Chant (USA)
1894 – After May 1910
Falsetto (USA) x Addie C. (USA), by King Alfonso (USA)
American Family 3
1894 – After May 1910
Falsetto (USA) x Addie C. (USA), by King Alfonso (USA)
American Family 3
Chant was an outstandingly hardly horse at 2 and 3, making a total of 58 starts over those two seasons. The brutal schedule cooked him for being much use as an older horse, however, and he made only five more starts over the next two years before being retired. Although he won his Kentucky Derby by an easy six lengths, his field was considered among the worst in the race's history to that point, and he failed to distinguish himself after winning the Clark Stakes against just two rivals. He was not a success at stud.
Race record
63 starts, 22 wins, 15 seconds, 6 thirds, US$18,280
1894:
1895:
As an individual
A strongly-built bay colt with a good shoulder, a deep girth and short cannons, Chant did not handle sloppy or muddy going well. He broke down in February 1895 and was never entirely sound again.
As a stallion
Clio Hogan's Index to Stakes Winners 1865-1967 does not credit Chant with any stakes winners.
Connections
Bred by A. J. Alexander at the famous Woodburn Stud in Kentucky, Chant was sold for US$850 as a yearling to the ownership of James E. Pepper, who sold him at the 1892 New York Tattersalls sale for US$6,600 (later reported as US$6,300 or US$6,000) to bookmaker Robert Rose. The price was sensationally high price for an untried youngster, but Chant was reputed to have shown excellent form during private trials. Chant was trained by Charles Hughes until Eugene Leigh bought into the colt during the animal's juvenile season; at 3, Chant was trained by Leigh. When the Leigh and Rose stable dispersed at Sheepshead Bay on September 1, 1894, Chant was purchased by C. H. Smith for US$5,100 and was returned to Hughes' care. The colt apparently did not endear himself to Smith, who called the animal "a veritable dog" and stated he was "a great deal better $500 plater than stake horse" as quoted in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of October 20, 1894, but this may have been a ploy to secure better betting odds as Smith was later reported to have used Chant to win US$31,000 in a betting coup at Latonia. According to a Daily Racing Form article of May 19, 1910, on Kentucky Derby winners' fates, Chant ended up standing in California and was alive at the time the story was written.
Pedigree notes
Chant is inbred 4x4x3 to 16-time American champion sire Lexington and 5x5x4 to eight-time American champion sire Glencoe. He is a full brother to stakes winner Chorister.
Addie C., the dam of Chant, is a half sister to two-time American champion Spendthrift (by Australian) and his stakes-winning full brother Rutherford as well as to Fellowcraft (also by Australian), a great four-mile heat runner and the horse that broke Lexington's American record for four miles by running the distance in 7:19-1/2 at Saratoga. Addie C. is also a half sister to Platina (by Planet), dam of the high-class gelding Drake Carter (by Ten Broeck) and multiple stakes winner Fellowplay (by Longfellow) and second dam of 1885 American co-champion 3-year-old male Bersan, and to Jersey Belle (by Australian), second dam of 1881 Champagne Stakes winner Macduff and 1885 United States Hotel Stakes winner Favor.
Addie C. and her siblings were produced from the Lexington mare Aerolite, whose full sister Idlewild was a notable racer whose victories included the 1861 Woodlawn Challenge Stakes and who produced the good stakes winners Fanchon and Wildidle to covers by Australian. Aerolite, in turn, was out of the Glencoe mare Florine, whose female line traces back to an unnamed daughter of imported Medley (dam unknown) and cannot be connected to any of the Bruce Lowe families.
Fun facts
Race record
63 starts, 22 wins, 15 seconds, 6 thirds, US$18,280
1894:
- Won Kentucky Derby (USA, 12FD, Churchill Downs)
- Won Clark Stakes (USA, 10FD, Churchill Downs)
- Won Phoenix Hotel Stakes (USA, 9FD, Lexington)
1895:
- 3rd Country Club Stakes (USA, 9FD, Cincinnati, moved up from fourth by disqualification)
As an individual
A strongly-built bay colt with a good shoulder, a deep girth and short cannons, Chant did not handle sloppy or muddy going well. He broke down in February 1895 and was never entirely sound again.
