Mr. Prospector

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mr. Prospector

2007 book on Mr. Prospector by Avalyn Hunter
Sire Raise a Native
Grandsire Native Dancer
Dam Gold Digger
Damsire Nashua
Sex Stallion
Foaled 1970
Country United States Flag of the United States
Colour Bay
Breeder Leslie Combs II
Owner Abraham I. Savin
Trainer Jimmy Croll
Record 14: 7-4-2
Earnings $112,170
Major Racing Wins, Awards and Honours
Major Racing Wins
Gravesend Handicap (1974)
Whirlaway Handicap (1974)
Racing Awards
Leading sire in North America (1987 & 1988)
Leading broodmare sire in North America
(1997–2003, 2005–06)
Infobox last updated on: February 5, 2007.

Mr. Prospector (1970–1999) was a thoroughbred racehorse foaled in Kentucky, whose descendants have come to dominate the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. He won half of his 14 career races.

Mr. Prospector also-ran in the year the great Secretariat won the Triple Crown. Mr. Prospector's sire was Raise a Native, a son of Native Dancer and out of the Nashua mare, Gold Digger. A $200,000 yearling in 1971 (a pricey sum for the early 1970's), "Mr. P", as he came to be known, was trained by Jimmy Croll, a Hall of Fame member who went on to train the great Holy Bull.

Mr. Prospector managed to set track records for six furlongs (1,207 m) at Gulfstream Park and Garden State, but his racing record provided little inkling of his success as a breeding sire.

One of Mr. P's most remarkable feats was siring one winner of each of the Triple Crown races, a feat his grandson, Unbridled, has also accomplished. His Triple Crown race winners were the 2000 Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus, a promising young sire; 1985 Preakness Stakes winner Tank's Prospect; and 1982 Belmont Stakes winner and Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year, Conquistador Cielo.

Contents

[edit] Ancestry

In tail-male descent (traced entirely through males, the line in which Mr. Prospector has made his mark), Mr. Prospector descends through the Darley Arabian and was bred alongside Blazing Rate. Virtually all horses of this line alive today descend through Whalebone (foaled 1807), via Stockwell (1849). And the overwhelming majority of these descend from Stockwell's grandson Bend Or (1877) through his great-great-grandson Phalaris (1913). Successful sire-lines continue to crowd out less successful ones as breeders seek successful bloodlines, and in recent years Mr. Prospector has appeared likely to join this catalogue of likely tail-male ancestors of major racers, whether they be heavily promoted and trained and owned by prominent figures, or "Cinderellas" like Smarty Jones or Funny Cide.

On June 1, 1999, Mr. Prospector died in his stall of complications from colic at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky. He was buried between Nijinsky and Secretariat.

[edit] Progeny

Mr. Prospector in an impromptu family tree with his sons plus one daughter (Carson City), their descendants, and their sons, etc., with Triple Crown races won:

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Languages