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Colin
Perfection is not easily obtained in the Thoroughbred world. Only a handful of champions have managed to remain undefeated throughout their careers, and in the twentieth-century United States there were only two: Personal Ensign and Colin. The latter is so far back in time that he has all but been forgotten. Yet, in pre-World War II America, he was one of the very few that experienced horsemen spoke of in the same breath with Man o’ War. Bred by James R. Keene, Colin started life with an enlarged hock, which remained a suspicious point in his makeup throughout his career. One might well suspect a predisposition to unsoundness, for while his grandsire, the brilliant Domino, had won 19 of 25 starts, he had raced in front bandages throughout his career due to questionable tendons. His sire, 1901 Belmont Stakes winner Commando, possessed brilliant speed but broke down in his ninth start. Suspicious underpinnings or not, Colin showed brilliant ability when tried as a yearling by Keene’s trainer, James Rowe, Sr. The colt confirmed that ability when he won his first start on May 29, 1907, coasting home ahead of 22 rivals. Only five challengers showed up for his next start, the National Stallion Race on June 1, and Colin dusted them just as easily, setting a new Belmont Park track record for five furlongs into the bargain. Colin had only two close calls during his career, and he had his excuses in both. The first one of those narrow wins came in his third race, the Eclipse Stakes, which was contested in June 5. That was the colt’s third start in a week, and he just lasted to defeat the future Adirondack Handicap winner Beaucoup (who was getting an eight-pound weight concession) by a head. He may well have been tired and he was certainly in pain, for he came out of the race with bucked shins. Colin stayed on the sidelines until June 29, when he reappeared in the Great Trial Stakes at Sheepshead Bay. He won by two lengths under mild restraint while carrying 129 pounds. Then, in succession, he won the Brighton Junior Stakes, the Saratoga Special, the Grand Union Hotel Stakes, the Futurity Stakes, the Flatbush Stakes, the Produce Stakes, the Matron Stakes, and the Champagne Stakes, all without being seriously challenged. He went into winter quarters as the unquestioned juvenile champion of 1907. Colin’s first race at three was the Withers Stakes, which was contested at Belmont on May 23 over a track rated “heavy.” Under level weights, Colin defeated August Belmont II’s improving Fair Play by an easy two lengths, with King James (a future champion at four) another three-quarters of a length back. But some reports had him coming out of the race lame, and virtually all accounts agree that the colt was suffering from tendon trouble in his forelegs following a ten-furlong workout just a few days before a scheduled start in the Belmont Stakes on May 30. In fact, Rowe officially declared Colin out of the big race. At the time, however, the entry rules for the Belmont permitted added starters, and Rowe apparently changed his mind sometime between the workout and the final deadline, sending Colin to the post as originally planned. His only challengers were Fair Play, King James, and Robert Cooper, and since Colin had already handled Fair Play and King James with ease and Robert Cooper had no real reputation, Colin was bet down to 1-2 despite the rumors about his ailing legs. The Belmont went off in a blinding rainstorm, so heavy that the horses could not even be distinguished until they came into the final straight; because of the conditions, the race was not timed. As the horses finally emerged from the rain and mist, Colin was about six lengths in front and seemed to have matters well in hand. But Fair Play had other ideas. He clearly relished both the slop and the distance, and as Colin began easing himself up on the lead, Fair Play launched an all-out drive under Joe Dugan. Some accounts of the 1908 Belmont stated that Notter mistook the finish line and tried to pull up too soon, or else was inattentive and failed to notice Fair Play’s charge until nearly too late. Notter always vigorously denied both charges, stating that he had orders to go as easy on Colin as possible because of the colt’s bad legs and had waited as long as he could to start pushing the horse. The full truth has long since vanished into the mists of time; the record only shows that Colin held off Fair Play by a head, with King James 15 lengths further back. Colin was not seen again until June 20, suggesting that he had come out of the Belmont tired, sore, or both given Rowe’s normal penchant for quick turnarounds when a horse was in top shape. His form during the Tidal Handicap seems to confirm the idea that something had gone amiss with the colt; although Colin won by two lengths, the race chart states that he “bore out,” a behavior often exhibited by a sore or otherwise hurting horse. By the time the Tidal Handicap was staged, anti-gambling laws had shut down all forms of betting in the state of New York, seriously crippling the racing industry. Keene elected to send Colin to England, but he might as well have kept the colt at home. Although Colin won a private trial against the top English sprinter Jack Snipe, giving him fourteen pounds and beating him a length and a half, his legs gave out after that, to the point that even top English trainer Sam Darling could not get him sound enough to race again. Colin ended his career with 15 wins from 15 starts. He had no better fortune as a sire in England; skeptical of his American form and perhaps of the Domino strain in his pedigree, English horsemen would not patronize him. To make matters worse, it soon became apparent that Colin’s fertility was subnormal. He sired only 14 foals before returning to the United States in the summer of 1913. Colin was sold to Wickliffe Stud at the Castleton Stud dispersal in September of 1913, fetching $30,000. In January 1918, Colin went to the auction block again when Wickliffe Stud was dispersed, but this time, he fetched only $5,100 on a bid from publisher E. B. McLean. McLean had been an ardent admirer of Colin in the horse’s racing days, and he provided Colin a home for the rest of the great horse’s life, retaining Colin when he dispersed his Thoroughbred holdings in 1931. Colin was humanely destroyed due to a decline in his condition in the summer of 1932. Against all odds, Colin kept the male line of Domino alive. Although he sired just 83 foals, he is the direct male ancestor of 1994 leading sire Broad Brush, now represented at stud by his son Include. But it is primarily for unblemished excellence as a racehorse that Colin is remembered. Despite his questionable soundness and his brief sophomore season, he left an indelible impression on those who saw him that was not equaled until the emergence of Man o’ War. And perhaps the greatest tribute of all was paid by his trainer, James Rowe, who requested as his epitaph just three words: “He trained Colin.”
© 2008 by Avalyn Hunter |
