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Battleship (horse)

Battleship
Battleship USA horse.jpg
Sire Man o' War
Grandsire Fair Play
Dam Quarantine
Damsire Sea Sick
Sex Stallion
Foaled 1927
Country United States
Colour Chestnut
Breeder Walter J. Salmon, Sr.
Owner Walter J. Salmon, Sr.
Marion duPont Scott (from end of 1931)
Trainer Jack Pryce 1929-1931 (U.S. flat racing)
S.L. Burch 1932-1936 (U.S. over fences)
Reg Hobbs from 1936 steeplechase racing
Record 55: 24-6-4
Earnings $71,641
Major wins
American Grand National (1934)
Grand National (1938)
Honours
United States' Racing Hall of Fame (1969)
Last updated on 20 January 2011

Battleship (1927–1958) was an American thoroughbred racehorse who is the only horse to have won both the American Grand National and the Grand National steeplechase races.

Battleship was bred by owner Walter J. Salmon, Sr. at his Mereworth Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. He was a "stocky chestnut" by Man o' War, and his dam, Quarantine, was by Sea Sick. He was a muscular but small horse who stood 15 hands 1 inch (1.55 m) high, leading him to be nicknamed the 'American Pony'.

Battleship was initially trained for flat racing. Competing for his owner through age four, he won ten of his twenty-two starts. An injury kept him out of competition for a year, and at the end of 1931 Walter Salmon sold Battleship to Marion duPont Scott for $12,000. Scott was a steeplechase horse racing enthusiast who had earlier purchased a Salmon-owned half brother to Battleship. A member of the prominent and wealthy Du Pont family of chemical manufacturing, Ms duPont had begun developing her Montpelier estate, formerly the home of James and Dolley Madison, near Orange, Virginia, into what became one of the leading horse-training centers in the United States.

Ms. duPont had Battleship trained for steeplechase racing and entered his first competition in 1933. The horse showed promise, winning three of his four races that season. Then, in 1934, he won the American Grand National, the most prestigious steeplechase race in the US. Gentleman jockey Carroll K. Bassett rode Battleship in most of his major U.S. victories. Bassett was also an accomplished artist and sculpted a small bronze bust of Battleship in 1934.


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