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Lot # 1429: 1985 Kentucky Derby Original Artwork by Peb

Category: Horse Racing

Starting Bid: $200.00

Bids: 1 (Bid History)

Time Left: Auction closed
Lot / Auction Closed




This lot is closed. Bidding is not allowed.

Item was in Auction "2024 Winter Classic",
which ran from 2/25/2024 10:00 AM to
3/16/2024 10:00 PM



Presented is 1985 Kentucky Derby original artwork by "Peb," the artistic nickname of French American artist and cartoonist Pierre Bellocq. Peb was born in France, and as a youth, he regularly tagged along with his father, who worked at the local racetrack in Maisons-Laffitte. Young Pierre spent endless hours sketching and drawing horses and racetrack denizens. At age 19, one of Peb's cartoons was published in France Courses, a French racing publication. That breakthrough launched his career. After moving to the United States in 1955, Peb was working as a staff cartoonist for the Morning Telegraph and the Daily Racing Form, and his career blossomed. The offered artwork measures a visible 10.25x22.25", attractively framed and matted to 18x29.8". The backstory of the '85 Kentucky Derby is that Robert Brennan, the owner of the newly reopened Garden State Racetrack, in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, offered a two-million-dollar bonus to the owner of any horse that won all of the following four races: Both the Cherry Hill Mile Stakes, at Garden State on April 6th and the Garden State Stakes, on April 20th; the Kentucky Derby; the Jersey Derby, Garden State Racetrack's premier event, on May 27th. Thus, when thoroughbred Spend a Buck went for the bonus, Hilton Farm, the owner, decided to skip both other legs of the Triple Crown, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes, at Aqueduct, and concentrate on the three Garden State races and the Kentucky Derby. Spend a Buck won the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs with a still-record time of 2:00 and 1/5th and went on to win on May 27th at Garden State to win the two-million-dollar bonus. The 1985 situation with the Kentucky Derby winner not participating in the other two legs of racing's Triple Crown resulted in greatly increased bonuses for future Triple Crown winners so that the owners of top thoroughbreds would be enticed to enter Triple Crown races. The colorful, cartoon-like artwork cleverly reflects the backstory of Spend a Buck's unusual 1985 journey, by showing an "INTERSTATE '85 to Kentucky" and various turn-offs and detours that were necessary for Spend a Buck to win. Spend a Buck's competitors, some of which were Do It Again Dan, Irish Sur, and I Am The Game, are depicted as following in Spend a Buck's dust. This is an original artwork signed and dated by the artist. It was gifted to Spend-A-Buck's owner, Dennis Diaz, by Peb. The eye-catching artwork is in NRMT condition.

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