Epigram (horse)
Epigram (foaled 1949 in Ontario) was a Canadian Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 1952 Queen's Plate, Canada's most prestigious race and North America's oldest annually run stakes race.
| Epigram | |
|---|---|
| Sire | Flares |
| Grandsire | Gallant Fox |
| Dam | Hasty Bet |
| Damsire | Reigh Count |
| Sex | Stallion |
| Foaled | 1949 |
| Country | Canada |
| Colour | Bay |
| Breeder | E. P. Taylor |
| Owner | Three Vs Stable |
| Trainer | 1) Gordon J. McCann 2) Stanley V. Bowden |
| Record | 25: 3-6-4 |
| Earnings | Can$24,062 |
| Major wins | |
| William Hendrie Memorial Handicap (1952)
Canadian Classic Race wins: Queen's Plate (1952) | |
| Last updated on April 4, 2010 | |
Bred and raced by E. P. Taylor, his dam was Hasty Bet, a daughter of Reigh Count, the 1928 Kentucky Derby winner and a U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee. Epigram was a son of the American-bred winner of the 1938 Ascot Gold Cup, Flares, who in turn was a son of Gallant Fox, the 1930 U.S. Triple Crown winner and a U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee.[1]
In a rare mistake by the E. P. Taylor racing team, Epigram was entered in a September 1951 claiming race and was taken for $2,500 by Three Vs Stable, owned by the Veal brothers, Frank, Lawrence and Gordon, proprietors of a Studebaker dealership in Toronto.[2]
Epigram entered the 1952 Queen's Plate having never won a race and having only earned $75. At the time when the distance was set at one and an eighth miles, in a twenty-one-horse field Epigram won the Queen's Plate by defeating E. P. Taylor's horse Dress Circle and Acadian who came into the race having won divisions of the Plate Trial Stakes.[3]
References
- Epigram's pedigree and partial racing stats
- Cauz, Louis E. The Plate. (1984) Deneau Publishers ISBN 0-88879-104-6
- May 23, 1952 Ottawa Citizen article on Epigram winning the Queen's Plate