Purchase Horse Pedigree

Owner: S.C. Hildreth
Breeder: W. B. Miller

1919: Won Southampton H., Stuyvesant H., Dwyer S., Empire City Derby, Huron H., Saratoga H., Saranac H.; 2nd Saratoga Cup, Brooklyn H.

Won the inaugural Jockey Club Gold Cup (1919) in a walkover. Purchase was one of the best-looking racehorses ever seen on an American racetrack; unfortunately, he was as unlucky as he was handsome. Rated by veteran trainer Sam Hildreth as the best horse he had ever handled up through 1925 (when Hildreth's autobiography, The Spell of the Turf, was published), Purchase got a bad break in the Futurity Stakes, costing him his chance in the race, and then injured himself while preparing for the Walden Stakes as a juvenile, going to the sidelines for the rest of the season. The next year, he was being prepared for the Kentucky Derby when he reared in his stall, got a forefoot caught in his hay rack, and put himself on the sidelines until after the Triple Crown events. He later defeated Triple Crown winner Sir Barton easily in the Dwyer Stakes, though he did have a nine-pound pull in the weights. At four, Purchase damaged ligaments in his right foreleg during a workout at Laurel and was out for the season. he returned to racing in July 1921 after serving at stud that spring, won two races at Empire City, and then wrenched a hind leg during shipping to Saratoga, ending his racing career.

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