"Look over there! Look at that white horse!"
This is a cry I've often heard at a racetrack, as people rush up to the rail to see the gray nearest them, prancing and chomping eagerly at his bit in the post parade. From the fairy tale legends of white horses to the noble Lipizzaner horses traveling the world, performing tricks, gray horses are usually the first to be noticed; the first to stand out.
In Thoroughbreds, gray is a recessive gene, which means one or both of the parents of a gray horse must also be gray. Therefore, if you open up the stud book, you can trace a gray line from, say, Tapit, to all the way back in the 17th century and the first Oriental imported stallions. (Gray is a much more common color in the Arabian, the most prevalent ancestor of the Thoroughbred.)
Gray has not always been celebrated in the Thoroughbred: the great horseman Federico Tesio, in his book Breeding the Race Horse, considered the gray color to be a defect, as gray horses were more likely then other colors to develop melanoma. This led to a prejudice against gray horses that stuck around for quite some time after Tesio had left the scene.
The earliest grays were imported stallions and their offspring, such as Place's White Turk (imported 1657), D'Arcy's White Turk (imported ?) and the Fairfax Moroccan Barb (born 1633). D'Arcy's White Turk was the sire of Hautboy (1690), one of the most important early sires of the Thoroughbred breed. The Alcock Arabian (c. 1700), whose parentage is unknown, was the head of an unbroken gray line leading up to even modern day Thoroughbreds. This was done mostly through his daughters and son Crab (1722), a very good racehorse and sire.
These horses laid the foundation for gray Thoroughbreds to come. One of the first good ones in the 19th century was Chanticleer (1843), a top stayer who was known for his courage. He was a son of a mare by the gray Drone (1823), whose bloodlines traced back twice to Crab. Chanticleer is found in the fourth generation of Le Sancy (1884), a French stallion whose influence on the gray color cannot be understated. A multiple stakes winner and leading broodmare sire, he sired two stallions named Le Samaritain; the one born in 1895 was the sire of Roi Herode (1905). One of Roi Herode's sons would end up being the biggest influence on modern gray racehorses.
That son's name was The Tetrarch (1911). A gangly gray, he got his distinctive white body spots from maternal great-grandsire, Bend Or (a chestnut blotched with black and white spots). Years and years later, we can still see these spots on some of his descendants. The Tetrarch was a champion racehorse and retired after injuries with a record of seven wins in seven starts. His most important contributions to the breed rest with his champion daughter, Mumtaz Mahal (1921), often referred to as "The Flying Filly." Two of her daughters gave birth to colts that later became great sires - Mah Mahal (1928) was the dam of Mahmoud (1933) and Mumtaz Begum (1932) was the dam of Nasrullah (1940), a bay stallion and one of the founders of of the greatest sireline today.
Another important descendant of The Tetrarch was Silver Beauty (1928), a daughter of his gray son Stefan the Great (1916). Silver Beauty was the first gray mare in a female family that led up to Foggy Note (1965), a daughter of The Axe (1958), who was in turn a son of Mahmoud. Foggy Note was the dam of Relaunch (1976), a stakes winner who became the leading flag-bearer for the rare Man O' War sireline, now being revived by Relaunch's grandson, Tiznow, and his male descendants. Relaunch's full sister, Moon Glitter (1972), was the granddam of Rubiano (1982), a champion sprinter. A half-sister to Rubiano, Tap Your Heels (1996), produced Tapit (2001), who is now one of America's leading sires.
So far, we've neglected to mention a gray who is possibly the most famous of his color in Thoroughbred history. Besides The Tetrarch, Roi Herode also produced a mare named La Grisette (1915). 45 years after her birth, her daughter Geisha (1943) produced a gray colt named Native Dancer (1950). This colt became a champion, only losing once in 22 starts (that loss occurring in the 1953 Kentucky Derby, where he finished second to Dark Star) and winning over a quarter of a million dollars, a huge amount for that time. Native Dancer left his mark not only on the racetrack but in the breeding shed, as well, as the damsire of Northern Dancer, who was arguably the greatest sire of the 20th century.
Previously mentioned Mahmoud was also the damsire of Determine (1951), who also happened to be the first gray to win the Kentucky Derby. Determine's son Decidedly (1959) was also a gray Kentucky Derby winner; he set a new track record in his Derby victory. From there on out, gray horses made sporadic appearances in the winner's circle on the first Saturday in May. Since Decidedly, six gray horses have won the Kentucky Derby, the most recent being Giacomo (2002) in 2005. Another son of Determine, Warfare (1957), became a decent stallion and makes some small appearances in the pedigrees of modern gray horses.
One of Native Dancer's greatest gray daughters was Shenanigans (1963), best known as the dam of the brilliant Ruffian. Her son Icecapade (1969), by Nearctic, was a stakes winner who sired many stakes winners, including Wild Again, the first winner of the Breeders' Cup Classic. Another gray offspring of Shenanigans, Laughter (1970), is found in the female line of 2013 Kentucky Derby winner Orb, as well as Laughter's daughter, Steel Maiden (1983).
The Tetrarch is also a distant relative of the gray stallion Caro (1967), who sired the likes of 1988 Derby winner Winning Colors (1985); Cozzene (1980), the sire of Breeders' Cup Classic winner Alphabet Soup (1991); and With Approval (1986), a Canadian Triple Crown winner. Caro also sired Carlotta Maria (1984), the dam of Maria's Mon (1993). Two Maria's Mon colts went on to win the Kentucky Derby, one of which is Monarchos (1998), who did it in the second-fastest final time in Derby history. Caro proved his worth twice over as a broodmare sire by giving us Trolley Song (1983), dam of leading stallion Unbridled's Song (1993). As a recent source of gray in modern pedigrees, there is hardly any horse more influential than Caro.
Gray being the ethereal color it is, it is sometimes thought of in a eerie sense. Native Dancer was nicknamed the "Grey Ghost" and, on Halloween night, several races around the country are restricted to gray horses, creating a spooky spectacle for the audience to enjoy. Therefore, it is only fitting that I've finished this blog post in the wee hours of October 31st.
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