Betty Derr, Ancestress of Swaps

“She ran as if the ground wasn’t good enough for her.”

—Trainer Matthew Byrnes of Wanda, fourth dam of Betty Derr

HOLLYWOOD PARK, INC.

Swaps, the second Cal-bred to win the Kentucky Derby, is a third-generation descendant of Betty Derr

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

BY ELLEN PARKER

If well-tried aphorisms can be believed—and many actually can—then every pedigree tells a story and the mare’s family is stronger than the individual. Such tried and often true sayings lead us to want to know all we can about a given horse, especially a champion.

But what if in the process of researching one champion, we fnd several others? Tis is what happens with Betty Derr, the third dam of the great California-bred Swaps. She is beyond a doubt the queen of California classics. From the roots she so deeply planted in the breed come Swaps in particular, but also Iron Liege, Personality, and California Chrome. She was even a half sister to a Kentucky Derby winner, Clyde Van Dusen.

Swaps, now long gone, shines brightest among Betty Derr’s relations, and as he appears in more and more pedigrees, he brings added respect to his own bloodline and to the family from whence he descends. Tat family earned its gold and glory in the mid-1950s, but it shows no sign of slowing down with recent contributions such as California Chrome and Charlatan. Betty Derr’s is a history worth reading for the facts, but even more for recognizing her as the ingredient that made her a California classic.

THE TAPROOT

When a flly from a farm’s foundation family arrives, that flly already has a pedigree that merits immediate confdence. But she still has to prove herself

SKEETS MEADORS © BENOIT PHOTO Left, Calumet Farm’s 1957 Kentucky Derby winner Iron Liege claims Betty Derr as his granddam; Charlatan, shown winning the 2020 Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita, descends from the Judy-Rae branch of the Betty Derr family

on the racetrack. So when the flly Betty Derr, whose fourth dam, Wanda, “ran as though the ground wasn’t good enough for her,” came along in 1928, her work was cut out for her.

Further, there is more to Betty Derr than the great Wanda. Her sire, Sir Gallahad III, also sired Gallant Fox, the only American Triple Crown winner to sire a Triple Crown winner (Omaha). Her broodmare sire is Uncle, a son of Star Shoot, who sired the frst Triple Crown winner: Sir Barton.

Betty Derr’s second dam is by Planudes, a son of St. Simon (of whom it was said “having no faults, he handed none on”). Her third dam is by Loyalist, a son of Sterling (the same sire line as Star Shoot). And then there is Wanda, she a daughter of Mortemer, winner of the Ascot Gold Cup.

Such lineage negated the validity of the infamous Jersey Act, which in 1911 Great Britain stated that no horse could be registered in the General Stud Book unless he could be traced via every line to horses already registered therein. Te law was largely written to protect existing English and Irish Toroughbreds from an infux of American runners due to the closing of New York racing at the time.

When American horses showed that they were capable of not only competing with but also improving existing French stock, the Jersey Act was amended to qualify horses in which eight or nine crosses could be traced for at least a century and for which turf performances of the immediate family could be shown as a warrant of pure blood.

Such American horses would henceforth carry an “A” prefx. Te family from whence Wanda and Betty Derr descended was designated A-4 and was headed by the mare Fanny Maria.

Betty Derr proved to have not only the necessary bloodlines but also the necessary

ability. She won four solid stakes: Clipsetta Stakes, Debutante Stakes (both Churchill Downs and Washington Park versions), and Latonia Oaks. Ten she established a dynasty that not only refected her classic blood but also embellished it. However, she did not set the Kentucky Derby precedent for which she would eventually become known. Tat was already in place.

Wanda’s daughter Urania, by Hanover, established a branch that eventually spawned the 1966 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Kauai King. Tis same branch had earlier produced Epsom Derby winner Durbar and later would be responsible for champion Gulch, sire of Kentucky Derby and Belmont winner Tunder Gulch.

Urania’s half sister Countess Wanda foaled Planutess, who in 1916 foaled the Uncle mare Uncle’s Lassie, who, in turn, produced Kentucky Derby winner Clyde Van Dusen, by Man o’ War, two years before producing Betty Derr. In addition to being the third dam of Swaps, Betty Derr is also the second dam of 1957 Kentucky Derby winner Iron Liege.

Another Betty Derr daughter, Judy-Rae, is a three-quarter sister to Swaps’ dam Iron Reward, and later became the seventh dam of California Chrome.

