Maine Chance Farm

Last updated
Maine Chance Farm
Type Horse breeding/Thoroughbred racing Stable
Industry Thoroughbred horse racing
Founded1943
HeadquartersIron Works Pike,
Lexington, Kentucky,
United States
Key people
Elizabeth Arden, owner
Tom Smith, trainer
James W. Smith, trainer
Jack H. Skirvin, trainer
William Molter, trainer
Ike K. Mourar, trainer
Edward A. Neloy, trainer
Ivan H. Parke, trainer
Roy Waldron, trainer

Maine Chance Farm was an American Thoroughbred horse racing stable in Lexington, Kentucky owned by cosmetics tycoon Elizabeth Arden.

Elizabeth Arden raced under the nom de course "Mr. Nightingale" until 1943 when she adopted the name Maine Chance Farm from her health spa in Mount Vernon, Maine. During the nineteen forties and fifties, the Maine Chance Farm racing stable was a major force in American horse racing. Among the stable's many champions and stakes race winners who raced under Arden's cerise, blue and white colors were the colt Star Pilot and the filly, Beaugay, both 1945 American national champions. The Beaugay Handicap at Aqueduct Racetrack is named in the filly's honor. That year, Maine Chance Farm was the top money-winning stable in the United States.

In May 1946, a fire at a racetrack in Chicago destroyed twenty-two horses owned by Maine Chance Farm. The stable's two-year-old star colt Jet Pilot survived as he had been shipped to another racetrack. Two future Hall of Famers, trainer Tom Smith and jockey Eric Guerin, worked for Maine Chance Farm and in 1947, Jet Pilot won the Kentucky Derby. In 1948, Ace Admiral won the prestigious Travers Stakes and in 1954 the Maine Chance filly Fascinator won the Kentucky Oaks. In 1960, the farm bred future Hall of Fame colt Gun Bow.

In 1956, Elizabeth Arden acquired the 722-acre (2.92 km2) northern portion of Coldstream Stud on the death of owner E. Dale Shaffer and renamed it Maine Chance Farm. Following Arden's passing in 1966, the farm property became part of the College of Agriculture at the University of Kentucky.

In 2005, the University of Kentucky began the Equine Initiative Project. This project was started by the UK College of Agriculture to develop their Equine Science program into a nationally outstanding program. In 2007, the Maine Chance Farm was being revamped into a Collegiate Equestrian mecha-center, which was expected to feature a breeding program, equestrian center, and equine disease and research center.

Related Research Articles

Oliver Eric Guerin was an American Hall of Fame jockey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Smith (horse trainer)</span> American Thoroughbred racehorse trainer of Seabiscuit

Robert Thomas Smith was an American Thoroughbred racehorse trainer. Born in a log cabin in the backwoods of northwest Georgia, as a young man he trained horses for the United States Cavalry and worked on a cattle ranch. In 1934, he was hired as a trainer by the wealthy businessman Charles S. Howard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Cruguet</span>

Jean Cruguet is a retired French-American thoroughbred horse racing jockey who won the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing.

Deputy Minister was a Canadian-bred Thoroughbred horse racing Champion. At age two, he won eight out of his nine starts and was voted both the Sovereign and Eclipse Awards for Champion 2-Year-Old in Canada and the United States respectively. He also received Canada's Sovereign Award for Horse of the Year. Although his three-year-old campaign was restricted by injury, Deputy Minister rebounded at age four with several major wins.

Busher (1942–1955) was a thoroughbred racing filly who was a champion at ages two and three, and the American Horse of the Year in 1945. She was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1964. On the Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century, Busher was ranked 40th.

Wheatley Stable was the nom de course for the thoroughbred horse racing partnership formed by Gladys Mills Phipps and her brother, Ogden Livingston Mills. The horses were raised at Claiborne Farm near Paris, Kentucky.

Jet Pilot was an American Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the Kentucky Derby in 1947.

Star Pilot was an American thoroughbred race horse. Sired by Joseph Widener's English stakes winner Sickle, he was out of the mare Floradora, whose French sire, Bull Dog, was one of the leading sires of stakes winners in the 1950s.

The National Stallion Stakes was an American Thoroughbred horse race held sixty-two times between 1898 and 1971. Inaugurated as the National Stallion Race at Morris Park Racecourse in The Bronx, the event was open to horses of either sex until 1948 when it became a race exclusively for colts and geldings and a National Stallion Stakes was created. Contested on dirt at a distance of five furlongs, from 1905 onward it was hosted by Belmont Park in Elmont, New York except for 1963 through 1967 when it was run at Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone Park, Queens, New York.

Harvey Guy Bedwell was an American Hall of Fame trainer and owner of Thoroughbredracehorses who was the first trainer to win the U.S. Triple Crown.

The Astarita Stakes was an American Thoroughbred horse race run between 1946 and 2005 at New York's Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone Park, Queens and at Belmont Park in Elmont. Open to two-year-old fillies, it was a sprint race contested on dirt over a distance of six and a half furlongs. It offered a purse of $100,000.

Dogwood Stable was an American Thoroughbred racehorse partnership. Founded by W. Cothran "Cot" Campbell in 1969, Dogwood was widely viewed to have introduced the concept of group thoroughbred ownership in the United States by offering shares in a racehorse to multiple individuals. Campbell estimated that more than 1,200 individuals had taken part as members of the stable.

Beaugay was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who was voted the 1945 American Champion Two-Year-Old Filly. Bred by Arthur B. Hancock at his Claiborne Farm near Paris, Kentucky, she was purchased at the 1944 July Selected Yearling sale for $22,000 by cosmetics queen Elizabeth Arden who campaigned her under the name of her Maine Chance Farm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivan H. Parke</span> American horse trainer and jockey

Ivan Harris Parke was an American Hall of Fame Thoroughbred horse racing jockey and trainer who won more races than any other jockey in the United States in 1923, as an apprentice, and again in 1924 when he also was the United States Champion Jockey by earnings. Parke trained the 1945 Kentucky Derby winner, Hoop Jr. and Jewel's Reward to 1957 American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt honors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leslie Combs II</span>

Leslie Combs II (1901–1990) was an American equestrian. He was the founder and owner of the Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Kentucky.

The Bay Shore Handicap is a discontinued Thoroughbred horse race run from 1925 through 1955 at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, New York City. The race was open to horses age three and older and run on dirt. From 1956 to 1959 there was no Bay Shore Handicap but in 1960 Aqueduct Racetrack created the Bay Shore Handicap/Stakes as a race for three-year-olds.

Roy J. Waldron was a batboy for the St. Louis Browns before he turned to training Thoroughbred racehorses. He is best known for winning the 1940 Kentucky Derby with Gallahadion, a colt he race conditioned for Ethel V. Mars of chocolate bar fame.

The Chesapeake Stakes was an important American Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-old horses of either sex contested on dirt over a distance of a mile and one-sixteenth at Havre de Grace Racetrack in Havre de Grace, Maryland. Run from 1920 until the track closed after the 1950 edition, the race usually run in late April race was a last major prep before the Kentucky Derby. For owners who had not nominated their horse for the Derby it was a chance to test their horse's ability against some of the best three-year-olds in the country, a number of which they would undoubtedly encounter in the ensuing Preakness Stakes.

The William Penn Stakes was an American Thoroughbred horse race run between 1942 and 1956 at Garden State Park Racetrack in Camden, New Jersey. A race for two-year-old colts and geldings on dirt, it was contested at a distance of six furlongs from inception thru 1947 after which it was shortened to five furlongs.

References

38°07′34″N84°29′10″W / 38.126°N 84.486°W / 38.126; -84.486