Hungarian Heritage Review, 1986 (15. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1986-01-01 / 1. szám
JANUARY 1986 HUNGARIAN HERITAGE REVIEW 15 Jlfpaiurp of tíjo 3®torttJj Kincsem, whose track record has never been equalled to this very day. KINCSEM: THE EQUINE HEROINE OF HUNGARY- BY -PAUL PULITZER It is still there in the Guinness Book of Records: “VICTORIES. The Horse with the best recorded won-less record was Kincsem, a Hungarian mare foaled in 1874, who was unbeaten in 54 races (1876-79), including the English Goodwood Cup of 1878.“ In horse-racing circles throughout the world Kincsem is still referred to as the “Wondermare” and as “Kincsem, the Unbeatable.” Indeed, in Hungary today Kincsem is regarded as a national heroine. And her tale is worth the telling. The story starts at Tapioszentmarton, the family estate of Erno Blaskovich. Erno was the fifth son of a landed and wealthy aristocrat named Bertalan Blaskovich. Erno and his brothers were raised in a manner befitting young aristocrats, except that at harvest time they were expected to work in the fields gathering the crops. Actually Erno himself was absent from the fields of Tapioszentmarton during harvest time only once in his life. That was when he accompanied his then famous mare Kincsem to England, France and Germany. On the death of his father, Erno Blaskovich chose as his particular estate the rolling hills and valleys of Tapioszentmarton. He knew that here were grown the best oats in Hungary, and that the best horses and been bred here since ancient times. The rough land was especially suited to Erno’s methods of horse training. He liked to keep his thoroughbreds constantly on the move, and he felt that flat, smooth land covered with lush feed would make “hothouse flowers” out of horses bred there. In 1874 one of Erno Blaskovich’s favorite mares, Waternymph, gave birth to two foals. Of the two the one which attracted attention was a skinny, awkward, liver-yellow filly to which Blaskovich immediately gave the name Kincsem, “My Treasure”. And the ungainly little creature, feeding on the famous oats of Tapioszentmarton, grew stronger and bigger. When she was one year old, Blaskovich took her to the city of God where one of the most famous horse trainers in Europe, an Englishman named Robert Hesp, lived and worked. Hesp, who had already won considerable fame in Hungary because of his gallantry in the nation’s unsuccessful fight for freedom from the Austrian Empire, had settled down in —continued next page
