John E. Madden on training and breeding

[Calzone Lord]

John E. Madden was born in Western Pennsylvania. His father died when he was 4-years-old. At a teenager, he worked for four years in the steel mills and was also a prizefighter. He's the only man to be inducted in both the harness racing and thoroughbred racing Hall of Fame.

Madden trained 8 thoroughbred champions, was the nations leading thoroughbred trainer for 3 straight years, and won the Kentucky Derby as a trainer. However, he was far more successful when he left training to get into breeding. He bred 14 champions, five Kentucky Derby winners and five Belmont Stakes winners and was the nations leading breeder by earnings for seven straight years.

However, he started with harness racing, where he amassed a small fortune from buying promising but unseasoned harness horses, at low prices, developing them into winners and selling them at a profit. By the time he was thirty, he had made $150,000 through his dealings. He said, "Better to sell and repent than keep and resent." -- In essence, he was the first great pinhooker.

Madden wrote a detailed column on his methods of training and breeding.

But the most obvious thing that stuck out to me was this simple line:




A century ago, that line of thought would seem even more contrarian than it is now.

Looking at the past performances of Little Princessemma (the dam of American Pharoah) you get the idea that this was a mare that Madden would have coveted more than anyone else in his day. She had the look of an untried quitter.




The first Kentucky Derby winner that Madden bred was the great Old Rosebud. A cheaply bred fragile gelding that debuted in Mexico as an early 2-year-old. He's a horse that I consider one of the greatest in history and have wrote about often.