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Exterminator
If ever a horse was born to prove the adage that beauty is only skin-deep, it was Exterminator. A lanky, rawboned gelding whose appearance gained him such unflattering nicknames as “Old Bones” and “The Galloping Hatrack,” Exterminator nonetheless showed that beauty is as beauty does, becoming one of the most beloved champions ever seen in the United States. Neither of Exterminator’s parents seemed a likely candidate for producing one of America’s greatest stayers. His sire, *McGee, was a sprinter who never won a stakes race, though he did become a good stallion, his other offspring including the 1918 Kentucky Oaks winner Viva America, the 1913 Kentucky Derby winner Donerail, and In Memoriam, the second-ranked three-year-old male of 1923. Exterminator’s dam Fair Empress belonged to the family of the noted race mare Modesty and the 1915 Kentucky Derby winner Regret, but she herself could not win or even place in two tries. None of her other fifteen foals came anywhere close to being as good as Old Bones, although eight were winners including the stakes-winning steeplechaser Garter. A late foal, Exterminator was born on May 30, 1915 at the farm of Mrs. M. J. Mizner, whose son W. D. Knight had owned Fair Empress prior to his death. On Knight’s death, Mrs. Mizner became the legal owner of Fair Empress and had the mare in her possession at the time of Exterminator’s birth, making her the breeder of the great gelding. Mrs. Mizner’s son F. D. “Dixie” Knight did the paperwork for breeding the mare and registering her foal, however, and it is his name that officially appears as Exterminator’s breeder of record. The horse may actually have been bred in a foal sharing arrangement as he was entered in the 1916 Saratoga August yearling sale as the property of Knight and Charles W. Moore, owner of his sire *McGee. The Fair Empress colt must have at least looked as though he had the makings of a racehorse, for he sold for $1,500, a decent enough price at the time (the average auction price for a yearling in 1916 was $932). The purchaser was owner-trainer Cal Milam, whose wife is said to have given the youngster his name. The story is that at dinner one night, Milam told his wife that he thought the gangly chestnut would “kill off his competition,” whereupon Mrs. Milam replied, “Then why don’t you call him Exterminator?” Although Milam liked the young horse’s pedigree and appearance (for all his lack of flesh, Exterminator was very well constructed as a racing machine with a beautifully sloped shoulder and correct legs), the colt did not develop physically as well as hoped and became rather run-down. According to Colonel Matt Winn, a great admirer of Exterminator in later days, the horse was also quite wild and unruly. Milam finally gelded the horse as an early two-year-old, apparently with the idea that the operation was needed for the horse’s health and optimum development. It certainly was not on the basis of what Milam was seeing in training, for the record shows that he thought enough of the gangly youngster to nominate him to a number of the major events for three-year-olds including the Kentucky Derby. Exterminator made his first start in a six-furlong maiden event at the old Latonia racecourse near Covington, Kentucky on June 30, 1917, winning by three lengths. Milam then took Exterminator to the old Windsor racecourse in Canada, where he lost his second race by ten lengths but three days later won a five and one-half furlong allowance event. He then moved over to nearby Kenilworth Park for what proved to be his final race of the season. In a game effort, he ran fourth but beaten only a half length for the win behind Jack Hare, Jr. (winner) and Viva America (third), who next year would go on to win a division of the Preakness Stakes and the Kentucky Oaks, respectively. Exterminator came out of the race with a muscle strain and was done for the year. Two wins in four starts was respectable enough but hardly the kind of campaign that would rank Exterminator among the leaders of his crop in 1917. *Sun Briar, who would play a key role in the future champion’s life, was another story. Owned by Willis Sharpe Kilmer, the French-bred colt was generally considered the champion two-year-old male of that year, his victories including the historic Hopeful Stakes. So enamored was Kilmer of his handsome young star that he set up a veritable shrine to the colt at his New York farm, Sun Briar Court (or Sun Briar Manor, according to some records). The exhibits included one of *Sun Briar’s horseshoes, an oil painting of the colt, and the whip -- unused -- that his jockey had carried during the running of the Hopeful. Kilmer’s sights were set on the Kentucky Derby as the first major prize of the spring for *Sun Briar, but as the race approached, the colt did not seem to be rounding into form as hoped. Accordingly, Kilmer instructed his trainer, Henry McDaniel, to find a horse who could work with *Sun Briar and force him to put some effort into his workouts. Kilmer apparently thought such a horse could be had quite cheaply and gave McDaniel a $700 price limit for the purchase, but McDaniel knew better. A horse of *Sun Briar’s ability could not be made to work by a cheap claimer, and anyway McDaniel had already been watching Exterminator after seeing him work a mile easily in 1:40 at Lexington. Ignoring Kilmer’s price limit, McDaniel made a deal with Milam about ten days before the Kentucky Derby, and