Vagrant (horse)

Vagrant (May 17, 1873 – c.1890) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse best known for his 1876 Kentucky Derby win. He was the first of nine geldings to win the Kentucky Derby and was a white-stockinged bay colt sired by Virgil out of the mare Lazy (by Scythian (GB)). Virgil was notable for siring successful nineteenth-century race horses and stood at Milton H. Sanford's Preakness Stud in Lexington, Kentucky. Through his sire, Vagrant is related to two other early Kentucky Derby winners, Hindoo (1881) and Ben Ali (1886).

Racing career
While Virgil was still a little known sire, Vagrant was sold for $250 to Thomas J. Nichols at the Preakness Stud 1874 yearling sale. A promising two-year-old, Vagrant won five of six starts in 1875, including the Belle Meade Stakes, the Alexander Stakes and the Sanford Stakes, and sharing the title of U.S. Champion 2-Year-Old Colt with Parole that year.

In 1876, Vagrant won three of his four starts, becoming U.S. Champion 3-Year-Old Colt.[3],[4} After he won the Phoenix Hotel Stakes, Vagrant was purchased by William Backhouse Astor, Jr. for $7,000, an impressive figure for a thoroughbred of that era.[4]

The second Kentucky Derby was run on a fast track with a field of 11 horses.[2] Vagrant won the Derby, with Robert Swim up, by two lengths over the betting favorite, Parole, winning a total of $2,950.[2]

Although Vagrant won the Grand Exposition Stakes in Philadelphia later in 1876, he injured his leg in the race and was rested for the 1877 season. He returned to racing in 1878.

James J. Bevins purchased Vagrant in the 1880s and the horse raced for Bevins until 1882, when Vagrant became very lame after a race at Jerome Park Racetrack in the Bronx, New York. Vagrant's racing stats list only one start in 1883, indicating that he was permanently retired from racing at age ten.

Vagrant was widely rumored to have been a vegetable cart horse in Lexington after his racing career, having been sold into this service sometime after 1883.

A 1910 Daily Racing Form article states that Vagrant died at around 17 years of age (c. 1890) while being used as a saddle horse for a woman who lived on Long Island, New York.