Race Horse. A thoroughbred race horse nicknamed “The Gray Ghost” because of his color, he was the first horse to gain fame through the medium of television. Born at Scott Farm near Lexington, Kentucky, he was owned by Alfred G. Vanderbilt II. In his first season of racing Native Dancer won all nine races entered and was voted 1952's United States Champion 2-year-old and Co-Horse of the Year. Native Dancer suffered the only defeat of his twenty-two race career when he finished second in the 1953 Kentucky Derby. He went on to win the next two legs of the United States Triple Crown series, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes and was voted United States Champion Three Year Old Colt. Television coverage resulted in a flood of letters sent by both adults and children addressed to Native Dancer arriving at CBS television in New York City, New York. He appeared on the cover of the May 31, 1954 issue of “TIME Magazine” and was again voted United States Horse of the Year honors that year. Retired to his Vanderbilt's Sagamore Farm, he was the sire of a number of successful horses and was the damsire of Northern Dancer, the 1964 Kentucky Derby winner and the most important sire of the second half of the 20th century. Native Dancer was inducted in the United States Racing Hall of Fame in 1963. He died on November 16, 1967 and was buried at Sagamore Farm in Glyndon, Maryland.
Race Horse. A thoroughbred race horse nicknamed “The Gray Ghost” because of his color, he was the first horse to gain fame through the medium of television. Born at Scott Farm near Lexington, Kentucky, he was owned by Alfred G. Vanderbilt II. In his first season of racing Native Dancer won all nine races entered and was voted 1952's United States Champion 2-year-old and Co-Horse of the Year. Native Dancer suffered the only defeat of his twenty-two race career when he finished second in the 1953 Kentucky Derby. He went on to win the next two legs of the United States Triple Crown series, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes and was voted United States Champion Three Year Old Colt. Television coverage resulted in a flood of letters sent by both adults and children addressed to Native Dancer arriving at CBS television in New York City, New York. He appeared on the cover of the May 31, 1954 issue of “TIME Magazine” and was again voted United States Horse of the Year honors that year. Retired to his Vanderbilt's Sagamore Farm, he was the sire of a number of successful horses and was the damsire of Northern Dancer, the 1964 Kentucky Derby winner and the most important sire of the second half of the 20th century. Native Dancer was inducted in the United States Racing Hall of Fame in 1963. He died on November 16, 1967 and was buried at Sagamore Farm in Glyndon, Maryland.
Bio by: Maureen K
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