for the price of $9,000 cash plus two maiden fillies by *Ogden valued at five hundred dollars each, the bony gelding changed hands. A valuation of $10,000 (some accounts make the price $12,000 or $15,000) was a respectable increase on Exterminator’s yearling sales price of $1,500, but it would prove to be one of the great bargains of the Turf. For Kilmer, however, it was just part of the price of getting *Sun Briar ready for the 1918 Kentucky Derby, and he made no bones about Exterminator’s role: he was *Sun Briar’s work horse, and that was it. Many accounts indicate that Kilmer resented the amount of money McDaniel had spent for Exterminator, particularly after getting his first look at the awkward-looking animal, and he routinely referred to his new acquisition as “that truck horse” and “that goat.” But when *Sun Briar failed to improve enough to warrant entering the Derby (due to chronic ringbone, which troubled the colt throughout the remainder of his career), McDaniel – apparently with some assistance from Colonel Matt Winn, who after watching Exterminator’s second workout with *Sun Briar thought the gelding had a real chance – persuaded the reluctant Kilmer to enter Exterminator instead. Under the guidance of jockey Willie Knapp, Exterminator battled to the lead in the stretch and won the Run for the Roses by one length in his first start of the season. He went on to make fourteen more starts as a sophomore, winning seven. His victories included the mile and one-half Pimlico Autumn Handicap and the two and one-quarter mile Latonia Cup, clearly demonstrating a liking for distance, and in all he captured five added-money events during the year. Kilmer, however, stoutly maintained that *Sun Briar “could beat Exterminator doing anything,” and perhaps the evaluation was justified at that point in the horses’ careers. *Sun Briar did defeat Exterminator twice in pre-Derby trials as well as in the Travers Stakes (in which Exterminator was unplaced), but *Sun Briar had a significant break in the weights in the latter event. As for the workouts, given Kilmer’s obvious bias in favor of *Sun Briar, one might well believe that Exterminator’s rider did not put undue pressure on the horse to beat his stablemate. The two horses also met twice as four-year-olds, with *Sun Briar finishing a length in front of Exterminator in the Delaware Handicap (running second and third behind the filly Fairy Wand, with Exterminator coming off a six-week layoff) and again defeating his stablemate in the Champlain Handicap while giving him eight pounds (128 to 120). However, the chart for the latter race noted that Exterminator was “not hard ridden” and was “probably best at the weights.” Ultimately, however, *Sun Briar became just another name on the list of Travers winners, through he did later enjoy a successful stud career. For Exterminator, on the other hand, his legend was just beginning. “Old Shang,“ as he was known around his stable, would race for eight seasons all told, and during that time would become one of the most beloved horses ever to set hoof on an American track. The leading money winner among the handicap runners at age four, he was the acknowledged champion of the handicap division at five, six, and seven (though many horsemen rated Mad Hatter as his equal in 1921), and was the best horse of any age in 1922. His greatest race of that season – and quite possibly of his career – was the one and one-eighth mile Brooklyn Handicap, in which he conceded the brilliant Grey Lag nine pounds (135 to 126) and defeated him by a head after a grueling stretch drive. It was Grey Lag’s only loss in six starts that year. By any standard, Exterminator’s career met all the tests of greatness. He won stakes at distances ranging from six furlongs to two and one-quarter miles, and twenty times won with 130 pounds or more piled on his back. He won the venerable Saratoga Cup over a distance of one and three-quarters miles four consecutive times (1919-1922), a demonstration of staying ability, class, and durability not matched among American runners until Kelso took five consecutive runnings of the two-mile Jockey Club Gold Cup in 1960-1964; for good measure, Old Bones took the other great staying race of his day, the two and one-quarter mile Pimlico Cup, three consecutive times (1919-1921) and might have made it four in a row in 1922 had he not been asked to concede twenty pounds to that year’s Suburban Handicap winner, Captain Alcock. And the horses he defeated make a glittering list: Grey Lag, Sir Barton, Billy Kelly, Mad Hatter, Boniface, My Dear, and Tryster were only a few of the many fine horses who got a good look at Exterminator’s bony rump sometime during their careers. Besides *Sun Briar, there was only one of the notable horses of the early 1920s that Exterminator did not defeat at one time or another, and that was Man o’ War, who retired without ever having faced the Kilmer color-bearer. If Exterminator had a fault as a racehorse, it was lack of tactical speed. Although he was quick enough to defeat the top sprinter Billy Kelly at six furlongs, his forte was a long, sustained drive rather than a sharp burst of speed; disrupt his rhythm or block his path, and like many long-striding horses, he would find it difficult to get back in gear, particularly under the heavy weights he so often carried. Exterminator also had a penchant for cutting his finishes fine, though he was not known for trying to pull himself up on the lead. He was just one of those horses who