The Suburban and the Great Geldings

The Suburban and the Great Geldings

Joseph Di Rienzi
June 26, 2017

The Suburban Handicap is a venerable race for horses three years and older. It was inaugurated in 1884 and on July 8, 2017 will have its 131^st renewal at Belmont Park. Contested at 1¼ mile (except in 1975 and 1976), the Suburban, run usually around Independence Day, was for much of the 20^th century the handicap race, testing champions and major runners by requiring them to carry added weight over their opponents to make the races more competitive. The cavalcade of winners lists some of the legends of American thoroughbred racing such as Equipoise, Assault, Tom Fool, Nashua, Bold Ruler, Buckpasser, Dr. Fager and Easy Goer. In this piece, I would like to focus on two extraordinary geldings, Kelso and Forego, who, in total, ran in the Suburban nine times. They did not win the Suburban regularly (only three wins among them), but each time they carried excessive weight and did their breed proud.

Kelso and Forego raced in different decades with the former in the 1960’s and the latter in the 1970’s. They were both late developers in that their full potential was not realized until the latter part of their three year-old season. Both Kelso and Forego were owned by women who were not afraid to run their horses underweight penalties displaying the true sporting nature that seems so lacking in the contemporary fear of losing stature and monetary value.

Kelso, a son of the brilliantly fast Your Host, was a 1957 foal owned and bred by Mrs. Richard C. du Pont (at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky) and raced in the name of Bohemia Stable. Gelded before he ever became a racehorse, Kelso was not an impressive physical specimen. He was long and thin with dark bay or brown coat. In the field or the walking ring, he did not give the appearance of anything special. When he was in competition, this impression changed dramatically. He had the perfect racing style as a stalker who could sustain a drive for as long as they ran races in America.

                                                               
                                                                            

Kelso
(www.spiletta.com)

As a two year-old, Kelso won once in three starts with two placings without competing in stakes races. In his sophomore year, Kelso was turned over to veteran Carl Hanford to train. He did not make his first start till June 22, 1960, but he quickly showed his brilliance winning several stakes and capping the year with an American track record performance in the 2 mile Jockey Club Gold Cup. Incredibly, he won this race in five consecutive years.  For his efforts, Kelso was voted both 1960 Three Year-old Champion and Horse of the Year.

Kelso’s first attempt at the Suburban Handicap was in 1961. The reigning Horse of the Year had waited till May to begin his four year-old season with an allowance win at Belmont Park. This led to his first major race, the Metropolitan Handicap, where he was asked to carry 130 lb. In a thrilling finish, Kelso ran down All Hands for a neck victory while conceding 13 lb. in the 1 mile contest. Racing at Belmont Park in the Whitney Stakes again carrying 130 lb., he finished a head behind Our Hope (who carried 111 lb.), but he was repeatedly bumped on the rail and was subsequently awarded the victory. In his first Suburban Handicap carrying 133 lb., Kelso dominated the race winning by 5 lengths over Nickel Boy (112 lb.). In the Brooklyn Handicap, the finale of the New York Handicap Triple Series at Aqueduct Racetrack, Kelso burdened with 136 lb. ran down Divine Comedy (118 lb.) with Yorky (122) third. Winning the Met, the Suburban, and the Brooklyn in the same year was considered quite a feat as up to this point it had been accomplished by only two other horses, Whisk Broom II (1913) and Tom Fool (1953).  At year’s end Kelso was named Champion Older Male Horse and Horse of the Year (again).

Kelso returned as a five year-old in 1962, but he had a more difficult time asserting his leadership of the division. He made his first start in the Metropolitan Mile under 133 lb. and was not ready finishing a poor sixth to Carry Back, the previous year’s three year-old champion and Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner, who set a new track record in the Met while getting 10 lb. from Kelso.

