Edward Troye

Painted for James A. Grinstead, Lexington, Kentucky
Major Barak G. Thomas
Acquired by The Jockey Club, 1907

Alexander Mackay-Smith, The Race Horses of America, 1832-1872, Portraits and Other Paintings by Edward Troye, 1981, pp. 109. 241. 311, 322, 333, 376, 432.
Speed Art Museum, Tales from the Turf: the Kentucky Horse, 1825-1950, 2019.

Troye painted this portrait of Lightning, a grey stallion by Hedgeford from Blue Bonnet, on May 14, 1869 for James A. Grinstead, a banker, horse breeder, and, beginning in 1845, the owner and operator of Walnut Hill Stud Farm in Lexington, Kentucky. As a three year old, Lightning won the Produce Stakes at Lexington and later in the year walked over for a sweepstakes at Natchez, Mississippi. The next year, at the Metairie Course, New Orleans, he won two Jockey Club purses, the more notable being on April 6, four mile heats for $1500, when he won in straight heats, beating the great horse Planet. He was sent South during the Civil War to avoid service and kept in a dark stable that poorly affected his eyes and left him blind, explaining the haze in his eye.