Northern Dancer

Northern Dancer (Can) 1961 Bay Colt   Nearctic (Can) x Natalma (USA), by Native Dancer (USA)

At 12:15am, on May 27, 1961, the world of modern Thoroughbred breeding changed forever. The catalyst was the birth of a small bay colt by Nearctic out of Natalma.

His name was Northern Dancer.

With the possible exception of Winifred Taylor (wife of owner-breeder Edward Plunkett Taylor), who made a favorite of Northern Dancer while he was still young, nobody at Windfields Farm seemed to see exceptional potential in the young Dancer. Nor did the buyers at the Windfields annual pre-priced yearling sale of 1962 seem particularly impressed. Anyone who wanted to could have bought Northern Dancer for $25,000 at that sale, but only the brothers Phil and Jim Boylen appear to have seriously considered purchasing him. They went so far as to have the colt pulled from his stall three times for inspection but were eventually discouraged from buying him by their trainer, Art Warner, who thought the colt was just too small. A lot of other people apparently felt the same. And in truth, the colt was small in stature, standing less than fifteen hands at the time. (Measurements taken by Dr. M. A. Gilman in July of the colt’s three-year-old season yielded a height of 15 hands, 1-3/4 inches.) He was powerfully built, however, and actually girthed seventy-three inches as a three-year-old, an inch more than the average sixteen-hand Thoroughbred.

In truth, $25,000 was a lot of money for a little colt produced by an unproven sire and dam, especially by the prices prevailing in Canada at that time. Nearctic, the sire of Northern Dancer, had been Canadian Horse of the Year in 1952 but was something of an underachiever on the track, his full potential perhaps compromised by an inflexible front-running racing style and a high-strung disposition. Northern Dancer was from his first crop, so no one had any idea what type of sire Nearctic might turn out to be. As for Natalma, the colt’s dam, she had shown real talent while finishing first in the 1959 Spinaway Stakes (she was disqualified to third for interference) but was forced into retirement by knee trouble six days before the 1960 Kentucky Oaks, for which she had been training brilliantly. Northern Dancer was her first foal.

As Northern Dancer did not change owners at the Windfields sale, he raced for E. P. Taylor. He proved a tough colt to break and train, so tough that trainer Horatio Luro’s people contacted E. P. Taylor several times to ask if they could have him gelded. The loss to the Thoroughbred would have been incalculable if Taylor had said “yes,” but he said “no” each time. His decision may have been colored by a colt he had bought as a yearling the same year that Northern Dancer had been foaled. This colt, *Roman Flare, was a half brother by the great European champion *Ribot to Nantallah, a young stallion whose son Ridan was American champion two-year-old male in 1961, and Taylor thought *Roman Flare might be a good stallion prospect after his racing career was over. But *Roman Flare proved extremely difficult, and Luro persuaded Taylor to have him gelded on the grounds that he’d never make a good racehorse as an entire. By the time the question of gelding Northern Dancer came up, it was becoming obvious that gelding hadn’t made a good racehorse of *Roman Flare, who ended up in the claiming ranks. At any rate, Northern Dancer remained ungelded and eventually became tractable enough to go into serious training.

Because Northern Dancer was small and a late foal, Horatio Luro was in no hurry to get him to the races. The colt finally made his first start on August 2, 1963, at Fort Erie, where he was saddled for a maiden two-year-old race by Luro’s assistant, Thomas “Peaches” Fleming. For this first race, he was ridden by Ron Turcotte, later to become famous as the regular jockey of Secretariat.

Northern Dancer won his maiden race by six and a quarter widening lengths, causing Turcotte to tell Fleming after the race, “This is the best two-year-old in Canada, for sure.” Fifteen days later, the colt made his stakes debut in the Vandal Stakes. He lost, but was hardly disgraced; the winner, Ramblin Road, was already an experienced stakes runner, and Northern Dancer ran second, ahead of three current or future stakes winners.

