|
Count Fleet
Count Fleet’s story begins with a piece of racing legend. As the tale goes, John D. Hertz was enjoying a day at the Saratoga races in 1927 when he saw something that interested him. A two-year-old colt was all out, trying to fend off a rival. Coming down to the wire, it became apparent that the game youngster’s legs were not quite up to what his heart demanded. But the colt wasn’t done yet; as his rival surged up to him, the determined fellow reached over and did his best to take a bite out of the other. Hertz might not have been an expert on horses, but he admired determination in man or beast. And so he bought the colt on the spot from breeder Willis Sharpe Kilmer for $10,000. Kilmer probably thought he had made a good bargain; after all, the colt had only a maiden victory to his credit and had taken seven starts to get that far. Kilmer’s trainer, Henry McDaniel, disagreed. He had already quit Kilmer’s employment once before due to disagreements over the handling of the great gelding Exterminator. Now he quit again, disgusted with the loss of what he judged to be potentially the best horse in his barn. McDaniel was, of course, right, for the colt was Reigh Count. A late developer. Reigh Count came on in the fall to be ranked the second best juvenile colt of 1927. The following season, almost all American horsemen would acclaim him as the best horse in training of any age as he won seven of eight starts, including the Kentucky Derby. At four, Reigh Count went to England, where he won the Coronation Cup and ran second in the Ascot Gold Cup. Reigh Count proved a useful but not outstanding stallion for Hertz, who nearly repeated Kilmer’s error with a yearling colt out of the Haste mare Quickly in 1941. Offered at $4,500, the colt was turned down by every buyer who examined him with comments such as “too light in the bone,” “too leggy,” and “looks more like a filly than a colt.” Thus, Hertz remained stuck with the best horse he would ever breed, a four-legged streak of lightning who received the name Count Fleet. The name would prove more than appropriate. Never out of the money in fifteen starts at two while racing in the name of Mrs. Hertz, Count Fleet made his stakes debut in his fifth career race, the East View Stakes. To nearly everyone’s shock, he was upset by Gold Shower, but he redeemed himself in his next star, the Wakefield Stakes, in which he cantered home by four lengths with Gold Shower a well-beaten third. Count Fleet then ran a closing second by a neck to the speedy Occupation in the Washington Park Futurity. After a month’s rest, Count Fleet met with Occupation again in the Futurity Stakes. Unfortunately, the Count had compromised his chances with a too-fast workout – six furlongs in 1:08-1/5! – four days before the race and could do no better than third, beaten five lengths by Occupation and a head by the filly Askmenow. But a week later, Count Fleet came out for the Champagne Stakes, and this time he had not left his race on the training track. He blazed home by six lengths over Blue Swords in 1:34-4/5, breaking the Belmont track record for a mile and setting a world record for a juvenile at the distance. The Count’s next stop was Pimlico, where he tuned up for the rich Pimlico Futurity with a win in allowance company. In the big race, Occupation was favored as he had beaten Count Fleet twice while conceding weight, but he proved no match for Count Fleet at one and one-sixteenth miles. After the two colts had raced as a team for the first five furlongs, Count Fleet drew off easily and won by five lengths, in the process equaling the track record of 1:43-3/5. Count Fleet was in receipt of three pounds from Occupation, but even Occupation’s most ardent supporters had to concede that it would not have made any difference had the weight assignments been the other way around. Then, to add an exclamation point to the season, Count Fleet won the Walden Stakes by thirty lengths. Although Occupation had won more money during the season, Count Fleet won the juvenile championship in all three polls then extant. He also received a weighting of 132 pounds on the Experimental Free Handicap, six pounds higher than his nearest rival and the highest weight ever given to a two-year-old in the history of the Free Handicap. As it turned out, Count Fleet was even more sensational at three than he had been at two. He opened his season on April 13, 1943, with an easy win in an allowance event over a mile and seventy yards. His next start was the Wood Memorial, then run at New York’s Jamaica racetrack over one and one-sixteenth miles; without any real effort, the Count glided home three and a half lengths in front of Blue Swords, winner of the previous season’s Eastern Shore Handicap, Remsen Handicap, and Ardsley Handicap. There was little drama to the Kentucky Derby two weeks later; Count Fleet simply grabbed the early lead and stayed there all the way, beating Blue Swords by three lengths. A week later, the same two colts ran one-two in the Preakness Stakes, only this time the margin was eight lengths in Count Fleet’s favor. That was all for Blue Swords, who raced no more after the Preakness, but Count Fleet went on to win the Withers Stakes by five lengths over Slide Rule. Only two colts, Fairy Manhurst and Deseronto, showed up to face Count Fleet for the Belmont Stakes, and neither had won beyond the allowance level to that point, although Fairy Manhurst later won the Lawrence Realization. As far as Count Fleet was concerned, they might as well not even have been in the race. The Count flew home 25 lengths in front, and his time of 2:28-1/5 clipped 2/5 of a second off the track record. Sadly, Count Fleet would never race again. Sometime during the running of the Belmont, he had struck his right front ankle. At first, the injury was thought to be minor, but it did not respond to treatment, forcing the colt’s retirement. Yet so brilliant had his brief season been that Count Fleet was unanimously selected as both champion three-year-old male and Horse of the Year. His record of sixteen wins from 21 starts for earnings of $250,300 would later earn him induction into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 1961. A further tribute to Count Fleet was provided by his regular rider, Hall of Fame jockey John Longden, who throughout his life insisted that the Count was the best he had ever seen. Retired to Hertz’s Stoner Creek Stud, Count Fleet had a long and honorable stud career during which he sired 39 stakes winners. Among the best of them were Counterpoint, champion three-year-old male and Horse of the Year in 1951; One Count, champion three-year-old male and co-Horse of the Year with Native Dancer in 1952; Kiss Me Kate, the champion three-year-old filly of 1951; and Count Turf, winner of the 1951 Kentucky Derby. Count Fleet was leading American sire in 1951, but he was even more successful as a broodmare sire. The leading broodmare sire in 1963, he was the maternal grandsire of 118 stakes winners including five-time Horse of the Year Kelso, 1963 champion three-year-old filly Lamb Chop, 1958 champion two-year-old filly Quill, and 1967 co-champion three-year-old filly Furl Sail. He is most commonly seen in modern pedigrees through his maternal grandson Prince John, a good stallion and four-time leading American broodmare sire, and through Sequence, the second dam of the great sire Mr. Prospector. Stoner Creek Stud was sold to the Woolworth family and converted to a Standardbred nursery following Count Fleet’s pensioning from stud service, but by agreement of the farm’s owners, Count Fleet remained in his familiar surroundings to live out his days in comfort. His one great peculiarity was that he insisted on being brought in at night, no matter how pleasant the weather; the Count, said the stable hands, was afraid of the dark. He had certainly never been afraid of anything else. “The Count of Stoner Creek” died on December 3, 1974, at the ripe old age of 33. His grave lies alongside that of the great Standardbred stallion Nevele Pride and near those of his sire and dam. Text © 2005 by Avalyn Hunter Artwork © 2006 by Pat DeLong. Used by permission and may not be copied or distributed without the express consent of Pat DeLong. For information regarding purchases, reproductions, or licensing, contact Pat DeLong at patdelongart@aol.com. |
