Tall Tales of the Track, Kentucky Derby Edition: A Cursed Classic Contest

Kentucky Derby Day 1932 dawned sunny and warm, Mother Nature smiling on another edition of the classic. The dark cloud of the Great Depression still hung over the sport, yet the hopes of 20 horses and the people connected to them brought 50,000 racing fans to Churchill Downs, eager to celebrate this Bluegrass tradition. 

The large field carried the familiar colors of Colonel E.R. Bradley, who was seeking his third Derby win, and Jerome Respess, whose Wintergreen had taken the 1909 Derby. Five future Hall of Fame jockeys were among the 20 riders that day. Despite the bright skies and the field brimming with talent, Burgoo King’s Derby would prove to be one not of good fortune, but bad luck instead. 

Bad Luck Begins 

Bradley and trainer "Derby Dick" Thompson added a third Derby to their resumes as Burgoo King came home an easy five lengths in front. In the saddle was a young Eugene James, who had lied about his age to get a jockey’s license. 

Just 18 years old, James was under contract to Bradley and got the chance to ride Burgoo King in the Derby when the stable’s other contract jockey, Laverne Fator, chose to ride Bradley’s other horse, Brother Joe, in the big race. The latter finished 19th in the field of 20 while James and Burgoo King got an ideal trip, sitting third behind Economic and taking the lead as the field entered the stretch. 

The following year, James would be deep in the throes of fighting his weight to stay in the saddle, and he left Louisville for Chicago. At around midnight on June 10, 1933, James and friends were swimming in Lake Michigan when the young man disappeared into the water. He was found five minutes later, but his friends could not revive him. The death certificate said James had drowned, but rumors of underworld involvement in his demise swirled. 

James’ untimely end was just the tip of the iceberg for the ill luck surrounding the 1932 Kentucky Derby. Bradley’s other jockey, Fator, had rivaled Earl Sande in terms of success since he started riding in 1919. He was hospitalized for appendicitis in 1936; while awaiting an operation, he alternated between delirium and lucidity. He asked a nurse to get him some medicine, and when she returned, she found his bed empty. Fator had fallen out of the window and to his death more than 30 feet below. Fator would enter the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame two decades later on the strength of his wins in the Travers, Whitney, Alabama, and other stakes. 

The Curse Continues 

Four other future Hall of Famers were part of the 58th Kentucky Derby, each seemingly shadowed by the same bad luck that had followed James and Fator. Mack Garner would pull up his mount Liberty Limited halfway through the 1932 classic but would return to win the Derby two years later on Cavalcade. In late October 1936, Garner was riding at River Downs near Cincinnati when he suffered a series of heart attacks, succumbing at the age of 37. He would join Fator in the Hall of Fame in 1969. 

George Woolf was another of the era’s leading jockeys, best known for winning the first Santa Anita H. on Azucar in 1935 and riding Seabiscuit to a win over War Admiral in their 1938 match race. In 1932, though, he was just four years into his career, his mount Gallant Sir finishing eighth behind Burgoo King. He battled Type 1 diabetes throughout his career, and though insulin had become available in the 1930s, the jockey struggled to regulate his blood sugar. In early 1946, Woolf was riding Please Me at Santa Anita when he slipped from the saddle and hit his head on the inner rail. The legendary jockey never regained consciousness and died the next day. 

Lavelle “Buddy” Ensor had returned from a decade-long absence to ride Stepenfetchit to a third-place finish in 1932. The Maryland native had been a leading rider in the early 1920s but had his license application tabled after misconduct related to his alcoholism. Ensor rode off and on over the following decade before retiring for good in 1945. He was found dead of pneumonia in a cemetery near Jamaica Race Track in late 1947. Those early years of brilliance were enough to earn Ensor a spot in the Hall of Fame in 1962.

The last remaining Hall of Fame rider from the 1932 Kentucky Derby was Sande, the jockey who had ridden stars like Man o’ War, Sir Barton, and Gallant Fox, the latter to a Triple Crown in 1930. Injuries had plagued Sande throughout the 1920s, and a stint as a trainer/owner had nearly bankrupted him. He returned to the saddle in 1930, and by 1932 was back in the Derby on Over Time, finishing fifth. Sande retired for good later that year and went back to training. Eventually, the Hall of Famer ran out of money and success and died penniless in an Oregon nursing home in 1968. 

Two other jockeys from the 58th Derby met unfortunate fates. Best known for riding favorite Tick On to a sixth-place finish, Pete Walls died from a brain hemorrhage suffered when he was hit in the head by a baseball during a game between the New York Turf Writers Association and George Cassidy’s Assistant Starters team. Gilbert Elston finished 18th on Thistle Ace in 1932, and four years later took his own life after a series of spills left his once-promising career in tatters. 

Burgoo King followed up his Derby victory with a win in the Preakness S. a week later, but a leg injury during the Withers S. prevented him from trying for a Triple Crown at Belmont Park. The bad luck that pervaded the 1932 edition had caught up with its winner, an unfortunate footnote for this Depression-era Derby.