chew1974

@Book{ chew1974,
    author = {Peter Chew},
    title = {The Kentucky Derby: The First 100 Years},
    address = {Boston},
    publisher = {Houghton Mifflin},
    year = 1974,
}

p. 7: “Fifty-two of the first sixty-one winners of the Kentucky classic carried the blood of a Diomed descendant, Lexington—1850 to 1875—whom turf historian William H. P. Robertson of The Thoroughbred Record flatly calls ‘the most successful stallion in history.’”

p. 13 discusses Robert A. Alexander’s Woodburn farm (see Alexander Family Papers), which covered 2700 acres when purchased and grew to 4000 acres. “A lifelong bachelor, Alexander was educated at Cambridge University, then studied animal husbandry for two years in Europe.” The farm’s home “is a beautiful, white-columned mansion with lovely cherry and mahogany woodwork, fireplaces of carved marble, glittering candelabra, and a handsome double-library with time-mellowed, leather-bound volumes.”

p. 14: Alexander purchased Lexington from Richard Ten Broech for $15,000 in 1856, “the highest price ever paid up to that time for an American stud horse.”

Lexington sired more than 600 colts and fillies, an amazing 260 of them winners, most notably Asteroid, Norfolk, and Kentucky, all foaled in 1861. Today these three would be called “super horses.” Woodburn horses dominated the turf from 1864 to 1880, and their descendants continued to make racing history long past the turn of the century. (p. 14)

p. 270: a horse named “Col. Zeb Ward,” owned by G. M. Rye and ridden by Blaylock, finished seventh in the 14th Kentucky Derby, May 14, 1888, after entering at odds of 12 to 1.