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Parole
Despite the fact that eminent handicapper and racing historian Walter Vosburgh’s lifetime spanned the careers of such splendid unsexed performers as Roamer, Old Rosebud, and Exterminator, it was Parole he named as being “the most renowned gelding in the history of American racing.” He had reason for his opinion. Racing over ten seasons and two continents, Parole defeated the best that both North America and Europe could offer many times over, becoming one of the greatest champions in racing history. Unlike many famous geldings, Parole had excellent connections. A son of the Chester Cup winner *Leamington (a four-time leading sire) out of the Travers Stakes winner Maiden, by Lexington, Parole was bred on the same cross as Kentucky Derby winner Aristides and dual Classic winner Saunterer. His breeder, Aristides Welch, was the horseman for whom the equine Aristides had been named, and Parole spent his racing career as a member of the powerful stable of Pierre Lorillard, under the care of top trainer Matt Byrnes. One of the best juveniles of 1875, Parole dominated the two-year-old scene in the East, where he won the July and August stakes at Monmouth Park and the Saratoga and Kentucky stakes at Saratoga. The only other juvenile mentioned in the same breath with Parole was Vagrant, who won five of six starts while racing mostly in Kentucky. The following year, Parole was sent west for the Kentucky Derby but developed diarrhea prior to the race and did not show well, running unplaced. (After Parole’s bad experience, which was blamed on failure to adapt to the local water supply, Eastern owners began sending barrels of water along with their horses when they shipped their animals away from their home bases in New York and Maryland.) Parole recovered from his Derby trip to win the Excelsior, Sequel and All-Aged stakes on his return East, earning $8,103 for the season to lead the Lorillard runners. At four he was among the leading older males with eight victories from twelve starts. His important wins that year included the Saratoga Cup, the Summer Handicap, the Woodburn Stakes, and the Maturity Stakes. The biggest win of Parole’s four-year-old season, however, was a three-way match race over two and one-half miles at Pimlico, which brought him together with the other Eastern crack, Tom Ochiltree (owned by the other Lorillard brother, George), and the acknowledged champion of the West, Ten Broeck. Winner of the 1875 Preakness Stakes, Tom Ochiltree had gone on to become one of the best older runners of 1876 and 1877 and had a two-to-one edge over Parole in three previous meetings in 1877, including one just two weeks before the match. As for Ten Broeck, his reputation was such that for the match race, the United States Congress adjourned early so that its members could attend and see their hero in action. He had won eight straight races prior to the match, and had so thoroughly manhandled the available opposition that his last three appearances on the racetrack had been time trials rather than actual races; no Western owner was willing to send a runner against him. In the post parade prior to the match race, Ten Broeck made a magnificent appearance, while Parole, per Vosburgh, appeared “as rough as a bear and as lean as a snake.” But races are not beauty contests, and in the race itself; Parole overhauled Ten Broeck after the first two miles and beat him easily by five lengths. Tom Ochiltree was another ten lengths away in third. The race was a major reversal of form between Parole and Tom Ochiltree, although Parole had been suffering from cracked heels during the pair’s previous meeting and was in better condition for the match, while his rival had reportedly developed a cough on the morning of the match race. The results were also all but unbelievable to Ten Broeck’s backers, who claimed their champion could not possibly have been in his best form. Some alleged that the horse had suffered from diarrhea before the race, while others claimed that he had been coughing and was still ill when the race was run. In true sporting fashion, Pierre Lorillard offered a rematch against Ten Broeck to satisfy the doubters. The date was set for November 6, 1877 at Jerome Park, but Ten Broeck was withdrawn after failing to show well in his works and Parole walked over. Generally considered co-champion with Ten Broeck among the older males of 1877, Parole headed the division in 1878 with victories in the Baltimore, Saratoga, and Monmouth cups before departing for England in October of that year. Despite Parole’s record, not much was expected of him in England, as he was being sent primarily as a workhorse for his stablemate Duke of Magenta. He was, after all, coming into his six-year-old season and was generally considered to be past his best years. Apparently no one told this to Parole, however -- or