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In 1952, Edward P. Taylor, Canadian business magnate and owner of Windfields Farm, had attended the December sale at Newmarket, England where he purchased Lady Angela, a mare in foal to Nearco. Two years later she was bred again with Nearco, producing a colt named Nearctic. From Nearctic and the mare Natalma , a daughter of the great Native Dancer, came Northern Dancer.
Northern Dancer was ridden by Ron Turcotte in his first victory as a two-year-old. Before the running of the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky, trainer Horatio Luro asked jockey Bill Shoemaker to make a commitment to ride either Northern Dancer or the more promising colt, Hill Rise . Shoemaker went with the unbeaten Hill Rise, believing the colt represented his best chance for a win at the prestigious Kentucky DerbyThe Kentucky Derby is a stakes race for three-year-old thoroughbred horses, staged yearly in Louisville, Kentucky on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race currently covers one and one-quarter miles (2.. Bill HartackWilliam John Hartack Jr. born December 9, 1932 in Ebensburg, Pennsylvania, United States, is a Hall of Fame jockey. Bill Hartack grew up on his widowed father's farm in the Blacklick Township area of Cambria County, Pennsylvania. Small in stature, at age became Northern Dancer’s permanent jockey, guiding him to his best season in 1964Events January January 1 Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. January 3 Senator Barry Goldwater announces that he will seek the Republican nomination for President. January 5 In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Ort at age 3 when he won the Flamingo, Florida Derby, Blue Grass Stakes, Kentucky DerbyThe Kentucky Derby is a stakes race for three-year-old thoroughbred horses, staged yearly in Louisville, Kentucky on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race currently covers one and one-quarter miles (2., the Preakness StakesThe Preakness Stakes is a classic 1 3/16 mile thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds, held on the third Saturday in May of each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. Colts and geldings carry 126 pounds; fillies 121. The Preakness is the, and the Queen's PlateThe Queen's Plate is North America's oldest thoroughbred horse race, run at a distance of 1 1/4 miles for 3-year-old thoroughbed horses, foaled in Canada, run annually in July at Woodbine Racetrack, Etobicoke ( Toronto), Ontario. It is the first race in t. He was also named champion 3-year-old of 1964.
Northern Dancer stood at Taylor's stud farm in Maryland until his retirement and was the most successful sire in thoroughbred horse-racing history. His offspring have earned more money and won more major stakes races than those of any other sire, including North American and European champions. He sired 146 stakes winners including the great Nijinsky II, winner of England's Triple Crown, as well as The Minstrel, Shareef Dancer , El Gran Senor , Secreto , Fanfreluche and multiple champion sire Sadler's Wells. He was also an exceptionally prepotent sire (a sire of sires of stakes winners). In the 1983 Keeneland auction, one of Northern Dancer's colts named Snaafi Dancer became the first $10 million yearling.
Northern Dancer was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1976. He was retired from stud (breeding) on April 15, 1987 at the age of 26. He died on November 16, 1990 and is memorialized at Windfields Farm in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada.
Racehorses