She Was the First: Mary Hirsch, No Sir, and the 1937 Kentucky Derby

Over its 150 years, the Kentucky Derby has seen its share of firsts. From the first edition in 1875 to the first filly to win in 1915 and beyond, each milestone adds another layer to the history of the Run for the Roses and gives each generation of racing fans memories that last a lifetime. In the 1930s, as racing grew from coast to coast, more women sought the chance to become a part of the country’s oldest sporting pastime. One of those was Mary Hirsch.

The daughter of a Hall of Fame trainer, Hirsch grew up around horses and racing and wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps and train her own barn of racehorses. She got that chance in 1935 when the Jockey Club approved her license to train. Two years later, Mary Hirsch made history when she brought No Sir to the 1937 Kentucky Derby.

Getting Her Start

Max Hirsch started his racing career as a teenager in Texas as a groom on John A. Morris’s ranch and a rider on the bush-track circuit before hitching a ride on a train to Maryland. There, he went to work for Morris’s racing stable and rode professionally before turning to training when weight became an issue. Over his seven-decade career, Hirsch trained champions like Triple Crown winner Assault, dual Triple Crown classic victor Bold Venture, and Hall of Famer Sarazen, finding most of his success at King Ranch. 

Daughter Mary and son William J. “Buddy” Hirsch, who would become a Hall of Fame trainer himself, helped their father around the stables, learning about the day-to-day care and conditioning of Thoroughbreds from their earliest years. Conscious of the demands of the life of a trainer, Hirsch sent his children to schools like the Scudder School in New York and Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Despite encouraging both Mary and Buddy to pursue other paths, the passion both had for the sport lured them back. Hirsch supported both by giving them horses and money to start their barns, but Mary ran into a roadblock: the Jockey Club would not license a woman to train.

Mary worked in her father’s stable as she honed her skills, newspaper reports sharing that her expertise had become such that even Max consulted her. Her first application to the Jockey Club was tabled in 1933 so any horses she did train ran in Buddy’s or her father’s name. The following year, both Illinois and Michigan granted her a trainer’s license, opening those circuits up to the aspiring horsewoman. In 1935, the Jockey Club acquiesced, and Mary Hirsch became the first woman with a license to train at the racetracks nationwide. 

Making Her Mark

Owners like Bernard Baruch, a former adviser to Woodrow Wilson and a Wall Street financier, and Anne Corning, wife of New York Congressman Parker Corning, supported the petite conditioner with horses like Captain Argo and Thanksgiving. Hirsch brought apprentice jockey Ira Hanford east from his native Nebraska and persuaded her father to give the young rider a shot at the 1936 Kentucky Derby with Bold Venture. Their victory made Hanford the first apprentice to win the Run for the Roses. 

At the same time, Mary was investing in a gelding named No Sir. She had purchased the son of Brooklyn Handicap winner Sortie for a reported $5,000 and then raced him in her red and yellow silks. He broke his maiden going 5 3/4 furlongs in the East View Stakes at Empire City and then beat juvenile star Pompoon by a half-length at Saratoga. He started his three-year-old season with five starts at Hialeah, including a win in the Bahamas Handicap and a second in the Flamingo Stakes. Confident that No Sir could be a player in the 1937 Kentucky Derby, Hirsch brought the gelding to Churchill Downs. 

Women had already been a part of Derby history prior to Mary Hirsch’s arrival. The 1904 victor Elwood was bred by Emma Holt Prather and owned by Lasca Durnell. Rosa Hoots won the 50th edition with Black Gold in 1924, and Fannie Hertz, Helen Hay Whitney, and Isabel Dodge Sloan all had winners in their colors in 1928, 1931, and 1934, respectively. Hirsch, though, was doing something unprecedented: she not only owned her Derby starter but also conditioned him herself. She boosted jockey Hubert LeBlanc into the saddle for the big race, No Sir joining the field of 19 others, including Pompoon and War Admiral, for the 63rd Kentucky Derby. 

At the race’s end, No Sir had spent much of the 10 furlongs toward the back of the pack, moving up in the final furlongs to finish 13th behind the fourth Triple Crown winner, War Admiral. While the gelding would be her only Derby starter, Hirsch became the first of 18 women as of 2024 to start a horse in the Run for the Roses. She continued training until marrying Maryland racing secretary Charles McLennan in 1940 and stepping aside to raise a family on Cowpens Farm in Towson, Maryland. Though she no longer trained, Hirsch followed the sport and worked with horses for the rest of her life. 

Mary Hirsch’s perseverance made her a pioneer and opened up another avenue of opportunity for women in horse racing, giving the generations that follow her a chance to do what they love — train horses to win on the sport’s biggest days.