Proud Clarion

Thoroughbred racehorse infobox
horsename = Proud Clarion


caption =
sire = Hail To Reason
grandsire = Turn-To
dam = Breath O'Morn
damsire = Djeddah
sex = Stallion
foaled = 1964
country = United States flagicon|USA
colour = Bay
breeder = John W. Galbreath
owner = Darby Dan Farm
trainer = Loyd Gentry, Jr.
record = 25: 6-4-2
earnings = $218,730
race = Roamer Handicap (1967)

American Classic Race wins:
Kentucky Derby (1967)
awards=
honours =
updated= June 11, 2007

Proud Clarion (1964-1981) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 1967 Kentucky Derby. Owned and bred by John W. Galbreath, he was foaled at his Darby Dan Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. His sire was Hail To Reason, the U.S. Champion Two-Year-Old Colt for 1960, and his grandsire was Royal Charger, a son of the great Nearco. Out of the mare Breath O'Morn, Proud Clarion's damsire was Djeddah, a multiple conditions race winner in France who in turn was a son of the French champion and 1942 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner, Djebel.

Racing at age two for trainer Loyd Gentry, Jr., Proud Clarion showed little of what his pedigree promised. Out of three starts, his best result was a third in a minor race. He finished his two-year-old season with earnings of just $805. As a three-year-old, he won a few sprint races then in the immediate lead-up to the 1967 Kentucky Derby, he ran second to Diplomat Way in the Blue Grass Stakes.

1967 Kentucky Derby

Ridden by Bobby Ussery in the Derby, Proud Clarion was given little consideration and was sent of by bettors at more than 30:1 odds. The fourteen-horse field included Diplomat Way, Ruken who had won California's Santa Anita Derby and was the bettors second choice, plus the overwhelming favorite, Wood Memorial Stakes winner Damascus.

Leaving the starting gate from post position seven, Proud Clarion raced ninth near the back in a pack of horses until close to the ¾ mile pole when jockey Bobby Ussery made a move. By the mile pole he was sitting fifth then in the homestretch accelerated through an opening between Damascus and Diplomat Way. He caught frontrunner Barbs Delight then raced on to win by a length in the third fastest time in the Derby's history.

Proud Clarion finished third in the Preakness Stakes and then fourth in the Belmont to winner Damascus. The colt won six of his thirteen starts in 1967, with his only other significant stakes win coming in the Roamer Handicap at Aqueduct Racetrack. He returned to race at age four in 1968, starting nine times out of which his best was two second place finishes.

Retired to stud duty at his owners Darby Dan Farm, Proud Clarion met with modest success, sireing several stakes race winners. He died in 1981 at age seventeen at Spendthrift Farm in Lexington, Kentucky and is buried in their equine cemetery.

References

* [http://www.pedigreequery.com/proud+clarion Proud Clarion's pedigree and partial racing stats]
* [http://www.kentuckyderby.com/2006/derby_history/derby_charts/years/1967.html Proud Clarion's 1967 Kentucky Derby at the official Churchill Downs website]