Keeneland Library Meadors Collection
Lest We Forget: Alcibiades Was A Light In Dark Times
October 28, 1929 -- the day the American stock market crashed, wiping out the savings of millions of Americans. Life became intolerable as factories, mines, and mills shut down, people lost their homes and farms to foreclosure, and soup kitchens sprouted up across the land to feed the hungry. Yet even in those earliest grim days of the Great Depression, over 40% of American homes had a radio to listen to news, dramas, comedies, weather – and the excitement of sports – Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig were the pride of the New York Yankees, Bobby Jones became the first man to win golf’s Grand Slam, and the Green Bay Packers football club won two straight championships in 1929-30. Then there were the racehorses –handicap champ Sun Beau; the dueling 2-year-olds Twenty Grand, Equipoise, Mate, and Jamestown; Gallant Fox as, months after the crash, he marched toward victories in the newly christened Triple Crown; and a little chestnut daughter of Supremus named Alcibiades, who earned two championships over her own sex and bravely took on the boys in the 1930 Kentucky Derby.
Alcibiades was bred and raced by Hal Price Headley, master of Beaumont Farm south of Lexington, Ky. Headley was a third-generation horseman. His grandfather, George Washington Headley, purchased land and founded Beaumont Farm in 1880 and built it up with the assistance of his young son, Hal Pettitt Headley. Father and son bred and raced multiple champion Ornament in the 1890s. Hal Pettitt Headley’s son, Hal Price Headley, was born in 1888 and was heavily involved with the horses from a very young age. His studies at Princeton University were cut short when his father was stricken with a stroke. Leaving university life forever, Hal Price Headley took over the mantle of Beaumont when his father passed away in 1921.
Only 32 when his father died, Hal Price Headley became a driving force within the Thoroughbred industry. Over the next several decades, he built up Beaumont to encompass over 4,000 acres, farming tobacco and cattle as well as breeding superior racehorses. He was instrumental in the creation of Keeneland Race Course and served as the track’s first president, from its opening in 1936 to 1951. As a breeder, he helped establish what became the annual Keeneland sales and was named first president of the Kentucky Horse Association, the forerunner of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association. As such a progressive leader within the Thoroughbred industry, people took notice when a Headley runner appeared in the entries, and there were a lot of them, for Headley bred 88 stakes winners.
One of his best was undoubtedly Alcibiades.
The Headleys followed the breeding model made so successful by the likes of William Collins Whitney and James R. Keene, crossing speed-based American strains with stout imported English mares. Such was the breeding of Alcibiades. Her sire, Supremus, a Headley homebred, had been bred along this pattern. He was a son of the extremely inbred Ultimus, by a son of Domino (Commando) out of a daughter of Domino. Dam of Supremus was Mandy Hamilton, a British-bred, American-raced daughter of John o’ Gaunt. Supremus proved a good stakes winner for Headley and an even better stallion. One of the mares paired with him in the spring of 1926 was the exquisitely bred chestnut mare, Regal Roman.
Regal Roman was a chestnut daughter of Roi Herode out of Lady Cicero, by the Earl of Rosebery’ s Derby winner Cicero. Regal Roman sold as a 2-year-old at the Newmarket December Sale for 560 guineas and headed across the Atlantic to Headley’s Beaumont. Though she never raced, the accomplishments of her Supremus filly Alcibiades made Regal Roman a tremendous bargain. But before she ever set foot on a racetrack, the filly needed a good, strong name. While many thought she was named after the ancient Greek politician, her name had no such pretense. Her name was inspired by a little toddler, Hal Price Headley’s daughter, Alice.
