Count Fleet

America's Wartime Sports Hero
By Kirsten Wellman

Most casual sports fans, if asked to name a Triple Crown winner, could easily come up with Secretariat, the most famous horse to sweep the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont Stakes. The fiery chestnut was known for his record-setting speed and the tremendous margin – 31 lengths – by which he raced into the history books at Belmont Park in 1973. Thirty years before Secretariat, however, there was another Triple Crown winner whose brilliant speed and astonishing winning margins set the racing world alight. The zenith of this horse’s career came in the midst of World War II, and while his stunning wins were a welcome distraction to Americans at the time, after the war, a parade of other great horses like Citation, Native Dancer, and Swaps drew the attention of racing fans elsewhere. Though his career is often now just reduced to a name on a list, students of racing history will remember the unruly but brilliant dark bay colt who rocketed to Triple Crown glory in 1943. His name was Count Fleet.

In 1884 at the age of 5, John D. Hertz emigrated with his family from what is now Slovakia to the United States. The family settled in Chicago where, after leaving school, Hertz found work first as a copy writer and then as a reporter for a city newspaper before he developed an interest in a booming new industry: automobiles. Hertz had a knack as a car salesman, and in 1915, he started the highly successful Yellow Cab Company. Soon afterwards, recognizing the appeal for the average citizen to be able to drive themselves, Hertz also founded the rental car company that still bears his name.

In 1921, like many other well-to-do businessmen of the time, Hertz, along with his wife Fannie, developed an interest in horse racing. They had only modest success to begin with, but their luck changed in 1927 when they acquired a tenacious two year-old colt named Reigh Count. He ran well enough that year to be named the champion juvenile colt, but he really came into his own the following year as a three year-old. Reigh Count is most famous for winning the 1928 Kentucky Derby, but his wins later that year and the following year truly defined him. The colt excelled at long distance races; he won the prestigious Lawrence Realization run at 1 5/8ths miles as well as the most important year-end race at the time, the Jockey Club Gold Cup, run at a distance of two miles. As a four year-old, he was shipped to England where he won the mile and a half Coronation Cup and ran a game second in the Ascot Gold Cup at a distance just shy of 2 and half miles.

Recognizing Reigh Count’s incredible gift for distance races, Hertz decided to breed the horse only to mares that excelled at sprinting, hoping to produce foals with a balance of both speed and stamina. It seems almost fated that the aptly-named mare Quickly (sired by a stallion called Haste) ultimately proved to be the best match with Reigh Count.

On March 24, 1940, Quickly produced a plain bay colt whose name Count Fleet honored both his sire and his dam. He was awkward and unruly as a youngster, so much so that Hertz tried to sell him as a yearling. By that time World War II was looming large, and despite getting ready to depart to join the Army, the colt’s stable boy, Sam Remsen, saw great promise in his charge and begged Hertz not to sell. Luckily for the Hertzes and Sam, no one else saw the spark of brilliance in the colt, and Count Fleet was shipped off to Don Cameron, the Hertz’ trainer.

Cameron along with Count Fleet’s regular jockey Johnny Longdon realized early on that the fractious colt had talent, if they could only figure out how to settle him down. He lost a few of his early races due to bad behavior – one in particular because he was distracted by a filly in the race and would not leave her side. Count Fleet also had an unfortunate tendency to strike his own legs when galloping – a quirk of his gait that would plague him throughout his career. Before long, though, Longdon developed a rapport with the colt and they became almost unstoppable. Together they began to reel off wins in important races like the Champagne Stakes, where Count Fleet not only won by six lengths but also set a world record as a two year-old at the one mile distance in the process – a record that stood for 34 years. In his last start at two, the Walden Stakes, Count Fleet won by an astonishing 30 lengths. He had amassed 10 wins from 15 starts at the end of the year with an average winning margin of more than six lengths. None of his contemporaries could boast of such a record, and Count Fleet was honored as the best two year-old colt of 1942.

Count Fleet began his three year-old season as a keen favorite for the Kentucky Derby, and he won his prep races that spring with ease. Races for Derby-bound three year-olds are longer than those for juveniles, and Count Fleet, like his sire, relished the added distance.

Due to strict wartime travel restrictions, the 1943 Kentucky Derby was dubbed the “Street Car Derby” because only residents of Louisville were encouraged to attend, and most arrived at Churchill Downs via public streetcars to save gas rations. Count Fleet was recovering from an injury to the back of his hoof in the week leading up to the race, and while it worried his connections, the colt seemed unfazed. He faced nine horses in the Derby, seven of whom were accomplished stakes winners. Count Fleet went right to the lead and never looked back, winning in hand by 3 lengths.

The Preakness that year was held only a week after the Derby, and once again, despite a fresh nick from knocking his own legs, Count Fleet cruised to an easy victory at Pimlico, winning as he pleased by 8 lengths. His rivals, three quality stakes winners, could never get close enough to challenge him. With nearly a month between the Preakness and Belmont at that time, Count Fleet’s connections entered him in the Withers at Belmont to keep him fresh, and he won by 6 lengths despite blowing the turn and running wide well out in the middle of the track.

Count Fleet had become so dominant in his races that only two horses could be found to face him in the Belmont Stakes. Neither were distinguished runners, so Count Fleet’s real rival became the clock. He burst from the gate in the mile and half race and Johnny Longdon sent him to the front, opening an ever-widening margin over the field as they circled Big Sandy. In the stretch, he was 25 lengths clear of his rivals, a long plume of dust in his wake. Longdon kept the colt geared down in the stretch, hoping to keep him fresh for a summer campaign. In spite of this, Count Fleet’s easy cruising speed still broke the stakes record set by fellow Triple Crown winner War Admiral and came within 3/5ths of a second of breaking the track record.

Count Fleet came out of the race with a slightly sore left front ankle having once again clipped his own leg while running. The injury was minor, but it ultimately forced his retirement when it failed to heal in a timely fashion. Count Fleet was named the champion three year-old colt of 1943 as well as Horse of the Year.

At stud, Count Fleet proved to be a tremendously popular sire, and he passed on his great talent to many of his offspring. In 1951, he sired the winners of the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes with Count Turf and Counterpoint respectively. The latter went on to be the champion three year-old colt and Horse of the Year as well. Also that year, his daughter Kiss Me Kate was named the champion three year-old filly. The following year, yet another son, One Count, likewise won the Belmont Stakes and Horse of the Year honors.

In addition to siring many stakes winners, Count Fleet proved to be a terrific broodmare sire as well. His daughters produced a number of important runners, including the 1965 Kentucky Derby winner Lucky Debonair, champion fillies Lamb Chop and Quill, top sire Prince John, and the legendary five-time Horse of the Year Kelso. Furthermore, one of his daughters produced the dam of Mr. Prospector, one of the most influential sires of the modern age.

After four Triple Crown winners in the 1940s, not to mention four others in the 22 years preceding that decade, horse racing then unexpectedly experienced a long drought between winners. After Citation’s sweep in 1948, seven horses won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness in the next two and half decades, but none of them managed to win the Belmont to clinch the most elusive sporting crown.

Count Fleet meanwhile was living out his days at stud at Stoner Creek Farm, his birthplace. By 1973, he was the last living Triple Crown winner, having outlived Whirlaway, Assault, and Citation, the great horses of his decade. He lived long enough to pass the torch on to a new champion, Secretariat, the only horse to surpass his winning margin in the Belmont Stakes. In December of 1973, at the ripe old age of thirty-three, the great horse was laid to rest.

The 1970s ushered in a new golden age of racing with three more Triple Crown winners, and as the world moved into a faster-paced modern age of computers, cellphones, and video games, Count Fleet’s accomplishments have largely faded from public memory. In his day, he was likened to the great Man O’ War because of the way he outclassed his rivals and broke speed records without trying.

Collectors and racing fans alike were therefore excited in 1987 when Hobby Center Toys in Ohio offered a special run set honoring three of the four Triple Crown winners from the 1940s: Whirlaway, Count Fleet, and Citation. Breyer chose the handsome Terrang mold for Count Fleet. Only 1,000 sets were made, and they are rather challenging to track down these days.

The following year, Hobby Center Toys offered a second set of Triple Crown winners, this time featuring the three great champions of the 1970s: Secretariat, Seattle Slew, and Affirmed. It seems fitting that Breyer also chose the Terrang mold for Secretariat, uniting the two most impressive Belmont Stakes winners and the record-breaking torchbearers of their time.