Foaled in Kentucky, Sysonby was a bay son of the 1885 Epsom Derby winner, Melton, out of the English mare Optime by Orme (by the undefeated Ormonde).

Was ahead at every point of every race, except at the quarter call in the Brighton Junior Stakes, and in the stretch of the Futurity.

He had broken out with bloody sores all over his body, having contracted a serious disease called variola, and it proved fatal.

Sysonby died on June 17, 1906, in his stall at Sheepshead Bay from sepsis brought on by an illness consisting of multiple skin lesions, fever and profound muscle wasting,[2] now thought to be variola.

[3] After his death, his owner Keene donated his remains to New York City's American Museum of Natural History to become part of the Chubb series of skeletons as studies in anatomy and locomotion.

Sysonby was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1956.