The paternity puzzle

Once in a blue moon a horse receives attention disproportionate to its trotting abilities. Anteeo Custer was a good trotter in Scandinavia more than 100 years ago, but has received much more attention for one single foal that may not even be his.

Born in the US in 1910, Anteeo Custer, sometimes referred to as Anteo Custer, was imported to Denmark together with his dam Bertine the same year. As a 2-year-old he won the Dansk Opdrætningsløb (the “Danish Bred Race”) and the following year Dansk Trav Kriterium, the biggest races in that country for 2 and 3-year-olds, respectively. Both races were comfortably won in new record times. He failed to win the Derby in 1914, thus failing to become a Triple Crown winner, as he “only” finished third in that race. As an older trotter was unable to follow up on his excellent youth performances, however.

Daddy issues

In 1917, Anteeo Custer was exported to Norway, primarily as a stallion. He did race, though sparingly and even though he was a good trotter, he consistently came up short against The Eno, at the time the best aged trotter in the land of fjords. Moreover, as a foreign-born horse he was often given impossible handicaps: in a race at Etterstad, the racetrack in Oslo prior to Bjerke being opened in 1928, on Sep 3, 1921, Anteeo Custer was given a massive 256 meter (280 yards) handicap. Needless to say, the colt gave up midway through the race.

As a stallion, however, Anteeo Custer did well and his progeny includes Prins Custer, one of the best Norwegian horses in the late 1920s. For a little while, Prins Custer also held the record for the fastest Norwegian-born trotter. In 1928 Anteeo Custer was sold to CA Lundgren in Mellerud, Sweden together with several Norwegian coldblood trotters.

Two years later, in 1930, the coldblood trotter Solo, officially sired by Omer Jakson, was born at Lundgren’s farm. Solo was the dominant coldblood trotter at the end of the 30s, finishing his career 63-13-26 in 114 starts. He was of normal size for a coldblood trotter, but had a relatively graceful exterior for a coldblood trotter combined with a speed that made many suspected that the official pedigree was not correct. Very quickly rumors surfaced that Solo was really sired by Anteeo Custer. The controversial colt himself had died in 1929, reputedly from a accident at Lundgren’s farm, but many has later suspected the horse was euthanized to make it harder to establish any relationship between Solo and Anteeo Custer.

Eventually Solo was suspended by the The Swedish trotting association, STC, who also wanted Lundgren to declare the paternity under oath, which he refused. Some time passed and eventually Lundgren threatened to sue STC if Solo was not allowed to start. Though STC felt they had a good case, there was no hard evidence and with the the reputed sire dead they eventually relented. The parental heritage of Solo has been debated for decades and is still a hotly contested issued. Conformation descriptions and pictures are used by either side to prove their point. Today, Solo is found far back in the pedigrees, however, and his sireline died out relatively quickly, as none of his son managed to reproduce his speed. (And his best son, Helge Solo, was a gelding.)

A blue-blooded pedigree

There is no question of Anteeo Custer’s pedigree, though, and the maternal family was considered one of the better ones in the late 1800 as it hailed from Robert A Alexander’s legendary Woodburn stud in Spring Station, KY. One of his broodmares was Dahlia, a gray mare who had inherited the color of her sire, Pilot Jr. Dahlia was the dam of Daireen T2:21 1/2 (1.27,9), sired by another Woodburn stud, Harold, best known as the sire of world champion Maud S. Daireen was also a good broodmare, and one of her daughters was Bettine. In the care of JJ Ryan of Chester, PA was a good trotter and took a record of 2:14 3/4 (1.23,7).

In 1910, Bettine was a broodmare at Danforth Farm in Washington, IL, where Ed Custer 3,2:12 1/4 also stood stud. It was also there she gave birth to Anteeo Custer. His sire Ed Custer was a blue-blooded stallion as a full sister to Miss Bertha C, an extremely talented but highly temperamental filly. Miss Bertha C was a spectacular broodmare who sired two world champions in Miss Bertha Dillon and Sister Bertha, both by Dillon Axworthy. Miss Bertha Dillon is one of the best broodmares in the history of Hanover Shoe Farms and is inducted in the Goshed Hall of Fame.

“A horse devil”

Although largely unknown now, Bettine’s sire Anteeo was at one point a big name in the world of trotting. When Anteeo was sold as a 12-year-old at auction in February 1891 he fetched $55,000, the highest price ever paid for a horse at auction. Anteeo was sold by MR Bissel and SA Browne to close their partnership, according to an article in the NY Times on Feb 20, 1891, after a bidding war including both of these, John D Rockefeller’s agent and George C Morgan of Chicago. Browne eventually had the highest bid with $55,000.

But despite being the world’s most expensive horse at auction, Anteeo had his negatives. In the Chicago Tribune on Nov 17, 1901, it says about Anteeo and his sons: “The only trouble with the Anteeo branch of the Electioneer tribe is that its members are liable to inherit the vicious disposition of Anteeo, who was a horse devil, if there ever was one. He was not only mean but, like most horses of that class, had an almost human intelligence and malignity (…)”

In one of the more famous stallion battles of earlier times Anteeo displayed that intelligence and cunning when nearly killing Empire, a rival stallion also standing stud at SA Browne’s farm at Kalamazoo. Once Anteeo broke out of his stall and into a small paddock. He then kicked down a tight board fence – or enough of it to enable him to crawl through into the paddock that lay behind the stall of Empire. Finally he broke down the back door of Empire’s stall, and when that was done he entered the little building and attacked the other stallion. When farm hands finally came to Empire’s rescue he had been thoroughly and viciously beaten by Anteeo.

Had it not been for the controversy surrounding Solo’s pedigree Anteeo Custer would be a largely forgotten horse, only appearing in some historical Danish and Norwegian records, but instead his name will always be remembered and his possible parentage makes him an immortal, though not for the right reasons, in coldblood trotting history.

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