Maximilian Justice "Max" Hirsch (July 12, 1880 - April 3, 1969) [1] was an American Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse trainer.
Born in Fredericksburg, Texas, and raised Roman Catholic, Hirsch became one of the most successful trainers in Thoroughbred horse racing history. He spent part of his formative years working as a groom and jockey at Morris Ranch in Gillespie County, Texas. [1] Hirsch conditioned horses for various owners including George W. Loft, Arthur B. Hancock, the infamous Black Sox Scandal gambler Arnold Rothstein, Morton L. Schwartz, Jane Greer, and Virginia Fair Vanderbilt, but is best known for his work with the King Ranch Stable, which he joined in the 1930s and for whom he trained until his death in 1969.
Sarazen was the first Champion Max Hirsch trained and said his win over the French Champion Epinard in the third race of the 1924 International Specials was his greatest thrill in racing. A Hall of Fame inductee, Sarazen was the American Horse of the Year in 1924 and 1925.
Max Hirsch won the first of his four Belmont Stakes in 1928 with Vito. In 1936, he won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes with Bold Venture and in 1946 captured the U.S. Triple Crown with Bold Venture's son Assault. In 1950, Hirsch won his third Kentucky Derby with another son of Bold Venture, Middleground who also won the Belmont Stakes.
Max Hirsch was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1959. He died on April 3, 1969, at the Jewish General Hospital on Long Island, New York and was buried next to his wife, Katherine Josephine Clare (1888-1941), in the Cemetery of the Holy Rood in Westbury, Long Island. [2]
His son, Buddy, followed in his footsteps and too was voted into the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame.
Hirsch was featured in the eighth episode of season 2 of the HBO Television series Boardwalk Empire, where he was played by Robert Dorfman. There he was seen to be employed by Arnold Rothstein for training his racehorse Sidereal.
John Eric "Johnny" Longden was an American Hall of Fame and National Champion jockey and a trainer of Thoroughbred racehorses who was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, England. His father emigrated to Canada in 1909, settling in Taber, Alberta.
Middleground was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 1950 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes and came second in the Preakness Stakes. He was named the 1950 American Horse of the Year and Champion Three-Year-Old Male.
Assault was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who is the seventh winner of the American Triple Crown and the only Texas-bred winner of the Triple Crown.
Fair Stable was an American Thoroughbred horse racing stable owned by heiress Virginia Graham Fair that operated during the 1920s and the first half of the 1930s. Ms. Fair was the daughter of the wealthy mining magnate James Graham Fair. In 1899, she married William Kissam Vanderbilt II of the prominent Vanderbilt family of New York City who in 1920 inherited the Haras du Quesnay Thoroughbred breeding farm and racing stable near Deauville in France's famous horse region of Lower Normandy. Interested in horse racing, but separated from her husband, Virginia Graham Fair established her own racing stable.
Sarazen (1921–1940) was an American Hall of Fame Champion Thoroughbred racehorse. Owned by Colonel Phil T. Chinn's Himyar Stud, Sarazen won his first three starts. Chinn then sold him for a huge profit to Virginia Fair Vanderbilt, who raced him under her Fair Stable banner.
Gallant Man was a thoroughbred racehorse, named for a horse in a Don Ameche movie. His exact foaling date was unknown or at best debated over the years of his life and many years after. The supporting evidence from a review of foaling stall records in Ireland indicates that he was born on the Saturday after St. Patrick's Day during a highly productive foaling weekend for many thoroughbred mothers on the same farm. His dam, Majideh, is recorded as being in the foaling stall without a live foal until March 20, 1954, at approximately 7:45 am.
The International Specials of 1924 were a series of three Thoroughbred horse races held in September and October at three different race tracks in the United States. They were called "International" because the race included the champion from France, who had won there and in England.
Granville (1933–1951) was an American Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse. He was the leading American colt of his generation, winning the Belmont Stakes and being voted Horse of the Year.
Edward Riley Bradley was an American steel mill laborer, gold miner, businessman and philanthropist. As well as a race track proprietor, he was the preeminent owner and breeder of Thoroughbred racehorses in the Southern United States during the first three decades of the 20th century. Testifying before a United States Senate committee in April 1934, Bradley identified himself as a "speculator, raiser of race horses and gambler". He appeared on the cover of Time magazine on May 7, 1934. In the year 2000, the Florida Department of State honored him as one of their Great Floridians.
Peter Pan (1904–1933) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse and sire, bred and raced by prominent horseman, James R. Keene. As winner of the Belmont Stakes, the Brooklyn Derby and the Brighton Handicap, he was later inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. His progeny included many famous American racehorses, including several winners of the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes.
Bold Venture was an American Thoroughbred racehorse that won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.
William Norris "Bill" Boland is a retired American Hall of Fame jockey and trainer in Thoroughbred horse racing.
Amberoid was an American Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 1966 American Classic, the Belmont Stakes.
Bold Bidder (1962–1982) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse.
Alberta Ranches, Ltd. was a Thoroughbred horse racing partnership between U.S. Racing Hall of Fame jockey and Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Johnny Longden, his son Vance, and businessmen and Frank McMahon, Wilder H. Ripley, and Max Bell. The three men were all longtime friends from the Province of Alberta in Canada. The partnership was formed in 1952 and was dissolved in 1962 following a dispute between McMahon and Bell.
Personality (1967–1990) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who was voted 1970 Horse of the Year honors.
Prove Out (1969–1990) was an American thoroughbred racehorse best known for his wins over Secretariat in the 1973 Woodward Stakes, and Riva Ridge in the 1973 Jockey Club Gold Cup. Over a two month period in 1973, he defeated four Hall of Fame horses in three different races at three different distances.
High Echelon was an American Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 1970 Belmont Stakes.
Vito was an American Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 1928 Belmont Stakes, the third and oldest leg of the U.S. Triple Crown series. Bred and raced by Alfred H. Cosden, he was sired by Negofol, a French colt owned by American William K. Vanderbilt, who won the 1909 French Derby. His dam was Forever, a daughter of two-time American Champion Older Male Horse Ballot.
Dawn Play (1934-1944) was an American Thoroughbred Champion racehorse voted the 1937 American Champion Three-Year-Old Filly.