Harry Payne Whitney

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Harry Payne Whitney (April 29, 1872 - October 26, 1930) was a businessman, thoroughbred horsebreeder, and member of the prominent Whitney family.

Born in New York City, he was the eldest son of the very wealthy businessman and United States Secretary of the Navy, William C. Whitney and brother to William Payne Whitney.

Harry Payne Whitney was sent to study at Groton School in Groton, Massachusetts then attended Yale University, graduating with a law degree in 1894. He was a member of the Skull and Bones.

He married Gertrude Vanderbilt with whom he had three children: Flora Payne Whitney, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney (a founder of Pan American Airways) and Barbara Whitney.

An avid sportman, he was a ten-goal polo player. His love of the sport was inherited from his father who had been involved with polo when it was first organized in the United States in 1876 by James Gordon Bennett, Jr.. H. P. Whitney organized the U. S. polo team that beat England in 1909. As well, he was a board member of the Montauk Yacht Club and competed with his yacht "Vanitie" in the America's Cup. Whitney also served on the board of directors of the Long Island Motor Parkway, built by his wife's cousin, William Kissam Vanderbilt II.

[edit] Thoroughbred horse racing

Harry Payne Whitney was a major figure in thoroughbred horse racing. He owned a large stable and in 1915 established a horse breeding farm in Lexington, Kentucky where he developed the American polo pony by breeding American Quarter Horse stallions with his thoroughbred mares. He was thoroughbred racing's leading owner of the year in the United States on eight occasions and the breeder of almost two hundred stakes race winners. His Kentucky-bred horse Whisk Broom II raced in England then at age six came back to the U.S. where he won the New York Handicap Triple.

Whitney had nineteen horses who ran in the Kentucky Derby, winning it the first time in 1915 with Regret, the first filly ever to capture the race. Regret went on to earn Horse of the Year honors and was named to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. Whitney won the Kentucky Derby for the second time in 1927 with the colt, Whiskery. His record of six wins in the Preakness Stakes stood as the most by any breeder until 1968 when Calumet Farm broke the record. Whitney's colt, Burgomaster, won the Belmont Stakes and also received Horse of the Year honors. Amongst many, Whitney's breeding operation produced Equipoise and Johren.

Whitney's stable won the following prestigious U.S. Triple Crown races:

• Kentucky Derby:
  • 1915  : Regret (voted Horse of the Year)
  • 1927  : Whiskery

• Preakness Stakes:
  • 1908  : Royal Tourist
  • 1913  : Buskin
  • 1914  : Holiday
  • 1921  : Broomspun
  • 1927  : Bostonian
  • 1928  : Victorian

• Belmont Stakes:
  • 1905  : Tanya (filly)
  • 1906  : Burgomaster (voted Horse of the Year)
  • 1913  : Prince Eugene
  • 1918  : Johren

His Lexington, Kentucky stud farm was passed on to his son, C.V. Whitney, who owned it until 1989 when it became part of Gainesway Farm.

[edit] Philanthropy

The benefactor to many organizations, in 1920 H. P. Whitney financed the Whitney Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History, Rollo Beck's major zoological expedition that sent teams of scientists and naturalists to undertake botanical research and to study the bird population of several thousand islands in the Pacific Ocean.

The Whitney Collection of Sporting Art was donated in his memory to the Yale University Art Gallery.

Harry Whitney died in 1930 at age fifty-eight. He and his wife are interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx.