Renowned bloodstock writer Tony Morris with the 22nd in his series celebrating 100 horses instrumental in shaping the Thoroughbred.
Pocahontas, b f, 1837, Glencoe – Marpessa, by Muley
The development of the breed is largely a story told about the influence wielded by prominent stallions, but there is no male monopoly. A tiny minority of females have played significant roles, none more so than Pocahontas, whose claim to recognition as the breed’s greatest broodmare remains hard to dispute after nearly two centuries.
We can start our tale with a filly named Clare, foaled in 1824 and bred by the 3rd Earl of Egremont. Clare’s grand-dam Amazon was a full sister to the Earl’s 1804 Derby winner Hannibal, but there had been little of distinction in the family since that triumph.
Clare’s innings at stud, which began with a cover at two, seemed ill-fated when she proved barren in her first three years, but she conceived to her mating in 1829 with Muley, a horse who retained the faith of many breeders well into his 20s because of his illustrious pedigree – by St Leger winner Orville out of Derby and Oaks heroine Eleanor. He would eventually get winners of all three of those Classics himself.
The outcome of Clare’s liaison with Muley was a filly bred by Alexander Nowell, who had recently pioneered the practice of purely commercial breeding, staging annual sales of yearlings from his Underley Stud in Westmorland. The filly, who acquired the name Marpessa, was sold to John Forth, who trained at Michel Grove in Sussex, and she ran in his colours for four seasons.
(Years later there would be further business involving Nowell as breeder and Forth as trainer over another Muley product, that one sired at 26. Little Wonder, a 65gns yearling purchase, won the 1840 Derby at odds of 50/1.)
Marpessa ran three times in decent company as a juvenile, upsetting an odds-on favourite in the last of them under Frank Buckle jr. That win over a mile in the Nursery Stakes at Newmarket’s end-of-season fixture earned her £200.
She had only two runs as a 3-year-old, and won them both. Favourite against seven rivals over a mile at Goodwood, she scored with some authority. Over the same distance at Newmarket in October, she was matched at level weights with the Oaks winner Vespa, started odds-on and won in style.
Her two starts at four had her competing in top-class company over much longer distances. She finished unplaced behind Glencoe in the Gold Cup at Ascot (2 miles 4 furlongs) and a week later in the Brighton Gold Cup (2 miles) proved no match for Rockingham, winner of the previous season’s St Leger.
In 1835 she finished second to odds-on Consol in the forfeit class of the Oatlands Stakes at Newmarket (2 miles 97 yards) in April, then had a second crack at Ascot’s Gold Cup, again over-faced and a distant victim of Glencoe once more.
Marpessa’s racing record showed that she was an accomplished performer over a mile, the distance of all her three victories, but the limit of her stamina remained inconclusive, as her efforts over staying trips were always in a higher grade. Her connections evidently did not see her as a mere miler.
Inspired move?
It was a neat and perhaps inspired move to effect a third meeting between Glencoe and Marpessa, when both made their debut at stud in 1836. Their reunion came at Dawley-wall Farm, little more than a dozen miles from London, where the charge for Glencoe’s services was a ludicrously low £16.
That was a rare bargain for an outstanding runner with a tip-top pedigree, and it was not to be repeated. Glencoe had only the one season in England before his transfer to America, where he met with enormous success. His most fabled achievement was to sire the dams of Asteroid, Kentucky and Norfolk, the three most outstanding sons of prolific champion sire Lexington.
The mating of Glencoe and Marpessa was presumably the decision of John Forth, as the General Stud Book named him as the breeder of Pocahontas, and no correction ever appeared in subsequent volumes of that work. It just seems strange that the apparent first mention of her in print was to record her sale for 62gns as a foal in the auction held at Hampton Court to disperse the stock from the Royal Studs on 25 October 1837. Marpessa was sold on the same day for 230gns.
It seems likely that mare and foal were boarders at Hampton Court, but that does not explain their inclusion in a catalogue staged to wind up the bloodstock interests of King William IV, who had died on June 20. There is no evidence to indicate that they ever belonged to the late monarch.
