To really understand the importance of Bold Ruler, it should be noted that he is best known for his performance in the breeding shed instead of the circuit.
No matter how harmless that seems, it actually speaks volumes because Bold Ruler enjoyed an exceptional career on the race track.
He won the preakness stakes from 1957. He was a consensus horse of the annual choice in 1957 and the top 3-year-old of the year. In 1958 he was voted champion sprinter. He has set or linked four track records.
But for all that glory, Bold Ruler’s legacy is best reflected in the champions whose bloodlines have been taken back to him, not his own victories. His influence on the breeding industry was so profound and permanent.
After all, he was the father of the legendary secretariat.
That daring ruler would become a leading father was hardly a surprise. He became Regally Bred, a son of Claiborne Farm’s Foundation Sire Nasrullah – a prominent father in both the United States and Europe – from Miss Disco, a daughter of 1935 Horse of the Year Discovery.
A large, 16.1 hands foal, his connections were flawless. He was owned by the famous Wheatley stable of Mrs. Gladys Mills Phipps, trained by the respected hall of Famer “Sunny Jim” Fitzsimmons and driven in 27 of his 33 races through one of the biggest figures of the sport, Eddie Arcaro.
He won his first five starts and then, after the second place in an allocation, he won the prestigious future in Belmont Park.
His bid for the 2-year championship ended when the bad start led to non-tasted efforts in the use of Garden State and Remsen Stakes-being first attempts beyond six Furlongs.
On 3 he returned to form and won the Bahamas and Flamingo Stakes. After he was second in the Florida Derby, he defeated the brave man through a nose in the Houtmemory and was sent away as the 6-5 favorite in the Kentucky Derby.
But on the first Saturday in May a fast pace and the mile-and-a-quarter distance were too much to overcome and he finished fourth.
Two weeks later, after winning a reimbursement race, he conquered the preakness with two lengths about the winner of Kentucky Derby Iron Liège.
Bold Ruler faded to third place in the Belmont Stakes, but closed 1957 by winning six of his last seven starts. The highlight was a victory on the round table and brave man in the 1 ¼-Mijl Trenton Handicap in Garden State.
In an era before the Eclipse Awards, he was a consensus choice as a horse of the year and received the honor of the Daily racing form And Peat and Sport Digest While the third voice work, the Thoroughbred Racing Association, chose the side of Dedicate.
On 4, Bold Ruler won the Toboggan, Carter, Stymia, Suburban and Monmouth Handicaps before the injuries that shadowed him during his career finally caught up with him. He came from the Brooklyn Handicap with a bone splinter and was retired.
He left the circuit with a record of 23 wins of 33 Starts with a win of $ 764,204, a record that would be incredible compared to his incredible achievements in the second phase of his life.
Severed to Claiborne Farm, Bold Ruler was an immediate success at Stud when he passes his speed to his sons and daughters with an incredible success. Although his first crop only had 17 foals, he produced eight winners of the Stakes and 14 winners.
He became a record of North America for a record of seven consecutive years (1963-’69).
He conceived 11 champions, starting with Lamb Chop, the 2-year-old Merrieveeulen of 1962 and ending with Wajima, the 3-year-old man of the 1975 champion. In between were excellent runners such as Gamely, Bold Bieder and Vitriolic.
His sons what a pleasure and Raja Baba became leading hearing cases.
During his years at Stud, 22% of his foals became deployment winners.
While he was the dominant father of his time, Bold Ruler was always chased by an inability to produce classic winners.
When cancer brought his life to an end in 1971, he never produced the winner of Triple Crown Race. Yet that all changed in 1973 when his most famous son, Secretariat, was the first horse in 25 years to wipe the Kentucky Derby, preakness and Belmont and tangled as one of the greatest champions in sport.
Thanks to the secretariat, Bold Ruler posthumously became the leading father of 1973 and the idea that daring rulers hit a wall in the spring of their 3-year season was just as outdated as a black and white television.
In the following years, his sons and daughters enforced the glory of their bloodlines. His sons produced top runners such as Kentucky Derby winners Dust Commander, Cannonade, Foolish Pleasure, Bold Forbes and Spectacular Bid. A total of seven winners of Kentucky Derby in the 1970s were of his bloodlines.
In 1977 Bold Refering, a descendant of Bold Ruler’s Son Boldnesian, the Great Seattle Slew, the Triple Crown Champion from 1977 and a very successful father in itself.
In later years, Seattle Slew’s son, 1992 held Horse of the Year AP Indy, the daring ruler line as lively and fashionable. AP Indy led the father in 2003 and 2006 and sons such as pulpit, Bernardini and Malibu Moon and grandson Tapit have become prosperous hearing issues.
His career on a race track may have lasted a few years with a number of impressive performance, but the legacy of Bold Ruler has passed the test of time and today lives through the success of the next generation of his descendants.
In some eyes he rates as the greatest father of North America. He may not have been as fast or brilliant as a secretariat, but he produced him – as well as a long list of other big runners – and that is why Bold Ruler belongs in every conversation about the biggest stars in Thoroughbred Racing.
For Bold Ruler, winning the preakness was just the tip of an iceberg.
Nice facts
- He was admitted to the Racing Hall of Fame in 1973.
- Bold Ruler arranged in 19th place Bloodhorse List of the magazine of the top 100 champions of the 20th century.
- Bold Ruler finished third in the Kentucky Derby from 1957, which is famous for Jockey Bill Shoemaker who misjudged the finish line on the second, brave man.
- The Belmont Stakes from 1957 contained one of the first memorable applications of a “rabbit” when trainer John Nerud Bold Nero came in to challenge Bold Ruler in the early stages of the race and Stableme Gallant Man. The tactic worked as Bold Nero pushed Bold Ruler through early fractions from: 46 4/5 and 1:10 2/5 in the 1 ½-Mijl Race, which set the stage for Gallant Man to win eight lengths.
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