Royal Orbit (April 25, 1956 - c. 1980) was an American

Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are ...

racehorse best known as the winner of the

Preakness Stakes The Preakness Stakes is an American thoroughbred horse race held on Armed Forces Day which is also the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a Grade I race run over a distance of 9.5 furlongs () o ...

, the second leg of the U.S. Triple Crown races.

Background

Royal Orbit was a chestnut horse bred by film mogul

Louis B. Mayer Louis Burt Mayer (; born Lazar Meir; July 12, 1882 or 1884 or 1885 – October 29, 1957) was a Canadian-American film producer and co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios (MGM) in 1924. Under Mayer's management, MGM became the film industr ...

. He was sired by the imported British stallion Royal Charger out of Admiral's Belle, a daughter of the 1937 U.S. Triple Crown winner,

War Admiral War Admiral (May 2, 1934 – October 30, 1959) was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who is the fourth winner of the American Triple Crown. He was also the 1937 Horse of the Year and well known as the rival of Seabiscuit in the 'Match ...

. Royal Orbit was purchased at the July Keeneland Sales by businessman Jacques Braunstein and raced by his widow, Halina Gregory Braunstein. He was trained by Reggie Cornell.

Racing career

Royal Orbit was a top two-year-old colt racing in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, notably winning the 1958 Los Feliz Stakes and finishing second to

Tomy Lee Tomy Lee (May 7, 1956 – October 29, 1971) was a British-bred Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 1959 Kentucky Derby defeating Sword Dancer, First Landing, Royal Orbit and the filly Silver Spoon. Tomy Lee became only the second non-America ...

in the

Del Mar Futurity The Del Mar Futurity is a seven-furlong American Thoroughbred horse race held annually at Del Mar Racetrack in Del Mar, California. A Grade I event since 2007, the race is open to two-year-old horses and offers a purse of $300,000. In 1971, it w ...

. The following year he was second to the Hall of Fame filly

Silver Spoon The English language expression silver spoon is synonymous with wealth, especially inherited wealth; someone born into a wealthy family is said to have "been born with a silver spoon in their mouth". As an adjective, "silver spoon" describes s ...

in the

Santa Anita Derby The Santa Anita Derby is an American Grade 1 thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds run each April at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California. It is currently run at a distance of miles on the dirt and carries a purse of $400,000. It is one ...

. In his only out-of-the-money finish in twenty career races, Royal Orbit ran fourth to winner Tomy Lee in the 1959 Kentucky Derby under jockey

William Harmatz William Harmatz (February 9, 1931 – January 27, 2011) was an American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey who won the 1959 Preakness Stakes aboard Royal Orbit. The recipient of the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 1960, given to a jockey ...

. However, Royal Orbit and Harmatz came back to win the 85th running of the

and in the Belmont Stakes, the final leg of the Triple Crown series, he finished third to winner Sword Dancer.

Stud record

Retired at the end of the 1959 racing season, Royal Orbit stood in Kentucky and at the

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

branch of E.P. Taylor's

Windfields Farm Windfields Farm was a six square kilometre (1,500 acre) Thoroughbred horse breeding farm that was founded by businessman E. P. Taylor in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. Origin The first stable and breeding operation of E. P. Taylor originated w ...

. His offspring would meet with modest success, the best of which was multiple stakes winner, Quicken Tree. In 1971 he was sent to a breeding farm in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. Two years later he was shipped to

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

where he spent a year before going to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

in 1975.

Pedigree

References

{{Preakness Stakes Winners 1956 racehorse births Racehorses bred in Kentucky Racehorses trained in the United States Preakness Stakes winners Thoroughbred family 7-e