He was the first of nine geldings to win the Kentucky Derby and was a white-stockinged bay colt sired by Virgil out of the mare Lazy (by Scythian (GB)).

[1] Virgil was notable for siring successful nineteenth-century race horses and stood at Milton H. Sanford's Preakness Stud in Lexington, Kentucky.

[3],[4} After he won the Phoenix Hotel Stakes, Vagrant was purchased by William Backhouse Astor, Jr. for $7,000, an impressive figure for a thoroughbred of that era.

[2] Vagrant won the Derby, with Robert Swim up, by two lengths over the betting favorite, Parole, winning a total of $2,950.

[6] A 1910 Daily Racing Form article states that Vagrant died at around 17 years of age (c. 1890) while being used as a saddle horse for a woman who lived on Long Island, New York.