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Drongo (horse)
Australian racehorse
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Drongo (1 August 1920 — after 18 June 1926) was a famous Australian thoroughbred racehorse. He is most well-known for being the origin behind the Australian slang term 'drongo' to mean someone who's 'clumsy', 'slow-witted', or even a 'no-hoper'.
Background
Drongo was a bay horse who was based in Melbourne. He was sired by Lanius, a stud from Ireland, and was born to the British-bred mare Lys d'Or.
He was named after the Papua New Guinean bird the spangled drongo.
Racing career
Drongo's first race was in 1923. Before the Melbourne Cup of that year, it was reported that his racing silks would be black with a blue sash and a black cap.
A contemporary news report records Drongo as having placed second five times and third seven times, but gives no numbers of starts, recent news articles have claimed he had 37 starts. However, Drongo is only recorded as having run in 31 races over his career.
By the end of his 3 year long career, he had earned £2,200 (approximately £120,059 today).
During 1924 he stayed at George Tantram's stables in Caulfield, Victoria. The resident dog 'Brownie' was reported as being a companion to Drongo.
Retirement
Drongo retired in 1925, his last race being the S.A.J.C. Handicap where he placed second.
In 1926 it was reported that he had been bitten by a venomous snake and subsequently died, however, later that same year it was reported that he was still alive and recovering.
In popular culture
During his career, Australian cartoonist Samuel Garnet Wells depicted him in a number of his popular political cartoons as 'Drongo Mk. I', ridiculing the ongoing support behind him despite having never won a race.
His name began being used as an insult after his retirement, Australian Folklore describes that "Thereafter, anyone slow-witted or clumsy was referred to as a 'drongo'," with the name becoming nationally used as a reference to 'no-hopers' during World War II. The poet Len Fox wrote a poem about him in 1958 where he mentions that not all of us are winners and so aren't that different from Drongo.
Pedigree
In the pedigree, symbols before a horse's name mean the horse was foaled in one country but subsequently stood at stud in another
Drongo was inbred 3 × 3 to St. Simon, meaning that this stallion appears twice in the third generation of his pedigree.