| Pride of Midnight was a noted show horse and
the leading sire of his time. Indeed the pride of Harlinsdale
Farm, he produced a legacy of world champion offspring in every
division including WC Pride's Generator. The Pride offspring
were renown for being talented, easy to train, pretty, and "fast
makers". In other words, they were ready to show quickly, most
as two year olds. Pride of Midnight was the product of
WGC Midnight Sun and Pride of Stanley. Midnight Sun was a
legend in his own time as well as now. Not only was he twice
World Grand Champion, but he also earned 13 blues at the National
Celebration. He was undoubtedly one of the most influential
sires of his time and has sired countless world champions.
In 1965 MIDNIGHT SUN
died. Harlinsdale Farms
had three colts to carry on his bloodlines: PRIDE OF MIDNIGHT,
SUN'S DARK BEAM and MIDNIGHT ALLEN. They were from the last crop of
MIDNIGHT SUN colts. They decided we would not let any of them go. The colts were broken out at
Harlinsdale and then sent to Dot Warren for finishing. It was decided that they
were all keepers. Their
judgment was vindicated; they all proved to be very good breeding
horses. When they were 4 years old, they were put into
service. PRIDE didn't
breed many mares until he was five, so they showed him the year he
was four. It was
unfortunate that PRIDE did not catch on early, but Mr. Harlin
believed in him and told people as early as 1971, "Believe me, this
horse is going to turn this industry around’.
PRIDE'S dam was owned
by Mr. Worrell at Solitude Stock Farm, but he was owned by
Harlinsdale Farms before he was registered. PRIDE had a funny
personality. He was pop-eyed and he stood up in the
cross-ties, he was a show horse from the day one. He could do a lot when Dot
Warren was riding him, but when they decided to take him to the
Celebration they brought him right back home and left him from that
day forward.
Harlinsdale Farms had
a hard time convincing folks that they had the horse of the future but Pride
had a lot of freedom up front.
At the time, the industry didn’t have the big foot as they do
now and it took a lot get a horse's foot up. But PRIDE could
do it with a lot of ease and
he had a natural kind of snort and show horse ways. The trouble was, a lot of
trainers put him down hard.
They said you can't fix [sore] his colts - they won't take
it. Such trainers were missing the message that Harlinsdale
Farms was trying to convey which was: "We've got a horse that you
don't need to fix that way.
He does it naturally." But they had a hard time. There
were some very vicious attacks against Harlinsdale Farms and
PRIDE OF MIDNIGHT during
that period. The result
was that over half of the colts PRIDE sired, were sired during the
last two years that he live.
To quote Bill Harlin,
“He was put down so hard by so many people "You can't
fix his colt”….That is a blight on our industry as far as I am
concerned.”
In 1979, PRIDE passed away after two colic attacks. That was
the last times Bill Harlin saw his father in tears. |
