Background
Purchase was the best son of Ormandale, the only foal in the 1903 crop of Ormonde. Racing, Ormonde went undefeated, an English Triple Crown winner, but as an imported sire he was almost infertile. As for his son, Ormandale (born in Menlo Park, California), he was not the runner his father was, but as a sire, he was much the better horse. Sent to Kentucky in 1912 at the death of his California breeder, he entered the second half of his stud career as an immediate success. The dam of Purchase was Cherryola whose racing career was more than respectable, winning 26 races between the years 1909 to 1913. (On April 15, 1923, along with forty other horses, she died in a barn fire at Harry F. Sinclair's Rancocas Stable, New Jersey.)
Eventually standing 16 hands 1 inch, Purchase was a long-legged golden chestnut, sold as a yearling to the Brighton Stable which was shortly thereafter dispersed. The trainer Sam Hildreth bought Purchase for $12,500. By the end of his racing career, Hildreth said that Purchase was one of the greatest racehorses he ever trained…"and I say that without any strings to it."
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