Brown Bess (USA)
April 8, 1982 – July 15, 2011
Petrone (FR) x Chickadee (USA), by Windy Sands (USA)
Family 9-g
April 8, 1982 – July 15, 2011
Petrone (FR) x Chickadee (USA), by Windy Sands (USA)
Family 9-g
The pride of Northern California, Brown Bess waited until age 6 to become a stakes winner but by season’s end was a multiple Grade 3 winner. The following year, she became the oldest filly or mare to win an Eclipse Award, carrying off honors in the turf female division after a scintillating win in the Yellow Ribbon International Stakes (USA-G1). She continued racing at age 8, adding another Grade 1 win to her tally before she finally left the track. She was a disappointing broodmare and left no producing daughters to carry on her family.
Race record
36 starts, 16 wins, 8 seconds, 6 thirds, US$1,300,920
1987:
1988:
1989:
1990:
Honors
Assessments
Highweighted at 124 pounds on the Daily Racing Form’s Free Handicap for American turf females of 1989, 2 pounds above second-place Claire Marine.
Rated at 120 pounds on the Daily Racing Form's Free Handicap for American turf females of 1990, 3 pounds below highweighted Capades.
As an individual
A dark bay or brown mare, Brown Bess stood a shade under 15.1 hands and weighed about 850 pounds while in training. As tough in attitude as she was physically, she was unfriendly with both humans and other horses. She was an excellent mover. She was a stakes winner on dirt but was not as effective on that surface as she was on turf.
As a producer
Brown Bess produced six named foals. Four started, but only one, the 1992 Al Mamoon gelding Brownie, was a winner.
Connections
Foaled in California, Brown Bess was a third-generation homebred for Suzanne Pashayan’s Calbourne Farm and raced in the name of her Calbourne Stable. She was trained by Charles Jenda and was regularly ridden during her championship season by “Cowboy” Jack Kaenel. Following her racing career, the mare was boarded at Harris Farms, where she lived as a pensioner after producing her last foal, the Shanekite filly Uncle Whiskers, in 2002. Brown Bess was euthanized due to complications of colic in July 2011 and was buried at Harris Farms.
Pedigree notes
Sired by 1969 San Juan Capistrano Invitational Handicap and Sunset Handicap winner Petrone, Brown Bess is inbred 4x5 to unbeaten Nearco and the important broodmare Mumtaz Begum through the full siblings Malindi and Nasrullah. She is a full sister to Davwee, dam of restricted stakes winner Military Force (by Colonel Stevens).
Brown Bess was produced from multiple stakes-placed Chickadee, whose sire Windy Sands (by Your Host) won three California stakes races in the early 1960s and was a six-time champion California sire. Chickadee, in turn, is out of stakes-placed Moog (by Noor), a half sister to multiple stakes winner Arracado (by Ajax). Moog is also a half sister to stakes-placed Nathleen (by Nathoo), dam of 1968 Del Mar Oaks and 1969 Ramona Handicap winner Greta (by Bar Le Duc), and to Queen Doreen (by Nathoo), dam of claiming stakes winner Beau Reebo (by Vinci).
Moog and her siblings are out of the Pilate mare Duchess Doreen, a US$4,700 purchase for Pashayan from the 1962 Ridgewood Dispersal sale. Produced from three-time American champion Princess Doreen (by Spanish Prince II), Duchess Doreen is a full sister to 1948 Santa Margarita Handicap winner Miss Doreen, dam of 1954 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes and 1955 Everglades Stakes winner Prince Noor (by Noor) and 1959 Mexican champion 3-year-old male Nibelungo (by Turn-to).
Books and media
Brown Bess is one of the retired Thoroughbreds profiled in photographs and essays in Barbara Livingston’s Old Friends: Visits With My Favorite Thoroughbreds (2002, The Blood-Horse, Inc.).
