Black Toney

Thoroughbred racehorse infobox
horsename = Black Toney


caption =
sire = Peter Pan
grandsire = Commando
dam = Belgravia
damsire = Ben Brush
sex = Stallion
foaled = 1911
country = USA flagicon|USA
colour = Brown
breeder = James R. Keene
owner = Colonel Edward R. Bradley
trainer = H. J. "Derby Dick" Thompson
record = 40 Starts: 13-11-7
earnings= $13,565
race = Valuation Stakes (1913)
Latonia Independence Handicap (1914) | awards=
honours = Leading Juvenile Sire in 1939
Among the top 20 American sires by earnings ten times.
The Black Toney Purse once run at Latonia Race Track
updated= December 6, 2007

Black Toney (foaled 1911 – died 1938) was bred by James R. Keene’s Castleton Farm. Keene, whose health was failing (he died in 1913), sold all his holdings in 1912 to Colonel Edward R. Bradley’s Idle Hour Stock Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. Some confusion occurred over this sale, and Bradley resold most of the lot, but one of those he kept was a very dark brown yearling he named Black Toney. The price tag for the son of Hall of Famer Peter Pan whose own sire was another Hall of Famer, Commando by the great Domino, was $1,600. Black Toney’s dam was Belgravia, the best daughter of Hall of Famer, Ben Brush. This meant that the almost black yearling with no white markings and a fine head and body was a member of the last crop bred by Keene from his famous Domino/Ben Brush cross.

Black Toney was a good racehorse but far from a great one. He raced for four years coming in the money in 31 of his 40 starts. But it was not Black Toney’s ability on the track that made his name, it was his success as a stallion. Black Toney became the most important stallion Bradley ever owned and one of the most important sires in American Thoroughbred history. It was Black Toney who sired many of the horses the Idle Hour Stock Farm was to become famous for. The names of Bradley’s horses all began with a “B,” a quirk of Bradley’s perhaps because his own name began with a B, or perhaps because of Black Toney.)

Briefly retired from the races due to injury, Black Toney sired one crop of horses. Of the resulting handful, one was Miss Jemima, an immediate stakes winner.

Once Black Toney was truly retired, Bradley bred him sparingly and yet, even from twenty one small crops and a total of 221 foals, the quality of his get was very high. From his very first crop came Miss Jemima, a champion at two years of age. Overall, he sired 40 stakes winners which amounts to 18 percent of his foals.

Bradley’s Black Toney was among the Top Twenty American sires by earnings ten times. He was second on the general sire list in 1933 and fifth in 1939.

Black Toney’s progeny

Sire of:

* Miss Jemima (American Champion Two-Year Filly, 1919; born in the same year as Man o' War, won eight races, seven in succession)
* Black Servant (an unlucky second in the 1921 Kentucky Derby)
* Black Gold (Hall of Fame)
* Bimelech (by La Troienne, Hall of Fame, #84 - Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century)
* Brokers Tip (winner of the 1933 Kentucky Derby)
* Balladier (Champion Two-Year-Colt of 1934)
* Black Maria (Champion Female of 1926, winner of the 1926 Kentucky Oaks)
* Black Helen (by La Troienne, Hall of Fame American Champion Three-Year-Old Filly of 1935.)
* Big Hurry (by La Troienne, and a good broodmare in her own right)
* Broadway Jones (stakes winner in the mid-Twenties)
* Beanie M (stakes winner in the mid-Thirties)
* Bridal Colors (dam of Relic, the leading French Broodmare Sire of 1965, sire of 32 stakes winners and 6 champions)
* Crotala (dam of the leading broodmare Boat; Boat's sire was Man o' War)

Grandsire of:

* Blue Larkspur (Hall of Fame, sired by Black Servant, #100 - Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century)
* Market Wise (Champion Handicap Horse of 1941; set an American record in the 1941 Jockey Club Gold Cup, defeating Whirlaway.)
* Searching (out of Big Hurry by War Admiral; Hall of Famer, Searching was the dam of Affectionately, #81 - Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century)
* Barn Swallow (Champion Three-Year-Old Filly of 1933, winner of the 1933 Kentucky Oaks)
* Baba Kenny (Champion Two-Year-Old Filly of 1930)
* Big Pebble (Champion Handicap Male of 1941)
* Spy Song (major stakes winner or runner-up in the mid-Forties]
* Bridal Flower (Champion Three-Year-Old Filly of 1946)
* Dark Ruler (major stakes winner or runner-up in the mid-Fifties)

End of the line

Black Toney spent his whole stud career at Idle Hour, producing a great many fine broodmares as well as winners. He died there on September 19, 1938, at the age of 27 of an apparent heart attack. Colonel Bradley commissioned a bronze statue which he placed over his greatest stallion’s grave. It is still there today, on a part of the Darby Dan Farm.

External links

* [http://www.pedigreequery.com/black+toney Black Toney’s pedigree]
* [http://www.equineinfo.com/horseracing/pBlackToney.htm Extensive view of pedigree from Influential Sires]
* [http://www.tbheritage.com/TurfHallmarks/Graves/cem/GraveMattersDarbyDan.html Bradley's statue of Black Toney at Darby Dan]