Turcotte had not been able to ride Northern Dancer in the Vandal Stakes because of a contract obligation to the stable of trainer Gordon Huntley, and Paul Bohenko rode the Dancer in both the Vandal Stakes and in the colt’s next race, the Summer Stakes. The Fort Erie turf course was very soft and boggy for the Summer Stakes, but Northern Dancer thrashed his way to the front and hung on gamely to score his first stakes win. The condition of the course may be judged by the fact that the mile race went in a very slow 1:43-2/5, and Northern Dancer was given a rest after the race.

The colt next appeared five weeks later for the Cup and Saucer Stakes, an important race at Woodbine for Canadian-bred two-year-olds. Ron Turcotte was back aboard for this race and finished second on the Dancer. On the surface, it looked simply as if the front-running Dancer had just tired a little at the end of the one and one-sixteenth mile race to be caught by Grand Garçon, who was carrying eleven pounds less. Turcotte, however, felt that the colt was favoring his left forefoot and was not as sharp as he should have been.

Northern Dancer rebounded from his defeat in the Cup and Saucer to win an allowance race and then the Coronation Futurity, Canada’s most important race for juveniles. In both races, Turcotte felt the colt was still not fully sound, but any opinions he expressed were not heeded; in fact, he was taken off Northern Dancer after the Coronation Futurity. Luro’s main reason may have been to get a more experienced jockey on the colt for a planned venture to New York – Turcotte was only in his second full season of riding in 1963 – but the immediate excuse was that Turcotte had not followed the trainer’s orders in the Coronation Futurity and had won by too much.

Jim Fitzsimmons rode the colt in his next race, the Carleton Stakes at Greenwood. Although Northern Dancer won, he did not seem to have his heart in the race and had to be driven under the whip from the top of the stretch to the wire. The reason why soon became apparent. While the colt was being bathed after the race, a groom noticed blood trickling from the colt’s coronet band (the line at which the hoof starts growing out) and called for Luro. The trainer diagnosed a quarter crack, a split in the hoof wall that is usually painful for the horse to run on.

Despite the injury, Northern Dancer went on to Aqueduct Race Track in New York, where he won an allowance race and the Remsen Stakes with future Hall of Fame rider Manuel Ycaza in the saddle. The efforts were good enough to put Northern Dancer sixth on the Experimental Free Handicap for all North American-based two-year-olds, the highest ranking ever for a Canadian-bred. But the quarter crack kept getting worse, and Luro made arrangements for the colt to be shipped back to Canada, where he would have to miss the major spring races – including the Kentucky Derby – while his hoof grew out and healed. A few days before the van from Windfields was scheduled to arrive, however, Luro read a magazine article on how a California blacksmith named Bill Bane had developed a rubber hoof patch to treat a quarter crack sustained by the top Standardbred racer Adios Jr. The treatment had been successful enough that Adios Jr. had won several races while racing on the patched hoof.

Luro went into action. With the help of his friend, fellow trainer Laz Barrera, he tracked down Bill Bane and got an opinion on whether Northern Dancer’s hoof could possibly be patched. The initial opinion was favorable, and after getting permission from E. P. Taylor to try the treatment, Luro had Bane flown out from California to patch Northern Dancer’s hoof. The colt took the application of the patch calmly and was sent to Luro’s Georgia farm, where he was turned out in a small paddock for a few days to get used to how his patched hoof felt. Then he moved on to Hialeah Park in Florida, where he resumed training.

Northern Dancer’s first race in Florida, a six-furlong allowance race on February 10, 1964, was nearly a disaster – not because the colt got boxed in during the stretch run and lost all chance (he finished third) but because jockey Bobby Ussery decided to lay into the colt with the whip while the Dancer was hopelessly blocked. Whether Ussery struck him in a particularly sensitive spot or whether the Dancer was smart enough to resent being punished when he had no chance to win cannot now be known, but the next day, the colt absolutely refused to go onto the track to train, apparently associating the place with the whipping he had received. It took five days of gradual persuasion and the use of a light tranquilizer before Luro could get Northern Dancer to consent to go back out onto the track again.

