Horse series: Lexington, the Blind Hero of Woodburn

Lexington (opens in a new tab) was foaled on March 17, 1850, at The Meadows, the Fayette County farm of Dr. Elisha Warfield, and was first named Darley. He was a bay colt by Boston out of Alice Carneal, standing about 15.3 hands, with a narrow blaze and four white feet.

Through Boston, Timoleon, and Sir Archy, he traced back to the imported stallion Diomed, a line that helped shape Bluegrass breeding. Warfield, a physician and a founder of the Kentucky Association race course, raised him on the farm that gave the city of Lexington its horse country.

As a three-year-old he was sold to a syndicate led by Richard Ten Broeck for $5,000 and renamed Lexington after the Kentucky city. He raced from 1853 to 1855 under trainer Henry T. Brown and won six of his seven starts.

Early victories included the Association Stakes and Citizens’ Stakes at Lexington and a match against Sallie Waters at Metairie in New Orleans. In April 1854 he took the Great State Post Stakes at Metairie over four-mile heats. His only defeat came days later to the rival Lecomte; he later beat Lecomte in a rematch after Lecomte’s camp forfeited a second heat.

On April 2, 1855, still at Metairie, he ran four miles against time in 7:19¾ despite losing a shoe, a record that stood for years. Career earnings were $56,600.

Failing eyesight, which left him nearly blind, ended his racing career at five. The condition has been linked to equine recurrent uveitis; his sire Boston had also gone blind. In 1856 Robert A. Alexander of Woodburn Stud near Midway, Woodford County, bought him for $15,000, then a U.S. record price for an American horse.

At Woodburn he became known as the “Blind Hero of Woodburn.” Handlers guided him through breeding; blindness did not stop him from covering mares. Stud fees rose from $100 to $200 as his reputation grew.

He led the North American sire list every year from 1861 through 1874, and again after his death—sixteen seasons in all, fourteen of them consecutive. He sired hundreds of foals; more than a third became winners who took nearly 1,200 races. His offspring won the Travers Stakes nine times and counted multiple Belmont and Preakness winners.

Daughters of Lexington became prized broodmares. His blood appeared in the pedigrees of four of the first five Kentucky Derby winners. The Inner Bluegrass’s claim as the center of American Thoroughbred breeding rests in large part on that record.

Lexington died at Woodburn on July 1, 1875. A post-mortem of the skull confirmed the long-standing pathology behind his blindness. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1955. His preserved horseshoe became the museum’s first artifact.