918 Kentucky Derby.) Purchase took the Saranac Stakes carrying 133 pounds and the Huron Stakes carrying 134. In the two races he lost, he came in a good second, and in the race against Exterminator, it was his jockey, claimed Hildreth, who rode Purchase badly, as well as losing his whip. Otherwise, Sam Hildreth was sure he would have won.
Sometime during this streak, Hildreth was offered $100,000 for the colt (or, depending on the source, $300,000), but turned it down.
At the end of his three-year-old season, Hildreth, feeling he had nothing else to beat (and the connections of Man o' War
only racing their horse against three-year-olds; by then Purchase was four), still kept Purchase in training. Breezing at Laurel Park, the horse struck a rock on the track, tearing the ligaments loose in his off front leg. He did not race again until he was five years old. In this last season he ran under the colors of Harry Sinclair. Beginning in July 1921, he appeared at the Empire City track in a sprint race, causing a sensation among racing fans. He won that race and the one after, but on his way to Saratoga, New York
to continue that year's campaign, once again ill luck struck. On the train he wrenched one of his hind legs. Produce was retired to stud at Rancocas Stable and stood in the largest box stall next to Zev
, Grey Lag
and Lucullite.
When Rancocas Stable was itself dispersed in 1930, Purchase was 14 years old. He sold for only $2,000. At stud he had been a disappointment, but like other horses trained by Hildreth it was probably due to Fowler's solution
, a concoction Hildreth gave all his horses which contained arsenic
and strychnine
. Even so, he did get a few winners. His daughter Fire of Orissa won the Fashion Stakes and the Clover Stakes. Sabine, Semba, Miss Purray, and a number of others won lesser races.
Purchase died at William Elder's Merryland Farm in Maryland
in 1936.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Thoroughbred
Thoroughbred
The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...
racehorse, was called "The Adonis of the Turf." Walter Vosburgh, the official handicapper for The Jockey Club
The Jockey Club
The Jockey Club, formed on February 9, 1894, is the keeper of The American Stud Book. It came into existence after James R. Keene spearheaded a drive in support of racehorse trainers who had complained about the Board of Control that governed racing in New York State.-History:On its formation, The...
as well as a turf historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
for many years (and for whom the Vosburgh Stakes
Vosburgh Stakes
The Vosburgh Stakes is an American thoroughbred horse race held annually at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. Run at the end of September/early October, it is open to horses three-years-old and up of either gender...
were named), wrote: "…one of the most exquisitely beautiful of racehorses…to describe Purchase would be to exhaust the superlative."
He was also one of the unluckiest racehorses to appear on the turf.
Purchase was the best son of Ormandale, the only foal in the 1903 crop of Ormonde. Racing, Ormonde went undefeated, an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
Triple Crown winner, but as an imported sire he was almost infertile. As for his son, Ormandale (born in Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City...
), he was not the runner his father was, but as a sire, he was much the better horse. Sent to Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
in 1912 at the death of his California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
breeder, he entered the second half of his stud career as an immediate success. The dam of Purchase was Cherryola whose racing career was more than respectable, winning 26 races between the years 1909 to 1913. (On April 15, 1923, along with forty other horses, she died in a barn fire at Harry F. Sinclair
Harry F. Sinclair
Harry Ford Sinclair was an American oil industrialist.-Early life:Harry Sinclair was born in Benwood, West Virginia, now a suburb of the city of Wheeling. Sinclair grew up in Independence, Kansas. The son of a pharmacist, after finishing high school, he entered the pharmacy department of the...
's Rancocas Stable
Rancocas Stable
Rancocas Farm was an American thoroughbred horse racing stud farm and racing stable located on Monmouth Road in Springfield Township, Burlington County, New Jersey, Jobstown, New Jersey....
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
.)
Eventually standing 16 hands 1 inch, Purchase was a long-legged golden chestnut
Chestnut (coat)
Chestnut is a hair coat color of horses consisting of a reddish-to-brown coat with a mane and tail the same or lighter in color than the coat. Genetically and visually, chestnut is characterized by the absolute absence of true black hairs...
, sold as a yearling to the Brighton Stable which was shortly thereafter dispersed. The trainer Sam Hildreth
Sam Hildreth
Samuel Clay Hildreth was an American Thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame trainer and owner.Born in Independence, Missouri, Sam Hildreth began his training career in 1887, competing at racetracks in the Midwestern United States with such horses as the good racemare Hurley Burley, the dam of...
bought Purchase for $12,500. By the end of his racing career, Hildreth said that Purchase was one of the greatest racehorses he ever trained…"and I say that without any strings to it."
Racing at two, he went winless in at least seven races, including the Futurity Stakes (coming in second) basically due to what Hildreth described as a "bad break." But Sam Hildreth thought all that would change with maturity, especially as the colt had injured his leg just before another two-year-old race. And Hildreth was right. Racing at the age of three, Purchase was barely beaten out of winning the three-year-old colt
Colt (horse)
A colt is a young male horse, under the age of four. The term "colt" is often confused with foal, which refers to a horse of either sex under one year of age....
division by Sir Barton
Sir Barton
Sir Barton, , was a chestnut thoroughbred colt who in 1919 became the first winner of the American Triple Crown.He was sired by leading stud Star Shoot out of the Hanover mare Lady Sterling. His grandsire was the 1893 English Triple Crown champion, Isinglass.Sir Barton was bred in Kentucky by...
even though Purchase had won nine races of 11 that year, including the inaugural running of the Jockey Club Gold Cup
Jockey Club Gold Cup
The Jockey Club Gold Cup, established in 1919, is a prestigious thoroughbred flat race open to horses of either gender three-years-old and up. It is typically the main event of the fall meeting at Belmont Park, just as the Belmont Stakes is of the spring meeting and the Travers Stakes is of the...
