A Different Kind of Black-Eyed Susan & Preakness Double
May 14th, 2008By Jude T. Feld
Cartoonist “Bud” Fisher parlayed his popular Mutt and Jeff into a rare Black-Eyed Susan and Preakness Double
Harry Conway Fisher, “Bud†to his friends, was an American cartoonist who created the first successful daily comic strip in the United States. Born in Chicago, Fisher studied at the University of Chicago then went to work in San Francisco as a journalist and sketch artist in the sports department of the San Francisco Chronicle.
In 1907, he developed a comic strip character he called “Mr. A. Mutt” that became instantly popular with the paper’s readers. Later, Fisher added a second character he named “Jeff,” a tiny little man, the polar opposite of the tall and skinny Augustus Mutt.
The “Mutt and Jeff” comic strip gained such popularity that Fisher, who copyrighted the characters, received an offer to produce it for the San Francisco Examiner owned by William Randolph Hearst. That opportunity exposed the comic strip to a multitude of new audiences through Hearst’s numerous publications across the United States.
In 1913, he created the “Bud Fisher Film Corporation” and made over 300 “Mutt and Jeff” short comedies. “Mutt and Jeff” was also published as a comic book and the income from the strip’s multiple uses made Bud Fisher a very wealthy man.
Along the way, Fisher acquired a large stable of Thoroughbred racehorses, including the great American racemare Nellie Morse.
Sired by Luke McLuke, who won the 1914 Belmont Stakes, Nellie Morse was from the mare La Venganza, by the Australian multi-race winner, Abercorn.
Sent to the barn of Albert B. Gordon at age two, the filly won the Fashion Stakes at Belmont Park and was second in the Spinaway Stakes. In the Matron Stakes she finished ahead of future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee Princess Doreen but was second to Greentree Stables’ classy filly, Tree Top.
In 1924, at three-years-old, Nellie Morse finished second to Princess Doreen in the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs. She was then sent to Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course where she won the 1⅛ mile Pimlico Oaks, the former name of today’s Black-Eyed Susan Stakes. Just a few days later, racing against colts, Nellie Morse won the Preakness Stakes.
The fourth filly to win this American classic since its inception in 1873, she remains the last filly to have won what would become the second jewel of the Triple Crown.
Retired from racing to serve as a broodmare, Nellie Morse distinguished herself in that career as well, producing Count More, winner of the 1937 Ben Ali Stakes and Clark Handicap and Nellie Flag, who was the Champion Two-Year-Old Filly in 1934.
Nellie Morse, a legend of the American turf, died in 1941 at age twenty. She now has a stakes race at Laurel Park named in her honor.