perhaps he became irritated on learning that the British had nicknamed him the “Yankee Mule.” Left as the stable’s primary hope after Duke of Magenta became ill, Parole began his English campaign on April 16, 1879 by defeating the famous English horse Isonomy and four others in the Newmarket Handicap. To be fair to Isonomy, Parole won by but a length while in receipt of eight pounds, but six days later he won the City and Suburban Handicap under 119 pounds, defeating Ridotto and fifteen other rivals. The winning margin was again only a length, but Parole won in what was described as “a common canter.” The very next day, Parole came out for the Great Metropolitan Handicap at a mile and three-quarters under 124 pounds. His performance in the City and Suburban had frightened off all but one opponent, the lightly weighted Castlereagh (110 lbs), and Parole won under a hard pull. Three races in a week earned Parole a brief respite, and his next start was in the one and three-quarter-mile Chester Cup on May 7. He ran fourth under 124 pounds, conceding 26 pounds to the winner, Reefer, but the following day won the Great Cheshire Stakes by three lengths over that rival with 134 pounds up to Reefer’s 118.. Three weeks later Parole won the twelve-furlong Epsom Gold Cup under 125 pounds, but that was his last victory of the season. Ridotto beat him for the Ascot Stakes with the aid of a sixteen-pound weight concession (125 to 109); Isonomy took his revenge in the Goodwood Cup; and Parole could do no better than third in the Great Yorkshire Handicap while conceding the winner, Dresden China, forty-eight pounds. In the two-mile Cesarewitch, he proved unable to concede fifteen pounds to Chippendale, and on attempting to cut back to six furlongs, he ran unplaced to *Rayon d’Or in the Great Challenge Stakes. Parole finished his first English campaign having won five races for the equivalent of $19,403. Parole did not have the best of luck as he began the 1880 racing season. In his first start, the Liverpool Cup, he was disqualified in a controversial decision for crossing too closely in front of a rival after finishing first under 131 pounds. Afterwards, he made nine more starts in England without winning, though he did run second in the Epsom Gold Cup and the Lennox Stakes. He fared better after being shipped back to the United States in late September, winning four straight overnight races to finish off the year. Although Parole was a lightly built horse (except in the hindquarters, which were said to be very powerful and somewhat out of proportion to the horse’s forehand), he apparently had quite a good constitution, for he won first time out after both his transatlantic voyages -- no small feat in those days, when shipping was far more arduous than it is today. Parole certainly did not eat the bread of idleness when he continued racing in 1881, for he made twenty-four starts. He won twelve including the Westchester Cup and the Manhattan Handicap, and at nine won eight of twenty-one starts. However, he was losing the brilliant finishing kick that had characterized his best form. He succeeded in winning the Washington Stakes and six other races as a ten-year-old in 1883, but though he continued racing through 1884, he won no more major events. He ended his career with fifty-nine victories and thirty-eight placings from 137 starts, the American record for money won ($82,111), and the title of “the hero of two continents.” His final honors were late in coming, but in 1974, he was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame. On retirement, Parole was given his own large paddock but seemed unhappy, missing the racing life to which he had been so long accustomed. Accordingly, he was placed in the care of a Dr. Green and allowed to share quarters with the Lorillard horses in training. The old warrior seemed to appreciate the company and the human attention and returned to his usual self. He never raced again, but on July 4, 1891, Dr. Green obtained permission from Mr. Lorillard to let Parole make an exhibition under silks at Monmouth Park. To the cheers of the crowd, many of which remembered him from days gone by, Parole galloped out a quarter-mile in front of the stands between races, showing no appreciable signs of age. Following his exhibition, Parole finally retired for good to Mr. Lorillard’s Rancocas Stud. This time, however, his connections took his people-loving nature into account and gave him plenty of the attention he craved. Parole was used as a hack about the farm for some years, and when not “on duty” had the run of the place; visitors to Rancocas reported that he could often be seen whinnying for attention at the doorstep of any of the farm’s houses or following one or another of the staff about like a huge, friendly puppy. Outliving his master by two years, Parole finally died in 1903 at the age of thirty. © 2005 by Avalyn Hunter |
