Tom Ochiltree
| Tom Ochiltree | |
|---|---|
 Tom Ochiltree | |
| Sire | Lexington |
| Grandsire | Boston |
| Dam | Katona |
| Damsire | Voucher |
| Sex | Stallion |
| Foaled | 1872 |
| Country | United States |
| Colour | Bay |
| Breeder | Woodburn Stud (A. J. Alexander) |
| Owner |
Jno. F. Chamberlain W. H. Chamberlain George L. Lorillard Wyndham Walden |
| Trainer | R. Wyndham Walden |
| Record | 33 Starts: 21 – ? - ? |
| Earnings | $43,555 |
| Major wins | |
|
Annual Sweepstakes (1875) Preakness Stakes (1875) | |
| Awards | |
| American Co-Champion Older Male Horse (1876) | |
| Honours | |
| American Champion Three-Year-Old Male Horse (1875) | |
Tom Ochiltree (1872–1897), was an American Thoroughbred racehorse.
Background
One of the last by the great foundation stallion, blind Lexington, still standing at what by then was A. J. Alexander's Woodburn Stud in Kentucky, Tom Ochiltree was an enormous colt, eventually reaching 16 hands 2½ inches high with a girth of 76 inches.
Purchased by J. F. Chamberlain at the 1872 Woodburn yearling sale for $500, he eventually found himself at age four in the hands of the tobacco heir George Lynde Lorillard (who also owned Duke of Magenta). Trained by Hall of Fame conditioner Wyndham Walden (founder of Bowling Brook Farm in Carroll County, Maryland), Tom Ochiltree won the Preakness Stakes in the last days of the great match races and the very year the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks were first run: 1875.
In the same year as Tom Ochiltree was foaled, another horse was born at the neighboring Nantura Stock Farm that would prove to be one of Tom Ochiltree's greatest rivals, Ten Broeck. One year later, 1873, a third horse was born, Parole (bred by the brother of Tom Ochiltree's owner, Pierre Lorillard IV) who would become a rival to both Tom Ochiltree and Ten Broeck, just as the brothers were intense rivals on the track.[1] In 1877, with the addition of the younger Parole, these three would ignite the racing world in one of its biggest match races. [2]
Racing career
At three, Tom Ochiltree lost the Breckenridge Stakes to Aristides, winner of the first Kentucky Derby, but he won the Annual Sweepstakes and the Dixie Stakes, as well as the Preakness. At the same time Ten Broeck was winning all his races. These two were then considered the best horses in the Union. In those days, that could mean only one thing: a match race.[3] But for one reason or another, the owners of both colts avoided a confrontation. At four, Tom Ochiltree won the Baltimore Cup, the Monmouth Cup, the Saratoga Cup and the Continental Cup. At five, he took his second Baltimore Cup, the Westchester Cup, the Grand National Handicap, and the All-Aged Stakes.
The Pimlico Match
On October 24, 1877 at Baltimore, Maryland's Pimlico a "match" race was run between Parole, Ten Broeck and Tom Ochiltree. It was scheduled for the first day of the October meeting of the Maryland Jockey Club. By this time Ten Broeck ("King of the Western Turf") was winning everything in the midwest, while Tom Ochiltree and Parole were exchanging wins on the east coast that were so heated that a backer of Parole attempted to poison Tom Ochiltree, an attempt that sickened his stablemate Leander instead.[1] That July Parole had beaten Tom Ochiltree in the Saratoga Cup but Tom Ochiltree had come back and beaten Parole twice that October in the Grand National Stakes and All-Aged Handicap. On the day of the three-way match, perhaps 20,000 people showed up, filling every place in the stands or sitting in their carriages to watch. Both houses of Congress adjourned so that members could attend. At 3:15 in the afternoon the horses went to post. Ten Broeck wore red ribbons in his mane, his stable colors. Parole wore cherry and black. Tom Ochiltree wore orange and blue. In the two and one-half mile race, Ten Broeck immediately led, followed by Tom Ochiltree, then Parole. And so it went in this order for quite some time. Twice Tom Ochiltree made a bid for the lead and won it on his second try. Parole was still trailing. And then, suddenly, Parole came on with a rush, lapped both horses and won by four lengths.
Aftermath
The result was a surprise. No one had ever beaten Ten Broeck and Tom Ochiltree had beaten Parole more times than he was beaten. Later, the owners of both horses explained away their losses. Ten Broeck had been seen for some time before the race to have had a cough. As for Tom Ochiltree, before the race Wyndham Walden had telegraphed George Lorillard to warn him Tom Ochiltree had a cough. Lorillard had instructed him to run Tom Ochiltree "…so as not to spoil the race." But he also put $500 on Parole's nose.
A gelding, Parole raced on, becoming one of the few American horses to win a major English race. Both Ten Broeck and Tom Ochiltree were retired to stud.
Tom Ochiltree died on December 29, 1897 at the Middleburg, Maryland farm of his owner Wyndham Walden at the age of 25.[4]
Notes and references
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 New York Times, 8/09/1876
- ↑ Nantura, 1795–1905 by Jonelle Fisher, St. Crispian Press, 2004
- ↑ The History of Thoroughbred Racing in America by William H.P. Robertson, Bonanza Books, New York
- ↑ "Gossip of the turf". Daily Racing Form. January 7, 1898. Retrieved 4 December 2010.