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Jay Trump
In 1957, the mighty Kelso first saw the light of day. His sire, Your Host, had won ten stakes races and $384,795. His dam, Maid of Flight, was a stakes-placed daughter of Triple Crown winner Count Fleet and a half sister to three stakes winners. No one could predict that Kelso would be the great champion he became, but based on his parentage, there was every reason to expect that he would have some talent. And as a member of the wealthy Allaire duPont’s Bohemia Stable, he was given every opportunity to develop that talent in the hands of capable horsemen. Such is the usual background of a champion: by a good horse and out of a good mare, and with good connections. Kelso was not the only champion foaled in 1957, which also saw the births of champion sprinter Intentionally, champion juvenile colt Warfare, and champion fillies My Dear Girl, Berlo, and Airmans Guide – all well-bred, well-connected horses. But there was another champion in the 1957 foal crop who broke all the rules. Sired by a cheap claimer from a worse mare, Jay Trump rose from humble beginnings to become the third American horse to win England’s Grand National Steeplechase and a member of the Racing Hall of Fame. Not only was the mating that produced Jay Trump between two cheap parents, but it wasn’t even planned. Pennsylvania breeder Jay Sensenich had purchased Be Trump with the idea of producing foals that he could race at Charles Town, West Virginia – a tiny half-mile track that was a far cry from the racing meccas frequented by the rich and fashionable. Be Trump was crooked in front with curby hocks and had a nasty disposition, and although she was by the Australian champion *Bernborough, she had managed to win only once in twenty-nine starts. But the price was right – fifty dollars – and Sensenich had a mating in mind for her in Maryland which he thought might produce a runner good enough for Charles Town. There was just one hitch: when Be Trump came into heat, she wouldn’t load on the trailer to be taken to her assignation. Enter Tonga Prince, a son of champion sprinter Polynesian who had inherited very little of his sire’s class and was running in $1,500 claimers at Charles Town prior to a breakdown. Following his injury, he was boarding at Sensenich’s farm while waiting to heal up. Tonga Prince was cheap, but he was a stallion and he was available; Be Trump was in heat; and Sensenich took the obvious solution to his dilemma. The following spring, a good-sized bay colt with a large white star and a streak of white on his nose was born and was duly named Jay Trump. Very little went right for Jay Trump early on. While still an unraced two-year-old, he was struck in the head by his exercise boy for drifting out on a turn during a workout. The blow hit the colt in the eye and he ducked away, jumped the infield rail, and ran straight into a post, laying his right foreleg open from elbow to knee. The injury healed well enough and never gave Jay Trump any soundness problems, but it left an unsightly scar that the horse carried to his dying day. On finally getting to the races at three, Jay Trump proved himself a good mover, of excellent disposition, and desperately slow. Although he ran in claiming races for tags of as little as $1,250, he simply wasn’t good enough in any of his eight tries on the flat. But he caught the eye of the young steeplechase trainer and rider Crompton “Tommy” Smith, who was on the lookout for a timber prospect for his mother’s good friend Mary C. Stephenson. Sensenich was willing to sell, and for $2,000, Jay Trump changed hands. Since Jay Trump had no value as a prospective stallion, Smith gelded the horse soon after his purchase and began schooling him to jump. Jay Trump caught on nicely. As well as serving as a mount for H. Robertson Fenwick, huntsman of the Green Spring Valley Hounds and a close friend of Smith’s, during the 1961-1962 foxhunting season, Jay Trump also won the grand championship at a hunter trial as a four-year-old. Jay Trump began his new racing career in the spring of 1962, starting out in point-to-point races hosted by local foxhunting clubs. These races, which noted steeplechasing writer Peter Winants likened to semi-pro football in the level of competition involved, offer no purse money but then (as now) provided a suitable forum to introduce a novice jumper to racing and refine its ability. Jay Trump did not exactly set the world afire in his first few starts in point-to-points. He was still green and rank and not quite sure what he was doing. But he began winning later in the season, and scored his first sanctioned hunt meeting wins at the Grand National meet and at Radnor, Pennsylvania before the year was over. In 1963, Smith felt Jay Trump might be ready to step up to the major timber races. The gelding prepped with a point-to-point win at Piedmont in Virginia, then stepped up to the big time by taking on the veteran Mountain Dew in the Maryland Grand