Battleship (horse)

Thoroughbred racehorse infobox
horsename = Battleship


caption =
sire = Man o' War
grandsire = Fair Play
dam = Quarantaine
damsire = Sea Sick
sex = Stallion
foaled = 1927
country = United States flagicon|USA
colour = Chestnut
breeder = Walter J. Salmon, Sr.
owner = Walter J. Salmon, Sr.
Marion duPont Scott (from end of 1931)
trainer = Jack Pryce 1929-1931 (U.S. flat racing)
Reg Hobbs from 1932 steeplechase racing
record = 55: 24-6-4
earnings = $71,641
race = American Grand National (1934)
English Grand National (1938)
awards =
honours = United States' Racing Hall of Fame (1969)
updated= December 6, 2006

Battleship (1927-1958) was an American Thoroughbred Racehorse who was the only horse in history to win both the American Grand National and the English Grand National steeplechase races. He was bred by owner Walter J. Salmon, Sr. at his Mereworth Farm in Lexington, Kentucky,

A muscular but very small horse who stood at just 15.2 hands, Battleship was trained for flat racing. Competing for his owner through age four, he won ten of his twenty-two starts. With an injury that would keep him out of competition for a year, at the end of 1931 Walter Salmon sold Battleship to Marion duPont Scott, a steeplechase horse racing enthusiast who earlier had purchased a Salmon-owned half brother to Battleship. A member of the prominent and wealthy Du Pont family of chemical manufacturing, Ms duPont had begun developing her Montpelier estate near Orange, Virginia into what became one of the leading horse-training centers in the United States. [http://www.montpelier.org/history/duponts.cfm]

Ms duPont had Battleship trained for steeplechase racing and entered his first competition in 1933. The horse showed promise, winning thee of his four races that season then in 1934 he won the American Grand National, the most prestigious steeplechase race in the U.S. The following year Ms duPont shipped the horse to England but he was not raced there until 1936 when he won one of five starts. In 1937 he improved enough to win five of his thirteen races then in 1938 the 11-year-old became the first American-bred horse to ever win England's most prestigious steeplechase event, the Grand National. He remains the smallest horse ever to win the Grand National, the last entire horse to win it, and was ridden by the youngest Grand National winning-jockey, Bruce Hobbs, aged 17. Retired to stand at stud at duPont's Montpelier estate, Battleship produced only 58 foals. Notably he sired War Battle and Shipboard, steeplechase champions in 1947 and 1956 respectively, plus Sea Legs, winner of the 1952 American Grand National.

Battleship died in 1958 at the age of 31. In 1969, he was inducted into the United States' Racing Hall of Fame.

References

* [http://www.pedigreequery.com/battleship Battleship's pedigree and racing stats]
* [http://www.racingmuseum.org/hall/horse.asp?ID=25 Battleship at the United States' National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame]