Armed (May, 1941–1964) was an American Thoroughbred

gelding A gelding is a castrated male horse or other equine, such as a pony, donkey or a mule. Castration, as well as the elimination of hormonally driven behavior associated with a stallion, allows a male equine to be calmer and better-behaved, makin ...

race horse who was the

American Horse of the Year The American Award for Horse of the Year, one of the Eclipse Awards, is the highest honor given in American thoroughbred horse racing. Because Thoroughbred horse racing in the United States has no governing body to sanction the various awards, "Hor ...

in 1947 and Champion Older Male Horse in both 1946 and 1947. He was inducted into the

National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame was founded in 1950 in Saratoga Springs, New York, to honor the achievements of American Thoroughbred race horses, jockeys, and trainers. In 1955, the museum moved to its current location on Union Av ...

in 1963.

Background

Armed was sired by the great stakes winner Bull Lea, the sire of

Citation A citation is a reference to a source. More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression embedded in the body of an intellectual work that denotes an entry in the bibliographic references section of the work for the purpose of ...

. His dam was Armful, whose sire was

Belmont Stakes The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds run at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is run over 1.5 miles (2,400 m). Colts and geldings carry a weight of ; fillies carry . The race, nicknamed Th ...

winner Chance Shot and whose grandsire was the great Fair Play. Besides being small for his age and very headstrong, Armed had the habits of biting and kicking hay out of his handler's pitchfork. Since he was also practically untrainable, his trainer,

Ben A. Jones Benjamin Allyn Jones (December 31, 1882 – June 13, 1961) was an American thoroughbred horse trainer. Ben Jones was born in Parnell, Missouri, and attended Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, Missouri for high school. Jones went into the ...

, sent him back to

Calumet Farm Calumet Farm is a Thoroughbred breeding and training farm established in 1924 in Lexington, Kentucky, United States by William Monroe Wright, founding owner of the Calumet Baking Powder Company. Calumet is located in the heart of the Bluegras ...

to be gelded and turned out to grow up. He returned to the track late in his two-year-old season and resumed training.

Racing career

His first start was as a three-year-old the following February, and he won at Hialeah Park by eight lengths. He won again less than a week later but then won only once in five more starts and had to be rested due to an ankle injury. Armed raced for seven seasons, from 1944 to 1950, finishing with a 41-20-10 record in 81 starts. On April 20, 1946, under jockey

Douglas Dodson Douglas Allan Dodson (December 21, 1921 - February, 1982) was a Champion jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing. Early life Douglas Dodson was born in Pickardville, Alberta, Canada, the son of James Floyd and Emma Dodson. His family moved t ...

Armed broke the track record for a mile and a sixteenth on dirt with a winning time of 1:43 1/5 in the Philadelphia Handicap at the

Havre de Grace Racetrack The Havre de Grace Racetrack was an American horse racing track on Post Road in Havre de Grace, Harford County, Maryland. Nicknamed "The Graw," it operated from August 24, 1912, to 1950. For a time, it was owned by the Harford Agricultural and B ...

. In 1947, again ridden by jockey Dodson, he defeated U.S. Triple Crown champion

Assault An assault is the act of committing physical harm or unwanted physical contact upon a person or, in some specific legal definitions, a threat or attempt to commit such an action. It is both a crime and a tort and, therefore, may result in crim ...

in a match race at

Belmont Park Belmont Park is a major thoroughbred horse racing facility in the northeastern United States, located in Elmont, New York, just east of the New York City limits. It was opened on May 4, 1905. It is operated by the non-profit New York Racin ...

and set a track record of 2:01-3/5 for one and one-quarter miles while winning the Widener Handicap and carrying 129 pounds. He repeated as

American Champion Older Male Horse The title of American Champion Older Dirt Male Horse is an American Thoroughbred horse racing honor awarded annually to a stallion or gelding, four years old and up, for performances on dirt and main track racing surfaces. In 1971, it became part of ...

and was voted 1947

honors. In the Horse of the Year poll conducted by ''Turf and Sport Digest'' magazine, he received 151 of a possible 173 votes to win the title from

, Stymie,

Bewitch Bewitch (1945–1959) was a Thoroughbred race horse born in 1945 at Calumet Farm, Kentucky, United States in the same crop in which the stallion Bull Lea produced Citation and Coaltown. Each of them was eventually inaugurated into the Thoroughbr ...

and

Retirement and death

Armed died in 1964 of an intestinal tumor. In 1963, he was inducted into

. In '' The Blood-Horse'' ranking of the top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century, he was ranked #39.

References

{{reflist
Armed's pedigree

TB Library profile of Armed by
Avalyn Hunter

External links

KY Horsepark Calumet 1947
1941 racehorse births 1964 racehorse deaths Thoroughbred family 3-o Racehorses bred in Kentucky Racehorses trained in the United States Horse racing track record setters American Thoroughbred Horse of the Year United States Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame inductees