As Hal Price Headley reminisced to The Blood-Horse in June of 1929, “We were not thinking of Greeks or the Romans when we named Alcibiades and Tishybo. We were short on names, and March 1, the deadline date for naming Thoroughbreds was crowding on. I mentioned the matter to Mrs. Headley, and she suggested that I name a couple of the 2-year-olds for our youngest daughters, whose names are Alice and Patricia, respectively. The servants in the house gave them pet names. Alice they called Alcie, and Patricia they called Tishy. An older daughter then began calling Alice “Alcibiades” and someone else added bo to Tishy and soon the household had them “Alcibiades” and “Tishybo.” Those names suited me for a couple of good fillies and they went in and were accepted, and I think they are carrying them quite nobly…My “Alcibiades” is a dandy little girl and her namesake suits the Headley family.”
While Tishybo never made a lasting name for herself, Alcibiades demonstrated from her earliest training under the tutelage of Walter W. Taylor that she possessed extraordinary ability. Her hallmark was speed, to run as far as she could as fast as she could. This she did in her first two starts, scoring two facile victories before going for her first stakes in the Debutante Stakes at Churchill Downs on May 17, 1929. Sailing along in front in the five-furlong contest, Alcibiades fended off the first serious challenge of her career, holding on to score by a head over the determined Sweep filly Lucile in a sparkling :59 ⅘.
Sent up to Latonia in Covington, Ky., across the river from Cincinnati, Hal Price Headley’s speedy little chestnut was sent after the 47th edition of the 5-½ furlong Clipsetta Stakes. Lucile was back for another try against Alcibiades, having captured the Debutante Stakes at Washington Park in Chicago in between her meetings with Alcibiades. Each filly in the race carried 124 pounds over an extremely heavy track that had been pelted with recent storms. Alcibiades could have cared less about the track condition. Off a bit slowly, Alcibiades, under jockey Willie Fronk, rated in second for the first half-mile behind Ma Yerkes. She then took over the lead and coasted home a one and a half-length winner, with Lucile getting up for second and Ma Yerkes holding on for third in a time hampered by the heavy track, 1:09, for the 5-½ furlongs.
The waters got deeper in the late summer and fall and Alcibiades suffered a three-race losing streak to close out her juvenile campaign, but she did have excuses. In the Breeders’ Futurity at the Lexington track, she fell to her knees during a rough start and was never a factor. In her next race, the one mile Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes against the boys at Churchill Downs on Oct. 4, she ran a gallant race. Alcibiades was always prominent from the start and took the lead in the stretch. But nearing the finish, she began to tire and bore out. But her courage kept her going and she only grudgingly went under by a scant head to the late charging Desert Light. Her final start of the season was for the Selima Stakes at Laurel, Alcibiades ran a subpar race. The Daily Racing Form account of the event said: “Notwithstanding her good race in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, Alcibiades was not the filly in the fall she had been in the spring. She was pounds lighter and looked drawn.” But with two brilliant stakes wins against her own sex and a tenacious run against males, Alcibiades had done enough to be acknowledged as the nation’s champion 2-year-old filly.
Alcibiades was not nearly as effective as a 3-year-old, winning but three races in 16 starts, but she nabbed one of the biggest and most prestigious prizes for sophomore fillies in the country and she also took her shot against the boys in the Kentucky Derby. Alcibiades went into the Kentucky Derby as a longshot, having lost her first three races of the season before capturing the six and a half furlong Lillies of the Valley Purse at Churchill Downs only three days before the Kentucky Derby. The big race itself was run in a driving rainstorm in front of over 60,000 fans, including Edward Stanley, the 17th Earl of Derby. The National Broadcasting Broadcasting Corporation took the lead in bringing the race to millions of listeners around the world through the authoritative voice of Clem McCarthy.
Alcibiades gave the race a huge shot, setting the pace for the first five-eighths of a mile of the 1-¼ race when she packed it in abruptly and fell back to ultimately finish an exhausted tenth as Gallant Fox, William Woodward’s sensational son of Sir Gallahad III added the Kentucky Derby to his growing list of laurels -- laurels that would see him become the country’s second winner of the Triple Crown, having previously taken the Preakness, run that year before the Derby.
