Print size 17″ X 22″, Image Size 11″ X 14″

This print has been in storage since 1967 and has slight discolorations around the print border which does not distract from the beauty of the print and would be easily covered up when matted and framed.

Grey colt, foaled March 17, 1950
Bred and owned by Alfred G. Vanderbilt

Native Dancer (March 27, 1950 – November 16, 1967), nicknamed the Grey Ghost, was one of the most celebrated and accomplished Thoroughbred racehorses in history and was the first horse made famous through the medium of television. As a two-year-old, he was undefeated in his nine starts for earnings of $230,495, a record for a two-year-old. During his three years of racing, he won 21 of 22 starts.

Native Dancer is the most colorful and popular horse of this era, despite some reservations among old times and rigid perfectionists concerning his relative greatness.

Unbeaten in nine starts as two-year-old, his victories including the Youthful, Flash, Saratoga Special, Grand Union Hotel, Hopeful, Belmont futurity and East View Stakes, he became a great TV performer in 1953.

His flashy grey coat made him easy to follow and his exploits gained him fans among people who have yet to witness an actual horse race.

After earning the title of “American Champion” in the Thoroughbred Racing Association‘s annual poll in 1952, The Dancer made his first appearance as a three-year-old in the Gotham Stakes at Jamaica. It proved an easy task as did the $100,000 Wood Memorial a week later.

He went to Louisville as one of the heaviest favorites in the 78-year history of the Kentucky Derby. But the greatest of all American races eluded him as Harry F. Guggenheim’s Dark Star zoomed to the front of the Derby field and stayed there.

Native Dancer overcame a knocking around on the first turn to close courageously, but failed by a head to catch Dark Star.

It proved to be the Alfred Vanderbilt galloper’s only set back as he went on to score victories in the Withers, Preakness, Belmont Stakes, Dwyer, Arlington Classic, Travers and American Derby.

At year’s end, the sports writers of the country voted his defeat by Dark Star to be the biggest upset in sports in 1953.

Late in the summer, the big powerful colt was sidelined by a stone bruise which necessitated cutting away a portion of his hoof. It ended hopes of a meeting with Tom Fool in the Sysonby Mile, a prospect which had stirred the imagination of the entire sports world.

The Dancer wintered at his owner’s Glyndon Farm in Maryland. He is scheduled to resume hi racing career this spring in New York. Owner Vanderbilt also voiced the possibility that the colt might be campaigned this year in England.