by Tobi Lopez Taylor
Between 1918 and 1948, the U.S. Army Remount Service sent high-quality stallions throughout the nation to be bred to local mares for a small fee—creating a pool of potential cavalry mounts as well as better-quality horses that farmers could keep, or sell for a profit. (For much more information on the history of this program, I recommend the book War Horse: Mounting the Cavalry with America’s Finest Horses, by Phil Livingston and Ed Roberts.)
While doing some research on my main interest, Arabians, in the Remount, I accidentally discovered that one Army Remount agent was a relative of mine. In 1930, Elba J. Steele—whose father, Stanley Steele, was a brother of my great-grandmother, Lena Steele—served as a Remount agent in Grigston, Kansas, where he stood a chestnut stallion named Sully, a Thoroughbred who was related to that year’s Triple Crown winner, Gallant Fox.
Gallant Fox
Sully, born in 1922, was bred by A. B. Hancock, owner of the well-known Claiborne Farm in Kentucky. As a yearling, Sully was sold at auction for $4,000 to E. R. Bradley, whose Idle Hour Farm, also in Kentucky, produced more than 100 stakes winners, including four Kentucky Derby winners. Sully’s sire, the stakes-winning Jim Gaffney, was by *Golden Garter, a late-developing horse who won four stakes at age four. Sully’s grandsire, Bend Or, was a highly successful sire in England, counting among his get Ormonde, an English Triple Crown winner.
Sully’s dam, Bramble Bush, was by the stakes-winning Celt, who was named leading U.S. sire in 1921 and leading broodmare sire in 1930. That year, Jim Dandy—by Sully’s sire Jim Gaffney—went off at odds of 100 to 1 and made history by defeating Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox, paying $56 to win, a tidy sum during the Depression.
Jim Dandy
Sully appears to have been unraced; perhaps he proved to be temperamentally or physically unfit for racing. (His grandsire Celt had some intermittent lameness issues during his racing career.) In 1926, Sully stood at Claiborne Farm for a fee of $500. There, he sired 6 foals, none of which was a winner. At some point, perhaps in late 1926, Sully was likely donated to the Remount program and traveled from Kentucky to Beloit, Kansas, where he stood at the farm of Charles W. Morgan. (Morgan also stood a Percheron stallion named Colbert.) It’s unclear whether Morgan passed Sully along directly to Elba Steele in 1930, or if Sully stood elsewhere in Kansas for a few years. During this time, Sully was one of only about a dozen Thoroughbred stallions standing in the state.
Elba Steele stood Sully for only one year; he was in his early twenties and was courting a Miss Hilda Mae Daugherty, whom he soon married. In 1931, Sully was transferred to North Dakota, and by 1940, he was in South Dakota, at the farm of H. S. Ireland. More than a decade later, Sully was still siring foals: in 1942, at age 20, he stood at the farm of Minnesota horseman Frank L. Long. A short article in the Chronicle of the Horse of May 29, 1942 discusses the dilemma of a horsewoman named Mrs. Rowland who “is now confronted with the problem of breeding her mare again, whether to send her to the court of an Arabian sire owned by Dr. Mayo, or to send her to the court of the Remount stallion, Sully, for whom Frank L. Long is agent and who stands the 20-year-old son of Jim Gaffney near Minneapolis, 80 miles vanning. Mrs. Rowland’s problem is intensified with the tire rationing. She would be interested in hearing from Chronicle readers of what they would think of an Arabian-Thoroughbred cross.”
Interestingly, Elba Steele wasn’t the only member of his clan to get interested in upgrading the quality of his horses. His uncle Eugene Steele, then living in Detroit, Kansas, once owned the prize-winning Percheron stallion Colonel Villa, whose history is recounted in this article from the Chapman (KS) Advertiser of April 29, 1926:
Between 1918 and 1948, the U.S. Army Remount Service sent high-quality stallions throughout the nation to be bred to local mares for a small fee—creating a pool of potential cavalry mounts as well as better-quality horses that farmers could keep, or sell for a profit. (For much more information on the history of this program, I recommend the book War Horse: Mounting the Cavalry with America’s Finest Horses, by Phil Livingston and Ed Roberts.)
While doing some research on my main interest, Arabians, in the Remount, I accidentally discovered that one Army Remount agent was a relative of mine. In 1930, Elba J. Steele—whose father, Stanley Steele, was a brother of my great-grandmother, Lena Steele—served as a Remount agent in Grigston, Kansas, where he stood a chestnut stallion named Sully, a Thoroughbred who was related to that year’s Triple Crown winner, Gallant Fox.
Gallant Fox
Sully, born in 1922, was bred by A. B. Hancock, owner of the well-known Claiborne Farm in Kentucky. As a yearling, Sully was sold at auction for $4,000 to E. R. Bradley, whose Idle Hour Farm, also in Kentucky, produced more than 100 stakes winners, including four Kentucky Derby winners. Sully’s sire, the stakes-winning Jim Gaffney, was by *Golden Garter, a late-developing horse who won four stakes at age four. Sully’s grandsire, Bend Or, was a highly successful sire in England, counting among his get Ormonde, an English Triple Crown winner.
Sully’s dam, Bramble Bush, was by the stakes-winning Celt, who was named leading U.S. sire in 1921 and leading broodmare sire in 1930. That year, Jim Dandy—by Sully’s sire Jim Gaffney—went off at odds of 100 to 1 and made history by defeating Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox, paying $56 to win, a tidy sum during the Depression.
Jim Dandy
Sully appears to have been unraced; perhaps he proved to be temperamentally or physically unfit for racing. (His grandsire Celt had some intermittent lameness issues during his racing career.) In 1926, Sully stood at Claiborne Farm for a fee of $500. There, he sired 6 foals, none of which was a winner. At some point, perhaps in late 1926, Sully was likely donated to the Remount program and traveled from Kentucky to Beloit, Kansas, where he stood at the farm of Charles W. Morgan. (Morgan also stood a Percheron stallion named Colbert.) It’s unclear whether Morgan passed Sully along directly to Elba Steele in 1930, or if Sully stood elsewhere in Kansas for a few years. During this time, Sully was one of only about a dozen Thoroughbred stallions standing in the state.
Elba Steele stood Sully for only one year; he was in his early twenties and was courting a Miss Hilda Mae Daugherty, whom he soon married. In 1931, Sully was transferred to North Dakota, and by 1940, he was in South Dakota, at the farm of H. S. Ireland. More than a decade later, Sully was still siring foals: in 1942, at age 20, he stood at the farm of Minnesota horseman Frank L. Long. A short article in the Chronicle of the Horse of May 29, 1942 discusses the dilemma of a horsewoman named Mrs. Rowland who “is now confronted with the problem of breeding her mare again, whether to send her to the court of an Arabian sire owned by Dr. Mayo, or to send her to the court of the Remount stallion, Sully, for whom Frank L. Long is agent and who stands the 20-year-old son of Jim Gaffney near Minneapolis, 80 miles vanning. Mrs. Rowland’s problem is intensified with the tire rationing. She would be interested in hearing from Chronicle readers of what they would think of an Arabian-Thoroughbred cross.”
Interestingly, Elba Steele wasn’t the only member of his clan to get interested in upgrading the quality of his horses. His uncle Eugene Steele, then living in Detroit, Kansas, once owned the prize-winning Percheron stallion Colonel Villa, whose history is recounted in this article from the Chapman (KS) Advertiser of April 29, 1926:
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