Back then, the Kentucky Oaks was run two weeks after the Kentucky Derby and only seven fillies lined up for the filly classic. Based on her lackluster record as a 3-year-old thus far, Alcibiades was dismissed by the bettors, going off as just the third choice. Early in the race, Alcibiades repeated her Kentucky Derby performance by leading for the first half-mile. At the far turn, she bore out badly, allowing the Sir Gallahad III filly Galaday to take the lead. But instead of falling back in defeat, Alcibiades was straightened out by her jockey, Robert Finnerty. Once straightened, Alcibiades focused on winning and with strong urging from Finnerty, again took command and galloped on resolutely to win by one length over a fast-closing Rich Widow with Galaday a tiring third. It was the first victory in the Kentucky classic for Hal Price Headley and re-established Alcibiades as the foremost sophomore filly in the country.
Although Alcibiades won only once more that season, she put in some gritty performances. Her next and last win of her career took place in the inaugural nine-furlong Arlington Oaks. The filly who finished third that day, Valenciennes, traded places with Alcibiades in the Arlington Matron Handicap. Alcibiades also had third place finishes to Snowflake in the Illinois Oaks and to Banner Bright in the Latonia Oaks. Perhaps her bravest performance of the season came in the 1-¼ mile Hawthorne Gold Cup against a field that included the winner of the race the previous year, Willis Sharpe Kilmer’s tough-as-nails Sun Beau, Jim Dandy, the conqueror of Gallant Fox in the Travers Stakes, multiple stakes winner Spinach, Plucky Play, and her own stablemate Pigeon Hole. Alcibiades, Jim Dandy, and Spinach set the pace as Sun Beau, under jockey Frank Coltiletti, raced in fourth position. Once he was given his head by Coltiletti, Sun Beau flashed past Alcibiades, who courageously held on for third as her stablemate Pigeon Hole went past her to finish within a length of the winner.
On Oct. 18, Alcibiades came onto the track against three others for the 1-¾ mile Latonia Championship. Spinach won the race but the fans attending were riveted to the piteous sight of Hal Price Headley’s gallant filly struggling home 40 lengths to the rear, the victim of a severely torn tendon. The stricken filly was stabilized and later shipped back home to Beaumont, where it was ascertained that her injury was so severe, there would be no chance of returning her to the races. She retired with a record of 23 starts, seven victories, two second place finishes and five third place finishes for earnings of $47, 860. Even though she had only three wins on the season, she had proven herself the most consistent filly among her age group and was acknowledged as champion for a second consecutive year.
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A dual champion on the track, Alcibiades achieved even loftier heights as a member of Hal Price Headley’s broodmare band. During her nearly 20-year producing career, Alcibiades gave birth to eight foals, seven of which raced, all of which were winners. Four of them won major stakes and one was named a champion. Her first stakes winner was the St. Germans filly Sparta, foaled in 1933. A multiple stakes winner, her biggest win came in the Latonia Oaks making up for her dam’s loss in the same race six years earlier. She also ran a game second to Leslie Combs’s brilliant Myrtlewood in the inaugural Ashland Stakes at the newly-opened Keeneland Race Course. Though she produced no stakes winners, Sparta’s branch of the Alcibiades family continued quietly through the decades and came up with a really big performer with Halo America, a Grade 1-winning millionaire in the 1990s, and she in turn became the second dam of Cloud Computing, Preakness Stakes winner of 2017 and currently a young stallion in Pennsylvania.
The next stakes winner Alcibiades produced was a colt by Pharamond II, the stallion Hal Price Headley had purchased from Lord Derby to stand at Beaumont. Pharamond II was a full brother to Sickle, a rising young sire at Joseph Widener’s stud and also a half-brother to Lord Derby’s dual classic winner Hyperion. The resulting dark bay colt was named for the Headley children’s boisterous cries for attention from their parents – ”Me now!” Menow the horse inherited the same front-running punch his dam was famous for, which carried him to 2-year-old championship honors in 1937 with smart victories in the Futurity Stakes and Champagne Stakes. His most sensational victory came at three in the Massachusetts Handicap at nine furlongs, when he conquered the mighty War Admiral, the previous year’s Triple Crown champion finishing fourth. Menow also added victories in the Withers Stakes and Potomac Handicap, thirds to Dauber in the Preakness and Seabiscuit in the Havre de Grace Handicap, and a good fourth to Lawrin in the Kentucky Derby.
