Rancocas Stable
Encyclopedia
Rancocas Farm was an American
thoroughbred horse racing stud
farm and racing stable located on Monmouth Road (County Road 537
) in Springfield Township, Burlington County, New Jersey
, Jobstown
, New Jersey
.
The farm was founded in the 1870s by the wealthy tobacco
manufacturer Pierre Lorillard IV
(1833-1901) who had a home in the town of Rancocas, now a part of Westampton Township, New Jersey
. Lorillard built his stable into one of the premier thoroughbred
breeding and training operations in the United States. Lorillard bred Parole
, one of the three greatest runners of the 1870s. In 1881, Lorillard's horse Iroquois
became the first American-owned and -bred horse to win a Europe
an classic race. Ridden by the champion English jockey, Fred Archer, Iroquois won the Epsom Derby
then went on to also capture the St. Leger Stakes
.
After Lorillard's passing, Rancocas Stable was purchased by Kansas
oil
industrialist Harry F. Sinclair
who invested considerable funds to continue its success and making it one of the dominant racing stables in the United States during the 1920s. For Sinclair, trainer Sam Hildreth
brought the stable victories in the Kentucky Derby
and in three Belmont Stakes
. Between 1923 and 1929 the stable had six horses compete in the Preakness Stakes
but never managed a win. Two of the stable's colts, Grey Lag
and Zev
, are in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame
. After their racing careers, both Purchase
and Lucullite stood there. Such was the fame of Rancocas Stable that the Pennsylvania Railroad
named baggage car
#5858 in its honor.
Among the jockeys who rode for Rancocas Stable were Hall of Famers Earl Sande
and Laverne Fator
. Sinclair's Rancocas Stable set the record as top money winner in a single season in 1923 that stood until 1941 when it was broken by Calumet Farm
.
Personal problems culminating in a prison term for his part in what became known in American history as the Teapot Dome scandal
(Sinclair sold US oil reserves to private interests for his own aggrandizement), forced Harry Sinclair to sell his horses and the farm. In 1943, William Helis purchased the 1300 acres (5.3 km²) farm and in 1946 acquired adjoining acreage to bring it up to 2500 acres (10.1 km²). On his death in 1950, management of the property was taken over by his son, William Jr. who was also involved in racing.
The site continues to operate as the Helis Stock Farm, and is run by Linda and Ed Lovenduski. The more than 2000 acres (8.1 km²) farm includes a number of original Rancocas Stable-era buildings that can be seen from the roadside; including a training barn with 1,100 windows enclosing a half-mile oblong indoor track.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
thoroughbred horse racing stud
Horse breeding
Horse breeding is reproduction in horses, and particularly the human-directed process of selective breeding of animals, particularly purebred horses of a given breed. Planned matings can be used to produce specifically desired characteristics in domesticated horses...
farm and racing stable located on Monmouth Road (County Road 537
County Route 537 (New Jersey)
County Route 537, abbreviated CR 537, is a county highway in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The highway extends from Delaware Avenue in Camden to Myrtle Avenue in Long Branch.-Camden County:...
) in Springfield Township, Burlington County, New Jersey
Springfield Township, Burlington County, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 3,227 people, 1,098 households, and 906 families residing in the township. The population density was 107.4 people per square mile . There were 1,138 housing units at an average density of 37.9 per square mile...
, Jobstown
Jobstown, New Jersey
Jobstown is an unincorporated area within Springfield Township in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. The area is served as United States Postal Service ZIP code 08041....
, 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...
.
The farm was founded in the 1870s by the wealthy tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
manufacturer Pierre Lorillard IV
Pierre Lorillard IV
Pierre Lorillard IV was an American tobacco manufacturer and thoroughbred race horse owner.-Biography:...
(1833-1901) who had a home in the town of Rancocas, now a part of Westampton Township, New Jersey
Westampton Township, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 7,217 people, 2,525 households, and 1,966 families residing in the township. The population density was 653.6 people per square mile . There were 2,581 housing units at an average density of 233.8 per square mile...
. Lorillard built his stable into one of the premier 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...
breeding and training operations in the United States. Lorillard bred Parole
Parole (horse)
Parole was a Thoroughbred race horse bred by Pierre Lorillard, a scion of the tobacco family. Lorillard and his brother George were both horsemen and competed throughout their careers...
