Taking Stock: Of 'N' Names, Nazis and New Beginnings

Sire lines and female families come and go through time, like political movements, oftentimes changing winds across countries. New environments, and new ideas, can lead to success, survival, revival, or failure. Sometimes there are extended periods of longevity and stability, but inevitable challenges to the status quo can cause tumult and change. To best understand the present, it helps to see the big picture over time.

Uncle Mo, for example, has resuscitated in a big way the once-prominent sire line of Caro (Ire) (1967), a G1 French Guineas winner bred and raced by Countess Margit Batthyany. Caro was imported to Spendthrift from France in late 1977 after becoming an immediate and outstanding success with his first European crops.

In the U.S., Caro notably sired GI Kentucky Derby-winning filly Winning Colors and the dams of Unbridled's Song and Maria's Mon–the sire of two Kentucky Derby winners–among others. Caro's male line in this country, however, was on a respirator by the time Coolmore's Uncle Mo came to the rescue with champion Nyquist, a top-class first-crop 2-year-old who would go on to win the Kentucky Derby. Because Uncle Mo has kept the momentum going through subsequent crops, he's at an elite level right now and will have plenty of opportunity to re-grow the line, with four graded stakes-winning sons already at stud.

One European-bred son of Caro, Nebos (Ger) (1976), a high-class German champion and the sire of two German Derby winners, was also bred by Countess Batthyany and was a member of the countess's renowned “N” family, a line of mares and foals named with the first letter N, bred at her family's famed Gestut Erlenhof in Germany.

Erlenhof's N family traced back in tail-female to the Italian mare Nella Da Gubbio (1924), who was bred by master horseman Federico Tesio. This is the same family from which he developed breed-shaper Nearco. The alphabetically consistent naming conceit, by the way, was common among Old World breeders as a simple device for distinguishing families, and it's a useful tool here in examining horses and humans through a historical lens. (Year of birth is provided in parentheses as warranted for chronological significance.)

Tesio started the N family with the purchase of the Irish-bred Catnip (1910) as a 5-year-old. She was an unremarkable racehorse, but would go on to become a foundation mare for him, producing Nogara (1928), the dam of Nearco (1935). Nebos, as noted, traced in tail-female to Nella Da Gubbio, whose second dam was Catnip. Nearco sits at the head of this family table as one of the most influential stallions over the last 75 years: he was the sire of Nasrullah, the grandsire of Northern Dancer, and the great-grandsire of Hail to Reason. Caro traces to Nearco through Nasrullah.

The N family was initially developed at Gestut Erlenhof by the stud's previous owner, M.J. Oppenheimer, whose assets were confiscated by the Nazis–Oppenheimer was Jewish–in 1933. At around this time, Countess Batthyany's father, an industrialist who supported the Nazi effort, purchased the stud at a huge discount from market value. The countess's younger brother Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, also a patron of racing, eventually took over the stud's ownership and left it to the countess to run. With the seeds sown by Oppenheimer at Erlenhof, a string of superior racehorses leading up to World War II came for the Thyssen-Bornemiszas, headed by the undefeated and legendary German Derby-winning filly Nereide (Ger) (1933), a daughter of the aforementioned Nella Da Gubbio–the foundation mare at Erlenhof that Oppenheimer had purchased, presumably from Tesio.

Spoil of War

Nereide produced the undefeated war-time German Derby winner Nordlicht (Ger) (1941), the prize of Erlenhof and the pride of Germany. It's been rumored but never confirmed that he ceremoniously ran once in Hitler's colors, perhaps in the Austrian Derby. Nordlicht was by all accounts a standout physical specimen–the equine poster boy for the Third Reich–and in 1945, as the war was raging, he was sent to one of the German national studs, at Altefeld, for protection and to breed. That's where he was discovered after the war by Col. Fred Hamilton of the US Army Remount Branch, and Hamilton brought the horse to America as a spoil of war.

On his Bloodstock in the Bluegrass site, Frank Mitchell wrote an excellent blog post on Nordlicht in 2010 and said:

“…Nordlicht was exported to the States and was sold at auction by the Army Remount Service in Virginia for $20,300 to a syndicate that included Christopher Chenery, owner of The Meadow and breeder of champions Hill Prince, Cicada, Riva Ridge, and Secretariat.

“Chenery bred the first winner by the German Derby winner, the two-year-old Nordoff, winner at Aqueduct on June 13, 1950.

“Despite his outstanding race record in Europe, Nordlicht was a dismal failure at stud in the US.”

Mitchell noted that the horse was eventually sold and ended up in Louisiana, where he's buried at a placed called La Branche Plantation. Despite a new beginning in the U.S. with access to quality mares in Virginia, Nordlicht wasn't a Caro. His relation Nearco, meanwhile, had ascended to the top ranks of international stallions by this time.

