Kelso

Anyone of a certain age who is a horseplayer—and you have to be of a certain age to admit to being a horse player—will know the name Kelso, a fantastic horse who won at all distances in the early '60s at NYRA tracks and other venues. He was a crowd favorite, because in those days there was a crowd. I won't even try and count the number of times in his 63 starts he went off as the favorite.

I didn't see Kelso run in person. My entry into the world of handicapping and betting started in 1968, so Dr. Fager and Damascus were the first great horses I saw run. Then Forego then John Henry, then Cigar. In my book, there haven't been any horses after those that can compare. Okay, maybe Zenyatta. 

And being a horse player, I long ago lobbied as a gift the Daily Racing Form's "Champions: The Lives. Times and Past Performances of the 20th Century's Greatest Thoroughbreds." It is a must have book.

Arranged by decades, the comprehensive book covers the greats from the 1890s through the 1990s, stopping at 1999. Okay, that's the 20th Century, but we're 20 years into the next century, how about a new book. The DRF's answer was that there are no plans for one. What's wrong with those guys? 

Never mind, the volume affords a look at the records of the greats, and Kelso was certainly one of the greats, perhaps the greatest. He's so far back in the '60s that when you Google his name the horse Kelso doesn't appear until the second page. You get a few people named Kelso, and a town, but the horse is not first. It's understandable. His era is like what Man-O War's era was to me when I started marking up The Morning Telegraph.

How great was Kelso? Let me count the ways. He was horse of the Year from 1960 through 1964, five straight years. No one has come close to that durability.

He won at all distances: routes and sprints, dirt mostly, and a few times on the turf. He ran 63 times and was 39-12-2, winning $1,977,896, in an era when the top purse was pretty much just over a $100,000. He ran in $3,000 allowance races after winning his first start in 1959. He did not compete in the Triple Crown races, not racing as a three-year-old until they were over in 1960.

His owner was Allaire duPont, an American sportswoman and a member of the French-American Dupont family of chemical manufacturing. His breeding does not suggest where the name Kelso comes from. His sire was Hold Your Hand (from an Alibaba mare) and Maid in Flight by Count Fleet. So, where does the name Kelso come from?

The only time I've ever heard the name was when it referred to the horse. Now I read in a WSJ book review that Christopher Grasso has written a book 'Teacher, Preacher, Soldier Spy' about John Russell Kelso who was a very colorful character who was born in 1831 and assumed many roles in life.

His name would certainly stump a Jeopardy contestant. He was hardly widely known, but still merits a 529 page book from Oxford Press.

As a horse, Kelso's name was so well known that when I started out there was a handicapping tool that was being hawked known as the "Kelco Class Calculator." It was a slide rule that was supposed to reveal hidden class in an entrant. I never even held one. It disappeared.

So where does the name Kelso spring from? Connected with a duPont family name was Kelso some kind of acronym like Sunoco, Esso, or Aramco? Perhaps an alert reader will dive into the origin of the name for me.

Neither the author of the book, Christopher Grasso, or the WSJ book reviewer, Gerard Helferich, carry Twitter accounts, so there is no hope from that quarter.  My guess is they are probably not even aware of the horse named Kelso and his greatness.

Note:

A very alert reader has responded before today's sun set. Barbara Livingston, chief photographer of the Daily Racing Form, who can easily be spotted outside the winner's circle with 12 cameras draped across her body, who I was secretly counting on to weigh in, has offered the definitive explanation of the origin of Kelso's name by searching Newspapers.com Perhaps not as romantic as naming the horse after John Russell, but Kelso was named after a person named Kelso, a friend of Mrs. duPont's. What a gift!

Kelso is named for Mrs. Charles Everett of Wilmington, DE, a friend of Mrs. Dupont's...Mrs. Everett is the former Miss Kelso Alsop, daughter of Mr. And Mrs. Robert Alsop of 210 N. Plum Street...The Times Dispatch, Richmond, VA 12-2-60

When in doubt about a name, consider someone's maiden name.

John Russell Kelso sounds like more than interesting character. The reviewer tells us the author argues "the man embodied the political and philosophical currents running through his times." Way too early for his own talk show.

Since Allaire duPont passed away in 2003 after a significantly long life, anyone who can tell us about Kelso's name is going to be tough. John Russell Kelso lived a long life as well, passing away in 1891, but becoming known to a woman who was born into such wealth in 1913, it is doubtful her horse's name springs from John Russell. Kelso the man was a forgotten man by the time he died.

On October 15, 1983, the 26-year-old Kelso was paraded prior to the start of Jockey Club Gold Cup (a race he won often) at Belmont Park along with champion horse Forego and the still active John Henry in front of a crowd of 32,000 spectators. It was Kelso final public appearance—he died the next day on October 16, 1983.

They couldn't leave the old guy alone.

http://www.onofframp.blogpsot.com