- Nijinsky II
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Nijinsky II 
Nijinsky at the 1970 Irish DerbySire Northern Dancer Grandsire Nearctic Dam Flaming Page (USA) Damsire Bull Page Sex Stallion Foaled 1967 Country Canada Colour Bay Breeder Windfields Farm Owner Charles W. Engelhard, Jr. Trainer Vincent O'Brien Record 13: 11-2-0 Earnings $677,177 Major wins Railway Stakes (1969)
Anglesey Stakes (1969)
Beresford Stakes (1969)
Dewhurst Stakes (1969)
Gladness Stakes (1970)
2,000 Guineas (1970)
Epsom Derby (1970)
Irish Derby (1970)
K. George VI & Q. Elizabeth Stakes (1970)
St. Leger Stakes (1970)Awards United Kingdom Champion 2-Yr-Old Colt (1969)
Ireland Champion 2-Yr-Old Colt (1969)
15th U.K. Triple Crown Champion (1970)
European Horse of the Year (1970)
Timeform rating: 138
Leading sire in GB & Ireland (1986)
North American leading broodmare sire (1993 & 1994)Honours 1970 Motion Picture - A Horse Called Nijinsky
Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame (1976)
Sun newspaper - Horse of the Millennium
Nijinsky Stakes at Woodbine RacetrackHorse (Equus ferus caballus) Last updated on 20 July 2011 The racehorse Nijinsky (21 February 1967 - 15 April 1992) was one of the greatest horses in Thoroughbred horse-racing history.[1] He won the U.K. Triple Crown of racing. Retired to stud he became the Leading sire in Great Britain & Ireland and the Leading broodmare sire in North America.
He was bred at E. P. Taylor's Windfields Farm in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada and was by the hugely successful sire and Kentucky Derby winner Northern Dancer. His dam, the good brood mare, Flaming Page ,who won the Queen's Plate, was by Bull Page.[2] Nijinsky was sold at the Windfields Farm's annual yearling auction for $84,000 to American minerals industrialist Charles W. Engelhard, Jr. – on whom (as an aside) the James Bond character Auric Goldfinger in the novel Goldfinger and subsequent film was based. The colt was named after the dancer Vaslav Nijinsky.
Contents
Racing career
Shipped to Ireland where he was trained by Vincent O'Brien in Ballydoyle, County Tipperary, Nijinsky became champion two-year-old of both England and Ireland in 1969. The next year, after winning the 2,000 Guineas Stakes, the Epsom Derby and the Irish Derby, Nijinsky defeated an illustrious field of older horses at Ascot in the highly prestigious 1½-mile King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, beating Blakeney by two lengths. These convincing victories suggested that Nijinsky and regular jockey Lester Piggott were one of the most formidable horse-and-jockey combination ever seen on a racecourse.
Despite a subsequent attack of ringworm,[3][4] he won the Doncaster St. Leger over one mile and six furlongs, thereby becoming the first horse since Bahram 35 years earlier to complete the English Triple Crown He remains one of only three 20th century horses to have completed the Triple Crown in peacetime (wartime Triple Crowns in which the three classics were run at the same venue, namely Newmarket, are not recognised by purists) . In his next race, Nijinsky ran in the world-famous Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Hippodrome de Longchamp in Paris, France, where the French Derby winner Sassafrás defeated him by a head. Many attribute his defeat to an unusually sloppy performance from Piggott, who gave the horse far too much ground to make up in a race not long after his exertions in the St Leger over a longer distance. However,arguably, it was the ringworm attack that took the edge off his form.[citation needed] In his final race (the Champion Stakes) he again finished second, this time to the five year-old Lorenzaccio. This defeat – while partly due to the horse becoming too excited and sweating in the warm-up – confirmed that Nijinsky was past his brilliant peak; he was retired to stud at Claiborne Farm near Paris, Kentucky where he became a successful stallion.
During his career, Nijinsky set a new European earnings record and was syndicated for a world-record sum. His defeat at Longchamps took the gloss off a career that many still regard as among the greatest ever. The staff at O'Brien's stable regarded Nijinsky as the greatest of all the champions they had looked after. It is probably true to say that Nijinsky's racing career was the foundation stone for the enormous stud reputation of his sire, Northern Dancer.
Stud record
After being sent to stand at stud in the United States, he was registered there as Nijinsky II.
Nijinsky II sired 155 Stakes/Group winners, and is the only sire to have a winner of the Kentucky and Epsom Derbies in the same year. His notable progeny includes:
- Caerleon - Three-Year-Old Champion Colt in France, won the Group One Prix du Jockey Club and International Stakes, Leading sire in Great Britain & Ireland (1988, 1991)
- Ferdinand - 1986 Kentucky Derby & 1987 Breeders' Cup Classic, United States Horse of the Year
- Golden Fleece - won 1982 Epsom Derby, undefeated Champion Three-Year-Old Colt in England & Ireland
- Green Dancer - won 1974 Futurity Stakes, 1975 Prix Lupin, Poule d'Essai des Poulains, Leading sire in France in 1991
- Ile de Bourbon - won 1978 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes
- Lammtarra - undefeated, won 1995 Epsom Derby, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe
- Royal Academy - won July Cup and Breeders' Cup Mile, sired Bullish Luck, Val Royal
- Seattle Dancer - in 1985 the world's most expensive yearling, selling for US$13.1 million
- Shadeed - won 1985 2,000 Guineas, sired Alydeed
- Shahrastani - won 1986 Epsom Derby, Irish Derby
- Sky Classic - Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame, U.S. Eclipse Award winner
Nijinsky died in 1992 from laminitis. He is buried at Claiborne Farm.
Honours
In 1970, a film was made about his racing career entitled A Horse Called Nijinsky. Narrated by Orson Welles, it was released in U.K. movie theaters and in 1988 released on VHS video. The much-loved Nijinsky team also was voted the 1970 BBC Sports Personality of the Year Team Award. In a poll in 2000, readers of the UK newspaper The Sun voted Nijinsky their "Horse of the Millennium."
Tabulated pedigree
Pedigree of Nijinsky II (CAN), bay stallion, 1967 Sire
Northern Dancer (CAN)
1961Nearctic(CAN)
1954Nearco Pharos Nogara Lady Angela Hyperion Sister Sarah Natalma (USA)
1957Native Dancer Polynesian Geisha Almahmoud Mahmoud Arbitrator Dam
Flaming Page(USA)
1959Bull Page Bull Lea Bull Dog Rose Leaves Our Page Blue Larkspur Occult Flaring Top Menow Pharamond II Alcibiades Flaming Top Omaha Firetop See also
References
Further reading
- Sampson, Lesley I. Nijinsky: Blue Riband Sire (1985) J.A. Allen & Co Ltd ISBN 0851314112
External links
Categories:- 1967 racehorse births
- 1992 racehorse deaths
- Thoroughbred racehorses
- British racehorses
- Racehorses bred in Ontario
- Northern Dancer bloodline
- Racehorses trained in Ireland
- British Classic Race winners
- Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductees
- Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing winners
- European Thoroughbred Horse of the Year
- United States Champion Thoroughbred Sires
- British Champion Thoroughbred Sires
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