Menow, as his dam was proving to be, was even better in the breeding shed. He was the sire of 32 stakes winners and three champions – 1942 champion 2-year-old filly Askmenow, bred and raced by Hal Price Headley and another named for the antics of his children; Capot, winner of the 1949 Preakness and Belmont Stakes for owner/breeder Greentree Stable; and Tom Fool, multiple champion and Hall of Fame member, bred by Hal Price Headley’s nephew, Duval Headley and campaigned by Greentree Stable. Tom Fool, in turn, spread the influence of Alcibiades to future generations as the sire of Buckpasser, multiple champion, Hall of Fame inductee, and influential sire; Kentucky Derby and Preakness hero Tim Tam; and prominent broodmares Dinner Partner and Mrs. Peterkin. Tom Fool daughters produced Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure; Stop the Music; Late Bloomer; Jim French, Hatchet Man; and distinguished producers Lady Capulet; Native Partner; and Sweet Alliance.
In 1937, after failing to produce a living foal the previous year, Alcibiades produced a chestnut filly by Man o’ War. As was well known, Samuel Riddle was fiercely protective of his legendary champion and allowed only a small number of outside mares per season to his court. Hal Price Headley desperately wanted to send Alcibiades to Man o’ War – the question was how to accomplish it. He found it was beneficial to have friends in the right places.
How Hal Price Headley got Alcibiades to Man o’ War is regaled in American Race Horses 1940: “As it happened, Mr. Headley and Major Louie Beard, general manager of the Thoroughbred interests of both Mrs. Payne Whitney (Greentree Stable) and her son, John Hay Whitney, were about that time in constant association, being the two men chiefly responsible for the creation of the new Keeneland race course near Lexington…As was only natural, in the intervals of working and planning for Keeneland, they discussed their breeding and racing affairs. Mr. Headley unfolded to Major Beard his great desire to breed Alcibiades to Man o’ War. And the impossibility of doing so. Major Beard sympathized with him but said nothing – until came Christmas. Then he presented Mr. Headley with a service to Man o’ War for 1936! Through an interchange of courtesies between the Whitney interests and Mr. Riddle, the latter had extended to the former the privilege of sending a mare to Man o’ War. Major Beard, feeling that Mr. Headley’s great desire should be gratified, passed it on to him as a Christmas gift.”
A good number of Man o’ War’s get were given names with war or military themes. Such was the case with Salaminia, for she was named after one of the two sacred galleys of the 5th Century B.C. Athenian navy which served during the Peloponnesian War. Salaminia, trained by Hal Price Headley’s nephew Duval Headley, gave all the appearances of failing to live up to her lofty heritage, as she was winless at two and victory continued to elude her well into her 3-year-old season, as it was not until her thirteenth start that she finally broke her maiden. Finally, things clicked and during the last half of the season, she took laurels over fellow sophomore fillies in the historic Alabama Stakes, over older fillies and mares in the Ladies Handicap, and over males in the Gallant Fox Handicap.
As a producer, Salaminia’s best was the Pharamond II filly Athenia, a good filly who counted the Ladies Handicap among her four stakes wins and a second to First Page in the 1946 Kentucky Oaks. In 1953, Athenia foaled a chestnut filly by the temperamental Mahmoud son Mr. Trouble. Stakes placed twice, Attica’s name would be forever esteemed by what she accomplished in the breeding shed. Hal Price Headley died in 1962 and left his daughter, Alice, Attica and three other mares and 268 acres of his former Beaumont property. From those beginnings, Mrs. Bell founded Mill Ridge Farm. Only three years later, in 1965, Attica foaled a strong bay colt by Sir Gaylord that would put Mill Ridge on the international map. That colt was Sir Ivor.
