Count Turf (horse)

Won Dover Stakes (USA, 5.5FD, Delaware)
2nd Christiana Stakes (USA, 5FD, Delaware)
2nd Youthful Stakes (second division) (USA, 5FD, Jamaica)

1951:

Won Kentucky Derby (USA, 10FD, Churchill Downs)

1953:

Won Questionnaire Handicap (USA, 8.5FD, Empire City)
3rd Massachusetts Handicap (USA, 10FD, Suffolk Downs)
3rd Queens County Handicap (USA, 8.5FD, Aqueduct)
3rd Valley Forge Handicap (USA, 8f+70yD, Garden State)

Assessments

Rated at 112 pounds on the Experimental Free Handicap for American juveniles of 1950, 14 pounds below highweighted Uncle Miltie and 12 pounds below the official divisional champion, Battlefield.

Ranked fourth among American 3-year-old males of 1951 by The Blood-Horse.

As an individual

A bay horse standing a shade under 16 hands, Count Turf was a rangy individual of the American classic type who was said to have borne a strong resemblance to his sire, Count Fleet. He did his best running from well off the pace. He was injured while finishing unplaced in the Belmont Stakes, missed most of his 4-year-old season due to another injury, and suffered a career-ending bone fracture while winning the 1953 Questionnaire Handicap.

As a stallion

According to records kept by The Jockey Club, Count Turf sired 100 winners (64.9%) and two stakes winners (1.3%) from 154 named foals.

Notable progeny

Manassa Mauler (USA)

Connections

Count Turf was bred by Dr. and Mrs. Frank Porter Miller. He was owned by Jack Amiel, who purchased the colt for US$3,700 from the 1949 Saratoga yearling sale. He was trained by Sol Rutchick until October 1951, when he moved to the barn of William Finnegan. Count Turf entered stud in Kentucky in 1954 at Almahurst Farm, later moving to Elmhurst Farm (also in Kentucky) and later to Windy Hills Farm in Maryland. He died at Windy Hills in 1966 and was buried at the farm.

Pedigree notes

Count Turf is inbred 4x4 to 1911 English/Irish champion sire Sundridge and Sweet Briar II through the full brothers Sunreigh and Sun Briar; he carries an additional cross of Sundridge at the fifth remove and is also inbred 5x5x5 to St. Frusquin. He is a half brother to multiple stakes winner Golden Briar (by Centime) and to Star Student (by Rhodes Scholar), dam of stakes winner Olympia Dell (by Olympia), second dam of 1970 Washington Park Handicap winner Doc's T. V., and third dam of multiple Group 1 winner Lianga and Irish Group 2 winner Diamonds Are Trump. Count Turf is also a half brother to Very Near (by War Admiral), dam of multiple stakes winner Old Rivers (by Gold Capitol), and to Alibarrie (by Alibhai), third dam of Grade 3 winner Frosty Skater.

Count Turf was produced from Delmarie, whose dam Charming Note is a half sister to 1924 Great American Stakes winner Swope (by Fair Play) and to Watch Out (by Fair Play), dam of the minor stakes winner Broom's Sentry (by Brooms).Charming Note and her siblings, in turn, were produced from Alburn, an imported daughter of the noted French racer and sire Alcantara II.

Books and media

Count Turf is profiled in Chapter 8 of Avalyn Hunter's American Classic Pedigrees 1914-2002 (2003, Eclipse Press).

Fun facts

Count Turf was named in honor of his sire and of his owner's Turf Restaurant in Times Square, New York City.
Count Turf capped the first of two three-generation sequences of Kentucky Derby winners, as his grandsire Reigh Count and sire Count Fleet had won the race in 1928 and 1943, respectively. The other such sequence began with Pensive in 1944, followed by his son Ponder in 1949 and Ponder's son Needles in 1956. Interestingly, jockey Conn McCreary was involved in both sequences, having ridden Pensive in the 1944 Derby before scoring aboard Count Turf.
Count Turf was definitely the colt who couldn't get any respect in the 1951 Kentucky Derby. Aside from his trainer's decision to skip attending the race, the colt competed in the Derby without being reshod because the farrier couldn't find his barn; he ended up losing a hind shoe during the running. Adding insult to injury after he was lumped in with the mutuel field, the track announcer kept calling him “Timely Reward” (a colt who ended up finishing 10th) until the last furlong of the Derby, by which time Count Turf was drawing off to victory.
According to Herb Goldstein of Turf and Sport Digest, 79 sportswriters on hand to cover the 1951 Kentucky Derby were polled as to their pre-race selections for the first three places. Count Turf was not mentioned by any of them, perhaps because he had failed to crack the top three in seven straight races leading up to the Derby.
Although the common account regarding Sol Rutchick is that he chose not to attend the Derby because of his lack of faith in Count Turf (a story corroborated by Jack Amiel's son, Joseph Amiel), Rutchick later maintained that he had been detained in New York by illness in his family and intended to fly to Kentucky for the race but missed his plane. Rutchick did arrange for exercise rider Fred Case (shown with Count Turf in the photo above) to come down and ride the colt during his pre-Derby training, as Count Turf was not easy to handle and Case got on well with him.
In Rutchick's absence, Jack Amiel (an experienced horseman, but not a licensed trainer) actually handled Count Turf's pre-Derby conditioning.
Count Turf was the first mutuel field runner to win the Kentucky Derby since Flying Ebony pulled off the feat in 1925. It would be another 20 years before another member of the mutuel field captured the roses, and no field horse has won the Derby since Canonero II turned the trick in 1971.
Count Turf's Derby was attended by the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. The Duke (the former King Edward VIII, who had renounced the throne of England to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson) and his wife watched the race from Churchill Downs president Bill Corum's box.
Count Turf's best son, 1959 Wood Memorial Stakes winner Manassa Mauler, was bred by Jack Amiel and was named in honor of Amiel's good friend, former world champion heavyweight boxer Jack Dempsey (the “Manassa Mauler”), who was also Amiel's business partner as co-owner of Dempsey's Broadway Restaurant.
Following the 1951 Kentucky Derby, Churchill Downs had a trophy made for Conn McCreary as the winning jockey. Since then, the winning jockey has received a trophy as well as the winning owner and trainer.

Photo credit

Photographer unknown. Taken during a pre-Derby workout. From the private collection of Dale Wyatt; used by permission.

Last updated: August 7, 2021