Aristides, Part 1: The first Kentucky Derby winner lived up to his name

Apr 28, 2024 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

The Kentucky Derby was fortunate to have Aristides as its first winner in 1875, for his name is exceptionally appropriate to adorn a classic race. Literally meaning 'the best kind' in classical Greek, his name not only summed up his character, but it would also foreshadow the nature of the Kentucky Derby itself.

While Aristides eventually ranked as the best three-year-old colt of the season, the Derby has come to represent all that is finest in horse racing. The anticipatory excitement, the glamour of both equine and human participants, the festivities, the crescendo as the best three-year-olds in the land turn for home and bid for glory: this is the 'best kind' of racing experience, and it was inaugurated when the game Aristides, 'the little red horse,' saved the day for his stable.

Moreover, Aristides happens to share his name with one of the most laudable figures of classical history, the Athenian statesman Aristides, who flourished in the fifth century B.C. Parallels may be drawn between Aristides the Derby winner and Aristides the statesman, foremost among them their unimpeachable integrity. The Athenian earned the nickname 'Aristides the Just' because he invariably told the truth and acted in accordance with his highest ideals, even when such incorruptible honesty was to the detriment of his own self-interest.

The Derby-winning Aristides was to demonstrate similar virtues of an equine order. The Spirit of the Times would describe him as:

'a fellow of wonderful nervous energy and vigor, and of unyielding pluck. He will never sulk and quit in the supreme moment, but is of that peculiar mental temperament that will do or die.'

Aristides was bred and campaigned by Henry Price (H.P.) McGrath. A Kentucky native, McGrath rose from rags to riches in a rather colorful fashion that would not have met with the approval of Aristides the Just.

Originally a tailor, McGrath found gambling a much more lucrative endeavor. He had the 'soul of a racketeer,' in Henry Chefetz's well-turned phrase in Play the Devil. He worked his way up from shady dice games, headed west for the California Gold Rush, and lured the prospectors into gaming activities. McGrath later moved to New Orleans, where he ran a high-end gambling parlor on Carondelet St. After the Civil War, he fell into trouble with the authorities in the Crescent City and was thrown into federal prison for one year.

Upon his release, McGrath ventured to St. Louis and ultimately to New York, partnering with John Morrissey, the boxing champ-turned-politician, to operate another opulent gambling house. When Morrissey became the driving force behind the development of Saratoga Race Course, his friend McGrath assisted by serving as a timing judge at the Spa, and also by assigning weights for the handicap races.

Having amassed extraordinary wealth from his gambling proceeds, McGrath decided to return to Kentucky and establish himself as a member of the landed gentry. He purchased a 416-acre spread just north of Lexington and named it McGrathiana. On its grounds McGrath constructed a stately home styled after the United States Hotel in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Twice a year, before the spring and fall race meetings at Lexington, he hosted lavish burgoo and bourbon parties for 'an assemblage…that would have graced any court of Europe,' in the words of the Kentucky Live Stock Record.

McGrath snapped up blue-blooded Thoroughbreds from the renowned Woodburn Farm, which had achieved great success under Robert A. Alexander, and began his breeding enterprise.

In 1871, McGrath sent his mare Sarong, a daughter of the magnificent racer and 16-time leading sire Lexington, to visit the imported stallion *Leamington. A useful stayer in England, Leamington had landed the Goodwood S. and two runnings of the Chester Cup. By the time Sarong arrived at his court in Westchester, New York, he was already off to a fast start with his first crop of American runners. Leamington was eventually to rank as the nation's leading sire four times.

Back home at McGrathiana the following spring, Sarong produced a blood-red chestnut colt with a star on his forehead and a pair of white socks on his hind legs. That same year, McGrath's friend, Aristides Welch, purchased Leamington and transferred him to his Erdenheim Farm in Pennsylvania. McGrath accordingly named Sarong's little Leamington colt 'Aristides' after Welch, not after the Athenian.

When the time came for his education as a racehorse, Aristides was turned over to veteran trainer Ansel Williamson, who had previously worked for Alexander at Woodburn. Ansel, as he was known, was an African-American born into slavery in Virginia around 1806. In the mid-1850s, he garnered national attention for conditioning the top-class Brown Dick for their owner T. Goldsby of Alabama. Brown Dick turned in smashing efforts in three-mile heats in New Orleans in 1855. This did not escape the notice of A. Keene Richards of Blue Grass Park in Kentucky, and the following year, Richards bought Ansel and installed him as his trainer.

Richards' wealth was largely derived from plantations in Louisiana and Alabama, and with the outbreak of the Civil War, he found himself in straitened circumstances. His friend, Alexander of Woodburn Farm, stepped in to help, by among other things, purchasing Ansel. Set free from the inhuman institution of slavery, Ansel was paid well to train Alexander's finest horses.

Ansel was a master of his craft, hailed by the Spirit of the Times as a 'relic of the early turf of America, and one who has played an important part in it.'

#WinnersCircleWednesday To celebrate Black History Month, we are spotlighting African American contributions to the sport. Hall of Fame trainer Ansel Williamson is our first feature in the series. Enjoy these highlights from his outstanding career.

Image: Museum Collection. pic.twitter.com/RIUHA66Qx2

— National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame (@nmrhof) February 2, 2022

He succeeded in all forms of his discipline, whether preparing marathoners for the old-style of heat racing that was rapidly falling out of favor, or conditioning horses for the new 'dash' races that were run only once. Among his best performers for Alexander were the undefeated champion Asteroid, a perfect 12-for-12, and the once-beaten Norfolk. Ansel's first top horse for McGrath was the excitable Tom Bowling, whom he soothed and managed to a sterling 14-for-17 record.