Kelso regrouped with a win in an allowance race and met Carry Back again in the Suburban Handicap with the former carrying 132 lb. and the latter 126 lb. But there would be a new adversary for both trained by soon to be legendary Allen Jerkens in Hobeau Farm’s Beau Purple. He came into the Suburban with the reputation of a speedy but erratic racehorse. What no one but Allen Jerkens seemed to know was that if left alone on the lead, Beau Purple’s courage would increase and his pedigree would carry him as far as racehorses needed to travel. Weighted at 115 lb. in the Suburban, Beau Purple set a moderate pace and met the challenge of Kelso winning by 2½ lengths in new track record time at Aqueduct with Carry Back finishing last. In all Kelso and Beau Purple would split 3 and 3 in head to head competition. However, Kelso’s fall campaign would net him additional Horse of the Year and Champion Older Male awards.

Now six years-old, the three-time Horse of the Year began 1963 in Florida with victories in the Seminole and Gulfstream Park Handicaps and a second (to old rival) Beau Purple in the Widener Handicap. On the way to his home base in New York, Kelso stopped off at Bowie Racetrack to run in the 8½ furlong John B. Campbell where he carried (131 lb.) and beat four year-old Crimson Satan (124) by ¾ of a length. Kelso skipped the Metropolitan Handicap but won the Nassau County Stakes easily under 132 lb. He then won his second Suburban (133 lb.) by 1¼ lengths over Saidam (111 lb.). Finishing the year in fine style, the brown gelding garnished his fourth Horse of the Year and third Champion Older Male awards.

In the first half of 1964, Kelso seemed to be showing his age (seven). Slowed by an injury in Florida over the winter, his connections thought he should have a California beginning to his campaign. He started in the Los Angeles Handicap and finished eighth to another transplanted New Yorker, Greentree Stable’s Cyrano, the previous year’s winner of the Met Mile. His next effort was not much better as he finished sixth behind longshot Mustard Plaster in the Californian Stakes. In both these races, he was conceding significant weight to his opponents, but his losses can be more attributed to the hard surface at Hollywood Park.

Returning to the friendly (for Kelso) confines of New York, he won an allowance race at Aqueduct under 136 lb. as a prep for the Suburban Handicap.  Kelso carrying 131 lb. in the Suburban and facing Rex C. Ellsworth’s Olden Times (128 lb.) and Cain Hoy Stable’s Iron Peg (116 lb.). The latter was a returnee from an unsuccessful career in England who had won his first three U. S. starts all by open lengths. The Suburban was a scorcher as Iron Peg, having stalked Olden Times, took over in deep stretch and withstood Kelso’s charge to win by a diminishing head. Despite losing, it was clear from his performance that Kelso was still the horse others would have to overcome to assume the leadership of the older horse division. In the end, Kelso would defend his Champion Older Male title and win the Horse of the Year Award for the fifth time.

Kelso did race in 1965, but due to a late June start he did not run in that year’s running of the Suburban Handicap. He would be stopped by injuries before he could mount his traditional fall surge, and after a single start as a nine year-old in 1966 at Hialeah Racetrack, he was sent home to Mrs. du Pont's Woodstock Farm in Chesapeake City, Maryland.

Forego was born in 1970 in the same crop as Meadow Stable’s immortal Secretariat and foaled at Claiborne Farm (just as Kelso). He was bred and owned by Mrs. Martha Farish Gerry and raced under the colors of Lazy F. Ranch. For the first part of his career he was trained by Sherrill W. Ward and then after his retirement, Frank Whiteley Jr. took over as Forego’s conditioner. Unraced as a two year-old and gelded because of his size, temperament and ankle problems that would persist through his entire career, Forego was a dark bay son of Argentinian champion Forli (Arg) out of the mare Lady Golconda by Hasty Road.

