lexington: greatest american sire of the 19th century

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19th century thoroughbred breeding, bloodstock history, glencoe, lexington, physical description of lexington, the thoroughbred record, thoroughbred history

An outstanding racehorse who set records racing four-mile heats, Lexington had the combination of athletic talents that allowed his offspring to bridge the transition from long-distance heat racing to modern dash races decided in a single heat.

Especially when combined with some of the top-caliber broodmare sires, such as Glencoe, Lexington transformed his superior heat-racing qualities of ruggedness and quick recovery into fleet expressions of single-heat success.

As a result, the bay son of Boston led the American sires list 16 times and died as one of the most renowned stallions in the breed. His genetic legacy is the foundation of every American pedigree of the late 19th century and early 20th. Even today, Lexington is there in the far reaches of many pedigrees.

In an unsigned obituary from The Thoroughbred Record of 9 July 1875, probably by BG Bruce, we read that

Lexington was a blood bay, fifteen hands three inches high, with four white feet extending over the pastern joints; his head, though not small, was clean, bony and handsome — his nostrils being large, the jawbone uncommonly wide, and the jaws wide apart, affording abundant room for a clear and well detached throttle. His bones were not particularly large except the backbone, which was immensely so. His neck rose well from his shoulders and joined his head admirably. His shoulders were wide and well placed, particularly oblique, and rising well at the withers. His back was of medium length, coupling well back; a loin wide, slightly arched and very powerful. His body was large, round and full, being ribbed in the best possible manner, very deep through the heart, which made his legs look short. His hips were not remarkably wide, though strong. His arms were not large, and his second thigh [gaskin] was peculiarly light and thin, and to our eye, was his greatest defect. His feet and legs were small and clean, with tendons large and strong as catgut. His action was superb — bold, free, elastic, and full of power.

From this description, allied with photos and paintings of the horse, it is clear that Lexington a medium-sized, scopy, well-balanced animal with considerable power, although noted as lacking a really powerful gaskin. That last betrays his heritage as a thorough distance racer, and doubtless the great broodmare sire Glencoe, who is described as having an exceptional gaskin, provided some benefit to Lexington’s sons and daughters in that regard too.

Lexington was sent to stud in 1855 at WF Harper’s farm near Midway, Ky., and near the middle of 1856, RA Alexander bought the young stallion from owner Ten Broeck for $15,000. Thereafter, Lexington stood at Alexander’s Woodburn Stud until his death on 1 July 1875.

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great american outcross: lexington with glencoe

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charles trevathan, glencoe, international racehorse, lexington, strains of the thoroughbred, the american thoroughbred

In his book, The American Thoroughbred (1905), Charles Trevathan noted that in the 19th century the strains of the Thoroughbred “had become absolutely a fixed one in America — so much so that with a fair degree of certainty one could count upon combining certain well-known American strains and certain imported strains and getting a race-horse of some capacity.”

And one of the greatest crosses in the 19th century Thoroughbred was the great sire Lexington mated with Glencoe mares, which produced numerous top-class racers, and both those stallions covered in Kentucky.

Naturally, Glencoe was nearly 20 years the elder, with Lexington born March 17, 1850. Glencoe was imported to the States in 1836, after serving his first season in England, when he sired the great broodmare Pocahontas. Trevathan wrote that

Glencoe was by Sultan and was bred in England by Lord Jersey in 1831. He was a beautiful golden chestnut, with both hind legs white half-way to the hocks, and a large star in his forehead. His head was a little Roman, very expressive in character, with fine, thin muzzle and well set on a stout neck, which ran into well-shaped shoulders, the latter being oblique and rather light in the blade. He had good length, with round barrel, well ribbed to strong, broad hips, a little swayed in the back, with heavy, muscular quarters, big stifles, sound legs, and feet inclined to be a little flat.

As a racehorse, Glencoe had speed and stamina, winning the Ascot Gold Cup, and he was sold to Col. James Jackson and brought to stand in the US. As a sire who combined the prevailing English qualities of speed and stamina, Glencoe sired many high-class racers and became a noted sire of broodmares.

