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Archer enamel titled as "Fred Archer on Ormonde" by John William Bailey (1831 - 1914) An enamel of "Fred Archer on Ormonde" by John William Bailey (English, 1831 - 1914) after a painting by Emil Adam (English 1834-1924)
An enamel of Fred Archer the Duke of Westminster?s Ormonde by John William Bailey (English, 1831 - 1914) after the painting by Emil Adam (English 1834-1924)
Signed and dated "J.W.Bailey 1903".
Emil Adam painting of Fred Archer the Duke of Westminster?s Ormonde is in the collection of the Jockey Club.
Ackermann?s ?Annual Exhibition of Sporting Paintings? in 1982 exhibited a painting on copper set within a hour shoe of the same image, which their catalogued by as by Emil Adam. Catalogue number 21.
Being on copper this was perhaps by John William Bailey.
Ormonde by ?Bend Or? out of Lily Agnes foaled in 1883
Ormonde was unbeaten as a racehorse, this included the English Triple Crown among his victories.
He was said to be the finest racehorse of the 19th century, beating horses such as Melton, The Bard, Bendigo, Kilwarlin, and Saraband.
In the Hardwicke Stakes of 1887 he met Minting--who had won the Grand Prix de Paris--for a second time, and, in the final uphill climb to the finish held off Minting's challenge, his "choking fight for breath...heard all over the racecourse, and the crowd watched in stunned silence as he called upon his last reserves of strength."
Having done everything asked of him with "courage and brilliance," he was sold to Argentina after his limited seven mare book his first season at stud. That small first crop included the future great Orme and Goldfinch. In Argentina he got few mares in foals, but Orme was performing brilliantly in England.
Coal-heir American William O'Brien Macdonough paid $150,000 in 1893 to bring Ormonde to California, via England and New York. In year after year at stud in California, he was able to get only a few mares in foal, disappointing McDonough and the wealthiest western breeders of the day who sent their mares to his court. In all, between 1894 and 1905 he sired 17 foals, 12 of whom made it to the races--5 of these were stakes winners, including Ormondale (1903), his most successful California son who also bred on, producing, among others, Purchase. At the age of 21, facing increasing difficulty in breathing, Ormonde was mercifully destroyed and buried in California, but was later exhumed, and his skeleton is now in the Natural History Museum, London.
A direct sire line descendant, through Orme, Flying Fox, and so forth, was Damascus. Ormonde's name appears in the pedigrees of many present-day stakes winners.
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