Tall Tales of the Track, Kentucky Derby Edition: One Winner, Two Sires?

When Justify powered home to a 2 1/2-length victory in the 2018 Kentucky Derby (G1), he did something that had not been done in more than a century: win the Derby after going unraced at two. A long list of horses — including Hall of Famers Coaltown, Forego, and Curlin — tried and failed to break what had come to be called the Curse of Apollo. 

Named for 1882 Kentucky Derby winner Apollo, this phenomenon commemorated the Bluegrass-bred colt’s extraordinary victory over a popular choice in Runnymede. 

This or That 

Daniel Swigert made his reputation in racing through his ownership of Elmendorf Farm near Lexington, Kentucky, and his success as a pinhooker, buying and then selling horses like Hindoo and Baden-Baden. In 1878, he bred his mare Rebecca T. Price, a 20-year-old daughter of St. Leger winner The Colonel, to a pair of stallions, likely to ensure that she would get pregnant since she was older. She had previously produced seven foals, including the stakes winner Mahlstick by Lever, a son of Lexington. This visit to Lever was her third, but her cover by Ashstead was the one and only visit to the stallion. 

Because Rebecca T. Price had visited both when she foaled a chestnut colt with one hind sock, no one could say for sure who his sire was. Both stallions were bay, as was Lever’s sire Lexington, the legendary four-mile racehorse who became the most prolific stallion of the 19th century. Ashstead’s sire Vedette, the 1857 2000 Guineas victor, was brown, while Rebecca T. Price’s own sire, The Colonel, was a bay. But Rebecca T. Price herself was chestnut, which could explain Apollo’s coat color. 

In the spring of Rebecca T. Price’s two-year-old season, Swigert decided to sell the young racehorse rather than racing him in his own colors. He sent Apollo to trainer Henry Brown, who started preparing the son of Rebecca T. Price for the racetrack. According to a 1915 Daily Racing Form article, early in his two-year-old season, Brown sent Apollo out for a one-mile workout. The task was too much for the gelding and he emerged from the work with an injury. Swigert sent Apollo back to Stockwood Farm for a break, and it was there that opportunity knocked. 

On a visit to Stockwood, owner and trainer Green B. Morris spied Apollo in a field and contacted Swigert about buying the colt. Along with his partner James D. Patton, Morris made an offer of $1,200 with the promise of a $300 bonus to Swigert if Apollo were to win the Kentucky Derby. Morris was a veteran of the American racing scene even at age 46, likely starting his career before the Civil War and owning and training horses up until his death at age 86 in 1920. Morris knew potential when he saw it: he would later purchase and race Sir Dixon in his juvenile season before selling the horse to the Dwyer brothers, for whom Sir Dixon would win the Belmont Stakes in 1888. 

Morris gelded Apollo and then delayed his new charge’s debut until his three-year-old season in 1882. That delayed start to his career would give rise to another claim to fame for the son of Rebecca T. Price.

Late Bloomer, Big Winner

Apollo made his debut in New Orleans in early 1882, finishing second in the 10-furlong Pickwick Stakes and then a pair of mile heats before breaking his maiden in the 1 1/2-mile Cottrill Stakes. Prior to his trip to Louisville, he also won the Drummers Stakes at Little Rock and the Montgomery Stakes at Memphis. Then Morris brought him to Louisville to face 13 rivals, including a colt named Runnymede. 

The brown son of Billet ran in the colors of the aforementioned Dwyer brothers, who had won the Derby with Hindoo the year before. Before the pair would run their horse in the Derby, Colonel Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr., who was a steward as well as the man running the show at the Louisville Jockey Club racetrack (which later would be called Churchill Downs), had to agree to their stipulations, including allowing the brothers to bring in bookmakers for placing bets with, as the Dwyers disliked the auction pools the track relied on then. 

Runnymede’s turn in the Derby was his first start of the year, so he may not have been tuned for the 12-furlong test as Apollo. After making a move on the far turn, Runnymede took the lead in the stretch, but Apollo was not to be denied. With Black jockey Babe Hurd in the saddle, he made a “cyclonic charge” in the last eighth and caught Runnymede in the final yards, winning by a half-length. Apollo became the first horse to win the Kentucky Derby after not racing at two and the last one to do so until Justify’s victory in 2018. For his part, Runnymede would go on to beat Apollo in the Clark Stakes six days later.

More than a century after his Kentucky Derby victory, Apollo’s record still lists his sire as either Ashstead or Lever, though some records from the era list the last covering stallion, Ashstead, as his sire instead. Though contemporary descriptions shared hints at his resemblance to Lexington, the true sire of this Derby victor cannot be truly known, leaving Apollo singular among the long list of winners of the Run for the Roses.