Hansel (horse)

Thoroughbred racehorse infobox
horsename = Hansel


caption =
sire = Woodman
grandsire = Mr. Prospector
dam = Count on Bonnie
damsire = Dancing Count
sex = Stallion
foaled = 1988
country = United States flagicon|USA
colour = Bay
breeder = Marvin Little, Jr.
owner = Lazy Lane Farm
Sheik Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum
trainer = Frank L. Brothers
record = 14: 7-2-3
earnings = $2,936,586
race = Arlington-Washington Futurity Stakes (1990)
Tremont Stakes (1990)
Jim Beam Stakes (1991)
Lexington Stakes (1991)
Preakness Stakes (1991)
Belmont Stakes (1991)
awards= U.S. Champion 3-Yr-Old Colt
honours = Hansel Stakes at Turfway Park
updated= January 10, 2007

Hansel (foaled 1988) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the final two legs of the U.S. Triple Crown races in 1991 and was voted the Eclipse Award for Outstanding 3-Year-Old Male Horse. Out of the mare Count on Bonnie, his sire was Woodman, a Champion 2-year-old colt in Ireland who was a son of the influential Champion sire, Mr. Prospector. Woodman would also sire the 1994 Breeders' Cup Juvenile and Preakness Stakes winner, Timber Country, as well as the 1999 Canadian Champion 3-Year-Old Colt and Queen's Plate winner, Woodcarver.

Hansel was owned by banker Joe Lewis Allbritton who raced him under his Lazy Lane Farm banner. The colt had success racing at age two, inning the Grade III Tremont Stakes and the Grade II Arlington-Washington Futurity Stakes and finished second in the Grade I Hopeful Stakes. In his 1991 three-year-old campaign, at the end of March Hansel won the Grade II Jim Beam Stakes in track record time and the Lexington Stakes in April before finishing third in the Grade I Florida Derby behind the 1990 U.S. Champion 2-Year-Old Fly So Free and second-place finisher, Strike the Gold.

In the 1991 Kentucky Derby Hansel was the betting favorite but after a mile tired badly and finished tenth. As a result of his poor performance, trainer Frank Brothers decided to skip the Preakness Stakes. However, after a good workout by Hansel, plus encouragement from Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg for whom he had worked as an assistant, Brothers changed his mind and shipped the colt to Pimlico Race Course. Hansel won the Preakness by seven lengths with Strike the Gold finishing sixth. In the Belmont Stakes, Hansel had to race without Lasix, a drug used to control bleeding that the NYRA had banned at the time. As a result, bettors made Strike the Gold their first choice. However, Hansel showed how good he really was and held off a late charge by Strike the Gold to win the Belmont Stakes by a head. Hansel also finished second to Corporate Report in the 1991 Travers Stakes at Saratoga.

In early September 1991 Hansel was sold to Sheik Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum and was retired at the end of the racing season to stand at stud at the Sheik's Gainsborough Stud. Under the terms of the sale, Joe Lewis Allbritton retained breeding interest in him. During the 1998 and 1999 breeding seasons Hansel was sent to stand at Questroyal Stud, LLC. in Claverack, New York after which he was sent to breeders in Japan where he remained until 2006. Hansel now stands at Allbritton's Lazy Lane Farm in Upperville, Virginia. (Formerly Isabel Dodge Sloane's Brookmeade Stud)

References

* [http://www.behelp.com/route50/places/lazy_lane_farm.htm Lazy Lane Farm official website]
* [http://www.pedigreequery.com/hansel Hansel's pedigree and racing stats]
* [http://www.kentuckyderby.com/2002/derby_coverage/derby_news/derby_news_05102002.html Official Kentucky Derby website's "Derby News" article concerning Hansel and trainer Frank Brothers]