Native Dancer was a great racehorse who not only became known for his good performances, it is mainly his bad character that he became famous (or should I say notorious) for.
Lineage and description
Native Dancer was bred by Alfred G. Vanderbilt Jr. His father was Polynesian and his mother Geisha. Native Dancer was a gray stallion 1.65 meters high. He was born on March 27, 1950 and died on November 16, 1967.
Career
Two years:
Native Dancer made it happen in his first racing season. He started in nine races and managed to win all nine. He had a special strategy; he never went in front at the beginning, he always had to come from behind, and so he ran around the field. As a two-year-old he received the ‘US Champion 2-Yr-Old Colt’ Award and was nominated for ‘Horse of the year 1952’, he did not win this election.
Three years:
As a three-year-old, he was a huge favorite for every race he entered and the media followed him closely, especially in the run-up to the Kentucky Derby. Unfortunately, this Derby became the only race Native Dancer would lose. He collided with another horse causing him to lose his balance, he could no longer make up for the disadvantage he suffered from this collision. In the other races he ran, he was the first to cross the finish line and he received the ‘US Champion 3-Yr-Old Colt’ Award. Again no horse of the year ….
Four years:
In this season Native Dancer won all three races where he started. Unfortunately, Native Dancer’s racing career also came to an end in this year, due to a leg injury he retired. This year he did become ‘Horse of the year 1954’.
Native Dancer as a breeding stallion
Native Dancer has been a very successful stallion. His most famous offspring (grandson) is probably Northern Dancer, who was a fantastic and very successful racehorse. Northern Dancer, like many of Native Dancer’s descendants, also inherited Native Dancer’s cunning nature.
Bad character …
Native Dancer was a horse that you had to keep an eye on. If a groom or groom was not paying attention, he would lift them off the ground or grab the jockey’s foot with his teeth to pull him out of the saddle. When he was in the paddock or pasture, he couldn’t be taken out until he thought he was ready there. He attacked people who thought he would take him out for a while. All these tricks of the horse do show that Native Dancer must have been a very intelligent horse. As BBC commentator Julian Wilson put it, “Native Dancer was a big, gray, calculating bully and nasty with it.”