General Assembly (horse)

Thoroughbred racehorse infobox
horsename = General Assembly


caption =
sire = Secretariat
grandsire = Bold Ruler
dam = Exclusive Dancer
damsire = Native Dancer
sex = Stallion
foaled = 1976
country = United States
colour = Chestnut
breeder = Bertram & Diana Firestone
owner = Bertram R. Firestone
trainer = LeRoy Jolley
record = 17: 7-6-1
earnings = $463,245
race = Hopeful Stakes (1978)
Saratoga Special Stakes (1978)
Gotham Stakes (1979)
Vosburgh Stakes (1979)
Travers Stakes (1979)
awards =
honours =
updated= CURRENTTIME, CURRENTDAYNAME CURRENTMONTHNAME CURRENTDAY CURRENTYEAR (UTC)

General Assembly (1976-2005) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse. He was bred and raced by the very prominent husband and wife team of Bertram and Diana Firestone of Upperville, Virginia. He was out of the mare Exclusive Dancer, a daughter of Hall of Fame inductee and American Horse of the Year, Native Dancer. His sire was the 1973 U.S. Triple Crown champion Secretariat who was rated # 2 in the Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century.

General Assembly was conditioned for racing by future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee LeRoy Jolley. At age two, the colt won the Hopeful Stakes and the Saratoga Special Stakes and ran second to Spectacular Bid in both the Champagne Stakes and the Laurel Futurity.

Racing at age three in 1979, in the U.S. Triple Crown series General Assembly ran second in the Kentucky Derby and fifth in the Preakness Stakes to winner Spectacular Bid. In the Belmont Stakes he finished seventh to upset winner, Coastal. General Assembly won the Vosburgh Stakes and ran second again to Spectacular Bid in the Marlboro Cup Invitational Handicap. He then earned the most important victory of his career with a fifteen length win in the prestigious Travers Stakes in which he set a Saratoga track record for the mile and a quarter which still stands in 2008.

As a sire

General Assembly was retired to stud duty beginning in 1980 at his owner's breeding operation in County Kildare, Ireland. In 1986 he returned to the United States to stand in Kentucky then in 1993 was sent to breeders in France and in 1995 to a German breeding farm. Although General Assembly was never the successful stallion his regal bloodline promised, he was the sire of thirty-one stakes races winners. One of his better known offspring was Steady Flame who raced at two in Ireland then was sent to Hong Kong where he won the Hong Kong Champions & Chater Cup and was a Champion sprinter in 1989-91 and Champion older miler in 1990.

In March 2005, Gestüt Olympia in Alpen, Germany announced that thetwenty-nine-year-old General Assembly had been euthanized due to heart and circulatory problems.

References

* [http://www.pedigreequery.com/general+assembly General Assembly's pedigree and partial racing stats]
* [http://www.tbcprojects.com/career.php?search=3463 General Assembly's offspring at the Triple Crown database by Kathleen Irwin and Joy Reeves]