Northern Dancer Silks Ride
Northern Dancer
against other champions!

Northern Dancer

1961 - Horse | Deceased
Owner(s):
E. P. Taylor  -  Windfields Farm
Trainer:
Horatio Luro
Bred:
(CAN) by E. P. Taylor  -  [Add Data]
Pedigree:
Nearctic  -  Natalma  by  Native Dancer
Rating:
 
 
Northern Dancer
Image1m
Profile Pedigree Progeny Siblings Biography News & Notes Photos Comments Log

What the Nation is saying about Northern Dancer...

This incredible little horse won the Kentucky Derby when he was still (technically) only 2 years old! And he ran it faster than any horse had ever run it in history! It took Secretariat another 13 years to break the record. Won Preakness and finished a game 3rd in Belmont to a very good horse ... and he came out of the race with leg problems. His record at stud speaks to just how great he really was!!!
  • Show All 13 Comments
  • cugel the clever · Not sayin' the Dancer should be higher than 63rd (it's his record as a sire that proves his greatness) but no way HR should be ranked higher than ND. · 24 days ago ·
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  • LAZMANNICK · Lots of inexperiencwed voters on the HRN list. The Bloodhorse top 100 voted on by experts who have been around for a long time voted Northern Dancer 43rd best. Hill Rise didn't make the top 100. · 24 days ago ·
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The date was May 2, 1964. Only a few months earlier the Beatles had topped the U.S. pop charts for the first time with “I Want To Hold Your Hand” only a few months earlier and in the world of thoroughbred horse racing; a gutsy little bay colt from our neighbor to the north would become the first Can...Read More
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  • cugel the clever · Greatest sire of the 20th century. Virtually every top level thoroughbred running today has Dancer bloodlines. · 30 days ago ·
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  • JohnByrd · Memories! That's the first horse race I ever consciously remember watching on TV. If only I had known what a place in history he would occupy! · 30 days ago ·
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There is much fertile land in the Ireland region known as the “Golden Vale” that Sadler’s Wells called home since 1984. This fertility certainly was indicative of the illustrious stud career that would follow for Coolmore’s most prized stallion.Read More
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  • AndyScoggin · Wow, those son's of Northern Dancer have been amazing! · 252 days ago ·
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  • MarcelloMarocco · Everything of Northern Dancer was Amazing :) Northern Dancer brought a Boom to the Breeding industry and when Coolmore Bought up a bunch of Dancer's Yearlings at Windfields Maryland facility that EP Taylor bought, and Built to cater Northern Dancer to the World. I read a while back that you could walk into Windfield's Stallion barn, and read the list of dignitaries who have purchased Northern Dancer offspring was astonishing at that time. Coolmore Bought NijinskyII, and NinjiskyII sired Sadler · 96 days ago ·
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Northern Dancer could have lost to Chateaugay. How about distance? And anyways, how did Secretariat lose to Onion? Secretariat was the better horse? And how did Seattle Slew lose to Exceller? Seattle Slew was abviuosly better.
  • travel_vic · great advice Shug once told to an interviewer: "I was told that once you go over there (the track) you are going to lose and once you understand that, you can better work in this game." These are no machines but flesh and blood subject to variation of effort and if the pace and racing luck are not there, one will not get their photo taken in the winner's circle, guaranteed. · 104 days ago ·
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i really have enjoyed watching the replays of this great horse
Northern Dancer won 14 of 18 starts. Small colt. Lost Triple Crown bid to Chateauguay in 1964.
  • CauseForConcern · How could ND lose to Chateaugay in the TC, when both had won the Ky Derby? · 128 days ago ·
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  • LAZMANNICK · Nice that you bring the Dancer up Gary, but when it came to the 1964 Belmont it’s possible you meant Quadrangle. Chateaugay was a 1963 three year old. Northern Dancer was special as a race horse though wasn’t he? He was the dominant three year old in a deep three year old crop. He lost his first of the season, an allowance prep to Chieftain, Tom Rolfe’s half brother. Then he beat Chieftain by 7 lengths in his next, a special exhibition race before emphatically winning the Flamingo, an allowance, the Florida Derby and the Bluegrass. He went into the Derby as a close second choice to Hill Rise, California’s top three year old, winning it by a neck and then easily winning the Preakness. The Belmont race (run at Aqueduct back then because Belmont Park was under construction) was controversial. For much of the race the Dancer wanted to go to the lead and Bill Hartack chocked him back costing the colt too much energy. When it was time to go on the final turn the Dancer got close to the lead but then faded as Quadrangle and then Roman Brother went by him and he finished third, beaten by 6 lengths. Many think that if Hartack would have let him go, he would have been a TC winner. And it wasn’t like the two that finished ahead of him were long shots. Quadrangle raced in each TC race and though not a factor in the Derby or Preakness, he did win the Jerome and the Wood Memorial before the Derby and later that summer the Travers. It is also interesting to note that between the Preakness and the Belmont he ran in the Met Mile finishing second to Olden Times a top older horse who that year mixed it up with Kelso and Gun Bow. It is also Ironic that Roman Brother would be co-HOY the following year with the filly Moccasin, ending Kelso’s five year HOY streak. · 127 days ago ·
