If by “Hannibal Lecter” you mean someone who’s a killer, my nominees are:
Human:
A tie: Dale Baird and D. Wayne Lukas.
Dale Baird holds the record for the highest number of wins by a trainer, over 9,400 races. He trained in the West Virginia area, most recently based out of Mountaineer Park. Baird mostly trained horses he owned himself, and most of his winners were claimers from the bottom of the barrel. He bought and sold over 200 horses per year. The unfortunate thing is that a lot of Baird’s horses went direct from the racetrack to the kill pens of local stock auctions because by that time, they weren’t good for much else.
To give Baird his due, to train that many winners working with horses that were ‘way below top quality, the man had to know something about horses. But by every account that I’ve read and heard, to him horses were basically a commodity on which the only thing that mattered was making a profit.
D. Wayne Lukas earns my nomination because I believe that in big-league racing, he more than anyone else is responsible for an amplification of Baird’s ethic of profit being the most important thing. Lukas operated at the other end of the scale, but he preached the gospel that if you bought at the high end and raced the good ones you got until they couldn’t race anymore, you could pay for the duds and turn a profit by winning spectacularly as two-year-olds and early three-year-olds and syndicating them for stud duty while they were hot.
Lukas didn’t believe in stopping on a horse while that horse was going good. He also wasn’t interested in dealing with horses that were not precocious and didn’t possess brilliance. Not for him your basic older stayer; and I wish there was some way of knowing how many horses in his stable that couldn’t do what wanted were breakdowns before they had a chance to mature and come into their own.
The devilish thing is that Lukas’s clients did make money this way, and it changed the game forever. We’re reaping the crop from the seeds Lukas sowed as we watch horse after horse of late retiring after a brilliant Triple Crown effort, hustled off to stud because they’re either unsound or because if they raced any more, they might damage their reputations and their syndication value might decrease.
My nominee for Hannibal Lecter of horses: the Standardbred stallion Nevele Pride, who was one of the most wickedly vicious stallions of modern times.
Pride was a rogue when he started training; trainer/driver Stanley Dancer found the horse such a danger to handle that he had trouble getting a groom to handle the horse. Although the horse’s talent was apparent very early on, at one point it seemed that Pride would have to be gelded because otherwise nobody would handle him. A deal was struck with groom Andy Murphy: if he handled the irascible colt, he’d get a bonus payment when the colt went to stud.
It worked. Pride won the Hambletonian and was a champion, and went to stud at Castleton Farm in Kentucky.
I saw him there in 1985, and the office staff at Castleton regaled us with tales of how hard the horse was to handle. He wore his halter 24/7 for the simple reason that nobody dared get close enough to him to take it off. He was handled with a “bull-pole,” an 8- to 10-foot wooden pole with a snap at the end that fastened to his halter. The handler was able to stay far enough away to avoid getting bitten or kicked. We were told that when the halter slipped partly off over one of Pride’s ears, they held a “war party” to discuss how to go about getting it back on. It apparently took a lot of people and a lot of muscle to get the halter back on, and there were casualties.
Pride got loose once after a breeding session, and went after his groom, who ran out into the parking lot with the horse in hot pursuit. The groom dived under a parked car, and Pride got down on his knees to snake his head and neck under the car, trying to get the groom.
The paddock they kept Pride in was double fenced all the way around, with signs stating ‘This horse WILL bite, keep away’ all around. Pride was standing out in the paddock. Most stallions will either ignore visitors or, after a while, saunter over for a look-see. Pride immediately pinned his ears back, bared his teeth (no other way to describe it), ran to the inner fence, turned around and started lashing out with his heels. He then swapped ends and started snaking his neck and tossing his head, nostrils flared, teeth showing, eyes rolling white. Believe me, he left NO doubt at all about what he would do if you happened to come within reach. You’d be in pieces flung all over the paddock, with whatever was left a greasy wet spot when he finished stomping on you.