For most of her first three racing seasons, Pocahontas carried the colours of John Greatrex, a bookmaker with a rather unsavoury reputation. He seems to have thought a lot of her, as he ran her only in high-class company. She failed to repay him for his faith, perhaps because she was a roarer, though it is not clear when she developed that condition.
Tilting at windmills
Her first race, and only start at two, was came in a fabled edition of the Criterion Stakes in which the brilliant filly Crucifix gave 7lb to a gifted colt in Gibraltar, the pair inseparable at the finish. The judge was so preoccupied with their duel that he omitted to assign places to the other seven runners.
Pocahontas was not seen in public again until the 1840 Oaks, for which she started third-best in the betting at 11/1. Crucifix, having won both the 2000 and 1000 Guineas, collected her third Classic and preserved her unbeaten record, while Pocahontas finished a commendable fifth, under two lengths behind the champion.
That effort resulted in her starting as third favourite again in the Goodwood Cup, when as a 3-year-old she was entitled to significant weight concessions from proven older high-quality performers. Her want of class was evident once more.
Pocahontas went tilting at windmills again as a 4-year-old. She had a second try at the Goodwood Cup to no avail, this time as a 20/1 shot, then was purchased by John Theobald, for whom she ran unplaced in the Cesarewitch and the Cambridgshire, unquoted in the betting on both occasions.
Theobald wanted Pocahontas principally as a broodmare, and he duly had her covered by his home stallion Camel in the spring of 1842, but he still wanted to make her a winner, adopting a different policy with her as a 5-year-old, lowering her sights significantly.
The answer to a quiz question
At Goodwood she had a very different target from her previous ventures there. The Stand Plate was a 4-runner race, contested in one-mile heats, and it began well for Pocahontas who came home in front in heat one. Unfortunately, she was beaten into second place by The Currier in heat two, and the decider had her runner-up to the same horse again.
A week later at Brighton, Pocahontas was given a supposedly easier task in a 3-runner sprint for amateur riders in heats, the winner to be sold for £200, if demanded. That proved disastrous. First time around, a false start was declared after one was left and Pocahontas beat her other rival over the full distance. After that heat was annulled and one rival was withdrawn there was just another 5-year-old mare to beat. She accomplished that in the first official heat, but was defeated in both subsequent heats.
For what turned out to be her last racecourse appearance, the mare was despatched to the downmarket Rochester and Chatham meeting in Kent. There were nine starters for the first one-mile heat, won by Pocahontas, but she finished unplaced in heat two, and Patchwork, the winner that time, duly followed up successfully, beating Pocahontas into second place.
There are a host of good reasons for remembering Pocahontas, as we shall see, but she will also be the answer to the quiz question: “Which famous mare finished first on four occasions, but retired as a maiden?”
Success as a broodmare did not come quickly for Pocahontas. The Camel colt she was carrying while still active in racing received the name Cambaules and ran unplaced on his only outing in Goodwood’s Lavant Stakes as a 2-year-old. After proving barren to her 1843 mating, she was covered by both Camel and Muley Moloch in 1844, but the resulting colt – presumably by the latter – was never named and did not run.
Ths GSB records that Camel was “shot, being worn out”, in November 1844, but by then Muley Moloch had become Theobald’s premier stallion, having been switched to Surrey from Yorkshire, where he had sired the outstanding racemare – and later equally celebrated broodmare – Alice Hawthorn.
Muley Moloch’s liaisons with Pocahontas delivered nothing of that calibre. Their 1846 product, Dolly Varden, named after a character in the Dickens novel Barnaby Rudge, saw plenty of action, racing 18 times, but she won only once – in a modest sprint handicap at Newmarket as a 3-year-old.