Tus the family, once banned from the General Stud Book, had established itself as a consistent producer of classic runners, both in America and overseas. More importantly, it proved at the highest level that not only did it belong with the best but that it could help to elevate underlings to that level.

Betty Derr established a dynasty that not only refected her classic blood but also embellished it.

CALIFORNIA CONNECTION

Betty Derr was bred by H. P. Gardner and later sold to motion picture magnate Louis B. Mayer. It was Mayer who bred her to War Admiral, getting Iron Maiden, the dam of Iron Liege and Swaps’ second dam.

Mayer sold Iron Maiden to W.W. “Tiny” Naylor, who bred Iron Reward (by Mayer’s stallion Beau Pere) from her.

FOUR FOOTED FOTOS

Champion 2-year-old Althea, shown winning the Santa Susana Stakes at Santa Anita, is a greatgreat granddaughter of Betty Derr through 1983 Kentucky Broodmare of the Year Courtly Dee

Naylor in turn sold Iron Maiden to Elwood B. Johnson of Old English Rancho, who sold her once again—this time to Calumet Farm. From there Iron Maiden produced Iron Liege, the family eventually branching out to include such good horses as Reverse, Fair Ye Well, Kodiack, and Wood Green.

Iron Reward, on the other hand, stayed in California, having been sold to Rex Ellsworth. Ellsworth would breed Iron Reward to his home stallion Khaled to get Swaps and other stakes winners Te Shoe and Like Magic, as well as 1962 Kentucky Broodmare of the Year Track Medal.

ANOTHER MAJOR CONDUIT

Another of Mayer’s mares and a daughter of Betty Derr, Judy-Rae, raced in his colors and won the Anita Chiquita Stakes. She was sold to Coldstream Stud for $45,000, but did not reproduce her racing form. As a broodmare, however, she became a priceless gem.

Coldstream bred Judy-Rae’s frst three foals, and they included the War Admiral flly Tulle, who is the ancestress of Broodmare of the Year Courtly Dee. Judy-Rae changed hands in 1951 at the Keeneland November sale, going to Millard Waldheim for $43,000.

Judy-Rae’s Nasrullah daughter Judy Rullah, bred by Waldheim’s Bwamazon Farm, is a remarkable mare in her own right. Among her best ofspring are the brilliant but brittle Creme dela Creme and the outstanding broodmares Road to Romance (ancestress of multiple stakes winner Wickerr) and Rhubarb, whose branch includes stakes winner Bottle Top and Bottle Top’s classics-placed son Strodes Creek, the excellent producer Quarrel, and champion handicap mare Cascapedia.

Judy Rullah’s branch of the family more recently shows up in the pedigree of 2020 Arkansas Derby (G1) and Runhappy Malibu Stakes (G1) winner Charlatan. He is by Speightstown and traces on the bottom side to Betty Derr via California-raced Appealing Missy, his third dam.

But Judy-Rae’s granddaughter Courtly Dee has put this branch of the family on the map to stay. Courtly Dee was bred by Donald Unger in 1968 and was far from successful as a racemare, earning only $19,426 in 33 starts. Finally, Lee Eaton claimed her for $15,000 for his Red Bull Stable, and the partnership bred Courtly Dee’s frst seven foals.

In 1980, Red Bull consigned Courtly Dee to the Keeneland November breeding stock sale, where she was knocked down for $900,000 to the B.B.A., acting on behalf of the partnership of Helen Alexander, David Aykroyd, and Alexander’s mother, Helen Groves. In foal to Alydar at the time, Courtly Dee produced champion Althea the following spring.

Courtly Dee did everything right for Alexander and company and had already been named 1983 Broodmare of the Year when her Forty Niner colt Twining became her eighth stakes winner with victories in the Peter Pan and Withers stakes. Courtly Dee thus found herself hard on the heels of the immortal blue hen Grey Flight, dam of nine stakes winners.

But Courtly Dee did not just produce numbers. She produced quality as well. Tere is the brilliant flly Althea, who beat colts in the 1984 Arkansas Derby (G1), 1983 Del Mar Futurity (G2), and

TURFOTOS Swaps sired multiple champions, including Darby Dan’s full brother and sister act of Primonetta, left, and Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes winner Chateaugay, both out of the Polynesian mare Banquet Bell

CREDIT PHOTO NYRA PHOTO

1983 Hollywood Juvenile Championship (G2), then went on to produce a champion, Yamanin Paradise, and two other stakes winners. Tere are good grass horses such as Aquilegia, winner of the 1993 New York Handicap (G1T), and 1981 Brighton Beach Handicap (G3T) winner Native Courier.

