Airborne (horse)

Airborne was a tall, rangy grey horse bred at Castletown Geoghegan, County Westmeath,{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/horseracing/8419858/Oscar-Time-primed-for-his-chance-in-the-Grand-National-spotlight.html |title=Oscar Time primed for his chance in the Grand National spotlight |publisher=Telegraph |access-date=2011-11-12}} in Ireland by Harold Boyd-Rochfort, the brother of the successful trainer Cecil Boyd-Rochfort. As a yearling he was sent to the sales where he was bought for 3,900 guineas{{cite book | last1 = Mortimer | first1 = Roger |last2=Onslow|first2=Richard|last3=Willett|first3=Peter| title = Biographical Encyclopedia of British Flat Racing| publisher=Macdonald and Jane’s | year = 1978| isbn = 0-354-08536-0}}

by the British plastics manufacturer and racehorse-breeder John Ferguson. Ferguson sent the colt to be trained by the former jockey Richard “Dick” Perryman{{cite web|url=http://www.horseracinghistory.co.uk/hrho/action/viewDocument?id=1087 |title=Horseracing History Online - Person Profile : Richard Perryman |publisher=Horseracinghistory.co.uk |access-date=2011-11-12}} at his Beaufort House stables at Newmarket, Suffolk.

Airborne’s sire Precipitation was a top-class racehorse, best known for winning the Ascot Gold Cup in 1937. He went on to become a successful stallion, siring three other Classic winners in Why Hurry (Epsom Oaks), Premonition (St Leger) and Chamossaire (St Leger). Precipitation himself was sired by the unbeaten champion, Hurry On, making him a representative of the Godolphin Arabian sire line.{{cite web|url=http://www.tbheritage.com/HistoricSires/SireLineschts/SireLineGA.html |title=Godolphin Arabian Line |publisher=Tbheritage.com |access-date=2011-11-02}} Airborne’s dam, Bouquet, from whom he inherited his grey colour, never ran in a race, but produced nine winners, the best of them, apart from Airborne, being a sprinter named Fragrant View.

As a two-year-old, Airborne was extremely immature and failed to win in four starts, giving little indication of Classic potential, although he did finish fourth to the future 1000 Guineas winner Hypericum in the Dewhurst Stakes.{{cite web|url=http://www.pedigreepost.net/archives/NayefNigelPullen.html |title=by Nigel Pullen |publisher=Pedigreepost.net |date=2001-11-04 |access-date=2011-11-12 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111127234028/http://www.pedigreepost.net/archives/NayefNigelPullen.html |archive-date=2011-11-27 }}

In Airborne’s three-year-old debut, he finished third in a moderate race at Newmarket in April. Two weeks later, he returned to Newmarket and won a maiden race over one and a half miles.

The Derby of 1946 was the first to be run at Epsom since 1939, the course having been used as an anti-aircraft battery position during the war,{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Cr5VAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NpcDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5525,4589915&dq=airborne+derby&hl=en|title=Epsom Derby on Wednesday|publisher=The Age|access-date=2011-11-12}} and the race attracted a huge crowd, estimated at up to 500,000, including the King and Queen.{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=UpcgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=PmgFAAAAIBAJ&pg=677,5347636&dq=airborne+derby&hl=en|title=Airborne is Derby winner|publisher=Lewiston Daily Sun|access-date=2011-11-12}} Airborne, ridden by Tommy Lowrey, was an unconsidered outsider, starting at odds of 50/1 in a field of seventeen in a race run on soft ground.{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=tctWAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EUINAAAAIBAJ&pg=1135,3455234&dq=airborne+derby&hl=en|title=50/1 shot Airborne wins Derby|publisher=St. Joseph News-Press|access-date=2011-11-12}} In the early stages, Airborne was held up and was still well back turning into the straight. Gulf Stream took the lead in the last quarter mile as Lowrey pulled Airborne wide to produce a sustained run down the centre of the course. He caught Gulf Stream inside the final furlong and won by a length.{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=C6w-AAAAIBAJ&sjid=OEwMAAAAIBAJ&pg=5925,4517446&dq=airborne+derby&hl=en|title=Airborne wins the Derby|publisher=Indian Express|access-date=2011-11-12}}

