Rare white Thoroughbred wins at Mountaineer

Chief White Fox, one of only a small handful of Thoroughbreds to be registered as “white” by The Jockey Club, broke his maiden on July 1 at Mountaineer Park in his ninth career start.

The 3-year-old son of The White Fox bested the runner-up by 5 ¼ lengths in the one-mile race under jockey Marco Ccamaque. He covered the distance in 1:42.92 over a track rated fast as the favorite.

With the victory, Chief White Fox increased his earnings to $16,091 from nine career starts in Kentucky and West Virginia. This marked the first time that he finished in the money.

“He’s been a hard one to train,” said Paul Brown Jr., the colt’s owner, breeder, and trainer, “But when it comes to racing, Chief White Fox is a professional, 100 percent.”

White is the rarest color in the Thoroughbred registry, a genetic mutation that is dominantly inherited. Diamonds and Lace, Chief White Fox’s dam, is a dark bay or brown Shirttail Flying mare with no white horses in her pedigree. Chief White Fox, her first white foal, is her third winner from as many offspring to race.

However, late sire The White Fox comes from a long line of registered white horses in the Patchen Wilkes Farm breeding program. Seven of the 10 foals by the deceased son of Pioneering are registered as white. Three have raced, with two winners; led by gray or roan gelding Patchen Fox, who has won four of 10 starts for earnings of $54,811.

Chief White Fox is the first white foal by The White Fox to win a race. The colt was born and raised at Brown’s Elmhurst Farm in Lexington, Ky.

“I condition him at Keeneland’s Thoroughbred Training Center on Paris Pike,” Brown said. “There have been a lot of show horse people who want to breed to him. But I’m going to keep racing him – at least for the time being.”