Needless to say, Bobby Ussery was not going to get another chance on Northern Dancer. The jockey Luro really wanted for the colt was Bill Shoemaker, who rode Northern Dancer in his next two starts, a seven-furlong exhibition race and the Flamingo Stakes. Northern Dancer won both easily, but Shoemaker would not commit himself to riding the colt in the Kentucky Derby. He was being wooed by the connections of two other Derby candidates, Hill Rise and The Scoundrel, and he could afford to wait to make his decision.

Shoemaker was not available for Northern Dancer’s next race, an allowance tuneup for the Florida Derby, so Manny Ycaza rode the colt again and scored an easy win with him. Then Shoemaker rode the Dancer in the Florida Derby. The colt won, but by only a length in slow time. Further, he had tried to lug in during the stretch run, causing many observers to think he was getting leg-weary. During the victory celebration that evening, Shoemaker let Luro know that, while he had enjoyed the chance to ride Northern Dancer in his Florida races, he would be riding the big, elegant-looking California colt Hill Rise in the Kentucky Derby.

That left Northern Dancer without a jockey for the Kentucky Derby, now only a month away. Had Manuel Ycaza not been under contract to Cain Hoy Stable, he perhaps might have gotten the call – after all, he was undefeated with Northern Dancer – but he could not guarantee his availability. Ron Turcotte was available, but Luro apparently was not interested in reinstating the young jockey. And so the trainer turned to Bill Hartack, who had already won three Kentucky Derbies including the 1962 edition on Luro’s colt Decidedly. Although Hartack had a well-earned reputation for being a difficult man to get along with, he and Luro had a good relationship, and Luro had a deep respect both for his riding ability and for his ability to judge his mount’s strengths and weaknesses.

Northern Dancer made his final Derby prep in the Blue Grass Stakes, two weeks before the Derby. He won by only half a length over a small and undistinguished field, but Luro didn’t mind. He and Hartack had used the race to help teach Northern Dancer to rate his natural speed, and the colt had rated well if grudgingly for Hartack. And he had run the final furlong in a sparkling :11-2/5 while not being all out to do it. The effort was good enough to make him the second choice for the Kentucky Derby behind Hill Rise, who was coming into the big race off eight straight wins including the Santa Anita Derby and the Derby Trial.

Canadians everywhere watched TV or listened to the radio as Northern Dancer went to the post for the ninetieth Kentucky Derby on May 2, 1964. The little colt broke sharply from post seven and was steered to the inside by Hartack, who rated the colt while saving ground behind the early leaders. But as the field approached the six-furlong mark, Hill Rise loomed up on the outside, threatening to shut the Dancer into a box. Hartack made an instant decision and sent his agile mount for the closing hole. With a burst of incredible acceleration, Northern Dancer shot through the closing hole and was rushing to the leaders while Shoemaker and Hill Rise, taken by surprise, were still trying to get in gear.

Northern Dancer stuck his head in front just as the field was sweeping past the mile mark. The pace was fast: 1:36 flat. Six horses were bunched within three lengths of each other, but Hartack didn’t need to worry about four of them; they were dropping back. It was Hill Rise he was worried about, and Hill Rise was looming up on the outside like a dark shadow.

Hartak made another split-second decision, tapping Northern Dancer with the whip. With another catlike burst of acceleration, the colt exploded forward. He was on top by two lengths with three hundred yards to go. Hill Rise was in full flight now, each one of his huge strides seeming to make two of the Dancer’s. But Northern Dancer had no quit in him. With Hartack scrubbing on him and keeping up a light but steady left-handed whip, the little bay colt ran straight and true for the finish line, his short legs churning desperately as Hill Rise’s nose passed his tail, his flank, his girth. In the final furious years, only Northern Dancer’s outstretched head and neck could be seen from behind the bulk of his larger rival, and that head and neck were still in front when the two colts hit the wire.

