Racing Career
Racing at two, he went winless in at least seven races, including the Futurity Stakes (coming in second) basically due to what Hildreth described as a "bad break." But Sam Hildreth thought all that would change with maturity, especially as the colt had injured his leg just before another two-year-old race. And Hildreth was right. Racing at the age of three, Purchase was barely beaten out of winning the three-year-old colt division by Sir Barton even though Purchase had won nine races of 11 that year, including the inaugural running of the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Hildreth would have entered Purchase in the 1919 Kentucky Derby as well as the Preakness Stakes, but just before the Derby, Purchase reared up in his stall and caught a front hoof in a hay rack. This delayed his third year campaign until he beat the first Triple Crown winner Sir Barton by three lengths in the Dwyer Stakes on July 10, 1919.
In the Saratoga Handicap, Purchase bested Eternal who was co-favorite for Sir Barton's Kentucky Derby and had been American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt as well as America's top earner in 1918. Purchase came in second to Eternal in the Brooklyn Handicap and second to Exterminator in the Saratoga Cup. (Exterminator won the Saratoga Cup four years in row: 1918 through 1921 as well as the 1918 Kentucky Derby.) Purchase took the Saranac Stakes carrying 133 pounds and the Huron Stakes carrying 134. In the two races he lost, he came in a good second, and in the race against Exterminator, it was his jockey, claimed Hildreth, who rode Purchase badly, as well as losing his whip. Otherwise, Sam Hildreth was sure he would have won.
Sometime during this streak, Hildreth was offered $100,000 for the colt (or, depending on the source, $300,000), but turned it down.
At the end of his three-year-old season, Hildreth, feeling he had nothing else to beat (and the connections of Man o' War only racing their horse against three-year-olds; by then Purchase was four), still kept Purchase in training. Breezing at Laurel Park, the horse struck a rock on the track, tearing the ligaments loose in his off front leg. He did not race again until he was five years old. In this last season he ran under the colors of Harry Sinclair. Beginning in July 1921, he appeared at the Empire City track in a sprint race, causing a sensation among racing fans. He won that race and the one after, but on his way to Saratoga, New York to continue that year's campaign, once again ill luck struck. On the train he wrenched one of his hind legs, ending his racing career
Read more about this topic: Purchase (horse)
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