Comedy King (1907–1929) was a British bred thoroughbred racehorse that raced his entire career in Australia. He is most notable for winning the 1910

Melbourne Cup The Melbourne Cup is a Thoroughbred horse race held in Melbourne, Australia. It is a 3200-metre race for three-year-olds and over, conducted by the Victoria Racing Club on the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Victoria as part of the Melbou ...

and becoming the first Northern-Hemisphere bred horse to do so.

Background

Comedy King was owned by

Sol Green Solomon Green (1 August 1868 – 11 May 1948), invariably referred to as "Sol Green", was a Melbourne bookmaker and racehorse owner and breeder. He styled himself "Leviathan of the Ring" but was also referred to as "Foots" on account of the size o ...

, one of Australia's biggest bookmakers and one of the country's richest men. On a trip to England in 1906 Green bought some racehorses and among them was the broodmare Tragedy Queen, which was in foal to the 1896 English Derby winner and legendary racehorse

Persimmon The persimmon is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees in the genus ''Diospyros''. The most widely cultivated of these is the Oriental persimmon, ''Diospyros kaki'' ''Diospyros'' is in the family Ebenaceae, and a number of non-pers ...

. After the foal was weaned it was exported to Australia where it was to race for Green under the name Comedy King.

Racing career

Comedy King won eight races in his career, with his most famous victory being the 1910

. Starting at the odds of 10/1 he won by a margin of a 1/2 neck carrying 7st 11 lb (49.5 kg) and collected first prize money of £6,178.

Stud career

Comedy King retired from racing in 1912 and commenced stud duties at owner Sol Green's Shipley Stud near

Warrnambool, Victoria Warrnambool (Maar: ''Peetoop'' or ''Wheringkernitch'' or ''Warrnambool'') is a city on the south-western coast of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 census, Warrnambool had a population of 35,743. Situated on the Princes Highway, Warrnambool (Alla ...

. When the stud was dispersed in 1918, Comedy King was secured by pastoralist

Norman Falkiner Norman Fraser Falkiner (20 November 1872 – 11 May 1929) was an Australian politician. He was born in Ararat to grazier Frank Sadlier Falkiner and Emily Elizabeth Bazeley. He attended Geelong Grammar School and managed his father's statio ...

for 7,300 guineas. Comedy King had great success as a sire, producing the 1919

winner

Artilleryman Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, ...

and the 1922 Cup winner, King Ingoda. He was also crowned Australian Champion stallion in 1920 and 1923. Comedy King died in December 1929 and was buried at Falkiner's Noorilim Stud. A few months after his death, Comedy King's remains were exhumed and his bones sent to be displayed at the newly formed

Australian Institute of Anatomy The Australian Institute of Anatomy was a natural history museum and medical research institute that was founded in 1931 and disbanded in 1985. The institute's heritage-listed building, located in , Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory, ...

. However, it's unknown if Comedy King's skeleton was ever assembled, and as recently as 2013 an attempt was made to match up boxes of equine bones at the institute to see if the horse could be “put back together”.

Pedigree

References

{{reflist Australian racehorses Racehorses bred in the United Kingdom Racehorses trained in Australia 1907 racehorse births 1929 racehorse deaths Thoroughbred family 7-e Melbourne Cup winners