Flying Ebony (USA)
1922 – Summer 1943
The Finn (USA) x Princess Mary (USA), by Hessian (USA)
Family 5-i
1922 – Summer 1943
The Finn (USA) x Princess Mary (USA), by Hessian (USA)
Family 5-i
Used by permission of Quarter Horse Record (Susan Larkin).
If it hadn't been for the fact that star jockey Earl Sande needed a Kentucky Derby mount, Flying Ebony might not even have been in the great race. As it was, he went off as a member of the mutuel field. Benefiting from a heavy rain that struck as the field was going to the post, Flying Ebony—an excellent mudder—went to the front early, cruised close to the lead down the backstretch, and assumed command in the stretch to win by a length and a half. The merit of his performance was difficult to assess as no horse behind the first three going into the first turn was able to make any headway under the conditions, and he was unable to confirm his Derby form in three subsequent starts. Flying Ebony proved an indifferent sire.
Race record
13 starts, 6 wins, 1 second, 2 thirds, US$62,420
1924:
1925:
Assessments
Ranked third among American 3-year-old males of 1925 by The Blood-Horse.
As an individual
A dark bay or brown horse, Flying Ebony was a handsome, short-coupled animal with a good shoulder and short cannons but rather rough-looking ankles. He had a peppery disposition but had an affectionate relationship with his last owner, Charles Perkins.
As a stallion
The Jockey Club credits Flying Ebony with 174 winners (62.4%) and 9 stakes winners (3.2%) from 279 named foals.
Notable progeny
Dark Secret (USA), Flying Heels (USA), Vicaress (USA)
Connections
Foaled in Kentucky, Flying Ebony was bred by John E. Madden. He was owned by Gifford A. Cochran, who purchased him as a yearling at the 1923 Saratoga sale. He was trained by Hall of Fame member William Duke, who died of pneumonia in January 1926.
Flying Ebony entered stud in 1926 at Cochran's farm. After Cochran's death in 1930, the horse was sold to Leslie Keiffer at the dispersal of Cochran's stock and was transferred to Keiffer's Maryland Farm. In 1934, Charles Perkins bought Flying Ebony in partnership with his sister and Mrs. William C. Van Antwerp and installed the stallion as the premier sire at his Alisal Ranch in California. Perkins bought out Mrs. Van Antwerp's share in 1938 and for all intents and purposes was Flying Ebony's sole owner during the final years of the stallion's life. After Perkins died on June 19, 1943, Flying Ebony was humanely destroyed. According to Mary Simon in A History of the Thoroughbred in California (1983, The California Thoroughbred Breeders Association), this was according to the terms of Perkins' will, which specified that the stallion should be put down no more than a month after Perkins' own death for fear that the aging horse would not be properly cared for by another owner.
Pedigree notes
Flying Ebony is inbred 5x5 to seven-time English champion sire Hermit, winner of the 1867 Derby Stakes. He is a half brother to 1928 Quebec Derby winner Friar's Hope (by Friar Rock). His dam Princess Mary (by Hessian) is out of the Royal Hampton mare Royal Gun, making her a half sister to 1901 Gazelle Stakes winner Trigger (by Meddler), 1903 Metropolitan Handicap winner Gunfire (by Hastings; second dam of 1923 American champion 3-year-old filly Untidy and 1925 Miller Stakes winner Stirrup Cup), 1903 Spinaway Stakes winner Raglan (by Plaudit) and multiple juvenile stakes winner Naushon (by Yankee).
Books and media
Flying Ebony is profiled in Chapter 5 of Avalyn Hunter's American Classic Pedigrees 1914-2002 (2003, Eclipse Press).
Fun facts
Race record
13 starts, 6 wins, 1 second, 2 thirds, US$62,420
1924:
- 3rd Saratoga Sales Stakes (USA, 5.5FD, Saratoga)
1925:
- Won Kentucky Derby (USA, 10FD, Churchill Downs)
- 3rd Shevlin Stakes (USA, 8FD, Aqueduct)
Assessments
Ranked third among American 3-year-old males of 1925 by The Blood-Horse.
As an individual
A dark bay or brown horse, Flying Ebony was a handsome, short-coupled animal with a good shoulder and short cannons but rather rough-looking ankles. He had a peppery disposition but had an affectionate relationship with his last owner, Charles Perkins.