Fun facts
Last updated: December 15, 2022
Race record
36 starts, 16 wins, 8 seconds, 6 thirds, US$1,300,920
1987:
- 3rd Palo Alto Handicap (USA-L, 8.5FT, Bay Meadows)
1988:
- Won California Jockey Club Handicap (USA-G3, 9FT, Bay Meadows; new course record 1:46-3/5)
- Won Hillsborough Handicap (USA-G3, 9FT, Bay Meadows)
- Won Lakes and Flowers Handicap (USA-L, 8FT, Golden Gate)
- Won Lady Morvich Handicap (USA, 8.5FD, Bay Meadows Fair)
- Won Star Ball Invitational Handicap (USA-R, 8FT, Golden Gate)
- 2nd Tizna H. (USA-L, 8.5FT, Bay Meadows)
- 2nd Alameda County Handicap (USA, 8.5FD, Pleasanton)
1989:
- Won Yellow Ribbon Invitational Stakes (USA-G1, 10FT, Santa Anita)
- Won Ramona Handicap (USA-G1, 9FT, Del Mar)
- Won California Jockey Club Handicap (USA-G3, 9FT, Bay Meadows)
- Won Yerba Buena Handicap (USA-G3, 11FT, Golden Gate)
- Won Countess Fager Handicap (USA-G3, 9FT, Bay Meadows)
- 2nd Golden Poppy Handicap (USA-G3, 8.5FD, Golden Gate)
- 3rd Golden Gate Handicap (USA-G2, 11FT, Golden Gate)
- 3rd Princessnesian Handicap (USA-L, 8FD, Golden Gate)
1990:
- Won Santa Barbara Handicap (USA-G1, 10FT, Santa Anita)
- 2nd California Jockey Club Handicap (USA-G3, 9FT, Bay Meadows)
- 3rd Santa Ana Handicap (USA-G1, 9FT, Santa Anita)
- 3rd Yerba Buena Handicap (USA-L, 11FT, Golden Gate)
Honors
- Arcadia Historical Society’s Racing Walk of Champions (inducted in the inaugural class of 2014)
- California Thoroughbred Breeders Association Hall of Fame (inducted in 2012)
- Eclipse Award, American champion turf female (1989)
Assessments
Highweighted at 124 pounds on the Daily Racing Form’s Free Handicap for American turf females of 1989, 2 pounds above second-place Claire Marine.
Rated at 120 pounds on the Daily Racing Form's Free Handicap for American turf females of 1990, 3 pounds below highweighted Capades.
As an individual
A dark bay or brown mare, Brown Bess stood a shade under 15.1 hands and weighed about 850 pounds while in training. As tough in attitude as she was physically, she was unfriendly with both humans and other horses. She was an excellent mover. She was a stakes winner on dirt but was not as effective on that surface as she was on turf.
As a producer
Brown Bess produced six named foals. Four started, but only one, the 1992 Al Mamoon gelding Brownie, was a winner.
Connections
Foaled in California, Brown Bess was a third-generation homebred for Suzanne Pashayan’s Calbourne Farm and raced in the name of her Calbourne Stable. She was trained by Charles Jenda and was regularly ridden during her championship season by “Cowboy” Jack Kaenel. Following her racing career, the mare was boarded at Harris Farms, where she lived as a pensioner after producing her last foal, the Shanekite filly Uncle Whiskers, in 2002. Brown Bess was euthanized due to complications of colic in July 2011 and was buried at Harris Farms.
Pedigree notes
Sired by 1969 San Juan Capistrano Invitational Handicap and Sunset Handicap winner Petrone, Brown Bess is inbred 4x5 to unbeaten Nearco and the important broodmare Mumtaz Begum through the full siblings Malindi and Nasrullah. She is a full sister to Davwee, dam of restricted stakes winner Military Force (by Colonel Stevens).
Brown Bess was produced from multiple stakes-placed Chickadee, whose sire Windy Sands (by Your Host) won three California stakes races in the early 1960s and was a six-time champion California sire. Chickadee, in turn, is out of stakes-placed Moog (by Noor), a half sister to multiple stakes winner Arracado (by Ajax). Moog is also a half sister to stakes-placed Nathleen (by Nathoo), dam of 1968 Del Mar Oaks and 1969 Ramona Handicap winner Greta (by Bar Le Duc), and to Queen Doreen (by Nathoo), dam of claiming stakes winner Beau Reebo (by Vinci).
Moog and her siblings are out of the Pilate mare Duchess Doreen, a US$4,700 purchase for Pashayan from the 1962 Ridgewood Dispersal sale. Produced from three-time American champion Princess Doreen (by Spanish Prince II), Duchess Doreen is a full sister to 1948 Santa Margarita Handicap winner Miss Doreen, dam of 1954 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes and 1955 Everglades Stakes winner Prince Noor (by Noor) and 1959 Mexican champion 3-year-old male Nibelungo (by Turn-to).
Books and media
Brown Bess is one of the retired Thoroughbreds profiled in photographs and essays in Barbara Livingston’s Old Friends: Visits With My Favorite Thoroughbreds (2002, The Blood-Horse, Inc.).
Fun facts
- Brown Bess raced exclusively in California throughout her career. Because of Suzanne Pashayan’s commitment to California racing and breeding, she was also bred exclusively to stallions standing in California.
- In military history, “Brown Bess” was the slang name for the heavy musket carried by the common English infantryman in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The term had been previously used for a low-born woman, particularly one of loose morals, before being applied to the rank-and-file soldier’s metaphorical “wife” that was his constant companion.
- In winning the 1989 Yellow Ribbon, Brown Bess hung up a time of 1:57-3/5 while under a hand ride. The time missed the course record by one-fifth of a second and remains the fastest 10 furlongs ever run by a filly or mare.
- In 2004, Brown Bess became a foster mother after the multiple stakes-winning mare Peaceful Road died, leaving behind her filly by Yonaguska. The filly survived under Brown Bess’s care and, under the name Peace by Peace, won one of her 10 starts.
- Brown Bess became the namesake for a stakes race at Golden Gate Fields.
Last updated: December 15, 2022