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Anita Peabody
Anyone looking for the promise of speed would not have to look far in the pedigree of Anita Peabody. Although her sire, Luke McLuke, stayed well enough to win the 1914 Belmont Stakes, he was a son of the intensely inbred Ultimus, whose grandfather twice over was the brilliant speedster Domino. Her dam, *La Dauphine, was by another brilliantly fast horse in The Tetrarch, the champion English juvenile of 1913. The future champion was bred by Mr. and Mrs. John D. Hertz at their Leona Farm in Cary, Illinois, and raced in Mrs. Hertz’s name throughout her career. Trained by Bert Mitchell, the bay filly was sufficiently impressive in her early training that she went the to post as an odds-on favorite for her maiden race. She barely delivered on the promise she had shown, scrambling home by a nose. But she won her next start, the Debutante Stakes, by five lengths and followed up with a six-length win against colts in the Joliet Stakes. Sent to New York, Anita Peabody suffered her only defeat of the season in the Schuylerville Stakes, in which she carried 124 pounds and was beaten into third placed by Pennant Queen (112) and Bateau (122). She rebounded with an easy win in an allowance event and next won the Tomboy Handicap by four lengths with Bateau in the beaten field. Anita Peabody’s final start of the season was in the Futurity Stakes, which was the richest race ever staged up to that time with a winner’s purse of $91,790. The filly went wire to wire under jockey Charles Lang, just lasting to beat her stablemate, Reigh Count, by a nose. In fairness to Reigh Count, he was not pushed to defeat his stablemate, but in fairness to Anita Peabody, she was conceding the colt five pounds. The victory made Anita Peabody the leading money winner of the 1927 season,, and racing historians generally regard her as the champion two-year-old filly of 1927. Unfortunately, Anita Peabody went unsound after winning her first start as a a three-year-old and was forced into retirement with seven wins from eight starts and earnings of $113,105. She produced four foals including the multiple stakes winner Our Count, a gelding by her stablemate Reigh Count, but was not to have a lasting impact as her only daughter died before being named. Anita Peabody herself died in 1934 at Leona Farm after a throat infection spread through her system. Both as a racer and as a broodmare, she was a sad case of great promise that was cut off too soon. © 2005 by Avalyn Hunter |
