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Blockade
Blockade began life with great expectations. Bred by Isabel Dodge Sloane at her Brookmeade Farm in Upperville, Virginia, he belonged to an owner who would become the first woman to lead the American owners’ list in 1934 thanks to her Kentucky Derby winner Cavalcade and her Preakness winner High Quest. He was a son of the incomparable Man o’ War, who at the time of Blockade’s birth was already represented by champions American Flag, Crusader, Scapa Flow, Florence Nightingale, Maid At Arms, Edith Cavell, and Bateau. Blockade’s dam, Rock Emerald, was a daughter of Trap Rock, a stakes-winning full brother to the English champion Tracery and a son of English Triple Crown winner *Rock Sand. And Rock Emerald was out of *Star Emerald, a daughter of the exceptionally game Two Thousand Guineas and Epsom Derby winner Sunstar. But although Blockade’s breeding was rich in horses of the highest class, it contained a hidden flaw. Man o’ War was a grandson of two notoriously temperamental horses in the vicious Hastings (sire of his sire Fair Play) and the extremely high-strung *Rock Sand (sire of his dam Mahubah). Fortunately, Man o’ War himself, though quite a handful, did not inherit the full disposition of either grandsire. When bred back to mares tracing to *Rock Sand, however – a pattern frequently tried by owner Sam Riddle – the resulting foals might have considerable talent, but they could also be plagued with nearly impossible dispositions. War Relic, a son of *Rock Sand’s champion granddaughter Friars Carse, was a high class racehorse but reputedly killed a man when a mere yearling, while Hard Tack (out of *Rock Sand’s daughter Tea Biscuit) though a stakes winner and later sire of the great Seabiscuit, was also a dangerous horse to handle. Not only did Blockade’s breeding contain questions about disposition, but it contained problems with soundness. *Rock Sand, although an excellent racehorse, had markedly upright pasterns which were often transmitted to his progeny, while Sunstar broke down over a furlong out in his Derby win and won the race on raw courage. These problems may well have been transmitted to Rock Emerald, for of her nine foals, two never raced at all and three more were unplaced while making five lifetime starts or less on the flat. Blockade did make it to the starting gate, but did not place in three starts on the flat. Not only did he have a bad ankle, but he proved to have the high-strung *Rock Sand disposition and would “wash out” (sweat heavily, causing a lathered appearance on the neck and flanks) in the paddock before his races, wasting his energy on sheer nervousness. Such a horse would not do for Brookmeade Stable, and Blockade was quickly sold. The colt passed through several hands with no better fortune, at one point being sold for a mere $345, before coming into the ownership of Virginia horseman Alex Calvert. Calvert was well known in both fox hunting and show horse circles, and he thought the handsome chestnut (who was apparently gelded while in Calvert’s ownership or earlier) might be worth trying as a show hunter prospect. But the experiment was yet another failure for Blockade. Jumping ability he had, but he lacked the patience to respond to a rider’s guidance in timing his jumps and was too highly strung for the show ring. Calvert traded the horse to E. Read Beard of Maryland, who thought he might make a field hunter of Blockade. He might have succeeded had Blockade been less his father’s son. As a three-year-old, Man o’ War had been a dedicated front runner who could barely be restrained by Clarence Kummer, one of the strongest jockeys of his time, and Blockade proved to have the same intense desire to be in front – in this case, ahead of the master of the hunt, the hounds, and sometimes the fox. To add to his sins as a hunter, Blockade did not like the foxhounds and would try to kick them whenever in range. Beard concluded that about the only thing left to try with Blockade was to race him over fences, and thus the gelding returned to racing at last as a five-year-old in 1934. He did not distinguish himself in his first year of competition, however, failing to finish in two of three starts and finishing a distant fourth in the other. Then Beard died, and Blockade remained idle for two years. Blockade’s fortunes changed in 1937 when veteran steeplechase trainer Jason Fisher, Jr., took a liking to him and persuaded Beard’s widow to allow him to train the gelding for another attempt at making a timber racer of him. It would prove a happy combination, for Fisher was no slave to orthodoxy. Traditional steeplechase training methods said that horses needed regular schooling over smaller fences, usually of brush, and should be trained to respond to their riders’ cues on when to launch for a jump. Fisher, however, felt that Blockade was a natural jumper who simply did not respect small fences, and he concentrated his efforts on long gallops to get the horse fit rather than training him over jumps. Blockade’s other peculiarity was that he insisted on standing well off from his fences to jump, making huge leaps from so far back that almost any other horse would have struck the fence instead of clearing it; in fact, several did come to grief when trying to leap with him. Fisher dealt with this idiosyncrasy by instructing his jockey, J. Fred Colwill, to let Blockade have his own way. The team of Colwill and Blockade made a rather inauspicious debut in the 1937 Maryland Hunt Cup as Blockade lost his rider at the seventh fence. The two finished second twice later in the year, however, and the following year ran good seconds in the My Lady’s Manor Point-to-Point and the Maryland Grand National Point-to-Point before scoring Blockade’s first win in the most prestigious of all timber races, the Maryland Hunt Cup. Not only did he win by six lengths after being up with the leaders throughout, but he finished in 8:44 flat to shatter the course record of 8:51-3/5 which had been set by Trouble Maker in 1932, and this despite plowing through the top rail at the seventeenth fence. Blockade returned to defend his Maryland Hunt Cup title in 1939, and this time Colwill’s riding instructions from Fisher were short and simple: get Blockade to the front immediately and keep him there. Colwill followed his orders to the letter: Blockade broke on top, led throughout, and stood off a strong challenge by the good ‘chaser Coq Bruyere to win by three-quarters of a length. In between the 1939 and 1940 runnings of the Maryland Hunt Cup, Blockade was sold to Maryland sportsman Charles E. Tuttle. He remained in Fisher’s barn, however, and with Colwill in the saddle scored an unprecedented third consecutive victory in the Maryland Hunt Cup. He then went to New Jersey in the fall to tally an impressive win in the New Jersey Hunt Cup, setting a new course record for that event. Unfortunately, Blockade suffered a tendon injury that forced him to sit out the 1941 timber season. In his absence, his old rival Coq Bruyere won the Maryland Hunt Cup impressively in time only a second slower than Blockade’s course record. The son of Man o’ War was back to try for a fourth victory in the Hunt Cup in 1942, but was robbed of any chance of victory by a mental lapse on his rider’s part. On the Maryland Hunt Cup’s course, the eighth and eighteenth fences are side by side. Blockade was leading easily going past the seventh fence, but Colwill went to the wrong side of the course marker and jumped him next over the eighteenth fence instead of the eighth. Colwill recognized his error almost at the same instant that Blockade was gathering himself to leap but could do nothing to redeem it; knowing that Blockade would be disqualified anyway for leaving the course, he pulled the horse up after landing and disconsolately watched Stuart Janney’s fine horse Winton win the race nicely. Winton, no ordinary steeplechaser in his own right, was also to take three consecutive runnings of the Maryland Hunt Cup by winning the 1946 and 1947 editions as well (the race was not run in 1943-1945). A week later, Blockade went to Virginia for a try at the Virginia Gold Cup. It would prove to be his last race. In a dreadful fall at the seventeenth fence, Blockade broke his neck. So passed one of the gamest sons of Man o’ War, not as a failed flat racer, show horse, and field hunter, but as a champion competing in the sport he loved.
© 2005 by Avalyn Hunter |
