Weekly Trivia Challenge for 1/28/2022

1/28/2022

What horse was the last descended in direct male line from Herod to win a national championship in the United States?

Janet M.

1/28/2022 10:19:15 pm

Not sure if you wanted a specific sex, but this is what I came up with.

Flat races:
Mare - Brown Bess (1982), 1989 Eclipse Award: Champion Female Turf Horse
Stallion - Canonero II (1967), 1971 Eclipse Award: Champion 3-year-old Colt

Steeplechase:
Black Jack Blues (2003), 2011, Eclipse Award: Champion Steeplechaser.

Cheri

1/28/2022 10:39:26 pm

Ben Brush (foaled 1893)

Avalyn Hunter

2/4/2022 04:25:27 pm

Well, I got schooled on this one. The answer I was looking for was Precisionist, the American sprint champion of 1985, but I forgot about the steeplechase division. Nice spot there, Janet!

By the way, the answers of Canonero II and Brown Bess are very interesting. Both are from the male line of St. Simon, who according to his accepted pedigree was from the male line of Eclipse; however, a 2017 study of yDNA (passed only from male to male) indicated that 10 horses descended in the direct male line from Persimmon and St. Frusquin (both undoubted sons of St. Simon) had yDNA that was a match for known descendants of Herod and not known descendants of Eclipse. While a rumor current in St. Simon's day that his sire Galopin was by a Herod-line horse named Delight and not by Galopin's accepted sire, Vedette, seems to have been debunked, it seems likely that an error did occur further back in the recording of St. Simon's paternal line. Nonetheless, St. Simon officially remains a descendant of the Eclipse male line. See https://www.bloodlines.net/highflyer/investigation11.htm for further information.

Janet M.

2/4/2022 04:42:22 pm

Thanks! I actually missed Precisionist in my own list of Eclipse Winners - I'll have to double check them now.

Weekly Trivia Challenge for 1/28/2022

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