A stakes winner at two, Baden-Baden is generally regarded as the American champion 3-year-old male of 1877 by racing historians. However, he was not very highly regarded at the time of the Kentucky Derby as evidenced by the fact that he was grouped with the field horses in at least some of the auction pools. (A popular form of betting at the time, auction pools put up each horse in a race field in what might be termed a fantasy auction. The person who made the winning bid on the horse that ended up winning the race collected all the money that “purchased” all the runners in that particular auction pool, less the auctioneer's fee. Horses that failed to generate enough interest individually were often grouped by the pool seller into a field which collectively represented the person who made the winning bid on the group, prefiguring the modern pari-mutuel field.) Baden-Baden did not enjoy a long racing career and failed to distinguish himself as a sire.
Race record
10 starts, 4 wins, 3 seconds, 1 third, US$12,425.
1876:
1877:
Honors
American champion 3-year-old male (1877)
As an individual
A chestnut horse standing 16 hands, Baden-Baden was retired to stud after fracturing a sesamoid bone during the running of the 1877 Kenner Stakes at Saratoga.
As a stallion
Clio Hogan's Index to Stakes Winners 1865-1967 does not credit Baden-Baden with any stakes winners.
Connections
Foaled at the famous Woodburn Stud in Kentucky, Baden-Baden was bred by A. J. Alexander, who ran Woodburn Stud after the death of his brother Robert Alexander in 1867. He was purchased as a yearling by Daniel Swigert and was trained by Edward D. “Brown Dick” Brown, a future member of the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame. He was ridden to his Derby victory by William Walker. Following the Derby, Baden-Baden was sold to William Astor for US$12,500, and stood at Astor's Ferncliffe Stud in New York following his racing career.
Pedigree notes
Baden-Baden is inbred 4x4 to 1823 Derby Stakes winner and two-time English champion sire Emilius. He is a full brother to 1870 Saratoga Cup winner Helmbold and to stakes winner Barricade and is out of Lavender, a half sister to 16-time American champion sire Lexington and to Rescue (by Berthune), dam of stakes winner Abd-el-Kader (by Australian).
*Baden-Baden's tail-female line has traditionally been traced back to the English import Diana (by the Cullen Arabian) through a daughter sired by Jack of Diamonds. This descent has been called into question by modern mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) research, which has shown that all known descendants of the Jack of Diamonds mare have mtDNA that does not match that of Thoroughbreds descended from Diana's known matrilineal relatives. The error in the recorded female line must have occurred sometime in the eight generations between Diana and the most common recent ancestor of the tested animals purportedly descending from the Jack of Diamonds mare, a daughter of imported Tranby who was foaled in 1835. Baden-Baden's dam Lavender does not descend from the Tranby Mare but from Lady Grey (1817, by Robin Grey), the dam of both Lavender's granddam Rowena and the Tranby Mare's granddam Lucy. Adding to the confusion, there is a second line of descent purporting to descend from Diana that is also through a Jack of Diamonds mare, but the mtDNA of all tested horses in this line differs from both the mtDNA of Diana's known matrilineal relatives and from that of the Tranby Mare's descendants.
Fun facts
Last updated: October 27, 2024
Race record
10 starts, 4 wins, 3 seconds, 1 third, US$12,425.
1876:
- Won Young America Stakes (USA, 8FD, Nashville)
- 2nd Belle Meade Stakes (USA, 8FD, Louisville)
- 2nd Sanford Stakes (USA, 8FD, Louisville)
1877:
- Won Kentucky Derby (USA, 12FD, Churchill Downs)
- Won Jersey Derby (USA, 12FD, Monmouth)
- Won Travers Stakes (USA, 14FD, Saratoga)
- 3rd Belmont Stakes (USA, 12FD, Jerome Park)
Honors
American champion 3-year-old male (1877)
As an individual
A chestnut horse standing 16 hands, Baden-Baden was retired to stud after fracturing a sesamoid bone during the running of the 1877 Kenner Stakes at Saratoga.
As a stallion
Clio Hogan's Index to Stakes Winners 1865-1967 does not credit Baden-Baden with any stakes winners.
Connections
Foaled at the famous Woodburn Stud in Kentucky, Baden-Baden was bred by A. J. Alexander, who ran Woodburn Stud after the death of his brother Robert Alexander in 1867. He was purchased as a yearling by Daniel Swigert and was trained by Edward D. “Brown Dick” Brown, a future member of the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame. He was ridden to his Derby victory by William Walker. Following the Derby, Baden-Baden was sold to William Astor for US$12,500, and stood at Astor's Ferncliffe Stud in New York following his racing career.
Pedigree notes
Baden-Baden is inbred 4x4 to 1823 Derby Stakes winner and two-time English champion sire Emilius. He is a full brother to 1870 Saratoga Cup winner Helmbold and to stakes winner Barricade and is out of Lavender, a half sister to 16-time American champion sire Lexington and to Rescue (by Berthune), dam of stakes winner Abd-el-Kader (by Australian).
*Baden-Baden's tail-female line has traditionally been traced back to the English import Diana (by the Cullen Arabian) through a daughter sired by Jack of Diamonds. This descent has been called into question by modern mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) research, which has shown that all known descendants of the Jack of Diamonds mare have mtDNA that does not match that of Thoroughbreds descended from Diana's known matrilineal relatives. The error in the recorded female line must have occurred sometime in the eight generations between Diana and the most common recent ancestor of the tested animals purportedly descending from the Jack of Diamonds mare, a daughter of imported Tranby who was foaled in 1835. Baden-Baden's dam Lavender does not descend from the Tranby Mare but from Lady Grey (1817, by Robin Grey), the dam of both Lavender's granddam Rowena and the Tranby Mare's granddam Lucy. Adding to the confusion, there is a second line of descent purporting to descend from Diana that is also through a Jack of Diamonds mare, but the mtDNA of all tested horses in this line differs from both the mtDNA of Diana's known matrilineal relatives and from that of the Tranby Mare's descendants.
Fun facts
- Baden-Baden is a spa town in southwestern Germany. One of a number of towns known as Baden (“bath”) because of nearby hot springs, it gained the modern form of its name (which was formally adopted in 1931) from the Margavate of Baden-Baden, a territory of the Holy Roman Empire in which the town lay.
- Baden-Baden was the first of four Kentucky Derby winners bred by A. J. Alexander. The others were Fonso (1880), Joe Cotton (1885) and Chant (1894). A fifth, His Eminence (1901), was bred from a mating planned by Alexander but was purchased in utero by Overton Chenault, his breeder of record.
- Australian, the sire of Baden-Baden, was produced from the Young Emilius mare Emilia. Later, Ben Ali, produced from Emilia's daughter Ulrica, won the 1886 Kentucky Derby, making Emilia the first mare to produce both the sire of a Derby winner and the dam of one.
- Baden-Baden's Kentucky Derby jockey, William Walker, was a noted rider in the 1870s but achieved even more in later life in spite of having been born into slavery. A valued assistant trainer to Hall of Fame breeder-owner-trainer John E. Madden, he also amassed a tremendous knowledge of Thoroughbred pedigrees and breeding and provided services as a consultant to some of the top breeders of his day, William Collins Whitney among them.
Last updated: October 27, 2024