MCHF & WHC HALL OF FAME INDUCTEE 2015

Scottish Chieftain (1894 – Unknown)

Scottish Chieftain is the only Montana Thoroughbred to win the Belmont Stakes. The year he won it, 1897, the race was already an established American Turf classic. In fact, elite Thoroughbred breeders of the era coveted winning it more than a victory the Kentucky Derby, which would not gain national prominence until 1915.

Scottish Chieftain was foaled on February 24, 1894, at the Bitter Root Stock Farm near Hamilton. Perhaps the superintendent of the farm's Thoroughbred training and breeding, Sam Lucas, wrote the notation "bay or brown" on Scottish Chieftain's birth card and described the colt's lone marking on his face as "faint star."

Scottish Chieftain began his racing career under Lucas's tutelage. In 1896, Lucas shipped the colt to New York's Sheepshead Bay Racecourse where his campaign generated modest success, winning three of eight starts.

Early in 1897, trainer Matthew Byrnes watched Scottish Chieftain routinely outperform his stablemate Ogden during conditioning workouts. It's open to speculation which horse Byrnes considered the lesser, but for the start in the Belmont Stakes, his thinking was Scottish Chieftain.

On Belmont Stakes day, May 29, 1897, six snorty Thoroughbreds lined up at the start at the Morris Park Race Course in New York. The starter's flag dropped. At the first turn of the one and three-eighths-mile race, the favorite Don De Oro set the pace and led the field, with Scottish Chieftain lapping at his heels. The pace quickened as the field rounded into the homestretch and galloped furiously toward the finish. Scottish Chieftain and jockey Joe Sherrer challenged Don de Oro for the lead. An exhausted Don de Oro tried to match strides but Scottish Chieftain took command of the punishing pace and pulled ahead. Suddenly, the swooping strides of On Deck challenged Scottish Chieftain. Jockey Sherrer dropped low to the saddle and urged his horse, Faster! The Chieftain flew! He streaked past the finish line and won the race by a length. Clocking 2:23¼, he cracked the track record by a second and three-quarters.

Ogden had finished last.

Matthew Byrnes didn't mind winning with the wrong horse. Meeting Scottish Chieftain and Jockey Sherrer in the winner's circle, he exclaimed, "Bring that cup [the trophy] and let the horse have a drink out of it: he deserves it." Accounts of the horse's game victory splashed across Montana. The Western News effused: "The victory was especially gratifying from the fact that the great three-year-old was bred and raised on the Bitter Root stock farm -- a genuine product of the Bitter Root ozone and bunch grass."

In the remaining major stakes races of 1897, Scottish Chieftain placed fourth, fifth, and second. In 1898, he was back in his native Montana, racing on the local circuits, namely Anaconda, Butte, and Great Falls, winning five of seven races. Scottish Chieftain didn't race at all in 1899, perhaps because he had been sold. In December 1899, The Anaconda Standard noted: "One of the Daly stock cars left here yesterday carrying to the Montgomery breeding farm, in Madison County, two brood mares and also the Thoroughbred stallion, Scottish Chieftain."

The absence of personal accounts by the men who handled Scottish Chieftain and the absence of a photograph of him leave us wondering: Was he a charismatic beauty or common looking? Thoroughbreds have quirks. What were his? Was he an easy goer or did he have to be urged? What we do know is that his athleticism and heart brought the coveted Belmont Stakes trophy home to Montana.

REFERENCES:

Scottish Chieftain birth card, University of Montana Archives, Missoula.

“Scottish Chieftain,” www.pedigreequery.com, accessed April 13, 2014.

Chere Jiusto, A Guide to Historic Hamilton, (Helena, MT, 2000).

Ada Powell, Copper, Green, and Silver (n.p., 1993).

Mary Simon, Racing throughout the Century: The Story of Thoroughbred Racing in America (Irvine, CA, 2002), 42, 72.

“When Marcus Daly was ‘Turf King,’: Fast Horses Bred in Bitter Root," Marcus Daly Vertical File, Montana Historical Society; Jefferson Valley News clipping, n.d.

“In Furious Style,” Anaconda Standard, May 30, 1897.

“The Riverside Colt,” Anaconda Standard, May 30, 1897.

“Marcus Daly's Belmont Cup,” New York Times, May 30, 1897.

“Marcus Daly's Belmont,” New York Sun, May 30, 1897.

"The Chieftain," The Western News, June 2, 1897.

“Hamilton Happenings,” Anaconda Standard, December 19, 1899.

Cathy Schenck, Keeneland Library librarian, E-mail to author November 11, 2014.