As a stallion
The Jockey Club credits Flying Ebony with 174 winners (62.4%) and 9 stakes winners (3.2%) from 279 named foals.
Notable progeny
Dark Secret (USA), Flying Heels (USA), Vicaress (USA)
Connections
Foaled in Kentucky, Flying Ebony was bred by John E. Madden. He was owned by Gifford A. Cochran, who purchased him as a yearling at the 1923 Saratoga sale. He was trained by Hall of Fame member William Duke, who died of pneumonia in January 1926.
Flying Ebony entered stud in 1926 at Cochran's farm. After Cochran's death in 1930, the horse was sold to Leslie Keiffer at the dispersal of Cochran's stock and was transferred to Keiffer's Maryland Farm. In 1934, Charles Perkins bought Flying Ebony in partnership with his sister and Mrs. William C. Van Antwerp and installed the stallion as the premier sire at his Alisal Ranch in California. Perkins bought out Mrs. Van Antwerp's share in 1938 and for all intents and purposes was Flying Ebony's sole owner during the final years of the stallion's life. After Perkins died on June 19, 1943, Flying Ebony was humanely destroyed. According to Mary Simon in A History of the Thoroughbred in California (1983, The California Thoroughbred Breeders Association), this was according to the terms of Perkins' will, which specified that the stallion should be put down no more than a month after Perkins' own death for fear that the aging horse would not be properly cared for by another owner.
Pedigree notes
Flying Ebony is inbred 5x5 to seven-time English champion sire Hermit, winner of the 1867 Derby Stakes. He is a half brother to 1928 Quebec Derby winner Friar's Hope (by Friar Rock). His dam Princess Mary (by Hessian) is out of the Royal Hampton mare Royal Gun, making her a half sister to 1901 Gazelle Stakes winner Trigger (by Meddler), 1903 Metropolitan Handicap winner Gunfire (by Hastings; second dam of 1923 American champion 3-year-old filly Untidy and 1925 Miller Stakes winner Stirrup Cup), 1903 Spinaway Stakes winner Raglan (by Plaudit) and multiple juvenile stakes winner Naushon (by Yankee).
Books and media
Flying Ebony is profiled in Chapter 5 of Avalyn Hunter's American Classic Pedigrees 1914-2002 (2003, Eclipse Press).
Fun facts
- Flying Ebony broke his maiden on the Kentucky Derby undercard in 1924.
- Flying Ebony was the first mutuel field horse to win the Kentucky Derby. In a year lacking any real standout in the race, the nine-horse mutuel field went off as the second choice at 3.15-to-1.
- Flying Ebony's Kentucky Derby victory made William Duke the first trainer to condition different winners of the Derby and the Preakness Stakes in the same year, as the trainer had already won the Preakness with Coventry. (In 1925, the Preakness was run on May 8; the Derby was run on May 16.)
- Flying Ebony was the last of five Kentucky winners bred or co-bred by John Madden at his Hamburg Place. The others were Old Rosebud (1914), Sir Barton (1919), Paul Jones (1920) and Zev (1923). All five were foaled in the same barn.
- Flying Ebony's Kentucky Derby was the first to be covered by a nationwide radio broadcast. An estimated 5 to 6 million people heard the race call. This was also the first time that the Derby was referred to as the “Run for the Roses,” a nickname coined by New York sportswriter Bill Corum.
- According to Brownie Leach in The Kentucky Derby Diamond Jubilee 1875-1949 (1949, Dial Press), jockey Earl Sande's friends among the turf writers urged Gifford Cochran to enter Flying Ebony so that Sande, then on the comeback trail from a bad spill at the 1924 Saratoga meeting, would have a mount in the race. Flying Ebony became the second of Sande's three Derby winners, following Zev (1923) and preceding Gallant Fox (1930).
- Ebony Knight, a California-bred son of Flying Ebony, became a top show horse in Western stock horse classes before his death in a 1949 barn fire.
- Both Lexington, Kentucky, and Havre de Grace, Maryland, have roads named after Flying Ebony.
- Flying Ebony's Kentucky Derby trophy is among the permanent exhibits at the Kentucky Derby Museum in Louisville, Kentucky.