Myrtlewood (horse)
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| Myrtlewood | |
|---|---|
| Sire | Blue Larkspur |
| Grandsire | Black Servant |
| Dam | Frizeur |
| Damsire | Sweeper |
| Sex | Filly |
| Foaled | 1932 |
| Country | United States  |
| Colour | Bay |
| Breeder | Brownell Combs |
| Owner | Brownell Combs |
| Trainer | Ray Kindred |
| Record | 22 Starts: 15 - 4 - 2 |
| Earnings | $40,620 |
| Major Racing Wins, Awards and Honours | |
| Major Racing Wins | |
| F. S. Peabody Memorial Handicap (1935) Hawthorne Sprint Handicap (1935 & 1936) Match Race with Clang (1935) Quickstep Handicap (1936) Lakeside Handicap (1936) Motor City Handicap (1936) Cadillac Handicap (1936) Keen Handicap (1936) Ashland Stakes (1936) Match race with Miss Merriment at Keeneland (1936) |
|
| Racing Awards | |
| American Champion Older Female Horse (1936) |
|
| Honours | |
| U.S. Racing Hall of Fame (1979) | |
| Infobox last updated on: December 21, 2007. | |
Myrtlewood was a champion Thoroughbred race horse as well as an exceptional broodmare. Born in Kentucky in 1932, her bloodlines were impeccable. By Blue Larkspur by Black Servant by the great sire Black Toney which means she went back to Ben Brush, her dam was the French bred Frizeur by Sweeper, a son of another great sire Broomstick by, again, Ben Brush. Frizeur’s dam was the racing mare Frizette (after whom the Frizette Stakes is named) by Hamburg taking her back to Hanover, St. Simon and Hindoo.
A sensation at three (when Seabiscuit was also racing but making little impact), at four years of age in 1936, Myrtlewood made ten starts under the jockey George South and won eight, seven of which were stakes races. In the Lakeside Handicap she equaled the track record which was a world record for a female. In the Motor City Handicap and Cadillac Handicaps she set new track records for the Detroit racet course.
Myrtlewood was involved in match races with two exceptional racers of her day, one a colt, Clang (winner of the 1936 Clark Handicap), the other a filly, Miss Merriment (staring in 77 races and a winner or placer 2/3rds of the time). Myrtlewood won her match with Miss Merriment under a hand drive. In the Midwest, both Clang and Myrtlewood had set records. Myrtlewood had beaten the time established by Iron Mask for six furlongs while Clang had equaled Roseben’s seven furlong record. After Myrtlewood beat Clang three times, a match race was proposed. In the first at Hawthorne Race Course, Mrytlewood beat Clang a fourth time, winning by a nose. In their second meeting in Cincinnati, Clang beat her by a nose...which represents 1/5th of a second.[citation needed]
[edit] As a broodmare
Myrtlewood proved a splendid broodmare, producing two great fillies: Durazna, the champion two-year-old in 1943, and Miss Dogwood, winner of the 1942 Kentucky Oaks.
Mrytlewood was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1979.
[edit] References
- "Champions, The Lives, Times, and Past Performances of America's Greatest Thoroughbreds, Revised Edition, Champions from 1893-2004," the Daily Racing Form
- Myrtlewood’s pedigree
- Myrtlewood in the Hall of Fame