'As a judge of horseflesh he had few superiors,' the Spirit of the Times observed. 'His conclusions were drawn from long experience, and were delivered with a quaintness of expression and a brevity of style which pleased while it instructed.'

Ansel had dedication, as well as an eye for detail, characteristics of the very best horsemen of every time and place. As the Kentucky Live Stock Record noted, 'he was a remarkable industrious and attentive man to his business, which was the great secret of his success as a trainer.'

Aristides was one of a trio of promising McGrath juveniles who took to the track in 1874. Interestingly, his stablemates Chesapeake and Calvin boasted more fancy entries, made well in advance of the season, than he did, according to the American Turf Register and Racing Calendar. Perhaps this was attributable to the fact that the pair were half-brothers to noted McGrath colorbearers of the past. Calvin was a half-brother to Tom Bowling, out of McGrath's blue hen mare Lucy Fowler, and Chesapeake was a half-brother to Tipperary.

In any event, Aristides came to hand early enough to make his debut on May 12, 1874, at the old Kentucky Association track in Lexington, finishing second in a half-mile sweepstakes. The small chestnut was unplaced in his next two attempts, both at a half-mile, in the Juvenile S. at Jerome Park in New York and the Hopeful S. at Long Branch, New Jersey. Aristides put forth a better effort when second in the six-furlong Thespian S. at Long Branch, but he again failed to crack the top three in the Saratoga S. going that same distance at the Spa.

Steering clear of stakes races for the rest of his juvenile campaign, Aristides won three of his last four starts in minor events. He relished stretching out to one mile in a handicap purse at Saratoga on Aug. 18, driving to his first career victory. The improving colt cut back to five furlongs at Jerome Park and won again.

At that venue one week later, Aristides finished second in a tough six-furlong affair, giving eight pounds (103 to 95) to the winner, James A. It was a sneakily good effort that stamped Aristides as a horse of some potential, for James A. had been runner-up in the Champagne S. Moreover, finishing third behind Aristides was the Champagne winner, Hyder Ali, with the top weight of 107 pounds. On that evidence, the McGrath colt had progressed quite a bit. As if to prove the point beyond any doubt, Aristides concluded his year by rolling to a convincing score in a one-mile purse at Baltimore.

Despite his upwardly mobile profile, however, he was overshadowed by the accomplishments of Chesapeake, who was regarded as the champion two-year-old of 1874. In this respect, the equine Aristides mirrored the Athenian Aristides, who was similarly in the shade of his larger-than-life political opponent, Themistocles.

Chesapeake contested high-caliber races throughout the season, capturing the August S. in his debut at Long Branch and later adding the Kentucky S. at Saratoga to his resume. Aristides and Chesapeake squared off only once, in the aforementioned Saratoga S., but it was hardly informative, as the unruly Chesapeake was left at the post.

As the 1875 season commenced, the champion Chesapeake was therefore billed as McGrath's primary three-year-old hope, with Aristides and Calvin also in the mix for the spring classics. They were under consideration not only for the big prizes in New York, like the Belmont S., but also for a brand new race in Louisville, named the Kentucky Derby. B.G. Bruce's Kentucky Live Stock Record paid a visit to McGrathiana in April and reported on the team's prospects.

Chesapeake, the first of the sophomores appearing in the article, 'stands high in the betting for his Northern engagements, and is in prime preparatory condition.'

The correspondent next described Aristides as a 'lengthy, wiry, even-balanced horse, deep through the heart, and with long, muscular thighs,' adding that 'Ansel has got him pretty near a racing form already.'

Indeed, the little red horse returned to action at the Lexington spring meeting, hard on the heels of one of McGrath's sumptuous burgoo and bourbon galas. In light of his late-season form at two, and his rumored fitness, Aristides was dispatched as the favorite in the prestigious Phoenix Hotel S. on May 10. Unfortunately, the track had turned into a quagmire after soaking rains, and he was spinning his wheels throughout the muddy 1 1/8-mile test. While Aristides was toiling in the rear, the up-and-coming Ten Broeck, who had raced only once as a juvenile, coasted home an impressive three-length winner. Contemporary accounts agreed that this was not the real Aristides.

'Aristides, evidently unable to act in the heavy ground, which was fetlock-deep in mud, was laboring a dozen or 15 lengths behind them,' the Spirit of the Times reported.

'The colt seemed incapable of making an effort in the deep ground, and we cannot think that he exhibited anything like his true form,' the Kentucky Live Stock Record opined. 'Although unsuited by his formation for deep, heavy ground, we think he would have been defeated on a good track,' for he did not look as physically razor-sharp as he might have been.

In contrast, the much-hyped Chesapeake was victorious in his sophomore bow in the two-mile Citizens S. at Lexington, with Ten Broeck winding up last in the five-horse field.

The Kentucky Live Stock Record was underwhelmed. Chesapeake won 'after a driving and punishing finish,' but 'he is a sluggish rascal, and takes the whip freely.' In sum, 'taking all together, we do not consider it anything like an extra good race.'

With that verdict, the time-honored custom of critiquing Kentucky Derby preps was born. In this vein, a whole series of questions may be imagined in retrospect.

Is the juvenile champion Chesapeake all that he's cracked up to be, or is the late-developing Ten Broeck the one to follow? Was Ten Broeck merely flattered by his ability to handle the mud in the Phoenix Hotel, and consequently exposed when beaten by Chesapeake on a fast track? Should Aristides be forgiven for his flop, or is he simply a cut below as the stable's second-stringer?

Arguments about the merits of performances, and the role played by track conditions, are as old as the Derby itself.

Part II: Kentucky Derby Day 1875