Aiken is part of the long, exciting and colorful history of the Kentucky Derby, which will be run for the 150th time Saturday at Churchill Downs.
Six horses that spent time at the Aiken Training Track have captured the race, which also is known as the Run for the Roses because of the blanket of red flowers the winner receives.
The 1¼-mile contest is the first leg of the Triple Crown for 3-year-old thoroughbreds. The second is the Preakness Stakes in Maryland, and the third is the Belmont Stakes in New York.
“To have six Kentucky Derby winners from a small town like ours is pretty amazing; I think that shows the quality of training that they received while they were here,” said Lisa Hall, coordinator for the Aiken Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame and Museum in Hopelands Gardens.
“It’s a hard race to win,” she added. “The jockey, the trainer, the horse — everybody involved has got to be at the top of their game it pull it off.”
The Aiken-trained Kentucky Derby winners include Shut Out (1942), Lucky Debonair (1965) and Cannonade (1974).
Pleasant Colony (1981), Swale (1984) and Sea Hero (1993) are the others.
Shut Out notched his victory the year after the Aiken Training Track opened.
“Right out of the gate, he was our first horse that won the Kentucky Derby,” Hall said. “That just tugs at my heartstrings a little bit.”
Ridden by Wayne Wright, Shut Out stalked the pace early in the 68th Run for the Roses, moved into the lead in the upper stretch and then pulled away for a 2¼-length win.
Greentree Stable was the breeder and owner of Shut Out, a chestnut colt trained by John Gaver.
Shut Out’s more highly regarded stablemate, Devil Diver, finished sixth.
Eddie Arcaro, who was aboard Devil Diver in the Run for the Roses, later rode Shut Out to victory in the Belmont Stakes.
A debonair win
With Bill Shoemaker in the irons, Ada Rice’s Lucky Debonair stayed close to the front-running Flag Raiser in the 91st Kentucky Derby.
When that rival faded late, Lucky Debonair took command.
Midway down the stretch, he had increased his advantage to three lengths. But Lucky Debonair had to work hard the rest of the way to the wire to hold off the rallying 30-1 longshot, Dapper Dan.
Lucky Debonair won by only a neck.
Danada Farm, owned by Rice and her husband, Dan, bred the bay colt,
Frank Catrone was Lucky Debonair’s trainer.
A royal triumph
The field for the 100th Kentucky Derby was the iconic race’s largest ever with 23 starters.
The crowd of 163,628, then a record, included Princess Margaret of the British royal family.
Cannonade was part of the favored Woody Stephens-trained entry along with Judger, who had been more successful as a 3-year-old up until then.
After getting roughed up a bit at the start, Cannonade raced in the middle of the pack for a while before starting to gain ground on the outside of his rivals.
Then, after moving closer to the inside rail, the bay colt charged to the front with only about a quarter of a mile remaining.
At the wire Cannonade, ridden by Angel Cordero Jr., was 2¼-lengths ahead of Hudson County. Judger was squeezed back soon after breaking from the starting gate and wound up eighth.
John M. Olin, who bred and raced Cannonade, was 81 when the colt triumphed in the Kentucky Derby.
The following year, Churchill Downs officials limited the Run for the Rose’s field to 20 starters.
A pleasant victory
In the 107th Kentucky Derby, Pleasant Colony prevailed by only three-quarters of a length over another Aiken-trained runner, the hard-charging Woodchopper.
Jorge Velasquez Jr. rode Pleasant Colony, who had to work his way into contention from near the back of the field.
The bay colt went on to also win the Preakness, but failed in his bid to sweep the Triple Crown when he finished third in the Belmont Stakes.
Johnny Campo trained Pleasant Colony for breeder Thomas Mellon Evans’ Buckland Farm.
A tragic ending
Swale’s trainer almost didn’t make it to Churchill Downs for the 110th Kentucky Derby.
Woody Stephens, suffering from pneumonia, emphysema and exhaustion, was hospitalized until the day before the Run for the Roses.
Swale, meanwhile, was looking hale and hearty. Ridden by Laffit Pincay Jr. in the Run for the Roses, the dark bay colt chased the pacesetting filly, Althea, before grabbing the lead in the far turn en route to a 3¼-length victory.
Swale finished a disappointing seventh in the Preakness, but rebounded to easily capture the Belmont Stakes.
Eight days following the Belmont win, Swale collapsed and died following a routine training session.
Examinations afterward found scar tissue near the aortic valve of the colt’s heart.
Claiborne Farm was the breeder and owner of Swale, a son of 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew.
Feel-good story
Time was running out for Paul Mellon of Rokeby Stable to win the Kentucky Derby. But at the age of 85, the veteran thoroughbred owner and breeder, finally tasted success thanks to Sea Hero.
Sent off at odds of nearly 13-1, the bay colt scored a 2½-length, come-from-behind victory over favored Prairie Bayou in the 119th Run for the Roses.
Sea Hero also gave his then 71-year-old trainer, Mack Miller, his first and only Kentucky Derby victory near the end of a long career.
Miller retired the following year when Mellon decided to reduce his racing stock.
In addition, Sea Hero’s jockey, Jerry Bailey, was a first-time winner of the Run for the Roses. He added another victory to his resume in 1996 aboard Grindstone.
The Aiken Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame and Museum’s Hall recently recalled visiting Miller and his wife, Martha, in their home in Versailles, Kentucky, prior to the trainer’s death in 2010.
“I would go see them a couple of times a year,” Hall said. “Their house wasn’t very big, but you would have to go down this long hallway to get to the back where the TV room — what I call the den — was.
“On the right, when you entered that room, he (Miller) had his Kentucky Derby [trainer’s] trophy,” she continued. “I thought that was pretty cool. He had the trophy right out where he could see it every single day.”
