King of the Wind (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1948) is a fictional biography of the Godolphin Arabian by American author
Marguerite Henry. She wrote many
books about horses for children, and perhaps is best known for
Misty of Chincoteague and its sequels. She won the
Newbery Medal for
King of the Wind, recognizing it as the year's "most distinguished contribution to American literature for children".
Misty became a film in 1961, but
King of the Wind had to wait till 1990
for its adaptation, with
Navin Chowdhry as the Arabian's lifetime stable boy Agba. In the novel, the Godolphin Arabian was foaled in
Morocco and was called Sham. He came to Europe as a diplomatic gift to King
Louis XV but, due to his poor condition on arrival and relatively small size, was given to the cook as a cart horse. He was soon sold to a woodcarter in Paris, where he was treated poorly and then purchased by the Quaker Edward Coke of
Holkham Hall, older brother of the 1st
Earl of Leicester 5th Creation, then sold to
Francis, Earl of Godolphin, who maintained a stud in
Suffolk, near the racing town of
Newmarket. An
anthropomorphized version of the horse using the Godolphin Barb name appears in
Umamusume: Pretty Derby, voiced by
Satomi Satō, alongside the
Darley Arabian and the
Byerley Turk. ==Sire line tree==