Yankee Maid - 1944
As a broodmare, Elizabeth, by Peter The Great, was already immortalized by her great gelded son, Greyhound (1:55¼) and in Yankee Maid she had a second Hambletonian winner, sharing that feat with Margaret Arion. Purchased from Almahurst Farm by owner A. L. Derby of Wichita, Kansas, for a modest sum, Yankee Maid was lightly-raced at two. But she set a world record for two-year-old trotting fillies on a half-mile track of 2:06 3/4 and clinched juvenile honors with a race-off win at Lexington. Triumphs in the Matron, Stallion Stakes at North Randall and the National Stake, preceded her two-heat win in the Hambletonian, the third for driver-trainer Henry Thomas.
Yankee Maid was a half-sister to Greyhound (1935). Elizabeth, the dam of Yankee Maid and Greyhound, was by Peter The Great who is the leading broodmare sire of Hambletonian winners. By Volomite, Yankee Maid was the 12th of Elizabeth’s 16 foals. Fillies were 1-2 in the first heat and in the summary. Emily Scot, the second filly, was the dam of 1958 winner Emily’s Pride and the granddam of Noble Victory, the favorite in 1965. Yankee Maid’s caretaker, "Jimtown" Burbage, enjoyed a career association with champions. He also reportedly groomed Dark Rex, a three and five-gaited American Saddlebred champion, and 1933 Kentucky Derby winner Broker’s Tip. Hollywood star Jimmy Cagney presented the Hambletonian trophy as he had done in 1942. Thomas’ son Dick, a respected horsemen in his own right, recalled that his dad trained some horses for Cagney in California, and that Cagney and Broderick Crawford, who were great friends, would come out to the track and join the family in their box at Santa Anita.
