Jockey Club Gold Cup’s Only Five Times Winner – Kelso, the Horse of Gold
Fondly referred as ‘King Kelly’ and named as ‘The Horse of Gold’ by one of the horse guides; this faintly remembered horse in the beginning of his career went on to set an array of records and equalling many, carving a niche for himself when others failed to notice the none-Triple Crown crowd through his exceptional performances and innumerable victories and purse wins; this was the horse who despite his humble physique, captured one of the longest races for the maximum number of times and is remembered as one of the finest winners horse racing fraternity has ever witnessed; this is Kelso.
Ranked 4th on the Blood-Horse magazine’s top 100 U.S. thoroughbred champions after a Man O’ War, Secretariat and Citation, Kelso was indeed a champion rising from the genre of handicap and stakes races making a fortune from his incredibly long racing career of 8 years comprising of 63 starts of which he won 39, closed a second place in 12, finished third only thrice. It was only in 10 races that the striking gelding ran out of money.
Kelso, born on April 4th, 1957, was owned by Allaire du Pont who made a racing career as a Bohemia Stable candidate in all of his races. Trained by Hall of Fame trainer, Carl Hanford, who stayed with Kelso throughout the latter’s racing career, the gelding opened his three year old season with an incredibly easy win at the Monmouth Park followed by eight out of the nine consecutive starts that year. Kelso had made his first Jockey Club Gold Cup opening as a winner and also tied a record with great grandsire Man O’ War’s record at Lawrence Realization’s 1 5/8 miles in a time of 2:40.48.
Kelso had already started riding his lucky streak; he was awarded the Three Year Old Champion Male along with Eclipse Award of the Year, 1960. What followed in 1961 was another array of handicap races with seven wins out of nine wonderful starts. Kelso was known to lead and stalk; he was a perfect blend of persistence with the winning element and an un-seconded balance with stamina.
The year 1962 may not have been an ecstatic start for the gelding but having made a few allowance runs here and there, Kelso made an astonishing comeback with his consecutive third victory at the Woodward Stakes along with Jockey Club Gold Cup and Governor’s Plate. A couple of second place finishes at Washington D.C. International and Man O’ War Stakes, the horse once again closed the season with a U.S. Champion Older Mae Horse and U.S. Horse of the Year awards.
Kelso didn’t need a layoff. He was back next year with Seminole at Hialeah followed by Gulfstream Park Handicap and seven more victories at some major stakes like the Aqueduct and Whitney stakes including the Jockey Club Gold Cup’s another unprecedented win bringing him to another year of championship and Horse of the Year awards.
The champion once again won the Jockey Club Gold Cup in 1964 along with Aqueduct making him the only five times champion of the former and also a five times U.S. Champion Handicap male and the Horse of the Year. A record of 3:19.1 still stays virgin for the two mile Jockey Club Gold Cup dirt.
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