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Oil on canvas Signed, inscribed "Paris, 1929" and "Sun Briar, 1915. By Sweet Briar-Sundridge. New Market, USA" Provenance: Normandy Farm, Pennsylvania Strassburger Family Willis Sharpe Kilmer was so infatuated with Sun Briar that he named his training facility in honor of the French-born horse and sent his agent to Europe to find prospective mares before he had even run a race. The U.S. champion 2-year-old colt of 1917, Sun Briar was an overwhelming favorite to win the 1918 Kentucky Derby. As a 3-year-old, he went through a training slump, and trainer Henry McDaniel went in search of a partner to push him. The horse he settled on was the then little-known Exterminator. In the lead up to the Derby, Exterminator was training better than Sun Briar, so Sun Briar was pulled from the race, opening the way to Exterminator's victory. By the Saratoga meet in the fall, Sun Briar was back in form. In the Travers Stakes he became the first horse to defeat three winners of American Triple Crown races from that same year in a single race: Belmont Stakes winner Johren (second), Preakness Stakes winner War Cloud (third), and, of course, Exterminator (fourth). Continuing this success, he was named U.S. champion older male in 1919. The Hall of Famer Sun Beau was the most notable of his progeny, being a three-time U.S. champion older male (1929, 1930, 1931) and the all-time leader in race earnings upon his retirement. It is through Pompey that he appears in Secretariat's line. Ignac Konrad (Hungarian/French, 1894-1969) Konrad was a painter, sculptor, and an engraver. He studied at the Fine Arts Academy in Budapest in his native Hungary. After serving seven years as a prisoner of war in Russia during World War I, he returned to Budapest and became a professor in 1921. He painted the Thoroughbreds of the foremost Hungarian stables. He was commissioned by American Thoroughbred breeder Ralph Beaver Strassburger to paint Man o' War, Fair Play, High Time, Bubbling Over, Black Servant, and as many as five other stallions.