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BLAST FROM THE PAST

ABERCROMBIE - Sire

ABERCROMBIE (1975)

Silent Majority-Bergdorf-Duane Hanover

Male Descendants include Artsplace- Art Major- Sweet Lou- Sportswriter etc

You would not have thought a $US9,500 yearling originally broken in by a bus driver would have a lasting influence but Abercrombie was to become the Adios lines best chance of survival.

He certainly wasn't a cotton wool champion, having 20 starts at two (just seven wins) and 33 starts at three, winning 22. He set a world record at the Meadowlands of 1:53 and a one season stakes earning record ensured he was the Horse of the Year before being syndicated for $US3m. He died in 1975.

Abercrombie became the leading sire for several years and the leading broodmare sire for the first time in 2005. He sired Artsplace, sire of Art Major, Life Sign and Armbro Emerson, a Canadian Hall of Famer who just happens to be the damsire of Bettor's Delight.

Artsplace was brilliant at three but his owner-breeders decided to try him again at four. He won 16 of 16. He died unexpectedly from faster than usual effects of laminitis when 18 with several stud seasons left in him. The Adios sire line had a history of laminitis spoiling the breeding party. Mach Three was from an Abercrombie mare.

You wouldn't say the Abercrombie/ Adios line is exactly blooming - but it is hanging in there.

TRIVIA FACT - Abercrombie was not the only bargain in his family. His sire Silent Majority only made $9000 as a yearling when selected by Roger White, a young Canadian who died in an air crash the following year on his way to another sale.

Silent Majority was by Henry T Adios whose famous driver Del Insko marked him highly for his "speed out of the gate and speed to put them away." He was tough too and according to Del never had a needle while in a racing campaign. His other sons though, including the ones who came to NZ, didn't cut it.

Credit: David McCarthy writing in Harnessed April 2017