Rancocas Farm was an American

thoroughbred horse racing Thoroughbred racing is a sport and industry involving the racing of Thoroughbred horses. It is governed by different national bodies. There are two forms of the sport – flat racing and jump racing, the latter known as National Hunt racing in ...

stud Stud may refer to the following terms: Animals * Stud (animal), an animal retained for breeding ** Stud farm, a property where livestock are bred Arts and entertainment * Stud (band), a British progressive rock group * The Stud (bar), a gay bar ...

farm and racing stable located on Monmouth Road ( County Road 537) in the

Jobstown Jobstown (; ) is a suburb of Tallaght, and so an outer suburb of Dublin, in the administrative county of South Dublin, Ireland. History Jobstown takes its name from Henry Jope, who held land here in the 1250s. Jobstown was historically a small r ...

section of Springfield Township, Burlington County,

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...

Pierre Lorillard IV

The farm was founded in the 1870s by the wealthy

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ch ...

manufacturer

Pierre Lorillard IV Pierre J. Lorillard IV (October 13, 1833 – July 7, 1901) was an American tobacco manufacturer and Thoroughbred race horse owner. Early life Born in Westchester, New York, he was the son of Pierre Lorillard III (1796–1867) and Catherine Gr ...

(1833-1901) who had a home in the town of Rancocas, now a part of

Westampton Township, New Jersey Westampton is a township in Burlington County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 9,121, an increase of 308 (+3.5%) from the 2010 census count of 8,813, which in turn reflecte ...

. Lorillard built his stable into one of the premier

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 ...

breeding and training operations in the United States. Lorillard bred

Parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

, one of the three greatest runners of the 1870s. In 1881, Lorillard's horse

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

became the first American-owned and -bred horse to win a

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

an classic race. Ridden by the champion English jockey, Fred Archer, Iroquois won The Derby then went on to also capture the

St. Leger Stakes The St Leger Stakes is a Group 1 flat horse race in Great Britain open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies. It is run at Doncaster over a ...

Lily A. Livingston

On the death of Pierre Lorillard, Rancocas Stable was inherited by Lillian "Lily" Barnes-Allen-Livingston. She later sold it to

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to ...

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

industrialist

Harry F. Sinclair Harry Ford Sinclair (July 6, 1876 – November 10, 1956) was an American industrialist, and the founder of Sinclair Oil. He was implicated in the 1920s Teapot Dome scandal, and served six months in prison for jury tampering. Afterwards he return ...

and moved to Canada where she set up her own breeding and racing operation that would see her inducted into the

Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame was established in 1976 to honour those who have made a significant contribution to the sport of harness and Thoroughbred horse racing in Canada. It is located at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario. The ...

in 2011.

Harry Ford Sinclair

Harry Sinclair would invest considerable funds to continue the Rancocas breeding and racing success, making it one of the dominant racing stables in the United States during the 1920s. For Sinclair, trainer

Sam Hildreth Samuel Clay Hildreth (May 16, 1866 – September 24, 1929) was an American Thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame trainer and owner.Kentucky Derby The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, almost always on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The competition is a Grade I stakes race for three-yea ...

and in three Belmont Stakes. Between 1923 and 1929 the stable had six horses compete in 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 ...

but never managed a win. Two of the stable's colts,

Grey Lag Grey Lag (1918–1942) was a Thoroughbred race horse born in Kentucky and bred by John E. Madden. At his Hamburg Place near Lexington, Kentucky, Maddon had a good stallion called Star Shoot which he bred to all of his mares. Out of a failed r ...

and Zev, are in the

National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame was founded in 1950 in Saratoga Springs, New York, to honor the achievements of American Thoroughbred race horses, jockeys, and trainers. In 1955, the museum moved to its current location on Union Av ...

. After their racing careers, both

Purchase Purchasing is the process a business or organization uses to acquire goods or services to accomplish its goals. Although there are several organizations that attempt to set standards in the purchasing process, processes can vary greatly betwe ...

and Lucullite stood there. Such was the fame of Rancocas Stable that the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

named

baggage car A passenger railroad car or passenger car (United States), also called a passenger carriage, passenger coach (United Kingdom and International Union of Railways), or passenger bogie (India) is a railroad car that is designed to carry passeng ...

#5858 in its honor. Among the jockeys who rode for Rancocas Stable were Hall of Famers

Earl Sande Earl Harold Sande (November 13, 1898 – August 19, 1968) was an American Hall of Fame jockey and thoroughbred horse trainer. Early life in South Dakota Born in Groton, South Dakota, Earl Sande started out as a bronco buster in the early 1900s b ...

and

Laverne Fator Laverne Andrew Fator (October 21, 1899 – May 16, 1936) was an American National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame jockey. Born in Hailey, Idaho, Laverne Fator and his brothers Mark Fator, Mark and Elmer all became jockeys. The ...

. Sinclair's Rancocas Stable set the record as top money winner in a single season in 1923 that stood until 1941 when it was broken by

Calumet Farm Calumet Farm is a Thoroughbred breeding and training farm established in 1924 in Lexington, Kentucky, United States by William Monroe Wright, founding owner of the Calumet Baking Powder Company. Calumet is located in the heart of the Bluegra ...

. Personal problems culminating in a prison term for his part in what became known in American history as the

Teapot Dome scandal The Teapot Dome scandal was a bribery scandal involving the administration of United States President Warren G. Harding from 1921 to 1923. Secretary of the Interior Albert Bacon Fall had leased Navy petroleum reserves at Teapot Dome in Wy ...

(Sinclair sold US oil reserves to private interests for his own aggrandizement), forced Harry Sinclair to sell his horses and the farm.

William Helis

In 1943,

William Helis William George Helis Sr. (October 17, 1886 – July 25, 1950) was an impoverished Greek emigrant to the United States who made a fortune in the oil business and who became a major owner/breeder of Thoroughbred racehorses and racetrack owner. ...

purchased the farm and in 1946 acquired adjoining acreage to bring it up to . On his death in 1950, management of the property was taken over by his son, William Jr. who was also involved in racing. The site continues to operate as the Helis Stock Farm, and is run by Linda and Ed Lovenduski. The more than farm includes a number of original Rancocas Stable-era buildings that can be seen from the roadside; including a training barn with 1,100 windows enclosing a half-mile oblong indoor track.New Jersey Round Barns List
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References

;Footnotes ;Citations *''Encyclopedia of New Jersey'', p. 765, edited by Maxine N. Lurie, Marc Mappen

Rutgers University Press Rutgers University Press (RUP) is a nonprofit academic publishing house, operating in New Brunswick, New Jersey under the auspices of Rutgers University. History Rutgers University Press, a nonprofit academic publishing house operating in New ...

March 22, 1880 ''New York Times'' article on Pierre Lorillard's Rancocas Stud

* ttps://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B04E4DB1431EF33A25750C1A9669D946095D6CF October 13, 1921 article in the New York Times on Rancocas Stable {{coord, 40, 02, 34.0, N, 74, 40, 59.5, W, region:US-NJ_type:landmark , display=title American racehorse owners and breeders Horse farms in the United States Buildings and structures in Burlington County, New Jersey Farms in New Jersey Lorillard family residences Springfield Township, Burlington County, New Jersey