Rosalind - 1936
Rosalind, the sturdy daughter of Scotland and Alma Lee, represented the culmination of Ben White’s career as a trainer and driver. The soft-spoken Canadian with the magic feather touch on the reins brought out many champions and scored his second Hambletonian win with Rosalind, making him the first driver to score twice. Not only did Ben White train and drive this fabulous filly, he bred her as well and gave her to his son, Gibson, as an incentive to recover from a serious illness. There is no question that the medicine worked, as Gibson White later became his father’s assistant trainer and a winning driver in Grand Circuit competition. Victorious in six of her 10 starts at two, Rosalind clinched the two-year-old title decisively when she triumphed in the Junior Kentucky Futurity in a sparkling 2:03. The next year Rosalind won seven of her eight stakes engagements, her sole loss being to a stable mate. In the Hambletonian it was strictly a case of Rosalind first, and the rest nowhere, as Ben White moved his son’s filly right to the top and held sway thereafter, the best mile in 2:01¾, a stake mark. Gib White smilingly joined his father in the winner’s circle with the crowd wildly cheering the popular victory. The story of filly’s victory and Gib’s recovery are recounted in the Marguerite Henry classic, Born to Trot.
Ben White became the first and only breeder to also train and drive the winner. Mal Burroughs drove but did not train his homebred Malabar Man in 1997. Stanley Dancer was co-breeder of Egyptian Candor (1965), a horse he trained but did not drive. Trainer/driver Howard Beissinger’s wife, Ann, was the breeder of record on Speedy Crown (1971). Ben White gave the filly to his son "Gib" who was ill with tuberculosis and the boy’s enthusiastic interest in the filly was credited in part with his eventual recovery. The story of Rosalind and her young owner later became the subject of Marguerite Henry’s book Born To Trot. Attendance reported at nearly 45,000 may have been the largest crowd ever for a Hambletonian.
