Last updated on February 26, 2008
Uncle Remus was a champion Thoroughbred racehorse who won the New Zealand Derby and New Zealand 2000 Guineas in the 1977-78 season. He is rated among the best Derby winners of the last 30 years.
Uncle Remus was trained by Colin Jillings, who in his illustrious training career had five Derby victories, but it is probably fair to say that none of the other four winners had the same amount of ability as Uncle Remus.
Perhaps overshadowed by Balmerino, whose deeds in the Northern Hemisphere were constantly in the headlines, Uncle Remus was a great horse in his own right, as shown by his impressive record of 15 wins from just 28 starts.
Following his racing career he was reasonably successful at stud, but never sired a horse with anything like his own ability.
Famous quotes containing the words uncle and/or remus:
“Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle;
I am no traitor’s uncle, and that word “grace”
In an ungracious mouth is but profane.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Our ancestors were savages. The story of Romulus and Remus being suckled by a wolf is not a meaningless fable. The founders of every state which has risen to eminence have drawn their nourishment and vigor from a similar wild source. It was because the children of the Empire were not suckled by the wolf that they were conquered and displaced by the children of the northern forests who were.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)