Ten Broeck

Thoroughbred racehorse infobox
horsename = Ten Broeck


caption =
sire = Phaeton
grandsire = King Tom
dam = Fanny Holton
damsire = Lexington
sex = Stallion
foaled = 1872
country = United States flagicon|USA
colour = Bay
breeder = Frank B. Harper
owner = Frank B. Harper
trainer = Harry Colston
record = 30: 23-3-1
earnings = $27,550
race = Phoenix Stakes (1875)
Bowie Stakes
awards=
honours = National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame (1982)
updated= March 14, 2007

Ten Broeck (June 29, 1872 - June 28, 1887) was an American U.S. Racing Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse whose 1878 match race win in Louisville against the great California mare, Mollie McCarty was immortalized in the Kentucky folk song commonly called Molly and Tenbrooks.

Sired by United Kingdom import Phaeton, a son of Baron Mayer de Rothschild's stallion, King Tom, Ten Broeck's dam was Fannie Holton. In 1875 the three-year-old colt defeated Aristides to win the Phoenix Stakes. However, in May's Kentucky Derby he had moved into second place by the three-quarters of a mile pole but faded to finish fifth behind winner, Aristides. Overall, that year Ten Broeck won five of his nine starts and continued to improve at age four, taking seven of eight races while setting a new time record for a four-mile race. At age five, of his ten starts he won nine and finished second once. That only defeat came to Pierre Lorillard IV's future Hall of Fame colt, Parole in the Baltimore Special.

With sixteen wins and two seconds in eighteen starts during his last two racing seasons, Ten Broeck was brought back to race twice more in 1878, and won both times. Ridden by Billy Walker, his much talked about match race victory over the Californian star Mollie McCarty is recounted in the lyrics of a Kentucky folk song: "When de numbers were hung Old Ten Broeck had won, So deir joy was drunk in juleps and rum."

Retired to stud duty, Ten Broeck met with modest success. He sired 1885 Travers Stakes winner Bersan, and the 1884 and 1886 Tennessee Derby winners Ten Strike and Jim Gray. He was also the sire of the filly Ten Penny who won the 1888 Kentucky Oaks and Tolu, winner of the 1884 Alabama Stakes. He is the grandsire of 1904 Kentucky Derby winner, Elwood.

Ten Broeck died in 1887 and is buried at Nantura Stock Farm, (the farm was named by its owner, Uncle John Harper, for the dam of Longfellow) in Midway, Kentucky. According to the National Sporting Library, his headstone was the first ever erected for a Thoroughbred in the state of Kentucky. In 1982, Ten Broeck was inducted in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

References

* [http://www.pedigreequery.com/ten+broeck Ten Broeck's pedigree and racing stats]
* [http://www.racingmuseum.org/hall/horse.asp?ID=150 Ten Broeck at the United States' National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame]
* [http://www.tbheritage.com/TurfHallmarks/Graves/cem/GraveMattersNantura.html Thoroughbred Heritage.com website with Ten Broeck's grave at Nantura Stock Farm]