National. Mountain Dew apparently viewed the Grand National as his private playground – he won the race six times, including the 1963 running – but Jay Trump ran well to finish second. That effort set Jay Trump up for the Maryland Hunt Cup, in which he again faced Mountain Dew. Jumping very rankly, Jay Trump repeatedly took off too far from his fences; Smith, who was riding him, later admitted that he was strictly “a passenger” and could do nothing to control his headstrong mount. At the twelfth fence, however, Jay Trump took off too early again and this time landed on the top rail, striking the fence at the girth. He managed to scramble over unhurt, but the blow to his belly apparently taught him some respect for the big fences, for he jumped more sensibly for the rest of the race. He was still running rankly and with little regard for his rider, but Smith was willing to forgive him almost anything after Jay Trump outran Mountain Dew to win the race by four lengths, setting a new course record into the bargain. At that point, Smith began feeling that with another year’s seasoning, Jay Trump just might have the right stuff for an assault on the world’s most prestigious steeplechase, the English Grand National. He was not to have the opportunity to test his theory, however. That fell to Daniel Michael “Mikey” Smithwick, who took over Jay Trump’s training after a falling out between Mary Stephenson and Robertson Fenwick over Fenwick’s involvement in the horse’s training. Smith continued to ride Jay Trump in his races, however, and the horse showed greatly improved maturity while sweeping the American Eastern Hunt “Triple Crown” of the Maryland Hunt Cup, the Grand National Point-to-Point, and the My Lady’s Manor Point-to-Point. Smithwick judged that Jay Trump was now ready to try for the Grand National, and in July 1964 the gelding was accordingly sent to the yard of English steeplechase trainer Fred Winter at Lambourn, England. Winter had only just retired from a riding career in which he had been champion steeplechase jockey ten times in seventeen seasons, and his first start as a trainer was a winning one – Jay Trump, at Sandown, with Smith again in the saddle. Jay Trump also won at Windsor in November before throwing in a clinker over frozen ground in the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park, in which he trailed the only other starter throughout. But he won again at Newbury in mid-February and went into the Grand National as one of the favorites despite a dull effort in his final prep race at Worcester. Forty-seven horses faced the starter for the 1965 Grand National under the eyes of more than 100,000 spectators. Jay Trump survived the initial cavalry charge to the first fence and rated in good order in mid-pack until he met with near disaster at the thirteenth fence. Red Tide, who had lost his rider earlier, cut across in front of the field, and Smith was barely able to steer his mount out of trouble. A second near disaster occurred at the twenty-sixth fence, where Rondetto fell in front of Jay Trump. The American horse managed to change stride and dodge around the fallen Rondetto, however, and he cleared the second-to-last fence on even terms with the good Scottish-based steeplechaser Freddie in what was now clearly a two-horse race. At the last fence, Jay Trump reverted to his old habits and took off too soon, catching Smith by surprise. The gelding plowed through the top part of the fence but somehow stayed up. So did Smith, who put away the whip after Jay Trump showed resentment and hand rode his mount to a three-quarters of a length win. Jay Trump concluded his European tour by running a close third in France’s Grande Course de Haies d’Auteuil after leading over the last fence. On return to the United States, it was announced that Jay Trump’s final target would be the 1966 Maryland Hunt Cup. Both he and Mountain Dew had won twice, and a third win for either would retire the challenge trophy. The course was very deep and tiring from a week of rain prior to the race, and Jay Trump slipped on his approach to the sixth fence, took off too close in, and clipped the top rail. But he stayed up, had a clear lead over Mountain Dew by the nineteenth fence, and galloped home by eight lengths to close out his career. A complete failure on the flat, Jay Trump proved one of the greatest champions ever in timber racing, winning ten of eighteen sanctioned events in which he took part and finishing second in another four.. His record earned him induction to the Racing Hall of Fame in 1971. He was retired to a life of ease at Mary Stephenson’s farm, where he died in 1988 at the age of thirty-one. His remains were transported to the Kentucky Horse Park, where he was buried near the finish of the steeplechase course. And every year, the ground in which he lies vibrates to the hooves of galloping horses as the Jay Trump Steeplechase is run in his honor. It is a fitting tribute to one of the sport’s greats. Text © 2006 by Avalyn Hunter |