                                                                       

Forego
(www.spilletta.com)

                                                             

                                                                                                                                 
  Beginning with a fourth in a maiden race at Hialeah, he reeled off two wins in 6 furlong races. Playing catch up with his sophomore contemporaries in 1973, he placed in stakes leading up to the Kentucky Derby and was given a legitimate chance due to his obvious speed and class. The best Forego could finish was fourth as Secretariat set the track record for the Derby that still stands. For most of the rest of Forego’s sophomore year, he was known as the best race horse in the U. S. not to win a stake race. That dubious honor changed in late fall when he was victorious in the both the Discovery and Roamer Handicaps showing an ability to win despite carrying additional weight.

In 1974 Forego started his four year-old campaign in Florida and quickly established himself as the leading older horse on the East Coast winning the Donn, Gulfstream Park and Widener Handicaps with Darby Dan Farm’s doughty True Knight finishing second each time. A study in physical contrasts between the gigantic Forego and the diminutive True Knight, they, nonetheless, were great competitors.

Back in New York, Forego won the 7 furlong Carter Handicap defeating ace sprinter Mr. Prospector and then in the Met Mile, Forego at 134 lb. was unable to hold off 60-1 outsider, Arbees Boy (112 lb.) who caught Forego and pulled away to a 2 length victory. In 1974, the Suburban Handicap was run later in the summer, and Forego, in between the Met and the Suburban, had finished second in the Nassau County Handicap and won the Brooklyn Handicap (defeating True Knight again). In his first try at the Suburban, Forego carried 131 lb. to True Knight’s 127 lb. True Knight rallied from some 20 lengths off the pace to swoop by Forego and Plunk (114 lb.). At the finish, True Knight was 1½ lengths in front of Plunk who bested Forego by a head. This was the first time in five races that True Knight had finished in front of Forego. However, by year’s end, Forego has established himself as the best horse in the U. S. and won Eclipse Awards as Champion Older Male Horse, Sprinter and Horse of the Year.

Forego followed the same path in 1975 as in the previous year on the way for a second try at the Suburban. Starting with a successful beginning in Florida, albeit with a reoccurrence of his ankle injury which forced him to miss a race, he won the Carter Handicap (under 134 lb.) and finished third in the Metropolitan Handicap under a crushing 136 lb. to Gold and Myrrh (122 lb.) and Stop the Music (124 lb.). Carrying 132 lb., Forego won the 1¼ mile Brooklyn Handicap running down Monetary Principle (109 lb.) to win by 1½ lengths breaking the Belmont Park track record.

The Suburban Handicap was stretched out to 1½ miles, to make the finale of the New York Handicap Triple more interesting, and Forego was assigned a hefty 134 lb. Demonstrating the courage and will that defines the best in the breed, Forego fought off old nemesis Arbees Boy (118 lb.) to win by a head. At the end of the year, Forego won again Eclipse Awards for Older Male Horse and Horse of the Year.

In 1976, Forego, the two time defending Horse of the Year, was now trained by Frank Whiteley, Jr. after the long time conditioner for Lazy F. Ranch, Sherrill Ward, had to step down due to ill health. Recovering from ankle problems, Forego wintered at Whiteley’s training base in Aiken, South Carolina and then was sent to New York to start his six year-old season in the late spring. Forego returned to the races in the latter part of May with a comfortable win in an allowance race at Belmont Park that served as a springboard to the Metropolitan Handicap. In a race that eluded him the previous two years, Forego was assigned 130 lb. in the six horse field and faced last year’s Preakness winner, Master Derby (126 lb.) and Lord Rebeau (119 lb.). Coming from next to last in the one mile race, Forego struck the lead in deep stretch over Master Derby, and in a tight finish, the massive gelding prevailed by a head.

Forego, as he had done previously, tuned up for the Suburban by running next in the Nassau County Handicap which he won easily, carrying 132 lb. The Suburban Handicap was run next in the New York Handicap Triple Series, this time at 9½ furlongs at Aqueduct. The 1976 renewal had a four horse field: Forego (134 lb.), 1975 Kentucky Derby winner, Foolish Pleasure (125 lb.), Lord Rebeau (115 lb.) and longshot Gorgo (115 lb.). With a moderate pace that worked against Forego’s closing thrust, a thrilling finish found three horses noses apart with Foolish Pleasure, first, Forego, second and Lord Rebeau third.

With a slight adjustment in the weights, the three faced each other again in the 1¼ mile Brooklyn Handicap which attracted eight entries. This time the pace was faster, and Forego (134 lb.) could launch his bid from off the pace more effectively. He collared Lord Rebeau (114 lb.) at the top of the stretch and drew away to a 2 length win. Foolish Pleasure (126 lb.), rallied mildly to finish third, 4½ lengths back. Highlighted by a dramatic win in the Marlboro Cup Handicap carrying 137 lb. with now regular rider William Shoemaker, Forego won, for the third time, Eclipse Awards for best Older Male and Horse of the Year.  

Forego, now seven, wintered well and returned to the races in 1977, just like he did the previous year with a deceptively easy ½ length win in an allowance race. In the Met Mile, Forego at 133 lb. faced twelve rivals. Running his customary race from well back, Forego swept by all to win going away by 2 lengths over Co Host (111 lb.) with Full Out (115 lb.), third 2 lengths back. In the last four renewals of the Met, Forego had won twice and finished second twice.  

After the Met Mile, Forego, following last year’s script, ran next in the Nassau County Handicap at Belmont Park, and under 136 lb. surged from off the pace to defeat Co Host (110 lb.) by a ½ length with Norcliffe (117 lb.), third, a neck behind. As can be seen, the weight differentials were getting absurd. Carrying a career high of 138 lb. in the back to 1¼ mile distance Suburban, he failed by a neck in catching Quiet Little Table (114 lb.) with three year-old Nearly On Time (104 lb.) another neck away. The winner tracked runaway pacesetter Nearly On Time for most of the race. Taking the lead in the final furlong, Quiet Little Table held on as Forego closed while drifting way out towards the outer rail. In the final race in New York’s Handicap Triple, the 1½ mile Brooklyn Handicap, Forego finished an uncharacteristically weak second (beaten 11 lengths), albeit carrying 137 lb., to the stayer Great Contractor (112 lb.). Forego, despite suffering one of the largest losses in his storied career, was cheered. Over the last four years, he competed in twelve of the New York Handicap Triple races, always under top weight while winning six, four times second and twice third. This is a record for the ages. 

Forego was able to win his fourth consecutive Eclipse Award for Older Male with a powerful victory in the Woodward Handicap in the fall, but injuries prevented him from racing further in 1977. (The Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year went to the Triple Crown hero, Tayhill Farm’s Seattle Slew.)

Forego had one last fling at the Suburban as an eight year-old in 1978.  Running on bad legs, he won an allowance race to start the year as a prep for the Suburban. Forego weighted at 132 lb., faced major winner Cox’s Ridge (130 lb.). Also in the field was Upper Nile (113 lb.), a four year-old son of Nijinsky II (Can) owned by Rokeby Stable. Run on a sloppy track, both Forego and Cox’s Ridge were unplaced, finishing fifth and sixth, respectively. Upper Nile was victorious by 1½ lengths over plucky Nearly On Time (109 lb.) with Great Contractor (114 lb.), 2¼ lengths further back. In the aftermath, Mrs. Martha Gerry, mistress of Lazy F. Ranch, decided that Forego’s racing career had come to an end and he was retired to the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky. What we are left with is the legacy of the greatest weight carrying champion of modern times.

In all the two great geldings, Kelso and Forego, ran in the Suburban Handicap nine times. Their collective record was three wins, four seconds, one third and one unplacing. They carried weight that varied from 131 – 138 lb., averaging 133 lb.; an amazing feat that almost seems mythical by today’s standards. It is a great testimony to the sportsmanship of their owners, Allaire du Pont and Martha Gerry, the persistence of their trainers, Carl Hanford, Sherrill Ward and Frank Whiteley, and the courage of these mighty steeds – Kelso and Forego.