. Hildreth would have entered Purchase in the 1919 Kentucky Derby
Kentucky Derby
The Kentucky Derby is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses, held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is one and a quarter mile at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry...
as well as the Preakness Stakes
Preakness Stakes
The Preakness Stakes is an American flat Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds held on the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a Grade I race run over a distance of 9.5 furlongs on dirt. Colts and geldings carry 126 pounds ; fillies 121 lb...
, but just before the Derby, Purchase reared up in his stall and caught a front hoof in a hay rack. This delayed his third year campaign until he beat the first Triple Crown winner
United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing
In the United States, the "Triple Crown" is usually the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, a series of three Thoroughbred horse races for three-year-old horses run in May and early June of each year consisting of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes.While Daily Racing Form...
Sir Barton by three lengths in the Dwyer Stakes
Dwyer Stakes
The Dwyer Stakes is an American Grade II stakes race for three-year-old thoroughbred racehorses held annually at Belmont Park racetrack in Elmont, Long Island, New York. Run in early July, it is open to three-year-old horses and is raced over a distance of 1 1/16-miles on dirt...
on July 10, 1919.
In the Saratoga Handicap, Purchase bested Eternal who was co-favorite for Sir Barton's Kentucky Derby and had been American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt as well as America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
's top earner in 1918. Purchase came in second to Eternal in the Brooklyn Handicap
Brooklyn Handicap
The Brooklyn Handicap is an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually in early June at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York, on Long Island. It currently is a Grade II event open to three-year-olds and up willing to race one and one-half miles on dirt....
and second to Exterminator
Exterminator (horse)
Exterminator was an American Thoroughbred racehorse and the winner of the 1918 Kentucky Derby, and in 1922 won Horse of the Year honors....
in the Saratoga Cup
Saratoga Breeders' Cup Handicap
The Saratoga Breeders’ Cup Handicap was, until it was discontinued in 2005, a Thoroughbred race for horses three-years-old and up run at Saratoga Race Course...
. (Exterminator won the Saratoga Cup four years in row: 1918 through 1921 as well as the 1918 Kentucky Derby.) Purchase took the Saranac Stakes carrying 133 pounds and the Huron Stakes carrying 134. In the two races he lost, he came in a good second, and in the race against Exterminator, it was his jockey, claimed Hildreth, who rode Purchase badly, as well as losing his whip. Otherwise, Sam Hildreth was sure he would have won.
Sometime during this streak, Hildreth was offered $100,000 for the colt (or, depending on the source, $300,000), but turned it down.
At the end of his three-year-old season, Hildreth, feeling he had nothing else to beat (and the connections of Man o' War
Man O' War
Man O' War, man o' war or manowar may refer to:* Man-of-war, a warship* Man of war for uses with this spelling - Places :...
only racing their horse against three-year-olds; by then Purchase was four), still kept Purchase in training. Breezing at Laurel Park, the horse struck a rock on the track, tearing the ligaments loose in his off front leg. He did not race again until he was five years old. In this last season he ran under the colors of Harry Sinclair. Beginning in July 1921, he appeared at the Empire City track in a sprint race, causing a sensation among racing fans. He won that race and the one after, but on his way to Saratoga, New York
Saratoga, New York
Saratoga is a town in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 5,141 at the 2000 census. It is also the commonly used, but not official, name for the neighboring and much more populous city, Saratoga Springs. The major village in the town of Saratoga is Schuylerville which is...
to continue that year's campaign, once again ill luck struck. On the train he wrenched one of his hind legs. Produce was retired to stud at Rancocas Stable and stood in the largest box stall next to Zev
Zev (horse)
Zev was an American thoroughbred horse racing champion.-Background:A brown colt, Zev was sired by The Finn out of the mare Miss Kearney . Bred by the famous horseman John E. Madden, Zev was owned by the Rancocas Stable of Harry F...
, Grey Lag
Grey Lag
Grey Lag was a thoroughbred race horse born in Kentucky and bred by John E. Madden. At his Hamburg Place near Lexington, Kentucky, Maddon had a good stallion called Star Shoot which he bred to all his mares. Out of a failed racemare called Miss Minnie who had produced no previous winners, he got...
and Lucullite.
When Rancocas Stable was itself dispersed in 1930, Purchase was 14 years old. He sold for only $2,000. At stud he had been a disappointment, but like other horses trained by Hildreth it was probably due to Fowler's solution
Fowler's solution
Fowler's solution is a solution containing potassium arsenite that once was prescribed as a remedy or a tonic. A Dr. Fowler of Stafford, England proposed its use in 1786 as a substitute for a patent medicine, "tasteless ague drop." It was prescribed in the United States until the late 1950s for a...
, a concoction Hildreth gave all his horses which contained arsenic
Arsenic
Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As, atomic number 33 and relative atomic mass 74.92. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in conjunction with sulfur and metals, and also as a pure elemental crystal. It was first documented by Albertus Magnus in 1250.Arsenic is a metalloid...
and strychnine
Strychnine
Strychnine is a highly toxic , colorless crystalline alkaloid used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents. Strychnine causes muscular convulsions and eventually death through asphyxia or sheer exhaustion...
. Even so, he did get a few winners. His daughter Fire of Orissa won the Fashion Stakes and the Clover Stakes. Sabine, Semba, Miss Purray, and a number of others won lesser races.
Purchase died at William Elder's Merryland Farm in Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
in 1936.