Dam Gold Digger Foaled January 28, 1970 Died 1 June 1999 Trainer Warren A. Croll, Jr. Earnings 112,170 USD | Grandsire Native Dancer Country United States Species Equus caballus | |
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Parents Raise a Native, Gold Digger | ||
Forego rushes past mr prospector in the 1974 carter
Mr. Prospector (January 28, 1970 – June 1, 1999) was a Thoroughbred racehorse foaled in Kentucky whose descendants have dominated the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. He won half of his 14 career races.
Contents
- Forego rushes past mr prospector in the 1974 carter
- Race replay 2015 mr prospector stakes
- Background
- Racing career
- Stud career
- Progeny
- References
Race replay 2015 mr prospector stakes
Background
Mr. Prospector's sire was Raise a Native, a son of Native Dancer. He was out of the mare Gold Digger, a daughter of Nashua. He was the highest-priced horse at the 1971 Keeneland July sale of selected yearlings, selling for $220,000 (equivalent to $1.30 million in 2016). "Mr. P", as he came to be known, was trained by Jimmy Croll, a Hall of Fame member who went on to train Holy Bull.
At maturity, he reached 16 hands (64 inches, 163 cm) high.
Racing career
Mr. Prospector was a contemporary of Secretariat. He did not contest the Triple Crown, but he proved successful over sprint distances. Mr. Prospector won the Gravesend Handicap and the Whirlaway Handicap and set track records for six furlongs (1,207 m) at Gulfstream Park and Garden State.
Stud career
Mr. Prospector sired one winner of each of the Triple Crown races, a feat his grandson, Unbridled, has also accomplished. His Triple Crown race winners were 2000 Kentucky Derby winner Fusaichi Pegasus; 1985 Preakness Stakes winner Tank's Prospect; and 1982 Belmont Stakes winner and Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year Conquistador Cielo. Mr. Prospector's bloodline has been highly influential in the top echelons of Thoroughbred racing. All eight horses entered into the 2015 Belmont Stakes were descendants, through their sires, of Mr. Prospector.
Mr. Prospector's stud fee, even without the guarantee of a live foal, peaked at $460,000 in the early and mid-1980s. By March 1994 he was still commanding fees of $170,000-$180,000, having at that point sired 902 offspring; he would eventually sire 1,195 live foals. During breeding season, he was often able to "cover" two mares in one day. Mr. Prospector was jointly owned by a 40-member syndicate.
On June 1, 1999, Mr. Prospector died in his stall of complications from colic at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky. He was buried between Nijinsky and Secretariat.
Progeny
Mr. Prospector's male-line descendants with Triple Crown races won: