Reigh Count (USA)
1925 – April 8, 1948
Sunreigh (GB) x Contessina (GB), by Count Schomberg (GB)
Family 2-e
1925 – April 8, 1948
Sunreigh (GB) x Contessina (GB), by Count Schomberg (GB)
Family 2-e
Probably the best horse ever bred by Willis Sharpe Kilmer, Reigh Count was “the one that got away.” He was slow coming to hand as a 2-year-old and took seven starts to break his maiden. Not for the first time, Kilmer was unwilling to listen to a trainer's advice—Henry McDaniel, who had already quit employment with Kilmer once over the owner's treatment of Exterminator, quit from his second stint as Kilmer's trainer over the sale of Reigh Count—and sold the colt to John D. Hertz for what Hertz later described as “a pittance.” The price was actually US$10,000 (or US$12,500, depending on the source), but Reigh Count was worth it many times over. A good stakes winner by the end of his juvenile season, Reigh Count was the best American horse in training as a 3-year-old in 1928 and acquitted himself honorably while racing in England at 4. Although he received more limited opportunities early in his stud career than his stature warranted, he did fairly well at stud and sired a still better horse in the immortal Count Fleet.
Race record
27 starts, 12 wins, 4 seconds, 0 thirds, US$180,795 (including converted English earnings)
1927:
1928:
1929:
Honors
Assessments
Ranked second to Dice among American juvenile males of 1927 by The Blood-Horse.
As an individual
A rather leggy, angular chestnut, Reigh Count was said to have borne a strong resemblance to his great-grandsire St. Frusquin, to whom he was inbred 3x3. He was handsome and well-balanced with a very straight, correct hind leg but was perhaps a trifle upright in front. He tended to be slow getting away at the break. He was an extremely game horse and needed all his courage to win the Kentucky Derby, for he had suffered a gash to the coronet of one hoof while in training a few days before the great race and received another injury when kicked in the hock while at the post. The hock injury became infected and Reigh Count remained stall-bound for three weeks as he fought for his life; it is a tribute to his constitution that he was able to return to top-class competition by the time the Saratoga meeting opened in August. According to longtime racing writer John Hervey, he had an excellent disposition.
As a stallion
According to records kept by The Jockey Club, Reigh Count sired 205 winners (70.7%) and 22 stakes winners (7.6%) from 290 named foals. Aside from Count Fleet, Reigh Count was known for siring rather late-maturing runners that were tough, durable and honest.
Sire rankings
Per the American Racing Manual (Daily Racing Form) series:
Per The Blood-Horse:
Per Great Thoroughbred Sires of the World (2006, Churchill, Reichard, and Rogers):
Notable progeny
Adonis (USA), Count Arthur (USA), Count Fleet (USA), Lady Reigh (USA), Triplicate (USA)
Notable progeny of daughters
Gallahadion (USA)
Connections
Foaled at Court Manor Stud in Virginia, Reigh Count was bred by Willis Sharpe Kilmer. Reigh Count was purchased by John D. Hertz for an amount variously reported as US$10,000 or US$12,500 during his juvenile season; afterward, the colt raced in the colors of Hertz' wife Fannie. Reigh Count was trained by Henry McDaniel prior to his sale and by B. S. Michell afterward. He was ridden to his Kentucky Derby win by Chick Lang. He initially stood at stud at Leona Heights Stock Farm near Cary, Illinois, where he had limited opportunities. He moved to Claiborne Farm in 1936 and stood there through the 1939 breeding season. Reigh Count was then moved to his owner's new Stoner Creek Stud, where he died on April 8, 1948.
Pedigree notes
Reigh Count is inbred 3x3 to 1896 Two Thousand Guineas winner and two-time English champion sire St. Frusquin. He is a brother in blood to the good handicapper Sunsini (Sun Briar x Contessina) and to stakes-placed Sun Tess (a full sister to Sunsini), dam of stakes winner Gino Rex (by Gino).
Reigh Count's dam Contessina is a half sister to the good English stakes winner Beppo (by Marco). While her sire Count Schomberg has been characterized by some sources as a jumper, he was actually a good stayer on the flat as well as over fences. His victories included two editions of the Goodwood Cup as well as the Chester Cup, the Jockey Club Cup, the Ascot Gold Vase and France's leading hurdle race, the Grande Course de Haies d'Auteuil. Contessina's dam Pitti (by St. Frusquin) never raced and changed hands for just 45 guineas at the 1900 Newmarket December sale as an in-foal 2-year-old.
Pitti was produced from Florence (by Wisdom), a good handicap mare who won the 1884 Manchester Cup and Cambridgeshire Stakes. Florence's full sister Gravity is the dam of 1902 Ascot Gold Cup and Doncaster Cup winner William the Third (by St. Simon), while another full sister, Tact, produced dual English Classic winner Amiable, 1891 Yorkshire Oaks winner Charm and 1899 Prince of Wales's Stakes winner Manners, all by St. Simon.
Books and media
Fun facts
Photo credit
Photographer unknown. From the collection of Quarter Horse Record (Susan Larkin); used by permission.
Last updated: June 20, 2023
Race record
27 starts, 12 wins, 4 seconds, 0 thirds, US$180,795 (including converted English earnings)
1927:
- Won Walden Handicap (USA, 8FD, Pimlico)
- Won Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes (USA, 8FD, Churchill Downs)
- 2nd Eastern Shore Handicap (USA, 6FD, Havre de Grace)
- 2nd Futurity Stakes (USA, about 7FD, Belmont)
1928:
- Won Kentucky Derby (USA, 10FD, Churchill Downs)
- Won Miller Stakes (USA, 9.5FD, Saratoga)
- Won Huron Handicap (USA, 9.5FD, Saratoga)
- Won Saratoga Cup (USA, 14FD, Saratoga; new track record 2:55)
- Won Lawrence Realization (USA, 13FD, Belmont)
- Won Jockey Club Gold Cup (USA, 16FD, Belmont)
1929:
- Won Coronation Cup (ENG, 12FT, Epsom)
- 2nd Ascot Gold Cup (ENG, 20FT, Ascot)
Honors
- National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame (inducted in 1978).
- American Horse of the Year (1928)
- American co-champion 2-year-old male (1927)
- American champion 3-year-old male (1928)
Assessments
Ranked second to Dice among American juvenile males of 1927 by The Blood-Horse.
As an individual
A rather leggy, angular chestnut, Reigh Count was said to have borne a strong resemblance to his great-grandsire St. Frusquin, to whom he was inbred 3x3. He was handsome and well-balanced with a very straight, correct hind leg but was perhaps a trifle upright in front. He tended to be slow getting away at the break. He was an extremely game horse and needed all his courage to win the Kentucky Derby, for he had suffered a gash to the coronet of one hoof while in training a few days before the great race and received another injury when kicked in the hock while at the post. The hock injury became infected and Reigh Count remained stall-bound for three weeks as he fought for his life; it is a tribute to his constitution that he was able to return to top-class competition by the time the Saratoga meeting opened in August. According to longtime racing writer John Hervey, he had an excellent disposition.
As a stallion
According to records kept by The Jockey Club, Reigh Count sired 205 winners (70.7%) and 22 stakes winners (7.6%) from 290 named foals. Aside from Count Fleet, Reigh Count was known for siring rather late-maturing runners that were tough, durable and honest.
Sire rankings
Per the American Racing Manual (Daily Racing Form) series:
- 3rd on the American general sire list in 1937; 10th in 1942.
Per The Blood-Horse:
- 3rd on the American general sire list in 1937 and 1943; 10th in 1942.
Per Great Thoroughbred Sires of the World (2006, Churchill, Reichard, and Rogers):
- 3rd on the American general sire list in 1937 and 1943; 10th in 1942.
Notable progeny
Adonis (USA), Count Arthur (USA), Count Fleet (USA), Lady Reigh (USA), Triplicate (USA)
Notable progeny of daughters
Gallahadion (USA)
Connections
Foaled at Court Manor Stud in Virginia, Reigh Count was bred by Willis Sharpe Kilmer. Reigh Count was purchased by John D. Hertz for an amount variously reported as US$10,000 or US$12,500 during his juvenile season; afterward, the colt raced in the colors of Hertz' wife Fannie. Reigh Count was trained by Henry McDaniel prior to his sale and by B. S. Michell afterward. He was ridden to his Kentucky Derby win by Chick Lang. He initially stood at stud at Leona Heights Stock Farm near Cary, Illinois, where he had limited opportunities. He moved to Claiborne Farm in 1936 and stood there through the 1939 breeding season. Reigh Count was then moved to his owner's new Stoner Creek Stud, where he died on April 8, 1948.
Pedigree notes
Reigh Count is inbred 3x3 to 1896 Two Thousand Guineas winner and two-time English champion sire St. Frusquin. He is a brother in blood to the good handicapper Sunsini (Sun Briar x Contessina) and to stakes-placed Sun Tess (a full sister to Sunsini), dam of stakes winner Gino Rex (by Gino).
Reigh Count's dam Contessina is a half sister to the good English stakes winner Beppo (by Marco). While her sire Count Schomberg has been characterized by some sources as a jumper, he was actually a good stayer on the flat as well as over fences. His victories included two editions of the Goodwood Cup as well as the Chester Cup, the Jockey Club Cup, the Ascot Gold Vase and France's leading hurdle race, the Grande Course de Haies d'Auteuil. Contessina's dam Pitti (by St. Frusquin) never raced and changed hands for just 45 guineas at the 1900 Newmarket December sale as an in-foal 2-year-old.
Pitti was produced from Florence (by Wisdom), a good handicap mare who won the 1884 Manchester Cup and Cambridgeshire Stakes. Florence's full sister Gravity is the dam of 1902 Ascot Gold Cup and Doncaster Cup winner William the Third (by St. Simon), while another full sister, Tact, produced dual English Classic winner Amiable, 1891 Yorkshire Oaks winner Charm and 1899 Prince of Wales's Stakes winner Manners, all by St. Simon.
Books and media
- "Makin' It Count in '28," an account of Reigh Count's courageous Kentucky Derby victory, is the 10th chapter in Jim Bolus' Derby Dreams (1996, Pelican Publishing Company).
- Reigh Count is profiled in Chapter 5 of Avalyn Hunter's American Classic Pedigrees 1914-2002 (2003, Eclipse Press).
Fun facts
- Reigh Count was one of only 14 foals sired by Sunreigh, a full brother to 1917 American champion 2-year-old male Sun Briar but a non-winner. Reigh Count's dam Contessina also failed to win, making the champion the produce of two non-winning parents.
- According to John D. “Trader” Clark, Hertz made the decision to buy Reigh Count after watching the colt try to savage a passing rival in a juvenile race at Saratoga. An ex-prizefighter, Hertz later said that what attracted him to the colt was the animal's evident desire to win even when he had no energy left, a quality he had seen in young boxers who later became champions.
- Reigh Count became part of a cause célèbre when he was slammed into the rail by the filly Bateau during the running of the 1927 Pimlico Futurity, for which he was favorite. Although Bateau's jockey Earl Sande (a great but notoriously rough rider) claimed that Reigh Count had tried to come through where there was no room, the stewards thought otherwise and Sande's license was revoked. Sande was eventually reinstated, but the arguments continued for years over whether Reigh Count had been deliberately fouled.
- Reigh Count's Kentucky Derby attracted 196 nominations, setting a record that was not broken until 1971.
- 26 horses were entered for Reigh Count's Kentucky Derby and 22 horses actually contested the race, the largest Derby field up to that time. The only larger field in Derby history came along in 1974, when 23 horses ran for the roses.
- The coronet gash that nearly took Reigh Count out of the Kentucky Derby was the result of a kick inflicted by his stablemate, champion filly Anita Peabody.
- Reigh Count became the first horse to win both Churchill Downs' top race for 2-year-olds, the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes, and its top race for 3-year-olds, the Kentucky Derby.
- For his Derby-winning ride on Reigh Count, Chick Lang reportedly received US$15,000 and a car worth US$5,000 from Mrs. Hertz, huge prizes by the standards of the late 1920s.
- When Hertz sent Reigh Count to England as a 4-year-old, he brought the colt's regular jockey, Chick Lang, over as well. After Lang and Reigh Count had finished unplaced in three races, Lang asked to be taken off the colt in favor of a jockey experienced in riding English courses. Hertz wisely took his advice, engaging Joe Childs to ride Reigh Count in the Coronation Cup. Reigh Count won. Childs was unavailable for Reigh Count's final English start, the Ascot Gold Cup, and Harry Wragg was given the mount. Reigh Count finished second to Invershin, also the winner of the 1928 Ascot Gold Cup, and Wragg later reported to Hertz that had he been better acquainted with the colt, he probably could have won with him.
- Hertz reportedly turned down a US$1 million offer—then an astronomical price for a Thoroughbred—for Reigh Count in December 1929. His refusal elicited comment from the weekly news magazine TIME to the effect that the man who made the offer needed his head examined, and the man who refused it had to be “absolutely unbalanced.”
- Reigh Count was the fourth Kentucky Derby winner to sire another Kentucky Derby winner, as he fathered 1943 winner Count Fleet. Count Fleet, in turn, sired 1951 winner Count Turf, making Reigh Count the beginning of one of two three-generation sequences of Kentucky Derby winners. The other runs from Pensive (1944) to Ponder (1949) to Needles (1956).
- Reigh Count Drive is a street in Florence, Kentucky.
Photo credit
Photographer unknown. From the collection of Quarter Horse Record (Susan Larkin); used by permission.
Last updated: June 20, 2023