Z – #9 – Native Dancer – horseracing20thcentury99.com

Top Ten Horses Overall Twentieth Century

#9

Native Dancer

(1952- 1954)

Native Dancer, the “Gray Ghost”, was television’s first great equine star. This two-time Horse of the Year suffered his only defeat in 22 career starts when he ran second by a neck to Dark Star in the 1953 Kentucky Derby after a troubled trip.

Photo: Pinterest

PEDIGREE

G H (USA) 1950

OWNER

Alfred G. Vanderbilt

TRAINER

Bill Winfrey

BREEDER

Alfred G. Vanderbilt

Some Facts

Native Dancer’s sire was Polynesian, a sixteen-time stakes winner who won the Preakness Stakes in 1945 over that year’s Kentucky Derby winner Hoop Jr., after passing up the Derby. Polynesian also won the one-mile Withers Stakes over the Belmont Stakes winner, Pavot. Despite stretching out for those races, Polynesian was considered a sprinter as ten of his stake victories were at six furlongs. In 1947, the then five-year-old was voted the champion sprinter in America.
Native Dancer’s dam was the grey mare, Geisha, who traced back to the grey Darcy’s White Turk in the 1,600s.
Native Dancer was the favorite in every one of his first twenty-one races (his twenty-second start was a non-betting Handicap). In his first start, a five-furlong MSW at Jamaica racetrack, he was the 7-5 favorite. In every start after that, he was odds-on, with those odds ranging from ninety cents to the dollar in his second career start, the Youthful Stakes, to five cents on the dollar three times: those races being the Withers, Dwyer, and Travers Stakes.
Native Dancer had an outstanding Saratoga summer meeting when he was two. He started four times and won each race with ease: on August 4^th (Flash Stakes), the 16^th (Saratoga Special Stakes), the 23^rd (Grand Union Hotel Stakes), and the 30^th(Hopeful Stakes).
In the six-furlong Grand Union Hotel Stakes at Saratoga, he defeated the highly touted and previously unbeaten Tahitian King, who finished third. He defeated Tahitian King a second time in an allowance race on Belmont Park’s Widener Straight Course in 1:09 3/5 and followed that with a decisive two-and-one-quarter-length victory over the son of Polynesian five days later in the Belmont Futurity this time running the six and one-half furlongs on the Widener Course in a world record 1:14 2/5.
In Native Dancer’s final start at two, he won the East View Stakes at Jamaica to finish the year undefeated with a perfect nine-for-nine record, including seven stake victories. He was crowned the two-year-old colt champion and the best two-year-old overall. He also shared Horse of the Year honors with three-year-old One Count. Thus, Native Dancer became the first two-year-old to be named Horse of the Year since the awards were formally awarded at the end of the current racing year in 1936. In later years, Secretariat, Moccasin, and Favorite Trick were honored with the award. (Before 1936, all awards were voted on in retrospect by a special BloodHorse panel. Two-year-olds to be voted Horse of the Year were Domino (1893), Commando (1900), and Colin (1907).
In the Experimental Free Handicap for two-year-olds, Native Dancer was assigned 130 pounds, tied for second highest with Bimelech 1939 and Alsab 1940, and behind only Count Fleet’s 132 pounds assigned in 1942.
Throughout his career, Native Dancer was extremely popular and is widely considered television’s first great equine star.
In 1953, Native Dancer was the heavy favorite to win the Kentucky Derby and the Triple Crown. After easy wins in the Gotham and Wood Memorial, the Grey Ghost was then upset by Dark Star in the Derby. In this race, the Dancer was soundly bumped in the clubhouse turn, ran into traffic trouble late, and saw his charge at leading Dark Star end up short by a head. After winning the Withers Stakes by four lengths, Native Dancer followed with victories in the Preakness and the Belmont, each by a neck over Jamie K. The Dancer then won the Dwyer, Arlington Classic, Travers, and American Derby before being shut down for the year because of a bruised foot. This injury negated a planned meeting between Native Dancer and four-year-old Tom Fool.
That year, Tom Fool won all nine of his starts, including the Handicap Triple, under heavy weights and was voted Horse of the Year, while Native Dancer, which won nine stakes in ten starts, was voted the three-year-old colt champion.
Native Dancer returned to the races on May 7th, 1954, winning a six-furlong allowance race over Laffango by a length and one-quarter in 1:11 4/5. One week later, he won the Metropolitan Handicap by a neck over Straight Face while carrying 130 pounds. In his final start, a $15,000 Handicap named the Oneonta Handicap, he carried 137 pounds and romped to a nine-length victory against just two opponents. When soreness reoccurred in his right leg, he was retired.
In a controversial decision, Native Dancer was named the 1954 Horse of the Year off just those three starts. Many people believed that the three-year-old champion, High Gun, who won six stakes, including the Belmont and Jockey Club Gold Cup, was robbed.
There has been some doubt about Native Dancer’s overall greatness and where he belongs when judging the best horses of the 20^th Undoubtedly, he had a fantastic two-year-old campaign, winning all nine of his starts, seven of which were stakes. In an assessment of his three-year-old campaign, it will be pointed out that he never faced older horses and was all out to defeat Jamie K. in both the Preakness and Belmont Stakes. Jamie K, a son of the unheralded stallion Crowfoot, would win just a single stake in its career, the Leonard Richards, and won just five of his fifty-six career starts. Some will go as far as to scoff at Native Dancer’s three-race, four-year-old campaign, questioning both his Horse of the Year and older horse titles based on his victory in the Met Mile. All I can say is that history is what it is. What no one can dispute is the fact that Native Dancer, a muscular 16.3 hands high at his withers, when he was in full flight, was a big, powerful force with an extremely long stride and, most importantly, a strong will to win.
At stud, Native Dancer sired forty-three stake winners from 306 foals (14%). His daughters produced eighty-four stake winners.
A Chef de Race in both the Intermediate and Classic Categories, Native Dancer was, without doubt, one of the most influential sires in the twentieth century. He sired Kentucky Derby winner Kauai King and Dancer’s Image, which won the Derby only to be disqualified for a drug violation. Native Dancer also sired Dan Cupid, who in turn sired the great Sea Bird, winner of both the Epsom Derby and Arc de la Triomphe, his Time Form rating of 145, currently second to Frankel’s 147. Native Dancer’s daughter, Natalma, foaled Northern Dancer, and his son, Raise a Native, sired Alydar, Majestic Prince, the prolific sire Mr. Prospector (who sired Smart Strike, the sire of Curlin), and Exclusive Native, the sire of Affirmed and Genuine Risk. Native Dancer also sired Shenanigans, the dam of arguably North America’s greatest filly ever, Ruffian.
Native Dancer died on November 16th, 1967, following the surgical removal of a tumor on the wall of the small intestine. He was buried at Sagamore Farm.