Also representing this line are quick 2-year-olds such as Ali Oop, winner of the 1976 Sapling Stakes (G1), and Ketoh, winner of the 1985 Cowdin Stakes (G1), and even fne producers such as Princess Oola, Maidee, Embellished, Foreign Courier, and Namaqua.

Yet for all this excellence, Betty Derr alone must get primary pride of place as she produced not only the family of Courtly Dee but also that of Iron Maiden. Crossing the pair in a pedigree is even a very viable way to intensify this potent bloodline.

THE BEST OF THE BEST

For all the excellent producers and family builders, one could argue as to which of Betty Derr’s descendants BLOODHORSE LIBRARY best represents her bloodline. Is it one of the Derby winners? Or perhaps a great mare such as Cascapedia, Courtly Dee, or Track Medal? Te stud book surely would not be the same without any of them.

Nevertheless, few would dispute that Swaps as a classic winner, Hall of Famer, and multiple record-setter might well stand out. He also set something of a precedent in traveling to Kentucky as the frst Calbred since Morvich in 1922 to win the Kentucky Derby despite the presence of heavily favored Eastern champion Nashua.

Nashua later leveled the playing feld by defeating Swaps in a match race when Swaps was allegedly lame. Swaps, in fact, was allegedly lame in several of his major races, but he was just as game in all those contests as his chief rival, Nashua, was sound—and sometimes suspect as to character.

Tus all these years later, racing people still argue the merits of these two kingpins of the mid-1950s racing scene.

Swaps’ race record showed a curve that did nothing but ascend. At 2, he won only a minor stakes. At 3, he won seven blacktype events, including the Kentucky and Santa Anita derbies (he did not contest the Preakness or Belmont) and defeated older horses in the Californian.

But at 4 he really shone in the record book as brightly as his copper coat shone in the sun, winning six stakes in a row and setting or equaling world or track records in all of them. Rumors of his bothersome foot problems haunted him at every turn. Ten one morning, reality caught up with the rumors during a workout at Garden State Park, when Swaps fractured a cannon bone.

With Swaps’ life in the balance, it was “Sunny” Jim Fitzsimmons, trainer of his great rival Nashua, who rigged up a sling to protect the colt’s injured foot and keep him from foundering. Tough Swaps lost 300 pounds and was in terrible physical condition when he was fnally able to take weight on all his limbs, his gentle disposition and

great intelligence enabled him to tolerate an encumbrance most horses would fght with a vengeance. Swaps began his stud career in Kentucky at Darby Dan Farm and later, when he was syndicated, moved to Spendthrift Farm, where he would take up sire duties alongside his old rival, Nashua. Te pair had strengths at stud, just as they had had at the racetrack. And both would remain in pedigrees for many generations due to at least one particularly strong descendant. In the case of Nashua, that horse is his daughter Gold Digger, a multiple stakes winner who ran second in the Kentucky Oaks. Gold Digger is far more famous as the dam of Mr. Prospector. Ensuring immortality for Swaps is his stakes-placed daughter Intriguing. A half sister to Poker, Seattle Slew and Silver Charm’s broodmare sire, Intriguing is also the dam of champion 2-yearold flly Numbered Account. Numbered Account carried Swaps “right to the stars” as old-timers are wont to say. Bearing a double of NumHirsch and Ethel Jacobs with their three-time bered Account via his dam, Love the champion daughter of Swaps, Affectionately Chase, as well as direct descent from Betty Derr, California Chrome later duplicated his distant relation’s feat of win-

Yet for all this (Courtly Dee’s) ning the Kentucky Derby, then did him one better by taking the Preakness as well.

excellence, Betty Derr alone must get pride of place as she produced not only the family of Courtly Dee but also that of Iron Maiden.

SWAPS AT STUD

Swaps went to stud in an era when sires’ books were generally 30 to 40 mares. Tus, his ofspring total was only 16 crops of 430 foals. With stallions routinely siring well over a thousand ofspring in half as many crops today, his statistics are really quite impressive.

In an absolute study of quality over quantity, 81% of his ofspring raced and 60% of them won. An excellent 8% won stakes (many top sires today get only 5%), and another 7% were stakes-placed. When the sun set on his career as a progenitor, his runners had banked $8,678,982.

