Patchen’s Beauty Is a 2-Year-Old Pure White Filly Whose Place in History Was Guaranteed at Birth

She’s untested as a racehorse and comes from a line of also-rans, but Patchen Beauty’s place in history is secure.

The filly’s fame was guaranteed since birth, when she literally appeared as a horse of a different color. The 2-year-old is pure white--making her only the ninth white thoroughbred registered with the Jockey Club.

“I think she’s a celebrity, but she’s kept her head,” said her owner, Warren Rosenthal. “She knows she gets a lot of attention. She even gets attention from the other horses. They look at her a little bit funny, too.”

Rosenthal said his young prize is a “sweet tempered horse.”

“Of course she’s been spoiled since she was born,” he said. “So she’s very calm and easy to handle and enjoys being patted.”

The filly is stabled at Churchill Downs’ off-track barns at Sports Spectrum in Louisville, Ky., and is being prepared for her maiden race at Churchill’s fall meet.

It wasn’t purely accidental that Patchen Beauty was born pure white at Rosenthal’s Patchen Wilkes Farm at Lexington. Her mother and great-grandmother also were white. Her sire, Hatchet Man, was gray.

Her great-grandmother, White Beauty, became the first white thoroughbred registered with the Jockey Club. Rosenthal didn’t own the white-haired matriarch but owns the filly’s mother, Precious Beauty.

“There is a very strong recessive gene that runs through this family from White Beauty,” Rosenthal said. “It is amazing that after this many generations you still see a white horse pop up.”

Rosenthal hopes that Patchen Beauty doesn’t emulate her mother and great-grandmother as a runner. White Beauty reached the winner’s circle just once, and Rosenthal said that was “by accident.”

“Her problem was that every time she’d come around the turn toward the grandstand, the crowd would be in such an uproar and she, too, was spoiled, and she would pull out to go to the grandstand to see the people,” he said.

Her only victory came on a cold, wet fall day when attendance was sparse at Keeneland, so there was little crowd noise to distract her. Another reason for her futility may have been she was only strong for a few furlongs, and would run out of steam in making the turn, Rosenthal said.

The racing career of Patchen Beauty’s mother was even less distinguished. She raced less than one season without a victory.

“That’s why we’re not getting excited about this horse,” Rosenthal said.

The filly’s sire, however, did gain success as a racehorse. Hatchet Man won 10 of 32 races and earned about $359,000 in three years before he died in 1996.

White thoroughbreds may generally fare poorly on the racetrack, but they are still a rare sight to behold, Bishop said.

“They are kind of nice to look at,” he said. “They’re something unusual, something that’s not going to come along too often. So when they run, people should go out and take a look at them.”

Patchen Beauty’s debut is a few weeks away. Her trainer, Steve Morguelan, said she has gone a distance of five-eights-of-a-mile in a couple of workouts. It’s too soon to tell how she will do, he said.

“As far as her being a real top horse, I haven’t seen that. We hope she’s going to be a useful horse and win a few races,” Morguelan said.

“She’s kind of got an even gait to her. I would hope she would run long because she doesn’t seem like she’s really all that quick out of the gate. So I would hope she would go ahead and stretch out and run long.”

Rosenthal said it’s the trainer’s decision when to race her.

“My pride will be satisfied if she walks out on the track,” he said.

Her racing ability is uncertain, but her future away from the track is set. Once she retires, she’ll lead a comfortable life at Patchen Wilkes Farm.

“So she will come back here and get in our broodmare band,” Rosenthal said. “But hopefully she will have done something on the track before then.”