Editing Northern Dancer (section)

==Background==
Northern Dancer was a [[Bay (horse)|bay]] [[stallion]] with a crooked white [[Horse markings#Facial markings|blaze]] and three white [[Horse markings#Leg markings|socks]].<ref name="KingOfCanada">{{cite web |title=The King of Canada: Northern Dancer |url=https://horsenetwork.com/2017/06/king-canada-northern-dancer/ |first1=John |last1=Wilkinson |website=Horse Network |access-date=13 January 2020 |date=28 June 2017}}</ref> He was bred in [[Oshawa, Ontario]], by Canadian business magnate [[E. P. Taylor|Edward P. Taylor]], owner of Windfields Farm. He was from the first crop of [[Nearctic (horse)|Nearctic]] and the first foal out of the mare [[Natalma]], whose sire was [[Native Dancer]].<ref name="Nearctic"/><ref name="Almahmoud" />

All Thoroughbreds in the Northern Hemisphere have an official birth date of January 1 but Northern Dancer was foaled late in the season, on May 27, 1961. Younger than most of his age cohort, he was only {{hands|14}} high{{efn|The average height for a Thoroughbred, measured at the [[withers]], is about 16 hands (64 inches)}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Pedigree Analysis: Is Bigger Always Better? |url=https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/108817/pedigree-analysis-is-bigger-always-better |website=BloodHorse |access-date=5 April 2020 |first=Anne|last=Peters|date=13 March 2015|language=en}}</ref> when Windfields Farm offered all of its [[Yearling (horse)|yearlings]] for sale at its annual auction. Thus, despite a strong pedigree and good [[Horse conformation|conformation]], Northern Dancer did not find a buyer at his [[Canadian dollar|Can$]]25,000 reserve price. As a result, Northern Dancer stayed in the Windfields Farm racing stable.<ref name=KingOfCanada /><ref name="CHoF" />

At maturity, Northern Dancer had powerful hindquarters along with excellent balance and agility. His stallion listings showed his height as {{hands|15.2|lk=off}}, but most horsemen who had met him estimated his adult height as between {{hands|15|lk=off}} and {{hands|15.1|lk=off}}.<ref name=ACP /> Shortly before the Kentucky Derby at age three, he weighed {{convert|940|lb|kg}}.<ref name=NYT-KDerby /> Like his sire Nearctic and grandsire [[Nearco]] before him, Northern Dancer had a dominant and sometimes unruly temperament. "He wasn't mean, but he would wheel and do some tricks", said Joe Thomas, who later managed the horse's stud career. Trainer [[Horatio Luro]] originally wanted to [[Gelding|geld]] the [[colt (horse)|colt]] because "he was feisty", but Taylor refused.<ref name="Kocher" />

Referring to the horse's diminutive stature, Sportswriter Jim Murray of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' wrote: "Northern Dancer is the kind of colt who, if you saw him in your living room, you'd send for a trap and put cheese in it. He's so little, a cat would chase him. But he's so plucky there's barely room in him for his heart. His legs are barely long enough to keep his tail off the ground. He probably takes a hundred more strides than anyone else, but he's harder to pass than a third martini."<ref name=Kocher />