Today, we still fnd Swaps in the pedigree of truly great and infuential horses.

Having retired as Horse of the Year in 1956, the same year he was champion older male, Swaps saw his share of very fne mares. From La Troienne’s

family came Searching, who produced to Swaps’ cover the three-time champion mare Afectionately, dam of Preakness winner Personality. However, she was a “problem mare” and got just three named foals, one a female who never produced a foal.

Swaps’ son Laramie Trail, who won the 1975 Gotham Stakes (G2) and Bay Shore Stakes (G3) and descended from the same family as Cozzene, was among the top 10 leading sires in Argentina in 1987. No Robbery, Champion 2-year-old flly and prolifc broodmare Numbered Account from the family of the very frst is a maternal granddaughter of Swaps Broodmare of the Year, Bloodroot, became an outstanding broodmare sire in his own right. Among the standouts of No Robbery’s daughters are champion turf mare Estrapade and her Horse of the Year half brother Criminal Type (out of Klepto), Spend a Buck’s sire Buckaroo (out of Stepping High), and champion mare Track Robbery.

Te last-named became second dam of Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner Cat Tief. Perhaps the most important of No Robbery’s daughters is Personable Lady, the third dam of the breed-shaping Scat Daddy.

Swaps also nearly got himself a Triple Crown winner in Chateaugay. Te chestnut Darby Dan color-bearer won the 1963 Kentucky Derby, defeating Never Bend, No Robbery, and eventual Preakness winner and Cal-bred Candy Spots, who ironically was owned and bred by Swaps’ owner/breeder, Rex Ellsworth. Chateaugay added the Belmont after his 31⁄2-length loss to Candy Spots in the Triple Crown’s middle jewel.

Chateaugay was a fne specimen on his own, but seemed somehow elevated to another level as a full brother to champion flly Primonetta. However, neither sibling carried on the excellent line of their family, the Darby Dan foundation line of Banquet Bell, now best known for having produced the good sire Hard Spun. Having failed to replicate his racing excellence, Chateaugay ended his career in Japan. In a bit of California history, Windsor Toroughbreds in Northern California stood Chateaugay’s Coronado Handicap winner Exact Duplicate in the early 1980s. A handsome gray, he also did not carry on, despite descending from the female family of Northern Dancer. In 1978, Swaps was the fourth-leading broodmare sire, a mere tip of the iceberg he left as a sire of great producers. In all, his 191 daughters produced 1,239 foals that collectively earned almost $20 million. Teir ofspring consisted of 87 stakes winners (a healthy 7%), 56 more black type-placed, and they were sound enough that 76% of them raced. Perhaps his most impressive statistic is that his

daughters moved their mates up to an Average Earnings Index of 1.88 from a comparable index of 1.65. Even the best sires generally go the other direction. Swaps moved his mares down slightly when assessing their racing numbers. So these numbers tell us that his daughters were truly as superior as they seem. Some of his superstars are the aforementioned Afectionately, and Baracala, the third dam of Malibu Moon. Others include Chandelle, the second dam of English flly triple crown winner Oh So Sharp; Give or Take, dam of Hollywood Derby (G1) winner and Kentucky Derby third Agitate; and Likely Swap, second dam of Belmont winner Creme Fraiche. At the end of the day, it is safe to say that no matter how one comes at Swaps, he was underappreciated. Tis is a horse who built and reinforced some of the fnest bloodlines of all time. And while he did not get the one great son to carry on his male line, he is proof positive that a horse can infuence in many ways. If Wanda ran as though the ground was not good enough for her, watch an old tape of Swaps skimming lightly over the ground. More recently, however, trainer Bob Bafert often spoke of how his Triple Crown winner American Pharoah foated over the ground. Tat makes all kinds of sense when one realizes that American Pharoah has Swaps in his pedigree through both his sire, Pioneerof the Nile, and dam, Littleprincessemma. With California Chrome standing from the U. S. to Chile to Japan, Betty Derr’s blood is TAYLOR MADE STALLIONS likely to bump into still more of her historical descendants. Tere is little doubt a good many of them will be foating to victory in the Kentucky Derby equivaThe racing prowess of Cal-bred California Chrome, an eighth- lents of the lands that they call generation tail-female descendant of Betty Derr, has brought home. Tis is a family that was the family into the 21st century born to succeed.

BOB COGLIANESE