Lieut. Gibson (USA)
1897 – December 18, 1900
G. W. Johnson (USA) x Sophia Hardy (USA), by Glengarry (GB)
American Family 13
1897 – December 18, 1900
G. W. Johnson (USA) x Sophia Hardy (USA), by Glengarry (GB)
American Family 13
After a busy juvenile season during which he started 18 times, Lieut. Gibson went into the Kentucky Derby without a prep race at 3. Although his trainer, Charles Hughes, came under criticism as the Derby approached for not giving the colt enough work, the long freshening was apparently just what Lieut. Gibson needed as he won the race in 2:06-1/4, a new stakes record that stood for 11 years. Unfortunately, overly hard workouts following the Latonia Derby and a bowed tendon ended his 3-year-old season prematurely, and the colt died of infection in December 1900 after never fully recovering from being fired at the end of July.
Race record
24 starts, 10 wins, 5 seconds, 3 thirds, US$21,490
1899:
1900:
As an individual
A rangy brown colt, Lieut. Gibson stood 16 hands. He was considered exceptionally handsome and well-conformed and was said to closely resemble his male-line great-grandsire, Leamington. He handled both fast and off going well. He was forced into retirement by a severely bowed tendon.
Connections
Lieut. Gibson was bred and owned by Baker & Gentry, who turned down an offer of US$6,000 for the colt after he broke his maiden in May 1899. Following Lieut. Gibson's score in the Sensation Stakes in June 1899, the partners sold him to Charles Head Smith for US$10,000, with Charles H. Hughes acting as agent; Hughes trained the colt thereafter. In March 1900, Smith was offered US$18,000 for Lieut. Gibson by T. B. Carter but declined to sell, even after the offer was raised to US$20,000.
Pedigree notes
A son of the stakes-winning Iroquois horse G. W. Johnson, Lieut. Gibson is inbred 3x4 to four-time American champion sire Leamington, 4x5 to the important 19th-century American sire Australian, and 5x5 to the important 19th-century English sire Pantaloon. His dam, Sophia Hardy produced nothing else of any importance. She is out of the Enquirer mare Unaka, in turn a daughter of the John Morgan mare Wampee. The family cannot be connected with certainty to any of the families in the Bruce Lowe numbering system; however, evidence collected by historian Fairfax Harrison suggests that the female line traces back to a daughter of the Godolphin Arabian known as the Randolph of Chatsworth Mare via a great-great-granddaughter named Fluvia (by Meade's Celer).
Fun facts
Race record
24 starts, 10 wins, 5 seconds, 3 thirds, US$21,490
1899:
- Won Kentucky Central Stakes (USA, 8FD, Latonia)
- Won Kimball Stakes (USA, 6FD, Latonia)
- Won Flatbush Stakes (USA, 7FD, Sheepshead Bay)
- Won Sensation Stakes (USA, 6FD, Latonia)
- 2nd Westchester Highweight Handicap (USA, 6.5FD, Morris Park)
- 3rd Harold Stakes (USA, 5FD, Latonia)
1900:
- Won Kentucky Derby (USA, 10FD, Churchill Downs)
- Won Clark Stakes (USA, 9FD, Churchill Downs; equaled track record 1:54)
- Won Latonia Derby (USA, 12FD, Latonia; by walkover)
- 3rd American Derby (USA, 12FD, Washington Park)
As an individual
A rangy brown colt, Lieut. Gibson stood 16 hands. He was considered exceptionally handsome and well-conformed and was said to closely resemble his male-line great-grandsire, Leamington. He handled both fast and off going well. He was forced into retirement by a severely bowed tendon.
Connections
Lieut. Gibson was bred and owned by Baker & Gentry, who turned down an offer of US$6,000 for the colt after he broke his maiden in May 1899. Following Lieut. Gibson's score in the Sensation Stakes in June 1899, the partners sold him to Charles Head Smith for US$10,000, with Charles H. Hughes acting as agent; Hughes trained the colt thereafter. In March 1900, Smith was offered US$18,000 for Lieut. Gibson by T. B. Carter but declined to sell, even after the offer was raised to US$20,000.
Pedigree notes
A son of the stakes-winning Iroquois horse G. W. Johnson, Lieut. Gibson is inbred 3x4 to four-time American champion sire Leamington, 4x5 to the important 19th-century American sire Australian, and 5x5 to the important 19th-century English sire Pantaloon. His dam, Sophia Hardy produced nothing else of any importance. She is out of the Enquirer mare Unaka, in turn a daughter of the John Morgan mare Wampee. The family cannot be connected with certainty to any of the families in the Bruce Lowe numbering system; however, evidence collected by historian Fairfax Harrison suggests that the female line traces back to a daughter of the Godolphin Arabian known as the Randolph of Chatsworth Mare via a great-great-granddaughter named Fluvia (by Meade's Celer).
Fun facts
- Lieut. Gibson owed his existence to a change of heart by his co-breeder, Colonel Bob Baker, regarding his dam, Sophia Hardy. Dissatisfied with Sophia Hardy's prospects as a broodmare, Baker put the mare on a southbound train in 1896 with the intent of selling her for work in the cotton fields. He changed his mind while she was en route, recovered the mare, and brought her back to Kentucky, where he had her bred to G. W. Johnson. Lieut. Gibson was the produce of that mating and was the only foal of any consequence produced by the mare.
- Charles Hughes had reportedly made arrangements to take Lieut. Gibson to England in the fall of 1900 for racing there; if true, the plans were scuttled by the colt's injury.
- Following the Clark Stakes, Lieut. Gibson's owner Charles Smith deposited a certified check for US$5,000 with the editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal as surety against an offer to back his colt for US$50,000 against any horse whose connections cared to take Lieut. Gibson on at a mile and a half following the colt's engagements at the Saratoga meeting. The announcement of this proposal stated, “He [Smith] bars no horse in the world.”
- During the week prior to his defeat in the American Derby (his first at age 3), Lieut. Gibson was worked twice over the full Derby distance of 1½ miles and had a third serious work two days before the race, leaving horsemen to speculate after the fact that he had been overworked prior to the big race. After a second behind a horse regarded as a “selling plater” in his next race following the American Derby, he pulled up lame from his final start, the Great Western Handicap on July 7, 1900. He never raced again.