Airborne reappeared in the Princess of Wales's Stakes at Newmarket in July where he took on older horses. He won his third successive race by beating the five-year-old Hardwicke Stakes winner Priam II. The following month, he ran at Newmarket for the fourth time that season and dead-heated with Fast and Fair in the Stuntney Stakes.{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=My0aAAAAIBAJ&sjid=8iMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6479,3168421&dq=airborne+fast-and-fair&hl=en|title=Charles Howard buys English 3 year old|publisher=Milwaukee Journal|access-date=2011-11-12}} At Doncaster in September, he started 3/1 favourite for the St Leger, which was run before another huge crowd. He tracked the leaders before being sent to the front in the straight and winning "in magnificent style"{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2H8-AAAAIBAJ&sjid=30sMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2160,4882640&dq=airborne+derby&hl=en|title=Airborne wins turf double|publisher=Indian Express|access-date=2011-11-12}} by one and a half lengths from Murren, with Fast and Fair third. It was a second win in the race for Perryman and Lowrey, who had been successful with Chamoissaire the previous year. On his final start of the season, Airborne was matched against the Grand Prix de Paris winner Souverain in the King George VI Stakes over two miles at Newmarket in October. Airborne started 4/5 favourite for a race which was publicised as an "international championship" for three-year-olds but finished third to the French colt, with the Irish Derby winner Bright News taking second.{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=9PwuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=GdwFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3014,2750931&dq=airborne+derby&hl=en|title=French horse is victorious|publisher=Ottawa Citizen|access-date=2011-11-12}}

Attempts to train Airborne as a four-year-old, with the Ascot Gold Cup as his target,{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=tSY_AAAAIBAJ&sjid=XE8MAAAAIBAJ&pg=6253,6015260&dq=airborne+derby&hl=en|title=Scorns racing tradition|publisher=Windsor Daily Star|access-date=2011-11-12}} ended in failure, and he was retired to stud without racing again.

In their book A Century of Champions, John Randall and Tony Morris rated Airborne an “inferior” Derby winner.{{cite book|last1 = Morris | first1 = Tony |last2=Randall|first2=John|title=A Century of Champions|publisher= Portway Press|year=1999|isbn=1-901570-15-0}}

Airborne was not a success as a stallion. The best of his runners on the flat was the filly Silken Glider, who finished second in the Oaks and won the Irish Oaks in 1957. The best horse he sired was the Irish-trained jumper Flyingbolt. Airborne's progeny had won approximately £25,000 in stakes up until the end of 1955.{{cite book|last=Leicester|first=Sir Charles|title=Bloodstock Breeding|year=1974|publisher=J.A. Allen & Co.|location=London|isbn=0-85131-129-6 |pages=365}} His last recorded foals were conceived in 1961.{{cite web|url=http://www.pedigreequery.com/progeny/airborne |title=Airborne Offspring |publisher=Pedigreequery.com |access-date=2011-11-12}} He died on 11 September 1962 of heart failure.{{cite journal|last=Weatherby|title=Obituary of stallions|journal=The General Stud Book|year=1965|volume=35|pages=1089–1092}}

{{Pedigree

|name = Airborne (IRE), grey stallion, 1943{{cite web|url=http://www.chef-de-race.com/classic_winners/english_derby/airborne.htm |title=English Derby Winner: Airborne |publisher=Chef-de-race.com |access-date=2011-11-12}}

|inf =

|f = Precipitation(GB)
Ch. 1933

|m = Bouquet (GB)
Gr. 1932

|ff = Hurry On
1913

|fm = Double Life
1926

|mf = Buchan
B. 1916　

|mm = Hellespont
Gr. 1921　

|fff = Marcovil

|ffm = Toute Suite

|fmf = Bachelor's Double

|fmm = Saint Joan

|mff = Sunstar

|mfm = Hamoaze

|mmf = Gay Crusader

|mmm = Barrier

|ffff = Marco

|fffm = Lady Villikins

|ffmf = Sainfoin

|ffmm = Star

|fmff =Tredennis

|fmfm = Lady Bawn

|fmmf = Willbrook

|fmmm = Flo Desmond

|mfff = Sundridge

|mffm = Doris

|mfmf =Torpoint

|mfmm = Maid of the Mist

|mmff =Bayardo

|mmfm = Gay Laura

|mmmf = Grey Leg

|mmmm = Bar the Way (Family: 10c)}}

{{reflist|2}}

• [http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=26921 British Pathe Review of 1946. Clip of Derby at 3:00]
• [http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/3312229/Hulton-Archive Picture of Airborne being led in after the Derby]

{{Epsom Derby Winners}}

{{St Leger Winners}}

Category:1943 racehorse births

Category:1962 racehorse deaths

Category:Racehorses bred in Ireland

Category:Racehorses trained in the United Kingdom

Category:Epsom Derby winners

Category:Thoroughbred family 10-c

Category:Godolphin Arabian sire line

Category:St Leger winners