At age three, he suffered the sole defeat in his career in the 1953 Kentucky Derby, but rebounded to win the Preakness, Belmont and Travers Stakes.

Retired to stud in 1955, he became a major sire whose offspring included champion Raise A Native and dual Classic winner Kauai King.

[7] Native Dancer inherited his gray coat, then quite rare in Thoroughbreds, through the female line to his fourth dam, La Grisette, a daughter of Roi Herode.

According to Charles Hatton of the Daily Racing Form, Native Dancer looked like a sprinter from the front and a stayer from the back.

[2] Trainer Bill Winfrey said the colt was "a regular Jekyll and Hyde" – ordinarily quiet and tractable but with a playful streak that could make him a handful.

Going off at odds of 7-5 in a field of nine, he settled into fourth place down the backstretch, then started a strong drive in the middle of the turn to win by 4+1⁄2 lengths.

[13] He followed up by winning the Grand Union Hotel Stakes on August 23, defeating two previously undefeated colts – Tahitian King and Lafango.

He had been hard pressed though – Guerin admitted that he had thought the colt was beaten with an eighth of a mile remaining when he was headed by Tahitian King.

[17] Native Dancer made his final start as a two-year-old in the East View Stakes at Jamaica on October 22 over a distance of 1+1⁄16 miles.

[19] The Turf and Sports Digest, polling 176 sportswriters, also awarded him Horse of the Year honors[20] However, the Daily Racing Form voted instead for One Count, winner of the Belmont and Jockey Club Gold Cup.

[22] In his three-year-old campaign, Native Dancer received a great deal of media attention leading up to the 1953 Kentucky Derby.

Native Dancer subsequently won the Preakness, Belmont and Travers Stakes, a feat accomplished until then only by Duke of Magenta, Grenada, Man o' War and Whirlaway.

Native Dancer finished the season with nine wins (all of them stakes races) from ten starts and was named Champion Three-Year-Old Colt.

[30] His main rival was supposed to have been Correspondent, who had won three straight, including the Blue Grass Stakes in which he set a track record.

Instead of mounting a single drive on the outside, Guerin changed position several times in the final quarter of a mile, costing the colt momentum.

"[33] Time magazine later reported, "When he lost the Kentucky Derby by a head, thousands turned from their TV screens in sorrow, a few in tears."

As a measure of Native Dancer's growing fame, Time added, "Hundreds of people, old and young, have sent him letters and greeting cards.

Native Dancer rated in fourth position on the rail, then started his move on the final turn, splitting between the two front runners.

This set a new tradition where the original Woodlawn Vase is displayed at Pimlico on Preakness day but otherwise resides at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Ram o' War set the early pace with Native Dancer biding his time in fourth place around the first turn.

"[42] To date, Native Dancer is one of only two "dual Classic winners" to come from the state of Maryland (the other being his son Kauai King, who won the 1966 Kentucky Derby and Preakness).

[42] Native Dancer responded to the challenge, winning the Dwyer, Arlington Classic, Travers and American Derby in quick succession.

[43] Native Dancer then traveled to Chicago for the Arlington Classic, run over a distance of a mile on a heavy track on July 18.

He now faced a new challenge: as an older horse, he would be expected to carry high weight imposts in the handicap format pervasive at the time.

His connections considered sending him to England to compete in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes if the weights got too high.

[61] Native Dancer finally returned to racing at Saratoga on August 16 in the Oneonta Handicap, run at a distance of seven furlongs over a sloppy track.

Veterinarian William Wright diagnosed the problem as a "bruised digital cushion, with a secondary inflammation of the bursae between the navicular and coffin bone."

Many consider the "Gray Ghost of Sagamore" to have been the first Thoroughbred television star and TV Guide ranked him as a top icon of the era".

In the mid-2000s, there had been a troubling number of high profile breakdowns, including that of Barbaro (who was distantly related to Native Dancer through his dam.)

As mitochondrial DNA is passed exclusively in the female line, this indicates a pedigree error occurred at some point between the Bazajet Mare's foaling in 1754 and La Chica's in 1930.