Speedy Count Fleet 1943 HOY
Son of a Kentucky Derby Winner Also Sired a Classic Champ
Triple Crown Spotlight Series: Count Fleet
TC Champions: Rankings
Despite being assigned the highest impost (132 pounds) of any two-year-old in thoroughbred history (still an all time record), Count Fleet ran like his name to a juvenile championship. In his career, Count Fleet went to post 21 times, and was never off the board. He finished first, or second in 20 races.
Man o' War's Racing Equal
Count Fleet's Champagne Stakes set a Belmont track record, breaking one established twenty years previously by the four-year-old Jack High. The Count was clocked in 1:34-4/5 for the mile.
Ready to make a splash in his sophomore year, the Count finished 1942 at ten wins from 15 posts, with four seconds and a third place show in the Pimlico Futurity.
The Count's two-year-old season was one for the ages, and he was, of course, voted Champion Two-Year-Old Colt. In 1943, after winning the sixth Triple Crown championship, he was honored as Three-Year-Old Male Champion and Horse of the Year.
The Count, at age 33, lived longer than any other tripler. He died the year Secretariat claimed his Triple Crown title, 1973. The baton was appropriately passed. Count Fleet and Secretariat achieved the two longest Belmont Stakes margins of victory ever, 25 and 31 lengths, respectively.
While Secretariat passed on his speed genes modestly, Count Fleet was wildly successful at stud, becoming part of the first triple triple. Being father and son to Kentucky Derby winners and himself a Derby champion and Triple Crown winner made Count Fleet forever stand alone. His progeny rivaled the success of Man o' War's offspring.
Man o' War's Equal at Stud
Reigh Count, Count Fleet's sire, won the 1928 Kentucky Derby. In 1951, Count Turf, Count Fleet's son named after his owner's New York City Turf Restaurant, won the Derby. Pensive begat Ponder, who sired Needles, Two-Year-Old Male Champion in 1955 and Three-Year-Old Male Champion in 1956. Needles battled Swaps and Nashua, HOYs who followed the championship years of Native Dancer (1952-1954). Like the Count family, Pensive (1944), Ponder (1949), and Needles (1956) all won the Kentucky Derby.
One Count, another Count Fleet son, was HOY in 1952. The Two-Year-Old Male Champion that year was the Gray Ghost himself, Native Dancer. One Count won the Belmont Stakes, the Travers Stakes, and the Jockey Club Gold Cup.
In 1951, The Count's son, Counterpoint, captured HOY and Three-Year-Old Male Champion honors, winning the Belmont Stakes and the Jockey Club Gold Cup.
The Count's daughter, Kiss Me Kate, was named Champion Three-Year-Old Female in 1951. The Count's daughters' offspring included Five-Time HOY (1960-64) Kelso and Lucky Debonair, 1965 Kentucky Derby champ.
Lamp Chop; Quill, Two-Year-Old Champion Filly, 1958; and Prince John were others among The Count's daughters' offspring.
On the track and at stud, Count Fleet was easily Man o' War's equal.
