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Artful
William Collins Whitney came to Thoroughbred breeding relatively late in his life, but he had a major impact in his few years as a breeder. After leasing La Belle Stud, a farm near Lexington, Kentucky, in 1900, Whitney began stocking his barns with the best mares he could buy. Among them was Martha II, who had been bred by General W. H. Jackson at his famed Belle Meade Stud near Nashville, Tennessee. Racing in the colors of Tommy Griffin, Martha II won the Sapphire Stakes before becoming a member of the Whitney broodmare band. Whitney also purchased a first-rate young stallion for his farm. This was Hamburg, who had been much the best racehorse of the 1895 foal crop at ages two and three. With John E. Madden acting as agent, Whitney bought Hamburg for $60,000 from the dispersal of Marcus Daly’s Bitter Root Stud in 1901. The price was steep for a horse not yet proven (his first runners came to the racetrack in 1902), but Hamburg would prove well worth it, though Whitney did not live to see him head the American general sire list in 1905. Artful, who was produced from the union of Hamburg and Martha II, was probably the best filly among the 26 stakes winners bred by the first of the famed Whitney racing dynasty. She was never to race in his colors, however, as he died on February 2, 1904, some months prior to the filly’s first start. As was the custom among the elite racing stables of the Northeast in that time, the Whitney horses in training were, accordingly, leased out while the Whitney family observed the customary year of mourning. H. B. Duryea, an old friend of the Whitney family, was the lessor of the Whitney racing stable for 1904. The leased horses, Artful included, were turned over to trainer John W. Rogers, a big Texan whose horses were known for their excellent manners as well as for their racing prowess. Artful made her first start at Saratoga as part of an entry with her stablemate Dreamer in a $600 maiden race over five and one-half furlongs on August 10, 1904. Dreamer, who had been declared to win, won in a canter by two lengths, but the Daily Racing Form noted that Artful had been “hard held” and “probably could have won.” (“Declaring to win” meant that a stable had publicly announced which of its runners it would prefer to have win a race, opportunity permitting; under the rules of racing then in place, the stable’s other runners could legitimately be held by their jockeys to prevent their passing the horse that had been declared as the stable’s preferred winner.) On August 16, 1904, again at Saratoga, Artful ran second in her second lifetime start. Again, she finished behind a stablemate who had been declared to win, in this case Princess Rupert. Once again, Artful was described by the Daily Racing Form as having finished “under a pull.” Duryea and Rogers may well have been saving Artful’s maiden weight allowance for the Futurity, where she would face Sysonby; in any event, the defeat was the last of Artful’s career. Following the close of the Saratoga meeting, the action moved to the now-defunct Sheepshead Bay track, where Artful went to the post for the rich Futurity Stakes on August 27. The sixteen-horse field was considered the strongest in the race’s seventeen runnings, but thanks to her maiden allowance, Artful got in with 114 pounds against 127 on Sysonby and on co-highweight Tradition, who had come into the race unbeaten in five starts, all stakes races. Others in the field were Oiseau, winner of eight stakes that season; Artful’s stablemate Tanya, winner of the Spinaway Stakes against fillies and the Hopeful Stakes against males; and Agile, Councilman, Woodsaw, Jack Lory, Chrysitis, and Glorifier, all stakes winners. The entry of Artful and Tanya was the second choice in the betting at 5-2. Artful won the Futurity at Sheepshead Bay by five lengths as her third start with Sysonby third -- the only defeat of that great runner’s career. The race was marred by controversy, as Sysonby’s groom admitted two days later to having doped the colt prior to the Futurity. Nonetheless, Sysonby had taken the early lead despite breaking sideways, and Artful passed him as she pleased at the eighth pole. Tradition was second, having just gotten up to head Sysonby for the place in the final strides, and the future Classic winners Agile (1905 Kentucky Derby) and Tanya (1905 Belmont Stakes) were among the also-rans. Artful next won the Great Filly Stakes on August 31 as she pleased as the 1-15 favorite, then closed her juvenile campaign on October 15 by winning the White Plains Handicap at Morris Park under 130 pounds. Her time was a world-record 1:08 for the six furlongs. In second place was Dandelion under 101 pounds; one of Hamburg‘s best sons, he would go on to take the Travers Stakes the following year and several important handicaps at four. In fairness, it should be noted that Artful’s record-breaking time was run over the Eclipse Course, which was a straightaway and slightly downhill to boot. These features gave this part of Morris Park the nickname of the “Toboggan Slide,” a name later memorialized by the inauguration of the Toboggan Handicap at Belmont Park. Still, the chart described Artful as “never fully extended” in her wire-to-wire victory. Artful’s record for six furlongs over a straightaway stood until 1954, when Vestment ran the distance out of the Widener Chute at Belmont Park and hung up a wind-assisted time of 1:07-4/5. Although Artful had won $57,805 during her juvenile season, she was purchased for a relatively modest $10,000 by Harry Payne Whitney at the dispersal sale of his father’s racing stable. The low price may perhaps be attributed to the belief of many that Artful was merely an early-maturing sprinter who had already seen her best days. For the younger Whitney, she won three of three starts at three despite soundness problems and became one of the first major stakes winners to carry his Eton blue jacket with brown cap. Artful’s first start at three was a six-furlong allowance at Sheepshead Bay on June 28, 1905, which she won by three lengths. She ran again five days later and won a six-furlong overnight race by two lengths. Dismissed as “just a sprinter” for the ten-furlong Brighton Handicap and assigned only 103 pounds, Artful went to the lead within the first furlong and won “pulled up” by a length over Ort Wells, with Beldame third. Artful received large weight concessions from almost her entire field (both Ort Wells and Beldame had 125 pounds), but that field was a stellar one, and she had defeated it effortlessly. Second-place Ort Wells, a four-year-old, had won the 1904 Lawrence Realization, then a race comparable in importance to the Belmont Stakes, and was coming off a win in the one-mile Brighton Mile three days earlier. Beldame, also a four-year-old, had been reckoned the best horse of any age racing in 1904; while she was not the dominating racer she had been at three, she did win the 1905 Suburban Handicap under 123 pounds, the most ever carried to victory by a female in that historic event. And bringing up the rear of the seven-horse field was Delhi, the 1904 Belmont Stakes winner and victor in the 1905 Brooklyn Handicap. Unfortunately, the race was Artful’s last as she went unsound and never recovered well enough to run again. She finished her career having won six of her eight starts, with both defeats being second-place finishes to stablemates who had been declared to win. Her total career earnings came to $81,125, so she more than earned her purchase price back for Harry Payne Whitney. Sent to Whitney’s Brookdale Stud in New Jersey at the conclusion of her racing career, Artful bred three winners from four foals before being sent to England in 1913. She was barren thereafter although she was bred every year through 1925. Nonetheless, she has at least one very good modern descendant from her direct female line in 1982 Canadian champion three-year-old male Runaway Groom, who has been a useful stallion. Artful was inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 1956. © 2005 by Avalyn Hunter |