Trevathan wrote that “At twenty-seven years of age the old chestnut died, at Georgetown, Kentucky; and his owner at the time, A. Keene Richards, Esq., caused him to be buried in his garden, near the spot where his [Glencoe’s] famed daughter Peytona had been laid to rest.”

out of the past: thomas merry

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american thoroughbred, australian, billet, bonnie scotland, buckden, eclipse, enquirer, glencoe, glenelg, herod, hidalgo, leamington, lexington, longfellow, matchem, peytona, thomas merry, war of secession

One of the voices almost lost in time is the venerable bloodstock writer Hidalgo, the pen name for Thomas Merry.

Perhaps the most important contemporary commentator on Thoroughbred breeding in America for the last quarter of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th, Merry had some decidedly firm ideas about the importance of male lines, especially those that had fallen out of favor due to the winds of fashion. In his book, The American Thoroughbred, Merry writes:

from the close of the Revolution to 1865, the end of the War of Secession, we imported thrice as many of Herod’s line as of Eclipse and of Matchem blood. And from the close of the Civil War to the present date — there were 138 stallions of Eclipse’s male line as against 172 of Herod’s and 42 of Matchem’s. It looks to me as though we had overdone matters in all three periods, especially in the second one, at the close of which we found ourselves overloaded with Herod blood. The marvelous success of Leamington, Billet, Glenelg and Buckden, all Eclipse horses; and of Australian, the only Matchem horse imported for nearly a half-century, upon the Lexington-Glencoe mares, from 1870 to 1885, shows how badly we were in need of a really good and legitimate outcross.

Despite his hobby horses, Merry was a good analyst, calling the results as they stood from the racetrack. For example, he noted that the great sire “Lexington got no sons worth being called sires, but his daughters built up reputations for all five of the above named sires, with Bonnie Scotland and Prince Charlie thrown in. Of the above mentioned stallions, Leamington did not get the most winners but he bred, by long odds, the best class.”

One of the reasons that Lexington did not get the sire sons was that racing changed radically from the days when Lexington set a world’s record for racing four-mile heats. By the time most of his best stock were racing, the sport was strongly trending toward single dashes, frequently at distances short of a mile, although there were still heat races and many long-distance races.

Although Lexington himself was able to cope with the changing environment by breeding on a nimble and swift racer, his sons bred back to the stouter side of the pedigree, getting too many slow horses.

Merry’s comments on the uncertainties of breeding and racing can be summarized by the following:

American breeding is a good deal of a lottery, at best, for horses have succeeded   here that were failures, or comparatively so, in England and Australia. Leamington made three seasons in England, during which he got 19 winners of 42 races, none of which exceeded $2,000 in value. We all know what he did here for, after being buried alive on Staten Island for three years, he was sent out to Kentucky where he got Enquirer, Lyttelton, Longfellow and Hamburg, all in one season ; and Hamburg, the poorest of the lot, won over $3,500 in three seasons, while Lyttelton was much  better ; and as for Enquirer and Longfellow, [they were the stars of their day.]

Glencoe’s case is even more startling as a reverse caused by transplantation. He stood to sixteen mares in 1836, getting 13 foals, only one being a male, which died as a yearling. What his daughters achieved at the stud would fill this entire volume if I undertook to give it in detail. He was brought into Alabama, where most of his get were flashy, the great Peytona excepted. When he got up into Kentucky and had access to the daughters of Medoc, Leviathan and Wagner, the records soon began to tell a very different story. Even in 1860, twenty-nine years after his birth and three years after his death, he was second on the list and that by a narrow margin.

Finally, his observations on the sales scene, then not nearly as formalized as it is today, follow the theme above and sound hauntingly familiar.

American breeding is, to a considerable extent, a lottery. Look at the great performers that have sold as yearlings for less than $1,000; and at the high-priced yearlings that have not since won enough to pay for their straw bedding; and in the history of those horses and their performances you find a sufficient corroboration of what I say.

In a year when the Kentucky Derby winner originally sold for less than the stud fee to produce him and when the sales have plummeted to such an extent that bargains out of those sales are certain to abound in another year or two, it is somehow strengthening to know that such economic thrashings are just part of the great scheme.