Mrs. Bell sent her colt to the Keeneland July sale, where he was purchased by Arthur “Bull” Hancock, acting on behalf of Raymond Guest, for $42,000. A cousin to both Winston Churchill and Ogden Phipps, Guest was, at the time of the colt’s purchase, serving as the United States ambassador to Ireland, and so wanted to be able to see his purchase run in person. He named the colt Sir Ivor, after his grandfather, Sir Ivor Guest, and shipped him to the Irish yard of trainer Vincent O’ Brien. Following a fourth-place finish in his debut race in Ireland, Sir Ivor at two and three won eight of the 12 remaining races of his career, including the Grand Criterium at Longchamp at two, and at three, the Two Thousand Guineas, the Epsom Derby, the Champion Stakes at Newmarket, and in his only start in the United States, the Washington D.C. International at Laurel. He also finished second in the Irish Derby and Prix de l’ Arc de Triomphe and third in the Eclipse Stakes. With his score in the Epsom Derby, Sir Ivor became the first ever winner of the classic purchased at an American auction. It caught the attention of European, and later Japanese and Middle Eastern buyers, who came to realize that American-bred Thoroughbreds could compete successfully at the top level all over the world.
Sir Ivor, 1993
Sir Ivor stood for nearly a quarter century at Claiborne Farm in Kentucky and sired 91 stakes winners before his death in 1995 at the grand age of 30, including stalwarts Sir Tristram, Bates Motel, Ivanjica, Cloonlara, Optimistic Gal, and Sweet Alliance. Daughters of Sir Ivor were very prolific, producing the likes of Goodbye Halo, Bluebird, Danzig Connection, El Prado, Green Desert, Shareef Dancer, and Gold and Ivory. With this type of success, Sir Ivor disseminated the genes of Alcibiades worldwide.
Alcibiades, after the birth of Salaminia, did not produce a living foal for another seven years, when in 1944, she foaled a Pharamond II filly named Hipparete, a modest winner. Alcibiades failed to produce a foal in 1945 and then the next year, foaled another stakes-winning Pharamond II filly named Lithe. She was a six-time stakes winner and was second or third in stakes another 12 times. She was the last stakes winner foaled by Alcibiades, who again failed to produce a living foal for three straight years before foaling her last in 1950, a filly by imported stallion Rico Monte named Last of All, who was unraced.
Alcibiades was pensioned from her broodmare career after Last of All and lived out the rest of her days at Beaumont. Her memory is brought to the fore every October at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington with the running of the Alcibiades Stakes, a Grade 1 race for 2-year-old fillies. The race was inaugurated in 1952 to honor not only Hal Price Headley’s fabled mare, but to honor the legendary breeder and co-founder of Keeneland upon his resignation as president of the track the previous year.
Alcibiades grazed on peacefully in her Beaumont paddock for another five years, dying at the age of 30 in 1957, more than a generation after her Depression era racetrack exploits. The dual champion and Headley foundation mare was buried in an unmarked grave on the Beaumont property. Hal Price Headley and his daughter, Alice, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 95, were both elected as Pillars of the Turf by the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. Alcibiades was a common denominator in the spectacular turf careers of both father and daughter.
Although her mortal remains rest in peaceful anonymity, a quote from Bert Clark Thayer’s book, Horses In the Blue Grass, neatly sums up what Alcibiades gave to future generations of racehorses, for she and other “great horses sleep beneath the thick cushion of the bluegrass, while today’s foals canter and gallop above them. When nature has had her will of them and they have returned utterly to the earth that cherished them, perhaps the foals grazing above will be a little braver, a little fleeter, for that rich dust beneath.”
