Bold Venture (horse)

Thoroughbred racehorse infobox
horsename = Bold Venture


caption =
sire = St Germans
grandsire = Swynford
dam = Possible
damsire = Ultimus
sex = Stallion
foaled = 1933
country = USA flagicon|USA
colour = Chestnut
breeder = Morton L. Schwartz
owner = Morton L. Schwartz
King Ranch (at stud)
trainer = Max Hirsch
record = 11 Starts: 6 – 2 - 0
earnings= $68,300
race = Kentucky Derby (1936)
Preakness Stakes (1936)
awards=
honours =
updated= September 17, 2008

Bold Venture (foaled in 1933) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse, was sired by the multiple British stakes winner, St. Germans, who, after his importation into the United States, became the leading sire of 1931. St. Germans own sire, Swynford, also a stakes winner, was a top British stud who produced Blenheim II. His dam, Possible, was by Ultimus, a son of the two-time American Horse of the Year Commando 1900/1901), by the "Black Whirlwind" Domino.

Bold Venture, trained by the Hall of Fame conditioner, Max Hirsch, was entered into the 1936 Kentucky Derby without achieving a single stakes win and on his back rode an apprentice jockey named Ira "Babe" Hanford. The boy's contract was owned by Hirsch's daughter, Mary, a trainer in her own right. Just as his mount had never won a stakes race, no apprentice had ever won the Derby. They went out together as 20-1 shots. (Before winning the Derby, Hanford had been a jockey for less than a year. During that year he rode Seabiscuit three times. Neither began as winners.)

That year, Brevity, owned by Joseph E. Widener of Elmendorf Farm, was the favorite. Brevity had won the Florida Derby and had equaled the world record for 1 1/8 miles. Indian Broom, owned by Austin C. Taylor, was second favorite after lowering Brevity's record in the Marchbank Handicap.

As soon as the gates flew open, Brevity was knocked to his knees and the horse who would go on to win that year's American Horse of Year award, Granville, threw his rider James Stout. Indian Broom was trapped in a scrum of racing horses. Bold Venture was in no better position. On the way out of the gate, another horse slammed into him, which was like, as Hanford said: "...a bowling ball hitting the pins." This started a chain reaction that caused Granville to throw Stout. But the apprentice rider somehow found his horse running room and by the backstretch Bold Venture was leading. But Brevity had righted himself, broken free of the pack, and came charging after Bold Venture. Before he could catch him, assuming he could, he ran out of running room. The two "beginners" had won the Derby.

The win did little for Bold Venture's reputation. Considering the terrible mess at the start of the race and that Charles Kurtsinger, the rider of the Santa Anita Derby winner He Did, claimed someone leaned over the rail and managed to snatch his whip causing his horse to come in seventh, all thought the victory by horse and rider a matter of bad luck for better horses.

Two weeks later Bold Venture, entered in the Preakness Stakes and ridden by the great jockey George Woolf, had a second bad start, but still won…this time a nose in front of Granville.

Undefeated in his three-year-old season, and with two legs of the Triple Crown won, Bold Venture bowed a tendon and was retired.

Owner Morton Schwartz sold him to Bob Kelberg for a reputed $40,000, Bold Venture stood at Kelberg's King Ranch but was not immediately successful. In fact, it took him 12 years to produce the 7th U.S. Triple Crown Champion, Assault, a result of Kelberg's search for the proper nick. He found it in the blood of Equipoise, sire of Assault's dam. Bold Venture also sired Middleground, winner of the 1950 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.

Bold Venture's date of death not found.

References

* [http://www.pedigreequery.com/bold+venture Bold Venture's pedigree and stats]
* "The History of Thoroughbred Racing in America", by William H.P. Robertson, Bonanza Books, New York