Assault (USA)
March 26, 1943 – September 1, 1971
Bold Venture (USA) x Igual (USA), by Equipoise (USA)
Family 4-c
March 26, 1943 – September 1, 1971
Bold Venture (USA) x Igual (USA), by Equipoise (USA)
Family 4-c
Assault narrowly escaped destruction as a weanling after stepping on a surveyor's stake. The injury left him with a limp and a deformed foot that required extremely careful handling, but the “Clubfooted Comet” overcame his injury with an incredible desire to win. The seventh winner of the American Triple Crown, he went on to an honorable career in the handicap ranks that unfortunately was overshadowed by his match race loss to Armed when suffering from splint trouble. Because of his condition, the race (which Armed won by 8 lengths) was run as a betless exhibition and the purse was donated to the Red Cross and the Damon Runyon Cancer Foundation. Assault proved sterile when tried at stud and made comebacks at 6 and 7 before being retired for good due to recurrent lameness and multiple episodes of respiratory bleeding.
Race record
42 starts, 18 wins, 6 seconds, 7 thirds, US$675,470
1945:
1946:
1947:
1949:
Honors
Assessments
Assault was rated #33 among the top 100 American racehorses of the 20th century by an expert panel assembled by The Blood-Horse (Thoroughbred Champions, Eclipse Press, 7th printing, 2005).
Rated at 116 pounds on the Experimental Free Handicap for American juveniles of 1945, 10 pounds below highweighted Lord Boswell.
Rated second among American older males of 1947 by The Blood-Horse.
As an individual
Assault was a close-coupled chestnut horse of workmanlike but correct make other than his deformed hoof. He stood 15.1 hands. He limped at the walk and trot but ran smoothly, although he had a tendency to strike himself behind and to interfere between his fore and hind legs. He had an alert and curious disposition and was game and determined on the track.
Connections
Foaled in Texas, Assault was bred and owned by Robert Kleberg Jr.'s King Ranch in Texas. He was trained by Max Hirsch. Following his final retirement, he remained as a pensioner at King Ranch and was a popular tourist attraction, sometimes getting mail addressed simply to “Assault, Texas.” He remained essentially sterile despite repeated attempts at treatment though he did sire a few Quarter Horse foals when allowed to roam at pasture with a band of the King Ranch's Quarter Horse mares. He was humanely destroyed after breaking a foreleg bone near his left shoulder on September 1, 1971.
Pedigree notes
Assault is inbred 4x5 to Commando. He is a full brother to the stakes winners Postillion and On Your Own. Another full sibling, Equal Venture, produced Prove Out (by Graustark), who upset Secretariat in the 1973 Woodward Stakes (USA-G1). Assault's third dam, Masda, is a stakes-winning full sister to Man o' War.
Books and media
Fun facts
Photo credit
Photographer unknown. From the collection of Quarter Horse Record (Susan Larkin); used by permission.
Last updated: April 1, 2023
Race record
42 starts, 18 wins, 6 seconds, 7 thirds, US$675,470
1945:
- Won Flash Stakes (USA, 5.5FD, Saratoga)
- 3rd Babylon Handicap (USA, 6FD, Aqueduct)
1946:
- Won Kentucky Derby (USA, 10FD, Churchill Downs)
- Won Preakness Stakes (USA, 9.5FD, Pimlico)
- Won Belmont Stakes (USA, 12FD, Belmont)
- Won Dwyer Stakes (USA, 10FD, Aqueduct)
- Won Westchester Handicap (USA, 9.5FD, Jamaica)
- Won Pimlico Special (USA, 9.5FD, Pimlico)
- Won Wood Memorial (USA, 8.5FD, Jamaica)
- Won Experimental Free Handicap #1 (USA, 6FD, Jamaica)
- 2nd Jersey Handicap (USA, 9FD, Garden State)
- 2nd Roamer Handicap (USA, 9.5FD, Jamaica)
- 3rd Gallant Fox Handicap (USA, 13FD, Jamaica)
- 3rd Discovery Handicap (USA, 9FD, Aqueduct)
- 3rd Manhattan Handicap (USA, 12FD, Belmont)
1947:
- Won Brooklyn Handicap (USA, 10FD, Aqueduct)
- Won Butler Handicap (USA, 9.5FD, Jamaica)
- Won Suburban Handicap (USA, 10FD, Belmont)
- Won Grey Lag Handicap (USA, 9FD, Jamaica)
- Won Dixie Handicap (USA, 9.5FD, Pimlico)
- 3rd Gold Cup (USA, 13FD, Empire City)
1949:
- Won Brooklyn Handicap (USA, 10FD, Aqueduct)
- 3rd Edgemere Handicap (USA, 9FD, Aqueduct)
Honors
- National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame (inducted in 1964)
- Texas Racing Hall of Fame (inducted in 1999 as part of the inaugural class)
- American Horse of the Year (1946)
- American champion 3-year-old male (1946)
Assessments
Assault was rated #33 among the top 100 American racehorses of the 20th century by an expert panel assembled by The Blood-Horse (Thoroughbred Champions, Eclipse Press, 7th printing, 2005).
Rated at 116 pounds on the Experimental Free Handicap for American juveniles of 1945, 10 pounds below highweighted Lord Boswell.
Rated second among American older males of 1947 by The Blood-Horse.
As an individual
Assault was a close-coupled chestnut horse of workmanlike but correct make other than his deformed hoof. He stood 15.1 hands. He limped at the walk and trot but ran smoothly, although he had a tendency to strike himself behind and to interfere between his fore and hind legs. He had an alert and curious disposition and was game and determined on the track.
Connections
Foaled in Texas, Assault was bred and owned by Robert Kleberg Jr.'s King Ranch in Texas. He was trained by Max Hirsch. Following his final retirement, he remained as a pensioner at King Ranch and was a popular tourist attraction, sometimes getting mail addressed simply to “Assault, Texas.” He remained essentially sterile despite repeated attempts at treatment though he did sire a few Quarter Horse foals when allowed to roam at pasture with a band of the King Ranch's Quarter Horse mares. He was humanely destroyed after breaking a foreleg bone near his left shoulder on September 1, 1971.
Pedigree notes
Assault is inbred 4x5 to Commando. He is a full brother to the stakes winners Postillion and On Your Own. Another full sibling, Equal Venture, produced Prove Out (by Graustark), who upset Secretariat in the 1973 Woodward Stakes (USA-G1). Assault's third dam, Masda, is a stakes-winning full sister to Man o' War.
Books and media
- Assault is the 23rd book in the Thoroughbred Legends series from Eclipse Press. It was written by Eva Jolene Boyd and released in 2004.
- Assault: The Crippled Champion: The King Ranch Racehorse is a 2004 children's book written from Assault's point of view. Written by Marjorie Hodgson Parker and illustrated by Charles Shaw, it was released as a hardback by Bright Sky Press. A Kindle version is available.
- “Assault: The Little Horse With the Heart of a Giant” is Chapter 6 of Jim Bolus' Derby Magic (1997, Pelican Publishing Company, Inc.).
- “Assault” is the seventh chapter in Marvin Drager's The Most Glorious Crown (2005, Triumph Books).
- Assault is the seventh of the 13 American Triple Crown winners featured in Ed Bowen's The Lucky 13: The Winners of America's Triple Crown of Horse Racing (2019, Lyon Press).
- Assault's rivalries with Armed and Stymie were featured as the fifth chapter of Horse Racing's Greatest Rivalries (2008, Eclipse Press), a compilation produced by the staff of The Blood-Horse.
- Assault was profiled in Chapter 7 of Avalyn Hunter's American Classic Pedigrees 1914-2002 (2003, Eclipse Press).
- Assault is one of 50 Thoroughbreds profiled in Royal Blood: Fifty Years of Classic Thoroughbreds. Written by racing historian Jim Bolus with illustrations and commentary by noted equine artist Richard Stone Reeves, the book was released by The Blood-Horse, Inc., in 1994.
Fun facts
- Assault set a single-season earnings record of US$424,195 in 1946.
- The night before the 1946 Kentucky Derby, the owner of the Waldorf-Astoria in Louisville announced his intention to name his new cocktail lounge after the winner of the next day's Derby. After Assault won the race, the promise was quietly scrapped as the owner felt that having an “Assault Room” would not be good for business.
- Assault's Kentucky Derby was the first to carry a guaranteed purse of US$100,000.
- From the Belmont Stakes on, Assault regularly got a chocolate cake decorated in the brown-and-white King Ranch colors after every victory.
- Assault was one of a number of male-line descendants of St. Germans who proved sterile or subfertile at stud. Others included Twenty Grand, Bold Venture, Middleground, Top Knight, and Malacate. Capot, a maternal grandson of St. Germans, had similar issues.
- The Assault Stakes is a race for Texas-bred horses aged 3 and up at Lone Star Park at Grand Prairie. As of 2020, it is carded as the Highland Training Center Assault Stakes at a mile on turf.
- Hall of Fame trainer Max Hirsch's tribute to Assault was simple: “I never trained a better horse.”
Photo credit
Photographer unknown. From the collection of Quarter Horse Record (Susan Larkin); used by permission.
Last updated: April 1, 2023