Bred by A. J. Alexander and foaled at his Woodburn Stud, he was sired by the English-bred stallion, Australian, who was in turn the son of West Australian, England's first Triple Crown winner, out of Aerolite by Lexington.

[1] Spendthrift was bought by Daniel Swigert for $1,000 (equal to about $30,000 today) at the Woodburn yearling sale and named for Swigert's wife's extravagant spending habits in New York.

After leading the colt through an undefeated year that would retrospectively see him named the American Co-Champion Two-Year-Old Colt of 1878, he was then sold to James R. Keene for $15,000 (based on inflation only equal to about $490,000 today).

In 1880, Spendthrift was one of a group of horses, which included Lord Murphy and Foxhall, that were sent by Keene to be trained in England.

[3] Spendthrift was retired as a five-year-old to the farm of William Kenney near Lexington, Kentucky.