18 Facts About Mr Prospector

Mr Prospector was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who became an outstanding breeding stallion and notable sire of sires.

Mr Prospector began his stallion career in Florida as a regional sire.

Mr Prospector proved so successful that he was moved to Kentucky where he became a leading sire and later a leading broodmare sire.

Mr Prospector's descendants have dominated the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing for several decades and his impact on Thoroughbred bloodlines is felt worldwide.

Mr Prospector was a bay stallion who was bred in Kentucky by Leslie Combs II, the owner of Spendthrift Farm.

Mr Prospector's sire was Raise a Native, a son of Native Dancer.

Mr Prospector had excellent hindquarters and strong hind legs, but his right forefront was turned-out and his knees were offset, making him vulnerable to injury.

Mr Prospector raced at the same time as Hall of Fame members Secretariat and Forego.

Mr Prospector did not race at age two, but won his first two starts at age three with "ridiculous ease" before being sidelined by illness.

Mr Prospector returned on April 1,1973, in a six-furlong allowance race at Gulfstream Park, which he won by nine lengths.

Mr Prospector next entered the Calumet Purse on April 17,1973.

Mr Prospector then finished fourth at the favorite in a turf race, a surface with which the colt was unfamiliar.

Mr Prospector retired to stud in 1975 at Aisco Farm near Ocala, Florida.

Mr Prospector became an outstanding sire, leading the North American general sire list in 1978 and 1979.

Mr Prospector sired one winner of each of the Triple Crown races, a feat his grandson, Unbridled, accomplished.

Mr Prospector's bloodline has been highly influential in the top echelons of Thoroughbred racing.

On June 1,1999, Mr Prospector died in his stall of complications from colic at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky.

Mr Prospector's lineage extends even further back for the Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes, as he appears in every pedigree from 2009 onward for those two legs of the triple crown races.