Kelso - #2 rated North American horse of all-time
 

Obviously, winning five straight Horse of the Year titles is an amazing accomplishment - and one that will never be tested.

I've found the quality of competition that Kelso faced to be outstanding. Based on sheer body of work - I would rate him second to only Spectacular Bid in the history of North American racing.

A 7-time track record setter - he did win a Met Mile under 130lbs - he was never worse than 2nd in a combined five starts in the D. C. International and Man O' War on turf. However, his best game was going long on dirt.

He was a perfect 7-for-7 lifetime - with 5 Jockey Club Gold Cup wins at distances of 11 furlongs or further.

At 10fs or further - his record was 25-17-6-1 - and that record was compiled in the absolute toughest possible races to win of his day.... top handicaps for older males...and he was virtually always the significant top weight.



The only blemish was a 5th by 14 in the '64 Brooklyn - however that was the race Gun Bow took advantage of a loose lead and freaked in victory by 12 lengths with an excellent group in his wake.

In Kelso's entire career - he was only beaten one time beyond a mile on dirt in a Non-Handicap - level weight or weight for age situation. That was when Gun Bow beat him a nose in the '64 Woodward.

His victory over Gun Bow in the '64 Aqueduct at 9fs has to rate as his greatest performance ever...and perhaps the guttiest win I've ever seen.

In Gun Bow's last 3 starts, he won the Brooklyn by 12, won the Whitney by 10 over 16 time stakes winner & champion Mongo (a horse who had already captured three 100K+ dirt stakes that season and was in sharp form) and Gun Bow took Arlington's biggest race at the time by 2 lengths - giving a solid runner up 21 pounds.

Kelso, the reigning 4-time Horse of the Year with a perfect 7-for-7 lifetime record at 9f's coming in was a 2/1 underdog to the 1/2 favorite Gun Bow at level weight - with both asked to carry 128lbs.



Impossibly, Kelso wins the race despite being ridden like a quarter horse from the start to try and keep up with his rocketship loose on the lead rival.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW0ea_jwYCU


I think it's a great debate between Secretariat and Citation as to who the best 3-year-old of all time was. Citation was 19-for-20 at age 3 .. I projected a 118 for Derby, 116 for Preakness, 117 for Jersey Stakes, and 116 for his Belmont. But Secretariat was easily better during the triple crown than Citation was at any point of his 3yo season. I certainly don't think either can be rated as high as Spectacular Bid or Kelso.

Kelso- another Hyperion line stallion as was Gun Bow, among others . Citation is tail male to Teddy and his broodmare sire is Hyperion. As discussed before, just try and find a Hyperion tail male line stallion of note today . I have not researched but a tail male to Teddy must be a hard find too .
http://www.pedigreequery.com/kelso

good stuff

Zenyatta is better

LOL

sec freaked during the tc...but citation actually faced older horses early that year-and far earlier than 3 yo's do now. he defeated armed, hoy of the year the previous year, a couple months before the tc races. then, he won a race between the preakness and belmont. ah, the good old days. hard to say who was the better 3 yo. arguements can be made for either one.

He wasn't even undefeated. And did he ever close from off the camera screen??? BFD.

Kelso never had to cross the Rockies.

You can't even count Kelso in the discussion of all time greats, since not only did he not win two different BC races, he never even won one!!!!

In regard to the Citation ped, I have found two sire tail male to Teddy . Gilded Time, now in Canada, Say Florida Sandy in NY, are tail male through Damascus to Teddy (sire of La Troienne).

Good to know.

Apparently Skip Trial is still with us. At least I haven't turned up an obit. He'd be 28. He's also tail-male to Teddy via Damascus.

Skipshot, winner of this year's Swaps, is a 3yo G2 winner by Skip Away, and Skip Code has a G3. Maybe by some fluke SA's line won't die out. There's some regional sires by Skip Trial and SA, but nothing on par with Gilded Time and SFS.

What I found interesting about Citation was that he might not have been favored in the Ky Derby if he wasn't coupled with stablemate Coaltown.

They asked about 40 or so trainers at Churchill who they liked - and for every trainer who liked Citation - there was about three who said Coaltown would win. Though, of the 5 DRF handicappers, 3 picked Citation on top and 2 picked Coaltown on top.

It's pretty remarkable to think that so many horse trainers would pick against the horse with a 16-14-2-0 lifetime record ... in favor of a late to the races 5th time starter - who only had a single lifetime race beyond 6fs.



I suppose this was in a day before track bias talk - but Coaltown's win in the Blue Grass came on a loose lead at Keeneland. They reconfigured KEE when they put in the poly-track ... but supposedly, the way the track was designed had a lot to do with why inside-speed was so strong there.

Citation did beat Armed early on as a 3yo - but those happened at sprint distances and Armed was cutting back from 10fs and wasn't in sharp form.

Cool Coal Man would've smoked him.

Is it really that remarkable? There are dummies every year who pick the Dunkirks of the world over horses with actual foundation and experience.

Probably not.

Coaltown was oddly similar to Gun Bow in a lot of ways - neither raced at aged 2. Both flashed signs of strong talent at age 3. Both became freaks at age 4 with a run-off style.

Coaltown won 12 out of his first 13 races at age 4 - going 10fs at Gulfstream he set factions of 45 flat, 1:09 flat, 1:34.20, 1:59.80 crushing the track record in a 7 length win .. pretty strong pace and final time for the late 1940's.

Coaltown was champion older male as a 4yo even though he tailed off at the end of the season. He was ruined by his 5yo season.

So you had Mine That Bird?


Last I looked Curlin ran alright in the Derby

That's true - but Citation wasn't exactly Pioneer of the Nile.

Good point.

You may not know the legendary poster Dixie (Barn 31, Blue Eyes, etc.), but since he was the one who trained Coaltown and Citation, not Jones, I believe him when he says Coaltown was better.

Old Dixie would move on after the fall of Calumet and rise again to be calling the shots at Bobby Frankel's barn, clenching another dominance over racing in North America.

I've found the quality of competition that Dixie faced on the internet to be outstanding, but based on sheer body of work - I would rate him first in a canter.

I deeply regret that I missed out on a lot of Dixie Porter's nonsense. That was one of the great trolls/posters I only hear stories about - but never saw much in terms of his body of work. Kind of like a Jim Thorpe or Hindoo of trolls.