But what about other members of the N family from Erlenhof or Countess Batthyany?

N Family Success

A Hungarian by birth, Countess Margit Batthyany was born in 1911 and died in 1989. Gestut Erlenhof remained in her family until 1994, though it was leased to Hubertus Liebrecht from 1977. (In 1978, Liebrecht had purchased Audley Farm–which bred Bodemeister, among others–in Virgina.) Batthyany's homebred Nebos was among the last champions for her at Erlenhof. Later she purchased two other stud farms, the historic Haras du Bois-Roussel in France, where Caro began his stud career, and Ballykeane Stud in Ireland.

One of the wealthiest women in Europe, the countess was a fixture on the international racing circuit after the war, and she was a successful owner and breeder. Foremost among Countess Batthyany's many racing accomplishments outside Germany are an Arc win in 1972 with San San, a filly she'd purchased in the U.S. from the Guggenheim dispersal, and the G1 Epsom Oaks in 1967 with Pia, a homebred.

After WWll, the N family continued to produce for Erlenhof and others. Its notable post-war representatives, aside from Nebos, include:

Niederlander (Ger) (1947) – German Derby; Neckar (Ger) (1948) – German Derby; Naxos (Ger) (1950) – German Oaks; Eldelito (Uru) (1979) – GI winner in Uruguay; Nagoya (Ger) (1996) – Italian Oaks; Island Sands (Ire) (1996) – 2000 Guineas; Next Desert (Ger) (1999) – German Derby; Dunford (SaF) (2000) – GI winner in South Africa; Next Gina (Ger) (2000) – German Oaks; Night Magic (Ger) (2006) – German Oaks; Novellist (Ire) (2009) – Multiple G1 winner in England, France, and Germany; Nymphea (Ire) (2009) – G1 winner in Germany; Nightflower (Ire) (2012) – GI winner in Germany; Nutan (Ire) (2012) – German Derby; Pakistan Star (Ger) (2013) (aka Ninas Shadow) – International GI winner in Hong Kong; Intellogent (Ire) (2015) – GI Prix Jean Prat.

Note that many of these classic and G1 winners came after Countess Batthyany's death in 1989–the family went through a dormant stage from the mid-1950s to the late 1990s–and it's a legacy that's current to 2018 with Intellogent and Pakistan Star. Note also that there aren't any U.S. GI winners on that list. This isn't a family that's taken particularly well to the U.S.–Nordlicht established that pattern after the war–but before his death in 1991, Liebrecht introduced a strain of it in the 1980s at Audley with Night Letter (Ger) (1980), a mare bred by Countess Batthyany.

Night Letter produced the U.S. GII winner Night Fax (1991), and this female line cultivated by Liebrecht's heirs at Audley in the U.S. is represented by the current GII Gulfstream Park Oaks winner Coach Rocks (2015), a Calumet-bred 3-year-old filly by Oxbow.

Perhaps years after Nordlicht, the climate in this country is finally ready to take advantage of Countess Batthyany's legacy?

Postscript

Late last year, Countess Batthyany's great-nephew, the journalist Sacha Batthyany, published a memoir titled “A Crime in the Family.” It was his attempt to come to terms with the angst of discovering a decade earlier that the Countess had been associated with the murder of 180 Jews in 1945. Yes, you read correctly.

These are the bare facts that have been confirmed by Sacha Batthyany, and originally by journalist and author David R.L. Litchfield 10 years earlier: In 1945, the Countess and her husband, a titled Hungarian aristocrat, were hosting a raucous party for Nazi officers at their castle in a Hungarian town close to the Austrian border during the late stages of the war. The Russians were perhaps days or weeks away from entering the town, and the Third Reich was on its last legs. At some point around midnight, the partiers went into the town and they killed 180 Jewish laborers, after first making them dig their own graves. Later, the party returned to the castle and continued where they'd left off.

The Count and Countess–along with her two Nazi lovers, both of them prominent in the shooting spree–later relocated to Lugano, Switzerland, to start a new beginning. The lovers were sent away to Argentina and South Africa to start new lives, and the Batthyanys through time were absorbed back into post-war European society, traveling among the major cities, safariing in Africa, and generally leading a life of aristocratic leisure when she wasn't breeding and racing horses. They were never held accountable for this incident.

The story, in fact, was neatly hidden within the folds of history until Litchfield exposed it a decade ago. And even then, there were lingering doubts of its veracity by some until Sacha Batthyany confirmed it in his book.

Sid Fernando is president and CEO of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Inc., originator of the Werk Nick Rating and eNicks.