Jet Pilot (1944-c.1965) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse. Purchased for US$41,000 at the Keeneland Yearling Sale by cosmetics queen Elizabeth Arden, he raced under her Maine Chance Farm colors. He was sired by the English champion and 1930 Epsom Derby winner, Blenheim II, and out of the mare Black Wave by the champion French sire, Sir Gallahad III. Both Blenheim II and Sir Gallahad III had each brought to stand at stud in the United States by groups of American horsemen both of which were led by Arthur B. Hancock of Claiborne Farm.
Racing at age two, Jet Pilot was second in the 1946 Arlington Futurity and third in that year's Futurity Stakes and Champagne Stakes. However, he won the important Tremont Stakes and Pimlico Futurity.
One of the winter book favorites for the 1947 Kentucky Derby, Jet Pilot broke from post position thirteen and immediately took the lead in the 73rd edition of the Derby and never relinquished it in defeating C. V. Whitney's betting favorite, Phalanx. In the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the U.S. Triple Crown series, Jet Pilot finished fourth behind Calumet Farm's winner, Faultless. After the Preakness, Jet Pilot contested the Withers Stakes at Belmont Park, where he finished fourth. He bowed a tendon in that race and was retired to stud for the 1948 season.
Jet Pilot sired multiple graded stakes race winners Jet Action and Myrtles Jet, plus 1951 Champion 2-year-old Filly, Rose Jet. The product of his last mating was born in 1964.
Famous quotes containing the words jet and/or pilot:
“Gimme the Plaza, the jet and $150 million, too.”
—Headline, New York Post (Feb. 13, 1990)
“In the true mythology, Love is an immortal child, and Beauty leads him as a guide: nor can we express a deeper sense than when we say, Beauty is the pilot of the young soul.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)