After a barren 1847 there came a brown filly named Indiana who finished last of five on her debut at three in a Goodwood selling race and was not seen to any better advantage in her only other race two years later in an amateur riders’ event on the Curragh. Her innings at stud would seem rather uneventful for three generations, but in 1895 her great-great-grandaughter Kasbah won the Prix de Diane.
That event brought a new lease of life for the female line, which suddenly provided an abundance of quality. Kasbah’s daughter KizilKourgan was a better Diane winner and a genuine champion, and her massive contribution was headed by Ksar, hero of a Prix du Jockey-Club and twice successful in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe before an outstanding stud career. Kantar was another Arc winner for the family.
Until about 1830 English breeders tended to look askance at products of the much smaller Irish industry, but that had become history by the late 1840s. For three consecutive years, Pocahontas was mated with Irish-bred stallions, and there were highly consequential outcomes in each case.
The Baron showed decent form in his home country before transfer to England, where he proved his class with victories in the St Leger and Cesarewitch in 1845. He served only two seasons at the Theobald family’s stud, with Pocahontas among his book in both, before his move to France in 1850. Brothers Stockwell and Rataplan gave rise to regret that their sire had been sent across the channel.
‘Emperor of Stallions’
Stockwell’s story has already been featured in this series, but briefly he won the 2000 Guineas and St Leger, sired three Derby winners, and his seven sires’ titles earned him popular recognition as ‘Emperor of Stallions’. Rataplan was born on the day that William Theobald died, becoming the property of his heir, Charles Thellusson. He raced for four seasons, often in the colours of Thellusson’s brother Seymour or his trainer, Tom Parr, who was renowned for the busy campaigns he gave a number of his prominent horses.
Rataplan had a conventional first season, winning a little race at Brighton from three starts. As a 3-year-old, he won three times, showing good form in respectable company. His wins included the Gold Vase at Ascot, and they were backed up by a fourth place in the Derby and a third in the St Leger.
His toughness was well advertised in his hyper-active seasons at four and five, when he saw action in all parts of the country. At four he ran 29 times, collecting 18 wins, in addition to a third place in Ascot’s Gold Cup, and at five he recorded 20 more successes from 33 outings. In all he won 42 of 71 starts.
His innings at stud proved somewhat inconsistent, and he never ranked higher in the table than the fifth place he took in 1861 and 1866. His best son was Derby winner Kettledrum, and he became broodmare sire of two other Derby heroes in Cremorne and Kisber. Wenlock (St Leger) and Apology (Fillies’ Triple Crown) were other Classic winners out of his daughters.
Like The Baron, Harkaway started his racing career in Ireland and made the switch to England at three. The pair had a pedigree connection too, as Economist, a son of Derby hero Whisker who was broodmare sire of The Baron, was the sire of Harkaway.
‘Sky-high reputation’
Said to be a coarse specimen, but with a notably fluent action and long stride, Harkaway earned a sky-high reputation during his time in England, his victories including two editions of the Goodwood Cup. He was the chosen mate for Pocahontas in 1850 and their union was blessed with a well-made dark bay son, named King Tom.
This colt had his first two starts in the Thellusson colours, the second a competitive sprint at Brighton, which he won convincingly as an odds-on favourite. His promise was recognised there and next time out, at Newmarket, he was winning in higher-class company as the property of Baron Meyer de Rothschild.
King Tom injured a hock in training during his preparation for the Derby, but he was still able to improve on the Epsom efforts of Stockwell and Rataplan, finishing second to Andover, beaten only a length. Unfortunately, that turned out to be the colt’s only race at three, and in the following year came further evidence that he lacked the soundness of his accomplished half-brothers.
When he returned to action after 16 idle months, he confirmed his class with a six-length victory over Newmarket’s Ditch In course (two miles 119 yards), but two weeks later he broke down in the Cesarewitch and was taken out of training. When sound he was clearly competitive at the top level, but he was all too rarely fit, which made him seem a dubious proposition for stud duties, which he began at Mentmore in 1856.
