Hanover (thoroughbred horse)
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| Hanover | ||
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| Sire: | Hindoo | |
| Grandsire: | Virgil | |
| Dam: | Bourbon Belle | |
| Damsire: | Bonnie Scotland | |
| Sex: | Stallion | |
| Foaled: | 1884 | |
| Country: | USA | |
| Colour: | Chestnut | |
| Breeder: | Runnymede Farm | |
| Owner: | Dwyer Brothers Stable | |
| Trainer: | Frank McCabe | |
| Record: | 50: 32-14-2 | |
| Earnings: | $118,887 | |
| Major Racing Wins & Honours & Awards | ||
| Major Racing Wins | ||
| Hopeful Stakes (1886) Withers Mile (1887) Belmont Stakes (1887) Brooklyn Derby (1887) Swift Stakes (1887) Lorillard Stakes (1887) |
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| Racing Awards | ||
| Leading sire in North America (1895, 1896, 1897, 1898) |
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| Honours | ||
| United States Racing Hall of Fame (1955) | ||
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Infobox last updated on: February 4, 2007. |
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Hanover (1884-1899) was a champion American thoroughbred racehorse.
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[edit] Living with the Dwyer Boys
Bred at Colonel E. Clay's Runnymede Farm, the thoroughbred chestnut colt was sired by Hindoo from the mare Bourbon Belle. At the farm's yearling sale in May of 1885, Hanover was sold to the Dwyer Brothers Stable for $1,250. Hanover now lived under the same roof as Tremont, also born in 1884, and considered the better horse. Hanover was lazy. He was also so easy-going he often seemed half asleep. Tremont, meanwhile, was everyone's idea of a racehorse. In a yearling trial, Tremont ran a quarter mile in :22 1/2 seconds. Yet in a workout, Hanover beat Tremont.
Trained by Frank McCabe, at age two, Hanover won all three races he entered: the Hopeful, the July, and the Sapling Stakes. Meanwhile, the two-year-old Tremont started 13 times in the space of 10 weeks and won every race. Notorious for over-racing their horses, the Dwyer brothers ruined Tremont by running him so hard and so often.
[edit] Hanover's turn
With Tremont side-lined, the Dwyers turned to Hanover to take over the task of earning the big money for the Dwyer Stable. They entered Hanover in twenty-seven races at the age of three, races of all distances, including the Belmont Stakes which he won by fifteen lengths. In his first two years of racing, Hanover frequently went up against older horses but still won seventeen straight events and wound up his racing career at age five with a record of 32-14-2 in 50 starts.
Like Tremont, Hanover's feet were ruined by this treatment. To keep him racing, the Dwyers had his bad foot "nerved" to deaden the pain. This means they removed the nerve from his foot. This is how he raced at age five. When he finally became lame, as well as exhausted, they retired him. Hanover stopped racing as the USA's greatest earner with a career total of $118,887.
[edit] A stallion with sore feet
At stud, Hanover was also very successful and was the leading sire in the United States for four consecutive years. His offspring includes the Hall of Fame colt Hamburg, as well as David Garrick, Halma, Handspring, Half Time, and Yankee. He topped the US sire list from 1885 to 1898.
But as a stallion in his stall, Hanover fell ill and his food was cut back. Hanover, furious, began to stamp his feet to demand more food. Not being able to feel pain in his "unnerved" forefoot, he broke the coffin bone. Before anyone noticed, blood poisoning had set in and become systemic. He was put down 1n 1899.
Following creation of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, Hanover was part of the first group of horses inducted in 1955.
