Pommern (horse)

Pommern
Pommern with Steve Donoghue up.
Sire	Polymelus
Grandsire	Cyllene
Dam	Merry Agnes
Damsire	St. Hilaire
Sex	Stallion
Foaled	1912
Country	United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Colour	Bay
Breeder	Solomon B. Joel
Owner	Solomon B. Joel
Trainer	Charles Peck
Record	10: 7-1-0
Earnings	£15,616
Major wins
Imperial Produce Stakes (1914) Richmond Stakes (1914) 2000 Guineas Stakes (1915) Epsom Derby (1915) September Stakes (1915) June Stakes (1916)
Awards
11th English Triple Crown Champion (1915)

Pommern (1912–1935) was a British bred Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a racing career which lasted from 1914 to June 1916 he ran ten times and won seven races. As a three-year-old in 1915 he won the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket and the wartime substitutes for the Epsom Derby and the St. Leger Stakes to win a version of the English Triple Crown. After winning his only race as a four-year-old in 1916, he was retired to stud where he had limited success.

Pommern was an elegant, good-looking bay horse officially bred by his owner Solomon Joel who bought the mare Merry Agnes for 500 guineas in 1911 when she was already pregnant with the future Derby winner. The mating of Merry Agnes and Joel's stallion Polymelus was actually arranged by the mare's previous owner Sir Alan Johnstone. Polymelus was a five-time British Champion sire and a horse that Thoroughbred Heritage calls one the most influential British stallions of the 20th century. Merry Agnes, was by St. Hilaire whose sire St. Simon, was one of the most successful sires in the history of British racing. Pommern was inbred to the stallion Hampton (see below). Pommern was reportedly named after a German friend of Mr Joel. Given the period, the name was rather unfortunate, as it was also borne by a German battleship which was erroneously reported to have been sunk by British submarines in July 1915. Joel sent his colt to his private trainer Charles Peck at Newmarket, Suffolk.