Henry Stull
American, 1851-1913
Domino with Jockey Up
Oil on canvas
Signed & dated 1900

Exhibited: Tales From the Turf: The Kentucky Horse, 1825-1950, Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, November 15, 2019 - March 1, 2020.

Provenance: Lot 75, Sotheby's, New York, October 28, 2004. The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Walter M. Jeffords.

Note that this work appeared on the cover of the catalogue for the 2004 Sotheby's sale of The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Walter M. Jeffords: Sporting Paintings, Sculpture and Trophies, Vol. I, perhaps the most important sale of sporting art from one private collection.

Foaled in 1891 at Major Barak G. Thomas' Dixiana Farm, Domino was sired by Himyar, out of Mannie Gray. Falling on financial difficulties, Thomas sold his prized yearling to James R. Keene and his son, Foxhall Keene, and the horse went to race for their Castleton Farm. The fastest sprinter of his time and known as "The Black Whirlwind," Domino won all nine starts as a 2-year-old and six of eight starts at the age of 3. As famed turf writer W. S. Vosburgh notes on page 163 of Racing in America: 1866–1921, "No horse in recent times made so powerful an impression in the great sweepstakes for two and three year olds. As a racehorse he had won nineteen out of twenty-five races and had won more money than any American racer."

Even after such a successful racing career, it was at stud where Domino made his most lasting mark. As Vosburgh says on the same page "As a sire Domino's career, while brief, was immediate and immense... He founded a line that in the colt and filly stakes has practically dominated racing." Of his two seasons at stud, producing 20 foals, eight were stakes winner, including Commando and Cap and Bells, the first American-bred to win the Epsom Oaks. His descendants have dominated the modern era, with 10 of the 13 winners of the Triple Crown having Domino in their pedigree, including War Admiral, Secretariat, Seattle Slew, Affirmed, Bold Ruler, Assault, Whirlaway, Gallant Fox, Omaha, Native Dancer, American Pharoah, Justify, Blue Larkspur, Equipoise, Personal Ensign, Buckpasser, and Zenyatta. In Speed and the Thoroughbred, Alexander MacKay-Smith says the sprinting lines of the modern Thoroughbred come from six sires, Domino being one of the two American horses. His line can also be found in many jumpers today.

23 x 28 in