Across Canada, people yelled crazily in their living rooms and slapped total strangers on the back in the streets; car horns blared from drivers who had been listening to the race on the radio. Northern Dancer had not only won but had set a new Churchill Downs track record of 2:00 flat that would stand until broken by Secretariat in 1973. And he was the youngest Kentucky Derby winner on record, for he was still twenty-five days away from his actual third birthday.

Hill Rise was favored again for the Preakness Stakes, but once again Northern Dancer proved the experts wrong, winning by two and a quarter lengths from The Scoundrel with Hill Rise third. That made Northern Dancer the favorite for the Belmont Stakes, but there he could do no better than a tiring third. The race generated considerable controversy; many Canadians felt that Bill Hartack cost the colt the race by restraining him too hard early under Luro’s orders and causing the Dancer to use up his energy in fighting his rider, while most American sports writers felt that Northern Dancer had simply failed to stay the distance. Hartack himself never responded publicly to the criticisms laid against him, but he later confided to his good friend Ron Turcotte, “Instructions [from Luro on how to ride the race] didn’t beat Northern Dancer; soundness did.”

Although the tendon injury that ended Northern Dancer’s racing career is considered by most writers to have occurred while the colt was in training for the American Derby in August, Hartack’s comment suggests that it had a much earlier origin. Still, the colt went on to win the Queen’s Plate in his native Canada by seven and a half widening lengths despite being considered “dull” by jockey Hartack. It was a fitting swan song for Northern Dancer, who did not race again although his retirement was not officially announced until November 6, 1964.

Northern Dancer was voted American champion three-year-old male by all three of the major polls then in existence. In addition, the Toronto edition of the Daily Racing Form named Northern Dancer both Canadian champion three-year-old male and Horse of the Year. The colt even conquered the best competition Homo sapiens could throw at him when he beat out several Olympic medalists, a slew of hockey players, and his old friend Ron Turcotte to be named Canada’s Athlete of the Year for 1964 by a vote of Canada’s sports editors and journalists.

Northern Dancer returned to Windfields for his first season at stud, where he was booked to 35 mares – ten of E. P. Taylor’s best mares and twenty-five from other owners. The following spring, twenty-one sons and daughters of Northern Dancer were born. Ten of them eventually became stakes winners, including 1968 Canadian Horse of the Year Viceregal and two-time Canadian champion older male Dance Act. Northern Dancer’s second crop contained the magnificent English Triple Crown winner Nijinsky II and Canadian Horse of the Year Fanfreluche, and from there on out there was no denying the Dancer’s brilliance as a sire. By the close of his career, Northern Damcer had sired 645 named foals, of which 411 became winners and 147 became stakes winners. Twenty-six of his sons and daughters were named champions or divisional highweights in the United States, Canada, or Europe.

Northern Dancer’s greatest reputation is as a sire of sires. While space does not permit a listing of all of the accomplishments of his sons, names such as Nijinsky II, The Minstrel, Lyphard, Storm Bird, Vice Regent, Danzig, Dixieland Band, Be My Guest, Sadler’s Wells, and Northern Taste are known around the world. Further, several of Northern Dancer’s sons have themselves had success as sires of sires. Northern Dancer’s grandson Storm Cat (by Storm Bird) is currently the leading commercial sire in North America, and male-line descendants of Northern Dancer have led the general sire lists in England (where Sadler’s Wells has racked up 14 sire titles), France, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Brazil, and Argentina, a list of nations that is sure to grow.

Northern Dancer moved from Canada to Windfields’ Maryland division in 1970 and died there on November 16, 1990, when he was humanely destroyed due to severe colic. His body was transported back to Canada, and he was buried at Windfields Ontario. A simple granite marker adorns his final resting place, and every year a nearby rose bush trails deep red roses over his grave, in honor of a victory wreath once won by a little colt with a giant’s heart.

Text © 2006 by Avalyn Hunter