The Forgotten Foundation

Even though Hambletonian is universally regarded as the founding sire of the standardbred there have been others that looked to be great sires but now are largely forgotten. The most important of these is probably the Indiana bred Blue Bull, a pacer whose get were primarily trotters. Outperforming the legendary father of trotters, Hambletonian, back in the day, Blue Bull is almost completely forgotten and has now slipped into obscurity.

Born 6 years after Hambletonian, he and Blue Bull were contemporaries but while Hambletonian almost always had a big reputation and access to some of the best broodmares, Blue Bull lived in relative obscurity. But despite these meager opportunities at stud, Blue Bull, also known as Wilson’s Blue Bull to distinguish him from other horses with the same name, outperformed Hambletonian at the time. In their time horses were not judged by earnings but rather by the number of 2:20 and 2:30 (1.27,0 and 1.33,2) foals they produced. While Hambletonian had more than 1300 foals, Blue Bull “only” produced around 900, roughly 30 % fewer foals. Even if Blue Bull produced 30 % fewer 2:20 and 2:30 trotters his numbers are stronger than those of Hambletonian.

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