Absolutely a horse that would kill you if he got the chance. Literally.
Well according to this photograph of Dynaformer, preparing for a “date”, I would have to say that he deserves the honor to be nicknamed after that brilliant but insane man, Dr. Hannibal Lector, even though much of the research I did on Dynaformer turned up to be that he was not considered “mean” by everyone.
Scrolling down this website, you will see that someone else agreed with me in referring to the great stallion’s personality.
Referring to one of Dynaformer’s colts, geowarrior said “Awww, I love the little Dynaformer. I know Dynaformer is the equine Hannibal Lecter and not the most beautiful guy in the world but I love him anyway.”
But on the other hand, quoting from the June 8, 2002, “Throughbred Times”, Baffert said,
“War Emblem seems to have thrived during the rigors of the classic season, gaining weight on his lanky frame and developing even more of the attitude that has earned the temperamental colt the nickname “Hannibal Lecter” around the barn. “He’s got that attitude about him, which is great, and what makes him such a great horse is that he’s got that little mean spirit in him,”
But having been informed that Dynaformer bit off one of the fingers of his groom, I have to say that this very prolific stallion certainly was imitating Dr. Lector’s appetite for human flesh, as depicted in the film, “The Silence of the Lambs” I also thought the photo bears a strong resemblance to how Lecter was portrayed in that film.
Nevertheless I do think Dynaformer is a truly great horse. Just don’t let him mistake one of your fingers for a carrot. After all , horses are supposed to be vegetarians.
Roman Ruler, I saw him run in the Breeders Cup at Lone Star Park. Baffert says he had to take his hoof off and it looked like Hannibal Lector got him. Is this the right answer Vicki?
Is there a current star with that nickname or are you referring to War Emblem, who was ‘not so affectionately’ called that by Baffert and the rest of his handlers back in 2002?
horse race
If by “Hannibal Lecter” you mean someone who’s a killer, my nominees are:
Human:
A tie: Dale Baird and D. Wayne Lukas.
Dale Baird holds the record for the highest number of wins by a trainer, over 9,400 races. He trained in the West Virginia area, most recently based out of Mountaineer Park. Baird mostly trained horses he owned himself, and most of his winners were claimers from the bottom of the barrel. He bought and sold over 200 horses per year. The unfortunate thing is that a lot of Baird’s horses went direct from the racetrack to the kill pens of local stock auctions because by that time, they weren’t good for much else.
To give Baird his due, to train that many winners working with horses that were ‘way below top quality, the man had to know something about horses. But by every account that I’ve read and heard, to him horses were basically a commodity on which the only thing that mattered was making a profit.
D. Wayne Lukas earns my nomination because I believe that in big-league racing, he more than anyone else is responsible for an amplification of Baird’s ethic of profit being the most important thing. Lukas operated at the other end of the scale, but he preached the gospel that if you bought at the high end and raced the good ones you got until they couldn’t race anymore, you could pay for the duds and turn a profit by winning spectacularly as two-year-olds and early three-year-olds and syndicating them for stud duty while they were hot.
Lukas didn’t believe in stopping on a horse while that horse was going good. He also wasn’t interested in dealing with horses that were not precocious and didn’t possess brilliance. Not for him your basic older stayer; and I wish there was some way of knowing how many horses in his stable that couldn’t do what wanted were breakdowns before they had a chance to mature and come into their own.
The devilish thing is that Lukas’s clients did make money this way, and it changed the game forever. We’re reaping the crop from the seeds Lukas sowed as we watch horse after horse of late retiring after a brilliant Triple Crown effort, hustled off to stud because they’re either unsound or because if they raced any more, they might damage their reputations and their syndication value might decrease.
My nominee for Hannibal Lecter of horses: the Standardbred stallion Nevele Pride, who was one of the most wickedly vicious stallions of modern times.
