He was born at Albany, New York, in May, 1812. He was the son of Richard Ten Broeck. He was, according to his own account, a grandson of Henry Bicker of Philadelphia, an officer of Pennsylvania troops during the Revolution, and of Col. Dirck Ten Broeck of Albany, likewise a Revolutionary officer.
In 1823 the boy saw the famous match race between Eclipse and Henry at the Union Course on Long Island.
In 1829 he was admitted to the United States Military Academy at West Point, but left the following year and went South.
He began the long racing career which continued with some interruptions until he retired in 1887.
When about thirty-five years old Ten Broeck became the partner of the veteran William R. Johnson, "the Napoleon of the Turf, " in racing on Southern tracks. In 1853 he purchased an obscure colt by Boston out of Alice Carneal, and in a series of bold matches and interstate stake races which attracted nation-wide attention scored a succession of brilliant victories that made its name, Lexington, one of the greatest in American turf history.
Convinced by this horse's unexampled feat of running four miles in 7:19 3/4 that American racehorses and training methods excelled those of the mother country, Ten Broeck in 1856 went to England with a quartet of representative runners, one of which was Lecomte, the only horse that ever won a heat from Lexington, and another, Pryor, that had beaten Lecomte. Undismayed by the fact that Lexington had to be left behind because he had become blind, and that Lecomte was found to be too unsound to race again, Ten Broeck offered on his arrival to run an American horse at four-mile heats for $25, 000 a side against any English thoroughbred that could be produced. This challenge excited widespread and anxious interest in England and the warmest national enthusiasm in all sections of the United States. It was not accepted. The American four-milers were only moderately successful when racing under the British system of dash races at shorter distances, yet Ten Broeck's Prioress scored a sensational victory in the Cesarewitch Stakes, outlasting her competitors, while Starke, half-brother to her and to Lecomte, won the Goodwood Cup and the Bentinck Memorial Plate--the latter at four miles and a quarter, the longest race in England. Ten Broeck remained in England about ten years, winning with English and American horses almost $200, 000 in purses, stakes, and matches.
His subsequent career in America was not noteworthy. Financial stress and mental infirmity came upon him in old age, and the last years of life drew to a gloomy close in a lonely little home called "The Hermitage, " near Menlo Park, in California.
An article of his, "Some Personal Reminiscences, Incidents, and Anecdotes, " appeared in the Spirit of the Times for December 27, 1890.
He was a man of quick temper.
Quotes from others about the person
One who knew him in his prime wrote in the New York Sun when he died: "Mr. Ten Broeck was a genial, well beloved companion, an honest, enthusiastic horseman, and the most intrepid gambler that ever backed a racehorse, bucked the tiger, or bluffed on a pair of deuces. "
He parted from two wives, and at the time of his death driven away his only servant. His second wife, whom he married late in life when she was the widow of H. D. Newcomb of Louisville, Ky. , applied unsuccessfully in 1888 for an examination as to his sanity, so eccentric had he then become.
