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.

T.V. LARK, b.h., 1957, by *Indian Hemp – Miss Larksfly, by Heefly.
Owner, Preston Madden; Breeder, Dr. W.D. Lucas; Trainer, P.K. Parker.

Few costly purchases of horseflesh have proved so immediately successful as that of T.V. Lark by Preston Madden in the fall of 1961. Acting for a syndicate, Mr. Madden paid a reported $600,000 for the bay son of *Indian Hemp – Miss Larksfly, by Heelfly, primarily as a stud prospect.

But it was decided to let the colt race out of the rest of the season. In the next two months he won the rich Hawthorne Gold Cup, set a new American grass-course record of 2:40 in the 1-5/8 – mile Knickerbocker Handicap, and upset the seasonal champion Kelso for a new 1-1/2 mile turf mark of 2:26-1/5 in the Washington, D.C., International at Laurel. These three races alone returned to T.V. Lark’s purchasers $167,327 of his cost, and increased his ultimate stud value immeasurably. At the end of the season he was named the grass champion of the year.

Of course he had proved himself a good horse long before Mr. Madden bought the colt. Bred in California by Dr. Walter D. Lucas, T.V. Lark was sold at the 1958 Del Mar Yearling Sales for $10,000 to Chase R. McCoy’s C.R. Mac Stable.

At two the son of *Indian Hemp won the Arlington Futurity, California Breeders’ Trial and $181,952 to be rated at 115 pounds on the Experimental Free Handicap.

As a three-year-old he raised that rating to 128, below only Kelso and Bally Ache, on The Blood-Horse Handicap. T.V. Lark’s nine victories that season included the Tropicana Hotel of Las Vegas and Argonaut Stakes, Arlington Classic, American Derby, Washington Park and United Nations Handicaps to earn $395,900.

He had won the Santa Catalina and Los Angeles Handicaps in 1961 before Mr. Madden bought the colt, who ranked second only to Kelso on The Blood-Horse Handicap at 127 pounds.

In 55 starts over four seasons he has won 17 races placed eight times and showed on six occasions to collect $828,479.

Although his burst of achievements influenced his purchasers to delay their acquisition’s retirement to stud, he is expected to take up stud duties in 1963 at Mr. Madden’s Hamburg Place, Lexington, KY.