, one of the three greatest runners of the 1870s. In 1881, Lorillard's horse Iroquois
Iroquois (horse)
Iroquois , was the first American-bred Thoroughbred race horse to win the prestigious Epsom Derby at Epsom Downs Racecourse, Epsom, Surrey, England. He then went on to win the St...
became the first American-owned and -bred horse to win a Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an classic race. Ridden by the champion English jockey, Fred Archer, Iroquois won the Epsom Derby
Epsom Derby
The Derby Stakes, popularly known as The Derby, internationally as the Epsom Derby, and under its present sponsor as the Investec Derby, is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies...
then went on to also capture the St. Leger Stakes
St. Leger Stakes
The St. Leger Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain which is open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run at Doncaster over a distance of 1 mile, 6 furlongs and 132 yards , and it is scheduled to take place each year in September.Established in 1776, the St. Leger...
.
After Lorillard's passing, Rancocas Stable was purchased by Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
oil
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
industrialist 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...
who invested considerable funds to continue its success and making it one of the dominant racing stables in the United States during the 1920s. For Sinclair, 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...
brought the stable victories in the 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...
and in three Belmont Stakes
Belmont Stakes
The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes Thoroughbred horse race held every June at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is a 1.5-mile horse race, open to three year old Thoroughbreds. Colts and geldings carry a weight of 126 pounds ; fillies carry 121 pounds...
. Between 1923 and 1929 the stable had six horses compete in 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 never managed a win. Two of the stable's colts, 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 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...
, are in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame
National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame
The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame was founded in 1950 in Saratoga Springs, New York, to honor the achievements of American thoroughbred race horses, jockeys, and trainers...
. After their racing careers, both Purchase
Purchase (horse)
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 , wrote: "…one of the most exquisitely beautiful of racehorses…to describe Purchase would be to exhaust the...
and Lucullite stood there. Such was the fame of Rancocas Stable that the Pennsylvania Railroad
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
named baggage car
Baggage car
A baggage car or luggage van is a type of railway vehicle often forming part of the composition of passenger trains and used to carry passengers' checked baggage, as well as parcels . Being typically coupled at the front of the train behind the locomotive, this type of car is sometimes described...
#5858 in its honor.
Among the jockeys who rode for Rancocas Stable were Hall of Famers Earl Sande
Earl Sande
Earl H. Sande was an American Hall of Fame jockey and thoroughbred horse trainer.Born in Groton, South Dakota, Earl Sande started out as a bronco buster in the early 1900s but then became a successful American quarter horse rider before switching to thoroughbred horse racing in 1918...
and Laverne Fator
Laverne Fator
Laverne Fator was an American Hall of Fame jockey.Born in Hailey, Idaho, Laverne Fator and his brothers Mark and Elmer all became jockeys. The most successful of the three, Laverne Fator's riding career began at small bush tracks in the Western United States. His first major win came in 1918 at...
. Sinclair's Rancocas Stable set the record as top money winner in a single season in 1923 that stood until 1941 when it was broken by Calumet Farm
Calumet Farm
Calumet Farm is a Thoroughbred breeding and training farm established in 1924 in Lexington, Kentucky, United States by William Monroe Wright, founding owner of the Calumet Baking Powder Company. Calumet is located in the heart of Lexington's blue grass country, the finest horse breeding region in...
.
Personal problems culminating in a prison term for his part in what became known in American history as the Teapot Dome scandal
Teapot Dome scandal
The Teapot Dome Scandal was a bribery incident that took place in the United States in 1922–23, during the administration of President Warren G. Harding. Secretary of the Interior Albert B. Fall leased Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome and two other locations to private oil companies at low...
(Sinclair sold US oil reserves to private interests for his own aggrandizement), forced Harry Sinclair to sell his horses and the farm. In 1943, William Helis purchased the 1300 acres (5.3 km²) farm and in 1946 acquired adjoining acreage to bring it up to 2500 acres (10.1 km²). On his death in 1950, management of the property was taken over by his son, William Jr. who was also involved in racing.
The site continues to operate as the Helis Stock Farm, and is run by Linda and Ed Lovenduski. The more than 2000 acres (8.1 km²) farm includes a number of original Rancocas Stable-era buildings that can be seen from the roadside; including a training barn with 1,100 windows enclosing a half-mile oblong indoor track.