Colin
Sire	Commando
Grandsire	Domino
Dam	Pastorella
Damsire	Springfield
Sex	Stallion
Foaled	1905
Country	United States
Color	Brown
Breeder	Castleton Stud
Owner	James R. Keene
Trainer	James G. Rowe Sr.
Record	15:15–0–0
Earnings	$180,912[1]
Major wins
National Stallion Stakes (1907) Great Trial Stakes (1907) Champagne Stakes (1907) Brighton Junior Stakes (1907) Saratoga Special Stakes (1907) Grand Union Hotel Stakes (1907) Futurity Stakes (1907) Matron Stakes, colts' div. (1907) Flatbush Stakes (1907) Eclipse Stakes (1907) Produce Stakes colts' div. (1907) Withers Stakes (1908) Belmont Stakes (1908) Tidal Stakes (1908)
Awards
American Champion Two-Year-Old Male Horse (1907) American Horse of the Year (1907, 1908) American Champion 3-Year-Old Male Horse (1908)
Honors
United States Racing Hall of Fame (1956) #15 - Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century
Last updated on 20 August 2009

Colin (1905 – 1932) was an undefeated championAmericanThoroughbredracehorse who won all his 15 races including the 1908Belmont Stakes and was the 1907 and 1908Horse of the Year as well as the 1907Champion Two-Year-Old Male and 1908Champion 3-Year-Old Male and was inducted into theNational Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

In 1907, he swept the major two-year-old stakes races including theBelmont Futurity andChampagne Stakes and was the consensus Horse of the Year. His three-year-old campaign was cut short by injury but he was still Horse of the Year based on his three wins including theBelmont Stakes. As a sire, he suffered from fertility problems but still sired multiple stakes winners.

Colin was inducted into theNational Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1956. In theBlood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 Racehorses of the 20th Century, he was ranked number 15.

Colin was abrownstallion with one white sock, one pastern, one partial fetlock, and a blaze and snip on his face. He was foaled in 1905 atCastleton Stud inKentucky and was owned byLondon-born financierJames R. Keene. Colin was from the third crop of foals by the stakes winner and leading sireCommando (byDomino), who had been bred by James Keene. Colin's dam was theEnglish stakes-winning Pastorella (GB), by Springfield. She had been imported to the US byMarcus Daly and was purchased by Keene in 1901.

Colin was trained byHall of Fame inducteeJames G. Rowe Sr. Rowe had handled many top horses in his long career, includingSysonby,Hindoo (who was never unplaced), and the first filly to win theKentucky Derby,Regret. Rowe and his horsesMiss Woodford,Luke Blackburn,Whisk Broom II,Commando, andPeter Pan were inducted into the Hall of Fame.

James Keene was not initially enthusiastic about Colin, noting his disfiguring curb, or thoroughpin, meaning that the colt had an enlarged hock. He'd been just as disdainful of an earlier purchase: Colin's grandsire Domino, (another eventualHorse of the Year in 1893 and Hall of Famer), but his son,Foxhall Keene, bought Domino anyway.

A friend of Keene's, De Courcey Forbes, always named the Castleton foals. Colin was for "Poor Colin", a pastoral poem by the Englishpoet laureateNicholas Rowe, thus connecting the name of Colin's dam and the name of his trainer, who took a keen interest in his horses. A hands-on trainer, Rowe was famous for the personal attention he paid to his horses. He literally traveled in the same railroad car with them. Aware that Colin's swollen hock would give him trouble, Rowe attended to it with massages and cold water baths.

Consistently rated as one of the best horses inAmerican racing history, and a celebrity with both fans and horsemen, Colin started fifteen times in his two-year career and never lost. Twelve of these races came when he was a two-year-old. In an age that valued stamina and maturity, Colin was still viewed with awe by the horsemen of his time. Sportswriter Abram Hewitt said, "The blood surges, and the pulses quicken at the very sight of such Olympians on the track." Hewitt had "listened to old-time horsemen talk about Colin with an other-world expression on their faces." Colin would earnNational Champion honors as theAmerican Horse of the Year for 1907 and 1908. He was also America's Champion Three-Year-Old Male in 1908.

Colin's last victory came on June 20, 1908 in the Tidal Stakes at Sheepshead Bay, after which he was sent toEngland to race, but was pulled up lame in a workout and was retired.^[1]

Colin stood his first season in 1909 at Heath Stud, near Newmarket, England, for a fee of 98 guineas. He was neglected by the English breeders due to his American bloodlines. First in England, and then back in Kentucky after Keene died, Colin was plagued by infertility problems. In c. 1913, Colin was purchased for $30,000 by Wickliffe Stud, where he stood until the stud was dispersed in January 1918.Edward B. McLean then purchased the 13-year-old Colin for $5,100 to stand at his Belray Farm, nearMiddleburg, Virginia. He sired 11 stakes winners out of 81 foals in 23 seasons at stud, which translates into 14% of his get. His best galloper was Jock (1924 from Kathleen by *Sempronius; 17 wins and $95,255). His son Neddie was the paternal grandsire ofAlsab. Another was On Watch, the broodmare sireStymie.^[2]

Colin died in 1932 at the age of twenty-seven on Belray Farm near Middleburg, Virginia. His lifetime earnings amounted to $180,912.

Kent Hollingsworth admired Colin's career as a racehorse and observed the horses' potential in his book,The Great Ones.^[3] He said, "Great horses have been beaten by mischance, racing luck, injury and lesser horses running the race of their lives. None of these, however, took Colin. He was unbeatable."^[4]

Colin was inducted into theNational Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1956. InThe Blood-Horse magazine ranking of thetop 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions of the 20th Century, he was ranked #15. It was eighty years before another horse,Personal Ensign, retired unbeaten in America.

• List of leading Thoroughbred racehorses

• America's Champion Three-Year-Old Males
• Colin's Hall of Fame page
• James Rowe's Hall of Fame page, with photos

• Colin Wins 1908 Belmont Stakes

• 1905 racehorse births
• 1932 racehorse deaths
• Racehorses bred in Kentucky
• Racehorses trained in the United States
• Horse racing track record setters
• American Champion racehorses
• American Thoroughbred Horse of the Year
• United States Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame inductees
• Belmont Stakes winners
• Undefeated racehorses
• Thoroughbred family 19-b

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata