Rhythm (horse)
| Rhythm | |
|---|---|
| Sire | Mr. Prospector |
| Grandsire | Raise a Native |
| Dam | Dance Number |
| Damsire | Northern Dancer |
| Sex | Stallion |
| Foaled | 1987 |
| Country | United States |
| Colour | Bay |
| Breeder | Ogden Mills Phipps |
| Owner | Ogden Mills Phipps |
| Trainer | Claude R. McGaughey III |
| Record | 20: 6-3-4 |
| Earnings | $1,592,532 |
| Major wins | |
| Travers Stakes (1990) Breeders' Cup wins: Breeders' Cup Juvenile (1989) |
|
| Awards | |
| U.S. Champion 2-Yr-Old Colt (1989) | |
| Last updated on September 8, 2007 | |
Rhythm (1987–2007) was an American Champion Thoroughbred racehorse. Bred in Kentucky, he was out of the Grade I winning mare Dance Number who was a daughter of the Champion British and American sire and U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee, Northern Dancer. Rhythm's father was a North American Champion sire, the influential Mr. Prospector, himself a son of the important sire, Raise a Native.
Owned, bred, and raced by Ogden Mills Phipps of the famous horse-racing Phipps family, Rhythm was trained by future Hall of Famer, Shug McGaughey. The colt started five times in 1989, finishing his two-year-old campaign with a record of 3-1-1. His one second-place finish was to stablemate Adjudicating in the Grade I Champagne Stakes. In the most important race of the year for his age group, jockey Craig Perret rode Rhythm to a two-length victory in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile in a year when it was held at Florida's Gulfstream Park. The colt's performances earned him 1989 U.S. Champion 2-Yr-Old Colt honors.
In 1990, three-year-old Rhythm made ten starts, winning three times. An increasingly difficult temperament combined with a throat problem that necessitated surgery resulted in the colt's handlers having to skip the U.S. Triple Crown series. By mid summer, Rhythm was getting back in shape and ran second in the Dwyer Stakes and third in both the Woodward Stakes and in the Haskell Invitational Handicap before scoring his most important victory of the year in the prestigious Grade I Travers Stakes.
Retired from racing after five winless starts in 1991, Rhythm was sold for US$5.5 million to Japanese breeders. He entered stud in 1992 at Arrow Stud at Hokkaidō from where he would be shuttled to breeders in New Zealand and Australia before returning to the United States in 1997 to stand at Ashford Stud near Versailles, Kentucky. In 2000, Rhythm was sent to Diamond F Ranch in Grass Valley, California where on September 4, 2007 he is reported to have fractured a leg in a paddock accident and had to be euthanized.
As a stallion, Rhythm sired 24 stakes winners. His most successful progeny were in New Zealand and Australia where he was the sire of three Southern Hemisphere champions including the outstanding filly Ethereal whose four Group One wins included three of the most important staying races in Australian racing: the Caulfield Cup, the Melbourne Cup and The BMW Stakes.
