He was a nasty colt, and the only – to date – Elitlopp-winner to be led to the winners’ circle by two grooms holding a chain. The blue-blooded trotter Jorky was no treat to be around, and he was a handful for his opponents as well. The only horse to win all four group I-Criteriums in France, Jorky was a mean superstar.
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The royally-bred colt was not a traditional early talent like many top US trotters. Only at 4 was Peter the Brewer ready to compete at a high level, but then he became an elite trotter in no time and was seen as a likely candidate to be one of the first 2:00 trotters.
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Being first usually carries prestige and being the first Hambletonian winner carries a certain immortality to it. The massive $73,451.32 purse – more than five times the 1926 Kentucky Futurity purse ($14,000) – attracted 14 hopefuls to the mile track in Syracuse. While Hazleton was the pre-season favorite, Guy McKinney was not considered to have much of a chance. A new trainer turned the colt around, however and Guy McKinney went on to have a great three-year-old season.
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He had a fantastic pedigree and came off a two-year-old season in which he set a world record. That did not prompt the owner to keep him: given that Calumet Farm was converting to a thoroughbred operation, the colt was put up for auction at the end of that season. Not surprisingly, Calumet Chuck became the most expensive sale at the auction. However, his three-year-old season was winless and full of frustration – but he got some revenge at stud.
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A rugged black colt, Hoot Mon became known as the Hambletonian winner who sired four winners of the same race, earning him nickname the nickname of “the Hambletonian sire.”
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When the French studbook was briefly opened between 1987 and 1992, conservative French breeders generally nixed the opportunity to breed their mares to foreign sires. Some even went as far as claiming they “didn’t want to plant weed in their garden”, saying in no unclear terms that the American standardbred had absolutely nothing to offer the French trotter whose studbook had been closed since 1937 and only opened for five foreign-born stallions and a few other exceptions. Despite what the naysayers claimed, though, opening up the studbook took French trotting to a completely new level – and the best example of this is Coktail Jet.
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The Franco-American cross is more popular than ever, and many in the US have also recognized the benefits of such a breeding. It’s often said the cross created a new breed (figuratively, not literally) in the 80s and 90s. Though there is some truth to that, the Franco-American cross was very popular much earlier than that. In fact, more than 100 years ago the French trotter (Trotteur Francais) could not compete with neither the American standardbreds nor the Russian orlov trotters. Then came a French-American cross to establish himself as the first French international star.
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Even though Hambletonian is universally regarded as the founding sire of the standardbred there have been others that looked to be great sires but now are largely forgotten. The most important of these is probably the Indiana bred Blue Bull, a pacer whose get were primarily trotters. Outperforming the legendary father of trotters, Hambletonian, back in the day, Blue Bull is almost completely forgotten and has now slipped into obscurity.
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A very good trotter and world champion, he was initially deemed not good to stand stud at Hanover Shoe Farms and sold to Europe. When his Italian buy failed to pay, Star’s Pride was given a small opportunity at stud at the famed nursey. Despite the lack of confidence and not being given the best mares, the colt immdiately showed himself as a spectacular stallion – maybe the best in history.
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The first world champion bred in California, Occident came out nowhere in the early 1870s and tied Goldsmith Maid’s absolute world record in 1873. It was very different to a few years earlier when he was living a life of abuse and ill-treatment. Later he would play a key role in the development of both picture technology but also our understanding of horse gaits.
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