A Vanderbilt & Whitney Legacy: Property from the Collection of Marylou Whitney & John Hendrickson
American, 1851-1913
Hamburg Belle
Remnants of a signature Henry S... (ll); an inscription on the plaque affixed to the frame reads Presented to/ The Coney Island Jockey Club/ by/ Sydney Paget.
Oil on canvas
23 1/8 x 28 1/8 inches (58.7 x 71.5 cm)
Provenance:
The Coney Island Jockey Club, Brooklyn, NY
Daughter of William Collins Whitney’s Hall of Fame stallion Hamburg, Hamburg Belle (1901–1913) was a champion Thoroughbred filly whose most significant triumph came in the 1903 Futurity Stakes at Sheepshead Bay. Organized by the Coney Island Jockey Club, the Futurity Stakes was at that time the nation’s richest and most prestigious race for two-year-olds. Owned by James Ben Ali Haggin, who had been out-bid by Whitney in 1901 for Hamburg, Hamburg Belle raced under the orange silks of English aristocrat Sydney Paget, a relative of Whitney’s by marriage who managed Thoroughbred racing operations for Whitney, Haggin and other prominent owners.
Framed 26 1/2 x 31 3/8 inches
Condition
Frame rubbing; scattered craquelure; dirty, yellowed varnish; tiny nail puncture at center; 1/2 cm ding at upper right center; one inch hairline scratch at upper left center and a small hairline scratch at upper right center; visible stretcher marks; unable to detect restoration through the dulling varnish under UV light.