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Clyde Van Dusen
A mere pony of a horse with a weedy frame, Clyde Van Dusen could hardly have looked less like his sire, Man o’ War. But despite his appearance, he could run. Racing for his breeder, H. P. Garder, and trained by his human namesake, Clyde Van Dusen began his racing career in Kentucky, winning the Idle Hour Stakes and Valley Stakes. He then went into something of a midseason slump, his best performance during this stretch being a loss by a head to Double Heart in the American National Futurity while conceding seven pounds to the winner. But he came back in the fall to with the Orphanage Stakes at the Idle Hour charity meeting and the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes. In the last-named event, he defeated the filly Current, who had previously won the Selima Stakes from her own sex and the Breeders’ Futurity from males; Clyde Van Dusen had been third in that race after suffering interference in the early going, so the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes provided him with a measure of revenge. Blue Larkspur was a hot favorite for the 1929 Kentucky Derby, and Clyde Van Dusen was easily overlooked behind his handsome rival, the more so because Blue Larkspur had defeated him handily in an overnight race at Lexington in a Derby tuneup. But heavy rains turned the Churchill Downs track into a quagmire the night before the race, and still more started coming down about an hour before post time. Trainer Clyde Van Dusen thought his namesake had a real chance, especially since he had managed to engage the top jockey Linus “Pony” McAtee to ride the gelding. For McAtee, however, the equine Clyde Van Dusen was something of a shock. He had not seen his mount prior to Derby day, and was expecting something more akin in looks to the big, high-headed Man o’ War than a skinny little fellow who looked like an underfed stable pony. Even though the trainer had tried to prepare him in advance, McAtee later admitted to being “kind of scared” despite the knowledge that he was on the second choice in the betting. But the human Van Dusen kept assuring him that the little gelding could run in spite of his looks, and McAtee mounted up and headed to the post with the rest of the field. Twenty-one runners lined up for the Derby, ensuring that the running would be a mess in more ways than one. The start was contentious, with the Churchill Downs starter needing thirteen minutes to get the field lined up and away, but once the starter shouted “Come on!” the tangled field was of no more concern to little Clyde Van Dusen. Although he started from the extreme outside, he shot straight to the front at the break, led all the way, and won by two lengths. The condition of the track may be estimated from his “buggy-horse” time” of 2:10-4/5, one of the slowest Derby times on record, and since he is described in the chart as having won “easily,” none of the other horses were pressing him to do any better. Blue Larkspur made a valiant effort in defeat, but he had been left smooth-shod rather than switching to mud caulks, apparently due to confusion in his stable after his trainer went down with appendicitis and was hospitalized. The best he could do was a mud-splattered fourth; in a rare lapse of his usual courtesy, his owner, Colonel E. R. Bradley, later called Clyde Van Dusen “the worst horse to win the Derby in twenty years.” The insult was probably unfair, but there is no question that Blue Larkspur did not get a fair chance to compete either. That Blue Larkspur could run well in the slop given the proper footwear was demonstrated later when he won the Belmont Stakes on an off track from African and Jack High, but too late to take the roses from Clyde Van Dusen. For the little son of Man o’ War, however, the sweet smell of victory was to be all too short-lived. Although Clyde Van Dusen ran a game second to Buddy Basil in the Latonia Derby while conceding eight pounds to the winner and later placed in the Latonia Classic and the Grainger Memorial Handicap, he did not win another stakes race for the remainder of his career. His merits in relation to Blue Larkspur on normal footing were demonstrated in the Arlington Classic, when he ran third behind the champion. He was a winner at four but with no important successes and retired at the end of his five-year-old season with a record of twelve wins, seven seconds, and eight thirds from forty-two starts for earnings of $122,402. Clyde Van Dusen received one more moment of public acclaim on April 20, 1937, when he was paraded under his old racing silks with six other noted geldings – Sarazen, Mike Hall, Osmand, Jolly Roger, Cherry Pie, and Merrick – at the old Lexington race track prior to the first race of the day. He was never a great horse, but on one morning in May, he would occupy the pinnacle of American racing, a place no gelding would occupy again until Funny Cide in 2003, and for that he is remembered. © 2005 by Avalyn Hunter |
