Last spring, I was at the Kentucky Derby with a friend who was new to racing. My friend asked, “Why aren’t there any white horses in the race?” I laughed and replied, “There is no such thing as white Thoroughbreds.”
In my mind, my friend was dreaming of unicorn-like creatures that could fly past their rivals and charm the crowd with their fairy-tale mystique. I agreed that it would be nice if the racing world had such gems, but there are no “unicorns” in the real world or on the race track.
Then, a few weeks ago, a white Thoroughbred showed up.
In a Lexington Herald-Leader article, Amy Wilson featured a white Thoroughbred in Kentucky. The horse wasn’t a “unicorn” in the fairy-tale sense, but he was still a majestic find.
“Chief White Fox,” is the six-month-old white colt that proved me wrong. He was born to a brown mare named “Diamonds and Lace” at Elmhurst Farm. The colt’s father, “The White Fox,” was also a white Thoroughbred from a mare named “Patchen Beauty.”
Soon after, I learned that Patchen Beauty is part of a flurry of white Thoroughbreds foaled at Patchen Wilkes Farm.
I decided to visit Patchen Wilkes Farm, the home of the founding line of white Thoroughbreds in Kentucky.
The story behind these magnificent horses is nothing short of magic. In 1963, Patchen Wilkes Farm registered the first white Thoroughbred in North America with The Jockey Club. Her name was “White Beauty” and she seemed to simply “appear” from a union between two ordinary brown horses.
Barry Ezrine, Farm Manager at Patchen Wilkes, explained that the rare coloring of White Beauty was a mutation at the time of her birth. The mutation evolved into a recessive gene, which is apparent from the lineage of White Beauty.
In the foyer at Patchen Wilkes, a large painted portrait of White Beauty hangs alone in remembrance of the founding matriarch of the white Thoroughbred line at the farm.
The legacy of White Beauty takes shape in a patchwork of photos on the adjacent walls. There are pictures of white Thoroughbreds racing, playing in the fields and posing on the front page of the newspapers. It is as if you have entered the gates of a fairy-tale castle.
In the fields, a few white Thoroughbreds graze among their brown counterparts. These white wonders have left their own mark in the world of racing.
Patchen Beauty won two races during her career and has delivered five white foals. Today, she resides at the farm along with her snow-white daughter, “Spot of Beauty.” They are both currently pregnant.
Patchen Beauty’s son, “Patchen Prince,” stands guard in the front paddock of the farm. During his career, he won two races, placed twice and showed in three of his thirteen outings. The stark-white gelding is a gentle presence at the farm, greeting guests, accepting kisses and posing for photos.
Yet, the white Thoroughbreds are more than simple figures of beauty.
They are racehorses.
And, they continue to strive to prove their worth in the racing world. “White Prince,” the son of Patchen Beauty, is currently attempting to break his maiden as a two-year-old at Turfway Park. He is anticipated to make his next start on December 3rd.
When I marveled at the idea of a white Thoroughbred winning a major race, Ezrine didn’t count out the possibility of fairy-tale ending. “There’s always Seattle Slew,” he remarked with a playful smile.
The six-month-old Chief White Fox is pointing toward a racing career as well, according to his owner, Paul Brown. During my interview with Brown, he remarked that white Thoroughbreds would make a great holiday story.
In the spirit of his remark, I joked with Brown as his white colt swirled around the paddock, “Who do you think could pull a sleigh faster between a reindeer and your horse?” He glanced at his spirited colt and answered with a twinkle in his eye, “Chief White Fox.”
I hope he’s right.
Yet, I’ve learned not to doubt white Thoroughbreds.
They certainly exist. I simply failed to imagine that possibility.
Now that I have seen them, I imagine the possibilities they behold.
Want to see the White Throughbreds with your own eyes? Click here to view our holiday video. To view Patchen Prince in his maiden race last year, click here to view the video.
With the pink nose, I would suspect that these awesome white Thoroughbreds also have pink skin around the eyes and underneath their body hair. Does the breeder consider these albino Thoroughbreds?
Hi Liz. They don’t seem to consider them albino Thoroughbreds because they have brown eyes. (There may be other reasons, but that was the big question a lot of people asked me to figure out if they were albinos.) Thanks for reading the article!
I have photos of a white thoroughbred that was in training with Liane Davis a couple of years ago up at Hawthorne. It was a homely looking thing…
I live in Lexington and I see there is a white TB weanling in a paddock at a farm I pass by every day to see my horses. Just off of Military Pike…
What a beautiful photo, Wendy! Thank you for sharing it.
(I love the red halter!)
The White Thoroughbreds in my article are all in Lexington. If you’re driving down Winchester Road, you’ve probably seen them!
While many of the white TBs are from the Patchen line, there is another line of whites that come from the Puchilingui line such as Bright White (incorrectly registered as gray; he can’t be gray/has no gray parents…just one of the quirks of the JC paperwork system at the time. The whites have blue or brown eyes, no pink…so not albinos.
Thanks for the info, Christine! I didn’t realize they could have blue eyes… Now I’m curious to find a one of them!
we have 2 whites horses here
White Waterlily (full TB)
at birth
http://s82.photobucket.com/albums/j276/camohn03/?action=view¤t=LilyTrot.jpg
http://s82.photobucket.com/albums/j276/camohn03/?action=view¤t=LilyTrot2days.jpg
at 2 months
http://s82.photobucket.com/albums/j276/camohn03/?action=view¤t=Lily2mos.jpg
and
White Tie Affair (3/4 TB: same sire as Lily above)
as a weanling
http://s82.photobucket.com/albums/j276/camohn03/?action=view¤t=JuniorandLila101707cropped.jpg
and coming 2
http://s82.photobucket.com/albums/j276/camohn03/?action=view¤t=007.jpg
my 2 whites both have one blue and one brown eye
Thanks for sharing the beautiful photos, Christine! Your horses are absolutely stunning!
Bright white
http://www.pedigreequery.com/bright+white
has a pic on PQ.
The sabino (homozygous for sabino) comes from both Puchilingui on the top and Artic Squaw and her dam Artic Ella. Those 2 mares were both white.
I had another Paint mare that was 93% TB and she was white as well. She had TEN crosses to Nearco in her 9 gen peidgree…so I am pretty sure that Nearco had a lot to do with the white TBs.
what I was trying to say above about sabino that didn’t come out right is that the white horses are homozygous for the sabino overo gene. They have a genetic test for one sabino gene (studies done a Gluck) now but there are 2 or 3 different sabino genes so: all homozygous sabino horses are white but not all white horses test positive for sabino. Thus….some of the white horses probably have the sabino gene there is not a test for yet. This would make sense since there is more than one family where white horses come from.
Just to help everyone understand, there are NO albinos in equines. There are white horses, grey horses, cream horses and other light colors, but no albinos. All the light colored horses are coat color modifications. Albino is a lack of pigmentation which is different. Some people make the mistake of calling a white colored horse an albino, but that is incorrect.