July 25, 2024

Nasrullah (March 2, 1940 – May 25, 1959)

The potent influence of Nearco, the great grandsire of Secretariat, became personified in America by his talented but tempestuous son, Nasrullah.

Foaled at the Aga Khan’s Sheshoon Stud in Ireland in 1940, Nasrullah earned an impressive reputation as a champion racehorse in Europe and top sire. Though he would not duplicate Nearco’s unbeaten record, he won five of ten stakes races and placed in three others.

Nasrullah, whose name means “victory through God” in Arabic, also acquired a notorious reputation at the track for being unruly, unpredictable and unmotivated.  This trait would not have surprised Nearco’s handlers in England.  Nasrullah’s aggressive sire reportedly went through ten grooms in ten months.

Bill Nack, in “Secretariat – The Making of a Champion” described how Nasrullah was “a rogue at the barrier and a rogue sometimes in the morning.”  Sometimes to motivate the horse to run, his handlers popped open an umbrella behind him.

John Sparkman of “The Pedigree Curmudgeon” colorfully described Nasrullah’s behavior at his first start as a three-year-old:

He refused to leave the paddock; he refused to break into a trot; he refused to respond to the blandishments of the friendly hack sent out on the course to kid him; he refused to do anything except behave like a spoiled child.

Nevertheless, Arthur B. “Bull” Hancock, Jr., of Claiborne Farm in Kentucky, seeking to inject new blood from the Nearco line into his stock, had tried twice to purchase Nasrullah. Finally, in what Bill Nack called “a masterstroke in American breeding,” Hancock put together a syndicate in 1949 that purchased the Irish stallion for $340,000. Its members comprised a “who’s who” of Thoroughbred breeding: Harry F. Guggenheim, Henry Carnegie Phipps of Wheatley Stable, Marion du Pont Scott and several others.     

Like a conquering hero, Nasrullah arrived on America’s shores in July 1950. His star status had soared after his son Noor defeated the great Triple Crown winner Citation in four stakes races.  Noor was named champion older male horse, as well as top money winner that year.

 As Nasrullah settled into his paddock at Claiborne Farm, the stallion in the adjoining paddock was also having a very good year. His name was Princequillo. His son, Hill Prince, out of Chris Chenery’s Meadow Stable foundation mare, Hildene, had won the 1950 Preakness and beaten Noor in the two-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup that year.

Nasrullah excelled in the breeding shed, siring 98 stakes winners. Among his most notable were: U.S. Racing Hall of Fame horses Bold Ruler, Noor and Nashua.

His most famous grandson, of course, was Secretariat, who was also the grandson of Princequillo on his dam’s side. Nasrullah topped the American sire list five times. Experts say he invigorated the blood of the American racehorse, infusing it with new fire and speed.

Nevertheless, his unruly behavior persisted over the years. He was known for “throwing a fit” if he was not the first stallion to be paraded out to visitors at Claiborne. He was the bane of veterinarians, who could not get close enough to even administer a routine shot. Even Nasrullah’s death on May 26, 1959, was dramatic, as described by Bill Nack in his book on Secretariat.

Nack noted that the stallion grooms heard Nasrullah nickering in his paddock just before he died.  Knowing that the bay stallion never nickered, they realized something was wrong and rushed to him. Just as the vet arrived, Nasrullah toppled over, dead from a burst ventricle in his heart. His son, Bold Ruler, went wild in his adjoining paddock, screaming and racing up and down the fence line. 

Nasrullah, at age 19, was the first horse to be buried intact in Claiborne's main horse cemetery, an honor later given to Princequillo. Thirty years later, on October 4, 1989, Nasrullah’s grandson Secretariat would die at the farm at age 19.  He too received full honors of being buried intact.  (Traditionally, only the head, hooves, and the heart of a racehorse are buried.)

Nasrullah, the irascible “Irish Rogue,” transmitted the spark for the “Big Red Flame,” the grandson who would become an American legend.

by Leeanne Meadows Ladin, Secretariat author/historian