Pride was a rogue when he started training; trainer/driver Stanley Dancer found the horse such a danger to handle that he had trouble getting a groom to handle the horse. Although the horse’s talent was apparent very early on, at one point it seemed that Pride would have to be gelded because otherwise nobody would handle him. A deal was struck with groom Andy Murphy: if he handled the irascible colt, he’d get a bonus payment when the colt went to stud.
It worked. Pride won the Hambletonian and was a champion, and went to stud at Castleton Farm in Kentucky.
I saw him there in 1985, and the office staff at Castleton regaled us with tales of how hard the horse was to handle. He wore his halter 24/7 for the simple reason that nobody dared get close enough to him to take it off. He was handled with a “bull-pole,” an 8- to 10-foot wooden pole with a snap at the end that fastened to his halter. The handler was able to stay far enough away to avoid getting bitten or kicked. We were told that when the halter slipped partly off over one of Pride’s ears, they held a “war party” to discuss how to go about getting it back on. It apparently took a lot of people and a lot of muscle to get the halter back on, and there were casualties.
Pride got loose once after a breeding session, and went after his groom, who ran out into the parking lot with the horse in hot pursuit. The groom dived under a parked car, and Pride got down on his knees to snake his head and neck under the car, trying to get the groom.
The paddock they kept Pride in was double fenced all the way around, with signs stating ‘This horse WILL bite, keep away’ all around. Pride was standing out in the paddock. Most stallions will either ignore visitors or, after a while, saunter over for a look-see. Pride immediately pinned his ears back, bared his teeth (no other way to describe it), ran to the inner fence, turned around and started lashing out with his heels. He then swapped ends and started snaking his neck and tossing his head, nostrils flared, teeth showing, eyes rolling white. Believe me, he left NO doubt at all about what he would do if you happened to come within reach. You’d be in pieces flung all over the paddock, with whatever was left a greasy wet spot when he finished stomping on you.
Absolutely a horse that would kill you if he got the chance. Literally.
horse race
Well according to this photograph of Dynaformer, preparing for a “date”, I would have to say that he deserves the honor to be nicknamed after that brilliant but insane man, Dr. Hannibal Lector, even though much of the research I did on Dynaformer turned up to be that he was not considered “mean” by everyone.
Scrolling down this website, you will see that someone else agreed with me in referring to the great stallion’s personality.
Referring to one of Dynaformer’s colts, geowarrior said “Awww, I love the little Dynaformer. I know Dynaformer is the equine Hannibal Lecter and not the most beautiful guy in the world but I love him anyway.”
But on the other hand, quoting from the June 8, 2002, “Throughbred Times”, Baffert said,
“War Emblem seems to have thrived during the rigors of the classic season, gaining weight on his lanky frame and developing even more of the attitude that has earned the temperamental colt the nickname “Hannibal Lecter” around the barn. “He’s got that attitude about him, which is great, and what makes him such a great horse is that he’s got that little mean spirit in him,”
But having been informed that Dynaformer bit off one of the fingers of his groom, I have to say that this very prolific stallion certainly was imitating Dr. Lector’s appetite for human flesh, as depicted in the film, “The Silence of the Lambs” I also thought the photo bears a strong resemblance to how Lecter was portrayed in that film.
Nevertheless I do think Dynaformer is a truly great horse. Just don’t let him mistake one of your fingers for a carrot. After all , horses are supposed to be vegetarians.
Troublesniffer
A Fan of Barbaro Forever
horse race
Seeing as my husband is dead I would hardly call this a great question.
His Loving Wife
Dale
horse race
Roman Ruler, I saw him run in the Breeders Cup at Lone Star Park. Baffert says he had to take his hoof off and it looked like Hannibal Lector got him. Is this the right answer Vicki?
horse race
Steve Assmussmen, he is one of the biggest ****** i have ever met but he one of the best trainers of all time.
horse race
Is there a current star with that nickname or are you referring to War Emblem, who was ‘not so affectionately’ called that by Baffert and the rest of his handlers back in 2002?