Whisk Broom II

Thoroughbred racehorse infobox
horsename = Whisk Broom II


caption = Whisk Broom II
sire = Broomstick
grandsire = Ben Brush
dam = Audience
damsire = Sir Dixon
sex = Stallion
foaled = 1907
country = USA
colour = Chestnut
breeder = Senorita Stud Farm
owner = Harry Payne Whitney
trainer = Andrew Jackson Joyner (UK)
James G. Rowe, Sr. (USA)
record = 26:10-7-1
earnings = $37,931
race = Select Stakes (1910)
Victoria Cup Handicap (1912)
Metropolitan Handicap (1913)
Brooklyn Handicap (1913)
Suburban Handicap (1913)
awards = 1st New York Handicap Triple Crown Champion (1913)
U.S. Champion Older Male Horse (1913)
United States Horse of the Year (1913)
honours = United States Racing Hall of Fame (1979)
updated= January 30, 2007

Whisk Broom II (1907-1928) was American-bred thoroughbred racehorse who raced in the United Kingdom (under the name Whisk Broom) and in the United States. A grandson of Ben Brush, Whisk Broom II was sired by the U.S. Hall of Fame stallion, Broomstick. He was bred in 1907 by the late Sam S. Brown's Senorita Stud Farm (now the site of the Kentucky Horse Park). Purchased by Harry Payne Whitney, the colt was sent to England with trainer Andrew Jackson Joyner where in his second start he earned his first win in the Prince of Wales Plate at York Racecourse. In four years of English racing, Whisk Broom won 7 of his 23 races, his most important victories coming in the 1910 Select Stakes and at Ascot Racecourse, the 1912 Victoria Cup Handicap.

At age six, as Whisk Broom II, he was brought back to race in the United States where under trainer James G. Rowe, Sr. he became the first of only three horses to win the three races that compose the New York Handicap Triple Crown Series. He won the New York Handicap Triple in 1913, (Metropolitan Handicap, Brooklyn Handicap, Suburban Handicap), a feat unmatched until Tom Fool did it forty years later. In 1961, Kelso and Fit To Fight in 1984 joined them as the only other horses to win the Handicap Triple. For his performances, Whisk Broom II was voted U.S. Champion Older Male Horse and United States Horse of the Year.

In the Suburban Whisk Broom II, carrying 139 pounds, was officially clocked at 2:00 minutes flat for the one and one quarter mile race. This was almost three seconds faster than the record set by his own sire. No other clocker's figures matched that of the official clock. But even at the slowest estimate, he had beaten the American record for the distance.

Retired to stand at stud, Whisk Broom II sired 26 winners of what now would be a considered a graded stakes race, including Kentucky Derby winner Whiskery, Preakness Stakes winner Victorian, and the 1922 U.S. Champion Colt, Whiskaway, As well, Whisk Broom II was the damsire of Seabiscuit.

In 1979, Whisk Broom II was inducted in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

References

* [http://www.pedigreequery.com/whisk+broom2 Whisk Broom II's pedigree & racing stats]
* [http://www.racingmuseum.org/hall/horse.asp?ID=160 Whisk Broom II at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame]