Horse Racing: Kelso, the American thoroughbred racehorse
Foaled on the 4th of April 1957, Kelso is considered one of the best racehorses of the twentieth century. Sired by Your Host out of Maid of Flight, the legendary gelding is ranked #4 in the list of top 100 United States thoroughbred champions
of the 20th century by The Blood Horse magazine.
The dark bay coloured colt is bred and owned by Bohemia Stable. Under the training of Dr. John Lee and Carl Hanford, Kelso had a total of $ 1,977,896 at the time of his retirement.
When he initiated his racing career, Kelso did not give many brilliant performances. His sire and dam were not very well known thoroughbred racehorses and thus he was not flaunted much either. The racehorse was two years old when he started his racing career.
The first race contended by him was at Atlantic City Race Course which took place on the 4th of September 1959. Kelso was ridden by John Block on one of the country’s premier tracks at that time. This was the only race that he contended and won
in that racing season.
Kelso resumed his athletic career as a three year old colt. The first start of the 1960 racing season contended by the talented thoroughbred was the Hawthorne Gold Cup Handicap. This race was the first event that happened after the 1960 Triple Crown races.
After this major win, Kelso went on to win the Jockey Club Gold Cup. The great colt’s brilliant performances were acknowledged by the industry and thus he was adorned with the Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year (1960). Kelso was also named the Three Year
Old Champion Male for the same year.
Next racing season, Kelso once again displayed his talent and potential at its best. The most significant races won by the racehorse in the year 1962 include the Jockey Club Gold Cup and the Woodward Stakes. Kelso once again claimed the 1962 Champion Handicap
Male and the Horse of the Year for the same season.
Kelso then went on to clinch the most number of victories in 1963. He won the 1963 editions of the Jockey Club Gold Cup, Suburban Handicap, Woodward Stakes, Whitney Stakes, Aqueduct Handicap, Gulfstream Park Handicap, John B. Campbell Handicap and the Nassau
County Handicap. Once again, the racehorse was awarded the United States Champion Older Male Horse and Horse of the Year titles for the year 1963.
As for the racing season that followed, Kelso only won two important races, Jockey Club Gold Cup (1964) and Aqueduct Handicap (1964). Yet again, the legendary thoroughbred earned the United States Older Male Horse and Horse of the Year Awards 1964.
Hanford retired Kelso at the age of nine, despite his plans of sending him out for another racing year. He made this decision after the racehorse suffered a hairline fracture of the inside sesamoid of his right back foot. At the time of his retirement, Kelso
had participated in 63 races, out of which he won 39 starts. Since Kelso was a gelding, he could not be retired to a stand at stud and thus was made a part of hunting and show jumping career events. In the year 1967, he was inducted into the National Museum
of Racing and Hall of Fame, the most prestigious honour in American Horse Racing.
When Kelso’s great trainer, Carl Hanford was being awarded his Hall of Fame award in 2006, he said,
“I am here today because of one horse and one horse only. Although I have had a few stakes horse before, they did not compare with Kelso. There is an old saying on the racetrack that ‘a good horse is dangerous in anybody’s hands’. How true that is. Of all
the top trainers in the past that have had this honour, I may be a little bit prejudiced, but I don’t think any one of them had their hands on a horse like Kelso.”
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