As a stallion
Clio Hogan's Index to Stakes Winners 1865-1967 does not credit Chant with any stakes winners.
Connections
Bred by A. J. Alexander at the famous Woodburn Stud in Kentucky, Chant was sold for US$850 as a yearling to the ownership of James E. Pepper, who sold him at the 1892 New York Tattersalls sale for US$6,600 (later reported as US$6,300 or US$6,000) to bookmaker Robert Rose. The price was sensationally high price for an untried youngster, but Chant was reputed to have shown excellent form during private trials. Chant was trained by Charles Hughes until Eugene Leigh bought into the colt during the animal's juvenile season; at 3, Chant was trained by Leigh. When the Leigh and Rose stable dispersed at Sheepshead Bay on September 1, 1894, Chant was purchased by C. H. Smith for US$5,100 and was returned to Hughes' care. The colt apparently did not endear himself to Smith, who called the animal "a veritable dog" and stated he was "a great deal better $500 plater than stake horse" as quoted in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of October 20, 1894, but this may have been a ploy to secure better betting odds as Smith was later reported to have used Chant to win US$31,000 in a betting coup at Latonia. According to a Daily Racing Form article of May 19, 1910, on Kentucky Derby winners' fates, Chant ended up standing in California and was alive at the time the story was written.
Pedigree notes
Chant is inbred 4x4x3 to 16-time American champion sire Lexington and 5x5x4 to eight-time American champion sire Glencoe. He is a full brother to stakes winner Chorister.
Addie C., the dam of Chant, is a half sister to two-time American champion Spendthrift (by Australian) and his stakes-winning full brother Rutherford as well as to Fellowcraft (also by Australian), a great four-mile heat runner and the horse that broke Lexington's American record for four miles by running the distance in 7:19-1/2 at Saratoga. Addie C. is also a half sister to Platina (by Planet), dam of the high-class gelding Drake Carter (by Ten Broeck) and multiple stakes winner Fellowplay (by Longfellow) and second dam of 1885 American co-champion 3-year-old male Bersan, and to Jersey Belle (by Australian), second dam of 1881 Champagne Stakes winner Macduff and 1885 United States Hotel Stakes winner Favor.
Addie C. and her siblings were produced from the Lexington mare Aerolite, whose full sister Idlewild was a notable racer whose victories included the 1861 Woodlawn Challenge Stakes and who produced the good stakes winners Fanchon and Wildidle to covers by Australian. Aerolite, in turn, was out of the Glencoe mare Florine, whose female line traces back to an unnamed daughter of imported Medley (dam unknown) and cannot be connected to any of the Bruce Lowe families.
Fun facts
- While Chant was being prepared for the Kentucky Derby at the 1894 Memphis spring meeting, Eugene Leigh offered to sell the colt to his friend and rival trainer Charles Hughes. Hughes had previously trained Chant, but he had another son of Falsetto in his barn, Pearl Song, that he fancied for the Derby. Instead of buying Chant, Hughes bet US$500 that his Pearl Song would beat Leigh's colt. Chant won easily with Pearl Song second.
- Unfortunately, Chant's Derby jockey, Frank Goodale, did not live to savor his triumph long. He was killed a few days later when his mount in another race stumbled and fell.
- Chant was the first of three Kentucky Derby winners sired by Falsetto, who also begot His Eminence (1901) and Sir Huon (1906). Vagrant, Sir Gallahad III, and Bull Lea are the other stallions with three Derby winners to their credit.
- Chant was the last of four Kentucky Derby winners bred by A. J. Alexander. The others were Baden-Baden (1877), Fonso (1880) and Joe Cotton (1885). 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. All raced for owners other than Alexander, who never had a Derby starter.
- Chant's Kentucky Derby was the first held beneath the now-iconic twin spires of Churchill Downs. The spires were added as part of a renovation of the grandstand by architect Joseph Baldez Jr.