Fisherman (foaled 1951 in

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

) was an American

Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are c ...

racehorse Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic pr ...

Background

Fisherman was bred and raced by

Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Cornelius "Sonny" Vanderbilt Whitney (February 20, 1899 – December 13, 1992) was an American businessman, film producer, government official, writer and philanthropist. He was also a polo player and the owner of a significant stable of Thorough ...

, a member of the prominent horse-racing

Whitney family The Whitney family is an American family notable for their business enterprises, social prominence, wealth and philanthropy, founded by John Whitney (1592–1673), who came from London, England to Watertown, Massachusetts in 1635. The historic fa ...

. He was out of the mare Crawfish and sired by Whitney's

Phalanx The phalanx ( grc, φάλαγξ; plural phalanxes or phalanges, , ) was a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears, pikes, sarissas, or similar pole weapons. The term is particularly use ...

, the winner of the 1947

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 ...

voted

American Champion Three-Year-Old Male Horse The American Champion Three-Year-Old Male Horse is an American Thoroughbred horse racing honor awarded annually in Thoroughbred flat racing. It became part of the Eclipse Awards program in 1971. The award originated in 1936 when both ''Turf & Sport ...

. Fisherman was trained by future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee,

Sylvester Veitch Sylvester E. "Syl" Veitch (February 24, 1910 – February 14, 1996) was a Hall of Fame thoroughbred horse trainer. He was the son of Silas Veitch, a jockey and trainer who began his career as an exercise boy with the powerful Joseph E. Se ...

Racing career

Sent to the racetrack at age two, Fisherman won a number of races for his age group including the important Champagne Stakes. Despite Fisherman's performances in 1953, in the balloting for

American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt The American Champion Two-Year-Old Male Horse is an American Thoroughbred horse racing honor awarded annually in Thoroughbred flat racing. It became part of the Eclipse Awards program in 1971. The award originated in 1936 when the ''Daily Racing F ...

he finished behind

Hasty Road Hasty Road (1951–1978) was an American thoroughbred racehorse which won the 1954 Preakness Stakes. In 1953, Hasty Road won six of his nine races including the Arlington Futurity and the Washington Park Futurity, and set a record for prize mon ...

in one major poll and Porterhouse in the other two. In 1954, under regular jockey

Hedley Woodhouse Hedley John Woodhouse (January 23, 1920 - December 29, 1984) was a Canadian jockey who won the New York state riding championship in 1953. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, he began his racing career there in 1937 at the Lansdowne Park racetrac ...

, three-year-old Fisherman won the

Gotham Stakes The Gotham Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-old horses run in early March at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, New York. A Grade III event with a current purse of US$300,000, it is set at a distance of 1 mile on the dirt ...

. In the U.S. Triple Crown series he finished seventh in the

Kentucky Derby The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, almost always on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The competition is a Grade I stakes race for three-year ...

and did not run in the

Preakness Stakes The Preakness Stakes is an American thoroughbred horse race held on Armed Forces Day which is also the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a Grade I race run over a distance of 9.5 furlongs () on ...

. But, in the ensuing

he ran second to

High Gun High Gun (foaled 1951 in Kentucky) was an American Champion Thoroughbred racehorse. Background His sire, Heliopolis, was a two-time Leading sire in North America. His dam was Rocket Gun whose damsire was Man o' War. Trainer Max Hirsch purchas ...

. From there, Fisherman went on to win two very important races. First, he won the

Travers Stakes The Travers Stakes is an American Grade I Thoroughbred horse race held at Saratoga Race Course in Saratoga Springs, New York. It is nicknamed the "Mid-Summer Derby" and is the third-ranked race for American three-year-olds according to internation ...

Saratoga Race Course Saratoga Race Course is a Thoroughbred horse racing track located on Union Avenue in Saratoga Springs, New York, United States. Opened in 1863, it is often considered to be the oldest major sporting venue of any kind in the country, but is actua ...

then, following the withdrawal of an injured High Gun, C. V. Whitney was invited to run Fisherman in the November

Washington, D.C. International Stakes The Baltimore Washington International Turf Cup is an American Grade III invitational horse race run over one mile. Inaugurated in 1952, it was raced at Laurel Park Racecourse on the turf in Laurel, Maryland, at a distance of miles (12 furlongs ...

. In the mile and a half

weight-for-age {{use dmy dates, date=October 2022 Weight for Age (WFA) is a term in thoroughbred horse racing which is one of the conditions for a race. History The principle of WFA was developed by Admiral Rous, a handicapper with the English Jockey Club. Rous ...

race on the grass at

Laurel Park Racecourse Laurel Park, formerly Laurel Race Course, is an American thoroughbred racetrack located just outside Laurel, Maryland which opened in 1911. The track is miles in circumference. Its name was changed to "Laurel Race Course" for several decades unt ...

Laurel, Maryland Laurel is a city in Maryland, United States, located midway between Washington and Baltimore on the banks of the Patuxent River. While the city limits are entirely in northern Prince George's County, outlying developments extend into Anne Arunde ...

, he was up against older horses and some of the best from Europe including Queen Elizabeth's colt

Landau Landau ( pfl, Landach), officially Landau in der Pfalz, is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990 ...

and the

betting Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three eleme ...

favorite, the French

filly A filly is a female horse that is too young to be called a mare. There are two specific definitions in use: *In most cases, a ''filly'' is a female horse under four years old. *In some nations, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, t ...

Banassa Banassa (foaled 1950) was a French Thoroughbred horse racing, racehorse bred and raced by Julien Décrion. Named for an ancient Ancient Rome, Roman village in Morocco, she was sired by Décrion's multiple race winner Un Gaillard and out of his mare ...

. Ridden by

Eddie Arcaro George Edward Arcaro (February 19, 1916 – November 14, 1997), was an American Thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame jockey who won more American classic races than any other jockey in history and is the only rider to have won the U.S. Tripl ...

, Fisherman remained within striking distance of the pacesetter before taking the lead and holding off a charge in the homestretch by Banassa to win the race. In 1955, Fishermen continued to win New York races, capturing the Excelsior Handicap and earning a second in the John B. Campbell Handicap. Encouraged by the performance on grass by Fisherman and another of his top runners, the three-year-old

Career Boy Career Boy (foaled 1953 in Kentucky) was an American Champion Thoroughbred racehorse. Background He was bred and raced by Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, a member of the prominent horse-racing Whitney family. Out of the mare Swanky, whose damsire ...

, C. V. Whitney decided to send the two horses to compete in the 1956

Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe is a Group 1 flat horse race in France open to thoroughbreds aged three years or older. It is run at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris, France, over a distance ...

Longchamp Racecourse The Longchamp Racecourse (french: Hippodrome de Longchamp) is a 57 hectare horse-racing facility located on the Route des Tribunes at the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, France. It is used for flat racing and is noted for its variety of interlaced tr ...

in Paris, France. Fisherman finished off the board with Career Boy taking fourth behind winner, Ribot, one of the best horses in European racing history.

Stud record

Fisherman was retired to

stud Stud may refer to the following terms: Animals * Stud (animal), an animal retained for breeding ** Stud farm, a property where livestock are bred Arts and entertainment * Stud (band), a British progressive rock group * The Stud (bar), a gay bar ...

but met with limited success as a breeding stallion.

References

* {{cite magazine , url=http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,820442,00.html , title=Sport: Inferiority Complex , work=

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

, date=November 15, 1954 about Fisherman winning the 1954 Washington, D.C. International Stakes. 1951 racehorse births Thoroughbred family 5-g Racehorses bred in Kentucky Racehorses trained in the United States