Tags
allen jerkens, beau purple, blessing angelica, dream, garland of roses, handsome boy, hobeau farm, jack dreyfus
I had a dream vision from Jack Dreyfus, and he showed me his favorite non-stakes winning sire.
Yes, that sounds a mite odd, but then again, I blog. This sort of thing happens when you’re living in the world of electrons.
Dreyfus, a vastly talented man who made zillions along the way, bred and raced some really nice horses. He had the reputation of a really nice, interesting man who loved his sport and was so loyal he kept the same trainer (Allen Jerkens) for five decades or so. (One might say it’s easy to be loyal when you’re successful, but they had dry spells too. Any owner or trainer will. This is a sport, not an assembly line.)
Anyway, Dreyfus appears, wearing an old hat, golfing clothes, and smiling. (This wasn’t a spooky dream.) He didn’t say anything, just showed me some horses working on the track. Nice horses, well trained and in peak condition, and when they came on the track from the left to jog to the rail in front of us and gallop past, a voice (not Dreyfus) identified them.
This took a while, and prominent among the workers was Blessing Angelica and Beau Purple. Both are by the Count Fleet horse Beau Gar, a winner of four races from 15 starts who earned not a shred of black type.
By any rational estimation, there’s no reason Beau Gar should have succeeded as a stalliion, but he did anyway, with a little help from Dreyfus.
From 357 foals, Beau Gar sired 24 stakes winners (7 percent). Not a bad proportion, certainly very useful. But the quality of the better horses was such that they frequently became the stars of the Dreyfus stable. Beau Purple was probably the best of them, but Handsome Boy was very close to him in class. The fillies included Blessing Angelica and Garland of Roses.
There the dream ended, but the memory lives on.
bloodstock in the bluegrass 