Gallorette

Thoroughbred racehorse infobox
horsename = Gallorette


caption =
sire = Challenger II
grandsire = Swynford
dam = Gallette
damsire = Sir Gallahad III
sex = Mare
foaled = 1942
country = USA flagicon|USA
colour = Chestnut
breeder = Preston M. Burch
owner = William Leavitt Brann
trainer = Edward A. Christmas
record = 72: 21-20-13
earnings = $445,535
race = Acorn Stakes (1945)
Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (1945)
Delaware Oaks (1945)
Metropolitan Handicap (1946)
Brooklyn Handicap (1946)
Beldame Stakes (1946)
Queens County Handicap (1947)
Wilson Stakes (1947 & 1948)
Carter Handicap (1948)
Whitney Handicap (1948)
awards= U.S. Champion Older Female Horse (1946)
honours = United States Racing Hall of Fame (1962)
Aiken Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame (1977)
#45 - Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century
Gallorette Handicap at Pimlico Race Course
updated= September 22, 2006

Gallorette (1942-1959) was a Maryland-bred chestnut thoroughbred filly who became a Hall of Fame race horse. Sired by Challenger II, out of Gallette, Gallorette's grandsire was Sir Gallahad III. Even so, her dam, Gallette, had once exhanged hands for $250 dollars and was used as a hack.

It's all in the blood

Gallette was bought by trainer Preston M. Burch because of her highly successful sire, Sir Gallahad III, but once he owned her he was faced with a problem. Racing Gallette in claimers, someone was bound to snatch her away because of those same bloodlines. Racing her in higher class races, he knew she could not win...so he retired her. Again because of her sire, the advertising executive William L. Brann who co-owned a stallion called Challenger II, entered into an agreement with Burch that they would send Gallette to his stallion (who'd sired the Preakness winner, Challedon) and then each would own her foals, first one for Brann and then one for Burch and so on. Gallette's first foal went to Brann. He named her Gallorette.

First is best

Brann sent the young horse to the trainer Edward A. Christmas, a member of a noted family of Maryland horsemen. Gallorette grew into a big rangy filly. Too gawky to start too young, her first race wasn't until late in her second year. For her two-year-old season, beginning in September, she started in 8 races and won three...but she was never out of the money.

As a three-year-old in 1945, she stood 16 hands 1 inch. Her first race was a victory over the colt who would win that year's Kentucky Derby, Hoop, Jr. She then took on the colts in the Wood Memorial coming in second to Jeep. In "The Great Ones," a Blood-Horse book, it says of her; "She was a big mare; as big as most of the colts she raced against, tougher than some of them, faster than almost all of them."

Gallorette was running when races for fillies beyond the age of three were limited, and as a result most of her important races were against male horses. In truth, there were races to run in, but being for females, the purses were much smaller. (The first $100,000 race for fillies and mares only was the New Castle Handicap (the forerunner of the Delaware Handicap), and was inaugurated long after Gallorette had retired.) Against females, she took the Acorn Stakes, the Pimlico Oaks, and the Delaware Oaks. She beat every Eastern filly of any quality. Back to racing colts, she carried the same weight and competed in the Dwyer Stakes, losing it by a nose to Wildlife. But she won the Empire City Stakes beating the Belmont Stakes winner, Pavot. About then, Gallorette got tired, or fed up, or just lost heart, because she then lost six races in a row.

In her four-year-old season, she started out slow, and then really revved up. She took the Metropolitan Handicap from Sirde and First Fiddle, won the Nimba Handicap with ease, but was then assigned very high weights. This took its toll on her. But she was still in the money. In the Brooklyn Handicap she was up against the brilliant Stymie. Both of them followed the pace for an entire mile and both made their move at the same time, Stymie coming from a bit further back. At some point Stymie got his head in front, but Gallorette fought back...and won.

The rest of the year she won or was in the money in the Bay Shore Handicap, the Beldame Stakes, the Butler Stakes, the Wilson Stakes, the Edgemere Handicap, the Sysonby Purse, and the Mass Cap. She won the Queens County Handicap when she was five in 1947.

At six, she was sold for $125,000 to Mrs. Marie A. Moore of Virginia. And Gallorette raced on. She won the Carter Handicap, and the 1948 Whitney Stakes. And then she retired.

During her five years of racing—between 1944 and 1948—she won or placed in 54 of her 72 starts. She competed against more than a few great male horses: including the future Hall of Famers Armed and the aforementioned Stymie, as well as the U.S. Triple Crown champion Assault. Blood-Horse magazine describes the years during which Gallorette ran as one of the deepest handicap divisions ever seen in American thoroughbred racing. [http://bc.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=30207]

Honors

Gallorette was voted Champion female horse for 1946. In a poll among members of the American Trainers Association, conducted in 1955 by Delaware Park, she was voted the greatest filly in American racing history. In 1962, she was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame where her portrait by Richard Stone Reeves is part of the Museum's collection. In "The Blood-Horse" ranking of the top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century, Gallorette is ranked #45.

Pimlico Race Course named a Graded stakes race in her honor. The Gallorette Handicap is run annually on the same card as the Preakness Stakes.

The Complete ATA Poll

* 1. Gallorette -- (1942) -- 72:21-20-13 --- $445,000
* 2. Twilight Tear -- (1941) -- 24:18-2-2 --- $202,165
* 3. Regret -- (1912) -- 11:9-1-0 --- $335,093
* 4. Top Flight -- (1929) -- 16:12-0-0 --- $275,900
* 5. Miss Woodford -- (1880) -- 48:37-7-2 --- $118,270
* 6. Busher -- (1942) -- 21:15-3-1 --- $334.035
* 7. Beldame -- (1901) -- 31:17-6-4 --- $102,570
* 8. Princess Doreen -- (1921) -- 94:34-15-17 --- $174,745
* 9. Bewitch - - (1945) -- 55:20-10-11 --- $462,605*
* 10. Imp -- 1894) -- 171:62-35-29 --- $70,119

*surpassed Gallorette's earnings

As a broodmare

Gallorette retired after the 1948 season as the all-time leading money winner among females. Although not one of the great broodmares, she did produce two stakes-winning fillies, and among her descendants was the 2005 U.S. Horse of the Year, Saint Liam.

Gallorette died at the age of 17 at Moore's Virginia farm in 1959. In her career, she'd earned $445,535.

The man who broke Gallorette, and worked with her for her trainer Ed Christmas, Eddie "Cocky" Simms told Blood-Horse that: "She's not only the greatest mare, but the greatest Maryland-bred of any sex...She had a long, tough, career as a race mare, but if the jocks would have ridden her as instructed, she would have won a million instead of half a million."

References

* [http://www.pedigreequery.com/gallorette Gallorette's pedigree, with photo]
* [http://www.racingmuseum.org/hall/horse.asp?ID=79 Gallorette in the Hall of Fame]