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Princeton (registered name Tom Ward) is one of six horses to have won the Maryland Hunt Cup three times, and the first to win it after it was opened to members of all hunt clubs in the U.S. and Canada. He continued to run in the Cup until 1908, age 17; in that race he fell three times, the final time at the last, where he lay, exhausted for half an hour before being able to rise. He was still competing in 1911, age 22, when he won a race at Brooklandwood. He started his race career on the flat, and apparently won a number of them as "a ringer;" in one race his bay coat colored was altered to grey, and he ran for a while under the name "Bay Secret." When the owners were caught and suspended, the horse was disallowed from competing in sanctioned races and was sold as a hunter. Purchased in 1902 by W.J.H. ("Billie") Watters, Jr., who got permission from the Jockey Club to run him as a steeplechaser, and his first try at the Cup was that year, when he placed second. He was regularly used as a hunter, who could be ridden in a snaffle bit by women and children, and also was broken to harness--he was driven to his races, and back! He was euthanized at age 30, after having lost his teeth. He was from the imported Glencoe sire line, which produced a number of early winners of the Hunt Cup and one American Grand National winner. His grandsire, Vandal, by Glencoe and out of a mare by the very stout imported Tranby, was a good stayer who won matches over three mile distances, and his sire, Voltigeur, was inbred to Glencoe 2 x 3. Princeton's dam, Stella, was a grandaughter of Lexington, and had Glencoe and Tranby in her dam line. |
