A generous reader recently sent me a chart (which he created), that highlights 10 generations of winners in the US and Europe from four sons of Phalaris: Sickle, Pharamond, Pharos and Fairway. Descendents of Phalaris, through these four stallions, include Nearco, Nasrullah, Royal Charger, Court Marshall, Bold Ruler, Nashua, Fair Trial, Raise a Native, Alydar, Affirmed, Mr. Prospector, Native Dancer, Northern Dancer, Secretariat, Seattle Slew, Storm Bird, AP Indy, Danehill, Danzig, and Sadler’s Wells, to name but a few.

Phalaris, foaled in 1913, was bred by the 17th Lord of Derby, whose ancestor, the 12th Earl of Derby, inspired the name of England’s greatest race, the Epsom Derby. Phalaris’s sire was Polymelus, and his dam was Bromus (who was inbred to Stockwell), the source of speed that Phalaris famously passed to his progeny.

By the late 1990s, it was estimated that over 70% of stakes winning thoroughbreds worldwide descended from Phalaris, who died in 1931 at the age of 18.

Phalaris reminded me of a beautiful engraving of Stockwell (pictured) from Horse Breeding Recollections by Count Lehndorff. Foaled in Great Britain in 1849, Stockwell was a speedster that raced twice at two, and won eight consecutive major races at three. He raced once at four and once again at five, when he beat Kingston (GB), who broke down in the race, by 30 lengths.

Retired to stud in 1855, Stockwell became a leading sire throughout the 1860s and into the early 1870s. He died in 1871.