Tall Tales of the Track, Kentucky Derby Edition: ‘The Truck Horse’ Does Good

When mercurial entrepreneur Willis Sharpe Kilmer bought an angular, untested gelding, he expected nothing more than a workout partner for his Derby hopeful. Instead, that ugly duckling turned into much more than a prince. He became a legend.

The 1918 Kentucky Derby brought the sport one of its most beloved figures, Exterminator, whose surprising victory in the Run for the Roses showed that great performances could come from the most unexpected places. 

Built on Hope

Before the day’s races on Aug. 15, 1916, anyone standing near the paddock at Saratoga Race Course would have seen two dozen young horses circling as an audience of buyers and sellers pondered their possibilities. These French-bred colts and fillies had come west to find opportunities away from the uncertainties of wartime. One of those was Sunday, a handsome bay colt by the good English sprinter Sundridge, who had caught the attention of one eager owner and his veteran trainer, Henry McDaniel. By the time the bidding was done, Sunday emerged as the day’s most expensive, selling for $6,000 to Willis Sharpe Kilmer. He would rename the Sundridge colt Sun Briar and set out to build his racing fortunes around his new hopeful.

Four days later, in that same paddock, the final lot of the sale, 46 in total, circled the paddock as prospective buyers examined each for any sign of potential. One, a gangly colt by McGee out of the mare Fairy Empress, hammered down at $1,500, the pinhooker James Calvin Milam betting that this one had promise despite a seemingly pedestrian pedigree. McGee had already sired a Kentucky Derby winner in Donerail, who had become the longest-priced victor in the race’s history at 91-1 in 1913, but that was not enough to make the Fairy Empress colt’s pedigree stand out. Yet when he galloped at Milam’s Merrick Place farm, the owner/trainer and his exercise rider Sam Johnson saw promise in this new purchase. After hearing her husband say that the chestnut colt could kill off his competition, Milam said, “Why not [name him] Exterminator?” 

Despite that potential, Exterminator soon stamped himself as a problem child, fretful and run down. Rather than send him to the Kentucky Association track in Lexington along with the rest of his stable in early 1917, Milam ordered the colt castrated and then gave him time to recover from the procedure, delaying his first start until June 30. He raced just four times that season, winning twice. Milam nominated Exterminator for the 1918 Kentucky Derby anyway, knowing that aspirational owners would find that a plus. After all, Milam’s whole aim was to speculate, buy low, and sell high. 

Little did he know just how high the lanky gelding would go.

Undeniable Potential

Meanwhile, Kilmer and McDaniel plotted Sun Briar’s path to Louisville. Though Kilmer was new to ownership, he was not new to the sport and knew exactly what he wanted to get out of it, including a win in the Kentucky Derby. His unshakable faith in Sun Briar already had him dreaming of roses. 

For his part, the Sundridge colt showed his quality early, winning five of nine starts at age two, including victories in the Great American and Hopeful Stakes. Kilmer loved Sun Briar so much that he sent McDaniel to Europe to find mares for his future stallion and then threw a party for his star on Jan. 1, the universal birthday for all Thoroughbreds, inviting the whole community to his estate near Binghamton, New York, to ogle the colt’s trophies and celebrate his status as the winter book favorite for the Kentucky Derby.

However, the transition from two to three was a challenging one for Sun Briar. The ringbones that had initially concerned observers started to cause problems. His workouts were not as robust in 1918 as they had been the year before. At the Kentucky Association racetrack in Lexington, McDaniel sent Sun Briar out for his first start of the season on April 25, a little over two weeks before the Derby. The six-furlong allowance should have been nothing more than a paid workout; instead, Kilmer’s colt and jockey Willie Knapp hung out midpack from start to finish, his third place not inspiring confidence that Sun Briar was ready for Louisville. McDaniel thought that perhaps Sun Briar would benefit from a new workout partner. Kilmer gave him the go-ahead and McDaniel went straight to J.C. Milam for one reason: Exterminator.

At three, the McGee gelding was filling out and growing up. He was more patient and observant, and his workouts showed that the changes between the two seasons were all positive. For that reason, McDaniel sought Milam out and offered $9,000 plus two fillies for the gelding. With that, Exterminator and Sun Briar were stablemates. Kilmer had the workout partner that he thought Sun Briar needed, and McDaniel had a horse he thought could be something special. 

With the Derby looming in just days, would it be enough to get the French-bred colt ready for roses?

The Start of Something Special

Kilmer did not see Exterminator before McDaniel’s purchase and refused to see him even when the new acquisition was working with his prized colt. The mercurial owner would watch from his limousine, binoculars following Sun Briar around the dirt oval. During their first workout together, Sun Briar beat his new stablemate over six furlongs, but as McDaniel sent them out for longer works, it was clear that Sun Briar was not ready for 10 furlongs — but Exterminator was. When Kilmer finally admitted that his prized French-bred colt would not be a Derby starter, he had no intention of starting Exterminator in his place. That is, until one expert intervened.

Colonel Matt Winn, the genius who had helped rescue Churchill Downs from financial ruin and grown the Kentucky Derby into a coveted pursuit, had been there for the workouts. He had seen the difference between Kilmer’s beloved colt and the "truck horse" that McDaniel had bought from Milam. When the owner sought Winn’s counsel about the situation, it was Winn who encouraged Kilmer to enter the already-eligible gelding in the big race. Finally, Kilmer relented, and Exterminator’s name was dropped into the entry box for the 44th Kentucky Derby.

The rest is racing history. Exterminator bided his time in fifth until the six-furlong mark and then slipped inside to the rail to make his bid for the lead. He passed the filly Escoba in the final furlongs and won by a length, the first big win in what became a Hall of Fame career. Thanks to the faith of trainer Henry McDaniel and famed promoter Matt Winn, Exterminator got his chance to show what this "truck horse" was made of under the iconic Twin Spires.