Raise a Native
Raise a Native was an undefeated Thoroughbred racehorse that was named 1963 champion two-year-old colt in the Turf and Sport Digest poll and was the highest rated juvenile in the Experimental Free Handicap. He sired 74 stakes winners, including Majestic Prince and Alydar. In its 1988 obituary for the horse, The New York Times called him "the most influential sire of American Thoroughbred stallions over the last 20 years".Breeding
Raise a Native was bred by Happy Hill Farm, owned by Cortright Wetherill and his wife Ella Anne Widener, whose Widener family of Philadelphia is one of the most prominent in American Thoroughbred racing history. Raise a Native was by the 1954 United States Horse of the Year Native Dancer, who was ranked #7 by the Blood-Horse magazine listing of the top 100 U.S. Thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century. His dam was the good stakes winner Raise You, by Case Ace. Raise a Native was sold as a weanling to Mrs. E. H. Augustus for a record sum of $22,000. He was later bought by Louis Wolfson as a yearling in 1962 for $39,000 and moved to Wolfson's Harbor View Farm in 1963.Racing record
Trained by future Hall of Fame inductee Burley Parke, as a two-year-old Raise a Native was undefeated in four starts and set or equaled track records three times. He won the sprint races the Great American Stakes and the Belmont Juvenile and was voted American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt by Turf & Sports Digest. The rival Daily Racing Form and Thoroughbred Racing Association polls were topped by Hurry to Market.Stud record
After ending his racing career due to a bowed tendon in 1963, Raise a Native was bought by Spendthrift Farm, a breeding syndicate in Lexington, Kentucky. Although the descendants of Raise a Native have had success racing on Turf in Europe, they generally have been more attuned to running on dirt. Among his offspring, he sired Alydar, Crowned Prince, Exclusive Native, Mr. Prospector, and Majestic Prince. He is notably the grandsire of Affirmed, Alysheba, Dancethruthedawn, Easy Goer, Gulch, Fusaichi Pegasus, Genuine Risk, Coastal, Meadowlake, Conquistador Cielo, Criminal Type, Strike the Gold and Smart Strike. He is the great-great-grandsire of two time Horse of the Year Curlin, winner of the 2007 Preakness and Breeders Cup Classic, and 2008 Dubai World Cup, Raven's Pass, winner of the 2008 Breeders' Cup Classic and Zenyatta, winner of the 2008 Breeders' Cup Ladies Classic and 2009 Breeders' Cup Classic.
As of 2019, 21 Kentucky Derby winners have had Raise a Native on their sire line: American Pharoah, Always Dreaming, I'll Have Another, Super Saver, Smarty Jones, Funny Cide, War Emblem, Monarchos, Fusaichi Pegasus, Real Quiet, Grindstone, Thunder Gulch, Strike the Gold, Unbridled, Alysheba, Genuine Risk, Affirmed, Street Sense, Majestic Prince, Justify and Country House. Only four Derby winners carried Raise a Native on their broodmare sire line: Barbaro, Mine that Bird, Real Quiet and Justify, the latter two of whom carried him on both lines. American Pharoah is also descended from Raise a Native through his maternal grandam, Ecliptical, who was sired by Exclusive Native, as is 2016 Kentucky Derby winner, Nyquist, through his maternal grandam Seeking Regina, a great-granddaughter of Raise A Native.
On July 28, 1988, Raise a Native was humanely euthanized at Spendthrift Farm due to spinal deterioration.Pedigree
