FAIRTHORN (IRE) 1942, a bay horse by FAIR TRIAL (GB) out of PARITY (GB) by BLANDFORD (GB), was bred in Ireland by the Mitchell Bros. at their Collinston Stud.

A beautifully bred horse, he was imported late in 1946 by the Birch Bros. for their VOGEL VLEI STUD in Dordrecht and had his first crop of foals in 1948.  He was the second son of FAIR TRIAL (GB) to arrive in South Africa for stud purposes, the first being LUMINARY (GB) 1938 (the sire of the diminutive grey, CASBAH, the runaway winner of the 1955 Summer Cup).

The winners flowed freely for FAIRTHORN from his first crop and he was quick to start featuring in the top 3 of the National Sires List, 1953/54 FAIRTHORN (1^st), 1954/55 FAIRTHORN (2^nd), 1955/56 FAIRTHORN (2^nd), 1956/57 FAIRTHORN (1^st) 1957/58 FAIRTHORN (2^nd), 1958/59 FAIRTHORN (1^st), 1959/60 FAIRTHORN (1^st), 1960/61 FAIRTHORN (2^nd), 1961/62 FAIRTHORN (1^st) and a finally 1966/67 FAIRTHORN (3^rd).

FAIRTHORN headed the list of Winning Two Year Olds in 1958/59, 1959/60, 1960/61, 1964/65, as well as numerous Top 10 places.

As a broodmare sire he also did extremely well, 1960/61 (7^th), 1961/62 (2^nd), 1962/63 (1^st), 1963/64 (3^rd), 1964/65 (2^nd), 1965/66 (3^rd), 1966/67 (2^nd), 1967/68 (2^nd), 1968/69 (2^nd), 1969/70 (1^st), 1970/71 (1^st), 1971/72 (3^rd), 1972/73 (5^th) and 1973/74 (5^th).

His most famous son was without a doubt, the LEGENDARY, the INCOMPARABLE, SEA COTTAGE (SAF) 1962, out of MARITIME (a granddaughter of DROHSKY), who’s sad, but tremendously interesting and magical story captured the heart and imagination of the nation and still does six decades later!

FAIRTHORN is on record as having 19 of his sons at stud in South Africa and he was also the broodmare sire of another 19 stallions at stud (including the great COLORADO KING who was exported to the USA).

FAIRTHORN made a tremendous contribution to the South African Stud Book, and died aged 21.