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NORTHERN DANCER was one of the best horses not only that he was a great race horse but look what he produced ......he is in almost every race horse out there and yes he was a canadian horse
The fact that horses like Northern Dancer, NijinskyII, and Seabird(WHERE IS HE ON THIS LIST#200??) are SO low on this list is a travesty. Not even ONE in the Top ten. No Sea The Stars???, No Zarkava?...All American horses...LOL! Shame
The last Northern Dancer foal to be sold at public auction,...Read More
to AuturoLaguna: Northern Dancer won the Kentucky Derby in 1964, when i was in Germany.you have no idea what you were talking about. you probably mixed up with your own thought and thinkings.
Northern Dancer was a Canadian Horse sired bt Nearctric and Natalma , Neartric out of Nearco, Natalma out of Native Dancer,, did you understand my friend AuturoLaguna ? i am not a dumm as you think, more smarter than you.
Can you imagine coming so close to achieving your most incredible dream only to have it snatched away from you by the narrowest of margins? The connections of these ten horses certainly can. I hope you enjoy my Top 10 near misses... Read More
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  • zatt · Thanks Renee ... I will look into the Tim Tam footage. · 342 days ago ·
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  • bellesforever · well done..alex was nearest and dearest to me so thanks for putting him up there. · 342 days ago ·
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The competition "Greatest Horse of All Time" should combine both racing career and breeding career. Under these conditions, the best of all time is a no-brainer - Northern Dancer. Best three-year old on the track in his day and the dominant sire of the 20th century. Truly the sire of champions.
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  • cugel the clever · The title of the contest "Greatest of all Time" is so vague that everyone has every right to include the factors that they consider important. I personally thing that these factors include both racing career and breeding career, because if anything, a horse's breeding career has a far more important impact on its legacy than its racing career. How many stakes winners and champions are direct descendants of Secretariat? In my opinion he is the best racehorse in history when the terms are restricted only to racing career. However, he was an ordinary stallion. As far as comparing Northern Dancer and his maternal grandfather; it's clear that his grandad had a better racing career. However, although Native Dancer had an outstanding career as a sire (after all, the Dancer was one of his offspring); the Dancer had a significantly better record at stud. The Dancer sired 26 champions, 11 outstanding sires, and produced stakes-winning progeny at a rate of 22.8% in his stud career. These are all substantially better records than his grandad and in fact probably qualify the Dancer as the leading sire of sires in thoroughbred history. On your comment about running with Red - no way the Dancer could have run with Red. Despite his greatness as a sire, as a racehorse, he was an "ordinary" champion from a historical perspective. He was vulnerable at 10 furlongs and over. Red would have beat him 9 out 10 times at 10 furlongs and 10 out of 10 at 12 furlongs. Native Dancer is another story - he could have been competitive with Big Red. · 379 days ago ·
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  • humphrey · greatest sire of the twentieth century? class by himself · 378 days ago ·
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Last October, Colin's Ghost - one of my favourite online spots - posted regarding the Daily Racing Form Online Historical Archive. As so eloquently detailed by Colin's Ghost:"The 3,000 volume...Read More
Windfields Farm, the historic Canadian nursery that had a major impact on North American breeding, has announced it will close following the dispersal of its remaining bloodstock at this year's Keeneland November sale.Read More
July 1st marks our annual Canada Day celebrations and with national pride in mind, I thought it would be fun to take a Youtube walk through some fun and historic Canadian horse racing moments.Read More
By JOSEPH DURSO Published: June 6, 1993 Colonial Affair, a son of Pleasant Colony and grandson of Nijinsky II, got into the Belmont Stakes the hard wayRead More

Northern Dancer - Pedigree

[Edit]
NearcticNearcoPharos
Nogara
Lady AngelaHyperion
Sister Sarah
NatalmaNative DancerPolynesian
Geisha
AlmahmoudMahmoud
Arbitrator

Northern Dancer - Race Results & Past Performances

[Add Race Result][Add Horse]
Date(Descending)
Fin
Jockey
Tr
#
Dist.[Filter]
Sf.
Race
$
Cnd
1st
2nd
3rd
Time
View DetailsView Video05/02/641stW HartackCD81 1/4 mDKentucky Derby-G103 MNorthern DancerHill RiseThe Scoundrel2:00.00

 

 

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