see no sense in winning by lengths if a head or a neck will do, and generally, once his bony head was in front, he would keep it there with the grim determination of a bulldog. But occasionally he (or his jockey) misjudged the pace, with undesirable results. The one opponent Exterminator could not outrun was Time, which finally took the gallant gelding’s measure in 1923, at the age of eight. Although Old Bones was a stakes winner once again that year, winning the Philadelphia Handicap, he was able to make only three starts as years of hard campaigning finally caught up with him. The following year, Exterminator made seven starts but was unable to win in stakes company, although he did win three minor races. He pulled up lame from his final race and retired at long last having started an even one hundred times, winning fifty (including one exhibition event) and placing in another thirty-four. He had set world records for one and three-quarter miles (2:56-2/5) and two miles (3:21-4/5), and his earnings at retirement placed him second behind Zev on the list of leading American money winners at $251,496 -- most of it earned the hard way, in the handicap ranks. (The largest purse he ever earned was the $14,700 winner’s share for the 1918 Kentucky Derby.) His final honors were awarded in 1957, when he was elected to the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame. One of the keys to Exterminator’s success and racing longevity was doubtless his adaptability. He needed it, too. He logged thousands of miles in railroad cars, traveling everywhere from Canada to Mexico. Other horses might fret themselves to shreds when confined in the noisy, shuddering boxcars, but not Exterminator; he typically laid down and went to sleep, arriving fully rested at his next stop. He won at sixteen different racetracks. He went through nine different trainers during his career -- including his Derby jockey, Willie Knapp -- and often raced against their advice thanks to his owner’s whims. He won under perhaps more different jockeys than any other top horse of his era and, as Matt Winn pointed out, often corrected for their mistakes in judgment. And he ran his great heart out every time, regardless of jockey, track condition, distance, or weight. A horse of exceptional intelligence as well as racing talent, Exterminator had his own endearing set of quirks. Jockeys swore that the horse recognized a camera; let him see one of the odd black boxes while warming up or coming back from a race, and he would pose obligingly, not moving until the picture was snapped. Fans claimed that the horse would nod or even bow to the grandstand when coming back from a victory. Track starters loved him too, because Old Bones hated horses that acted up at the post as much as they did. This was in the days before the starting gate, when horses simply lined up behind the starting line, and if the cagey gelding found himself next to a bad actor, he would lean on him, using his weight to pin the rogue down until the field was sent away. So effective was Exterminator at this tactic that veteran starter Marshall Cassidy called the wily old horse “the best assistant starter I ever had.” Despite his great feats, Exterminator never won the place in owner Kilmer’s heart that *Sun Briar held. Nonetheless, Kilmer gave the old warrior a fitting retirement, pensioning him at first to Remlik Hall in Virginia and then to his Court Manor Stud. He later brought the great horse home to Sun Briar Court and installed him in a private paddock which the gelding shared with his constant companion, a Shetland pony named Peanuts. (The gelding would outlive two such companions and was survived by a third; he also had a miniature Sicilian donkey as a stable companion for a short time.) At Sun Briar Court, Exterminator became an equine tourist attraction second only to Man o’ War in popularity, though the two could not have been less alike in the reactions they evoked. Those who saw Man o’ War saw in him the living embodiment of greatness, and were moved to either eloquence or silence. But those who visited Exterminator came to see a beloved friend, the epitome of the home-town boy who made good against the odds. The neighborhood children were particularly fond of the old horse, and on his birthday would regularly visit him with carrot cake and ice cream. Kilmer died in July of 1940, but Exterminator was well provided for by his owner’s widow and continued to enjoy his retirement. He returned to the racetrack in 1941, when he and Peanuts went to Pimlico to lead the post parade for the inaugural Exterminator Handicap. Fittingly for the greatest cup horse ever produced in the United States, the race was carded at two miles and seventy yards. It was won by the Argentine import *Filisteo, who set a new world’s record of 3:30-4/5 for the odd distance. Later winners of the race included the grand staying mare *Miss Grillo. The grand old gelding’s last public appearance was on October 2, 1943, when he was paraded at Belmont Park as part of a drive to sell war bonds. Nearly two years later, Old Bones reached his last finish line, dying of a heart attack on September 26, 1945. He was buried next to his old stablemate *Sun Briar. Text © 2005 by Avalyn Hunter Artwork © 2005 by Pat DeLong. Used by permission and may not be copied or distributed in any form without the express permission of Pat DeLong. For information regarding purchases, reproductions, or licensing, please contact Pat DeLong at patdelongart@aol.com. |