In fact, King Tom became an extremely successful sire, getting stock who were generally sounder than he had been. He ranked among the top ten sires 14 times between 1861 and 1877, topping the list in 1870, when his son Kingcraft won the Derby, and in 1871, when his daughter Hannah won the Fillies’ Triple Crown.
Rare bargain
Hannah was actually his third winner of the Oaks, after Tormentor and Hippia, but in the long term the daughter who made the biggest impact was St Angela, winner of just a single race, but dam of the mighty St Simon.
Having produced three high-class performers in a row, Pocahontas was perhaps due a dud, and Strood, her 1852 colt by Chatham, proved just that, his only win in six outings coming in a walkover at Doncaster as a 3-year-old.
The second Marquis of Exeter, who had obtained a rare bargain when purchasing Stockwell for £180, was naturally attracted to the dam after that colt had proved his merit, and he was the registered breeder of all the later Pocahontas foals.
Barren to St Lawrence in 1853, she produced her first filly for six years with the arrival of Ayacanora (by Birdcatcher) in 1854. She won three of her eight races and was third in the 1000 Guineas in the colours of Lord Portsmouth before her acquisition for the Royal Stud. Chattanooga, the Orlando colt she delivered in 1862, won the Criterion Stakes as a 2-year-old, but became a roarer and did not run after that season. Nevertheless, he had his chance at stud and achieved some success.
The next two foals from Pocahontas were by St Leger winner Nutwith, a colt The Knight Of Kars and the filly Heroine Of Lucknow. The former won two minor races and became a minor sire, with the dual Grand National winner The Colonel among his progeny, while the latter won one of her five starts and became the ancestress of major French winners Clamart (Grand Prix de Paris) and Clover (Prix du Jockey-Club).
Pocahontas was never mated with a more distinguished sire than Melbourne, but sadly their 1856 liaison proved fruitless. In each of the two following years she was covered by Knight Of St George, a St Leger winner, though one with a reputation for wilful behaviour. Only the first of their dates yielded a positive outcome – a colt called Knight Of St Patrick, who won four races at three and whose stud career suffered from a plethora of roarers among his progeny. He would be remembered just for Moslem, who dead-heated with Formosa in the 2000 Guineas of 1868.
A feat that defies imagination
The last three foals produced by Pocahontas were all by Ambrose, a son of Touchstone who was supposedly better than Stockwell in their trials as 3-year-olds, but who never got his act together on the racecourse and failed to win.
The Ambrose colt from the mare was Automaton, successful twice as a juvenile, including a defeat of Macaroni, who would become a dual Classic winner. Sadly, he had to be put down at three.
The first of the Ambrose fillies was Auricula, who won the Newmarket St Leger and became the dam of Nuneham, a five-time juvenile winner who was afterwards a useful sire. Araucaria, delivered by 25-year-old Pocahontas, was Auricula’s inferior as a runner, winning just one minor race, but she was far and away the better broodmare, producing three Classic winners in four years.
Camelia won the 1000 Guineas and dead-heated for the Oaks in 1876, Chamant the 2000 Guineas in 1877 and Rayon d’Or the St Leger in 1879. Another of her produce was the noted sire Wellingtonia, who was inbred to Pocahontas in the second and third generations.
Not the least of Pocahontas’s achievements was the fact that in 1866 five of her sons were responsible for 109 individual winners of 185 races. A parallel feat defies imagination.
Pocahontas was never rested from 1842 to 1867, being covered from age five to age 30. She even went to auction at 30, a consequence of the death of the second Marquis of Exeter. Very dipped in the back, but otherwise wearing her years well, she made a happily brief appearance in the ring. The auctioneer took a bid of 10gns from the third Marquis and brought the hammer down swiftly before anyone could commit the cardinal sin of making a higher bid.
Back in her familiar paddock at Wothorpe, in Northamptonshire, Pocahontas survived until 1870, her achievements unmatched in the following century and a half.
Stockwell - the winner of two Classics, the sire of three Derby winners and seven-times champion sire - was perhaps Pocahontas’s best son